All the articles in this series:-
{Foreword 1:-
Readers may recall an article posted be me on Mundas, in response to Mr Koenraad Elst’s article. It brought many responses, of which those by Mr Rajiv Malhotra and Mr S. Kalyanaraman led me to write down what I know and what I derive from the Indian sources. Further Ms Sandhya Jain encouraged me to write down my views uncensored and send them to her. As a result I wrote 10 articles on the origins of Munda speaking people of which the one on Oraons who claim their descent from Vanaras of Ramayana times was a serendipitous discovery. All these articles will be published here one by one. The first article has been posted by Ms Sandhya Jain in her website here: http://www.vijayvaani.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?aid=3158#LeaveCmtTitle }
It can also be read in Mr Dale Drinnon's website:-
Foreword 2:-
Those who are following my articles on Greek vs Vedic astrology kindly take note that a time scale called Parashuaram Era was in vogue in the west coast of Peninsular India for 3000 years until the 19th century when it was recorded in the Journal of Asiatic Society. The New Year of this Era starts on the say of Solar sankramana in Virgo. This is solid proof of rashi system as early as 12th century BCE. This article brings out the connection of this date of Parashurama Year to the Karam festival of Mundas which goes back to the time of pre-Parashurama days.
Munda
speaking tribes are perhaps the much discussed but less understood people
of India. Though there were different opinions on their origins, recent
genetics studies have shown that they were indeed autochthonous to India and
not of South East Asian origin {1}. Their genetic markers are shared by many others in
India thereby showing a shared origin within India many thousands of years ago.
This makes them part of ancient Indian history which we will discuss in this
article.
(Photo taken in 1903)
The Munda group of people are identified by their language
and cultural similarities. They are known to have lived in seclusion for
thousands of years in inaccessible regions of hills and forests of Jharkhand,
Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Bangladesh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Seclusion and
endogamy might have made their speech and habits unique to themselves, but a
look at their cultural and religious beliefs show them as sub-tracts of the
Indian history who were forgotten for long due to the exigencies of
circumstances that forced them to retreat to seclusion.
Their belief system consists of worship of ancestors,
spirits of ancestors, things in Nature including rocks, mountains and trees and
a God called Singbonga.
Together these beliefs are called as “Sarna
Dharam” in which Sarna is interpreted as sacred grove. The tenets of Sarna
Dharam are similar to Hindu practices which have made researchers think that
Hinduism had influenced these people. This has given rise to an opinion that
Hinduism with its Vedic roots was a later formation or a later entrant to India
and that Hindus and Mundari people were different from one another. With
genetic studies showing that Mundas are of the same genetic stock of other
Indians, the focus shifts to their cultural practices to ascertain whether
there were cultural-inflows or they were a sub-set of larger Hindu customs.
To take the most popular belief of the Mundari people, their
worship of a God by name Singbonga gives rise to interesting inter-connections.
Singbonga is considered as the Creator God or Sun God. In their language, it
literally means Sun- spirit. By this we infer that they are Saura worshippers.
But they are not. Though they orient their houses towards east and greet the
rising Sun, “not one of them will ever aver that the Sun is his God or even
that he dwells in it. The sun is for him the symbol of Singbonga’s power,
majesty, splendour. It is not a divinity in any respect whatsoever” {2}. This means the
Mundari conception of Singbonga did not exactly arise from Sun worship. This
made the researchers think that Mundas were perhaps influenced by their Hindu
neighbours to worship Sun. This implies that the so-called sun worship of Munda
people does not come with the expected tenets of sun worship. The reason for
this is not to be traced to “Hindu influence” from outside but to the very
creation story that they have about themselves.
