Open Collections

UBC Community, Partners, and Alumni Publications

Santal Pitek, Emily

Description

The largest of South Asia's tribal populations, the Santals live in the Indian states of Bihar, West Bengal, and Orissa (Carrin-Bouez and Beierle, 1998). Christian missionaries arrived in the region around the mid-1800's, but found little success in conversion attempts. The Santal religion is primarily concerned with numerous spirits/deities known as Bongas, which are of various classes (such as clan, village, family, and specific places). A high god is present but otiose. The village priest (Ato Naeke) and his assistant (Kudam Naeke) are responsible for communicating with the supernatural realm, as well leading communal religious ceremonies. In addition to the Ato Naeke and Nudam Naeke are other practitioners, such as the huntpriest (Dehri), herbalist/medicine man, Bonga-doctor (Ojha), and witch detector (Jan guru) (Biswas, 1956:107). Religious practitioners (mainly the village priest) typically work with the village headmen. Because the Santal religious beliefs and practices are bound up with many aspects of society, this entry considers the Santal religious group to be coterminous with the society at large. This entry focuses specifically on the Bankura and Birbhum districts of Bengal, around the time of 1940.

Item Metadata

Title
Santal
Creator
Pitek, Emily
Contributor
Database of Religious History (DRH)
Publisher
Database of Religious History (DRH)
Date Issued
2019-05-20
Description
The largest of South Asia's tribal populations, the Santals live in the Indian states of Bihar, West Bengal, and Orissa (Carrin-Bouez and Beierle, 1998). Christian missionaries arrived in the region around the mid-1800's, but found little success in conversion attempts. The Santal religion is primarily concerned with numerous spirits/deities known as Bongas, which are of various classes (such as clan, village, family, and specific places). A high god is present but otiose. The village priest (Ato Naeke) and his assistant (Kudam Naeke) are responsible for communicating with the supernatural realm, as well leading communal religious ceremonies. In addition to the Ato Naeke and Nudam Naeke are other practitioners, such as the huntpriest (Dehri), herbalist/medicine man, Bonga-doctor (Ojha), and witch detector (Jan guru) (Biswas, 1956:107). Religious practitioners (mainly the village priest) typically work with the village headmen. Because the Santal religious beliefs and practices are bound up with many aspects of society, this entry considers the Santal religious group to be coterminous with the society at large. This entry focuses specifically on the Bankura and Birbhum districts of Bengal, around the time of 1940.
Subject
Indic religious traditions; Religion
Genre
Other
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2019-08-02
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0380267
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/71181
Affiliation
Non UBC
Peer Review Status
Unreviewed
Scholarly Level
Other
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

Item Media

Item Citations and Data

Rights

Attribution 4.0 International