“ORAON COMMUNITY”

 

 

 

The main festivals of  “ORAON “community:-

           

1. SARAHUL               

            It is the main festival of the tribal population of Chhotanagpur.

The verbal meaning of SARHUL is “WORSHIP OF SAL”. The word SARHUL has derived from two words SAR and HUL. ‘SAR’ means SARAI (seed of Sal tree) and HUL means WORSHIP /PRAY. In KURUKH language it is known as KHADDI. Therefore SARHUL is worship of nature in which local people  worship DHARTI MATA as SITA, wife of lord RAMA. Since the local inhabitants are great admirer, devotee, and follower of lord RAMA, they have great respect for MOTHER SITA. They also worship SAL TREE (SARNA TREE) that is believed as the place of goddess SARNA, who protects the village and the community from all kinds of natural calamities and disasters.

                             The worship place is known as SARNA STHAL. It is a place chosen by the priest called PAHAN or BAIGA. Usually sarnasthal remains aside the village where at least one Sal tree is found. This is also known as CHALA- PACHO. CHALA means SARNA and PACHO means OLD WOMAN. Therefore it means a house of old woman .

                                                                                    PAHAN/BAIGA is traditional priest of tribal community. The post of priestship is inherited by birth. They may come from any caste. PAHAN is the headman of the village and every villagers respect his statements. During SARHUL he keeps fasting from a day ago. Other villagers may also keep fasting. On the day of Sarhul, Pahan worships goddess SARNA offering blood of red or brown spotted chicken or cock and HARIA, a kind of local alcoholic drink made from rice. Then he moves door to door and sprinkles water in every house brought from the SARNASTHAL. This function is considered auspicious and is believed that it will bring prosperity to them.

                                                                                                                    After religious performances villagers indulge in merry making. They perform SARHUL DANCE and sing SARHUL SONGS. Villagers in their traditional dress appear very nice. Men wear KARYA, a kind of coarse DHOTI about 24-25 hand long and 1-2 hand wide. Villagers with their dance group gather at a place. Their musical performances make everyone to dance. Villagers keep all agricultural works aside during the festival. They begin their cultivation job on the next day of SARHUL with tilling their land .

 

2. KARMA      

This a festival of brothers and sisters .It is celebrated in rotation from one village to another .Like other festivals it is also a way of merry making by local population .This festival is divided into three categories :-

(1) RAJ KARMA .

(2) BUDHI KARMA .

(3) PADDA KARMA .Raj karma is celebrated by the whole community in this region .Budhi karma is celebrated only by old women in the month of June to call the god of rain .The third one is celebrated by the whole villagers

 

 

 

 

                                “HO-COMMUNITY”

Beliefs of “HO”

                                          To the Hos, diseases are usually caused through the interference of a evil spirit. To counteract these evils there are many Hindu deities such as Dehima, Durgama, Kalima, and HanmanBir etc. are involved along with the typical tribal deities.

                                      There is no place for idolatry in traditional Ho religion. The religion is entirely practical concerned with happiness in this world. Hos believe that death is caused by the escape of the soul through mouth, nostrils or the eyes. The soul is ordinarily invisible, but may appear at will in any form. There is no concept of good or evil and corresponding belief in heaven or hell associated with soul.

 

The main God and Goddesses in Ho community are: -

 

 1.     Sing Bonga –The sole creator of the nature and the principal deity.

  2.     Marang Bonga – Next to Sing Bonga Marang Bonga is worshipped at the times of great         difficulties.

3.     Deshauli – The God of village who nourishes all the human beings, animals, birds & trees and gives relief from disease, trouble and natural calamity.

4.     Pawnee – Associate of Deshauli who lives in hills.

5.     Nage Era and Bindi Era – water Goddesses who lives in lakes and ponds.

6.     Others – In Ho community there is a separate kitchen cum worship room known as Andi. After the death of a family member they establish the soul in Andi where the soul is being worshipped regularly. At the time of difficulties they worship them to keep their family in good health and peace. They use to address these holy souls as “Hadanko-Tudanko” which means such elders who are in sleeping stage.

 

 

Ho Festivals customs:-

                                                 The Ho has to earn his living by the sweat of his brow. But the drudgery of economic life is intermittently relieved by a regular cycle of festivals. Each festival is marked by the following features:

i.The houses are repaired, cleaned & painted.

ii. Offerings are made in the sacred grove.

iii. Excessive drinking of rice beer.

iv.Communal dance.

                                             All the festivals are based on religious faith. In each festival Dance, instrument and songs are essential entity to celebrate. They celebrate all the festivals collectively in mass with song dance and instruments.

 

The main festivals are as follows: -

1.  Maghe: - This is the most important festival of Ho community. This is celebrated during the month of February – March. Every village has a separate date fixed for its celebration, which is done to enable the inhabitants of other villages to participate in it. Diang (Rice-Beer) flows in abundance and the young boys and girls dance with instrument and song. This festival is observed to bring prosperity to the community and for this Puja is offered to all their Gods.

2.   Baa: - Baa is a flower. This festival is celebrated to mark the splendour of the nature during the month of April when all the trees in the forests are covered with flowers.

3.   Hero: - Hero means sowing. No one sows any seed before the celebration of this festival in the month of May-June. Puja is offered in the field.

4.   Jomnamah:-  When the first crop is ready for harvesting in the month of Aug-Sep this festival is celebrated. The first harvested crop is cashed in every house on this occasion. Those whose crops are not ready by that date, they get some grains from their neighbours who have harvested their crop.

5.     Kolom: - This is a sort of thanks giving ceremony to Deshauli and Sing Bonga for giving good harvest and takes place either before starting the thrashing operations or when thrashing operations are over.

6.    Damurai: - This is celebrated in May at the time of sowing of first rice crop. A male goat and a cock are sacrificed and the ancestral spirits are worshiped.

7.     Batauli: - It follows Hero about in July. This is also associated with the fertility of the crops.