Singbonga
According to Munda tribes, Singbonga was the one who created
them. It was he who gave them the laws of life but did not project himself as
the centre of their worship. This idea coupled with idea of the special rituals
done to Karam tree and the sacred grove rituals of Sarna, gives a different
story that fits with certain passages from Mahabharata, past records of some
places and the recordings done during the British period. According to Mundas,
the Karam trees saved their ancestors who were fleeing from an enemy. This means their ancestors had hidden
themselves behind the trees or in the trees to escape detection from the
enemies. This had happened on a night time as they do the worship and rituals
to the karam tree at night with Moon and the stars as the witnesses. The
excessive importance given to ancestors and spirits of ancestors does reveal a
story of a difficult time when their ancestors, the first generation of Mundas
were fleeing from death in the hands of an enemy. At that time Singbonga had
safe guarded them and paved way for them to start a new life.
The name Singbonga sounds similar to the name of a popular
place in Jharkhand / Chota Nagpur region where Mundas had been living for long.
This place is “Singhbhum” whose meaning is pretty obvious as Simha bhumi – the
land of lions. But today there are no lions in this place though this place has
a thick forest cover to facilitate the presence of lions. There is no known association with lions to
this place. The only association exists with Singbonga, worshiped by Munda
group people.
The name Singbonga is separated as Singa – bonga. Singa is a
corrupt form of simha, the lion in many languages including Tamil and
Bengali. Bongo (বঙ্গ) is
how “Vanga” (Vanga desa) is called in Bengali language - the language that is
spoken in the vicinity of Mundas. So the
name is Singa-vanga, a native of Vanga desa who was valiant like a lion, who headed them in their escape from an
enemy, saved them from death and helped them to start a new life in the place
where they had fled – which were remote ones such as mountains or deep forests
or inaccessible areas.
Indian history as found in Mahabharata shows that Vangas were
indeed a group of people who ran for shelter to escape from the fury of
Parashurama! To avenge the death of his father, Parashurama went around and
killed Kshatriyas for 21 times. Mahabharata lists out many groups of people who
escaped from him and started living incognito by shedding kshatriya-hood. “Vangas”
find a mention in the list of such escapees. An important group of Mundari
tribes namely “Savaras” also find a mention in Mahabharata as the people
who escaped from Parashurama.
Here is the translation of the verse from Mahabharata
7-68, on Vangas being vanquished by Parashurama. We can see
the names of other clans too who had escaped from him or defeated by him.
“The Kashmiras, the Daradas, the Kuntis, the Kshudrakas, the
Malavas, the Angas, the Vangas, the Kalingas, the Videhas, the
Tamraliptakas, the Rakshovahas, the Vitahotras, the Trigartas, the Martikavatas
were all vanquished by Bhargava Rama.”
Here is the translation from Mahabharata 14-29 on Savaras
having fled the fury of Parashurama:
“Then, some of the Kshatriyas, afflicted with the terror of
Jamadagni's son, entered mountain-fastnesses, like deer afflicted by the lion. Of them that were unable, through fear of Rama, to
discharge the duties ordained for their order, the progeny became Vrishalas
owing to their inability to find Brahmanas In this
way Dravidas and Abhiras and Pundras, together with the Savaras, became
Vrishalas through those men who had Kshatriya duties assigned to them in
consequence of their birth, falling away from those duties. Then the Kshatriyas that were begotten by the Brahmanas
upon Kshatriya women that had lost their heroic children, were repeatedly
destroyed by Jamadagni's son. The slaughter
proceeded one and twenty times.”
The above verse specifically states that the fleeing people
had taken shelter in the mountains. It also says that they fled as though they
were trying to escape from a lion! This description found in the context of
Savaras’ escape to the mountains – obviously in the region around Singhbhum
gives another meaning to the name Singhbhum. Did Savaras call this place as
Simha Bhumi, due to the kind of fear it caused to them from lion-like
Parashurama? This is a probable explanation as this fits with the place and
circumstance. The escape of ancestors of Mundari speaking people fits with the
narration in Parashurama’s episode.
The Mundari story on Singbonga shows that one Singa of Vanga
desa had led them in their escape. Many of their tribes were killed but others
managed to escape by hiding themselves behind rocks and trees and inside groves
and caves and that is why all these structures are considered as worthy of
worship. The biggest festival called Karam festival is related to this early
story of Munda people.
Karam festival
This festival is dedicated to Karam God who resides in the
Karam tree. During this festival the Karam sapling is procured from the forest
and planted ritualistically. According to Munda people, the Karam trees saved
their forefathers who were fleeing from their enemies. They hid themselves
behind the Karam trees and escaped notice from their enemies. The Karam tree is
supposed to possess a spirit that had helped in their escape. The Karam puja is
done with this belief to this day by all the Munda groups. In the case of
Mundas, this is done on the 11th day in the month of Bhadrapada once
in three years. The striking correlation is that this date in Bhadrapada in a
normal year (when lunar and solar years start close to each other), almost
coincides with the first day of the Solar entry into Virgo (Kanya rashi) which
is exactly the first day of the year in a time scale called “Parashurama Era”!
The book “Useful tables forming an appendix to the Journal
of The Asiatic Society” published in 1834 makes a brief note on Parashurama Era
under the caption “Years numbered by cycles” (Yuga or Era) . At the time of the
recording done by the contributors to the Journal of the Asiatic society, this
time scale of Parashurama was still in vogue in peninsular India starting from
Mangalore through Malayalam speaking regions of “Malabar, Cotiote and
Travancore, to cape Comorin”. It is stated that this era was in cycles of 1000
years. It was a solar cum sidereal year which started when the sun entered the
sign Kanya (Virgo). The running era at that time of recording in the Journal
was the 3rd cycle. The date of 977th year in the 3rd
cycle is also given in this book as 14th September, A.D. 1800. On checking it is found that it does coincide
with the solar entry date into Virgo. As per that record, Parashurama Yuga
(era) had started in the 12th century BCE in this stretch along the
West coast of India! The knowledge of solar sankramana (entry into a sign) and
division of the zodiac into 12 signs and months had been there even at that
time in this part of the country. Is it merely a coincidence that the start of
the Parashurama year and time of Karam festival are the same?
The similarity is not only about the date. It is also found
with reference to the tree under discussion. The Karam tree is known as Kadamba
tree! But the Karam tree found in Munda regions in Chota Nagpur is the Sal tree
which is indigenous to that place. Kadamaba forests were in abundance in the
west coast in Tulu speaking regions. The Kadamba dynasty existed in that
region. Even before that, Nannan lineage had ruled the stretch including Konkan
regions. There are references in Tamil Sangam texts to a king Nannan whose
royal flower was the golden hued Kadamba flower. Even the very name Konkan was
derived from a popular Tamil phrase in vogue at that time referring to this
ruler as “Pon padu kon-kaana Nannan” (NaRRiNai 361) and “Ponnam kaNNI polam thEr Nannan” (PathiRRup
patthu 40) in Sangam Tamil texts. Pon
padu “Kon-kaanam” literally meaning “forest having” gold referring to
the golden coloured Kadamba flowers had come to stay as the name of the place.
Thus Kadamaba tree is an identity of the west coast of Konkan and Tuluva.
Golden coloured Kadamba flower
The Tuluva people were known to have celebrated the Kadamaba
festival of the same kind as Karam festival of the Mundas in the same month of
Bhadrapada (to be precise, on the 11th lunar day of Bhadrapada which
is the date of Karam festival of Mundas of Chota Nagpur). {3} It was
celebrated by them as an agricultural festival. The kadamba twigs were brought
and worshiped in the courtyard in all the houses on this occasion in the Tulu
speaking regions. This seems to be an olden practice, perhaps coming from the
time of start of the Parashurama Yuga. Similar practice of use of twigs is seen
in the New Year day of Vishu in Kerala. Use of twigs of importance to a place
is common feature in the New Year day.
Before jumping to a conclusion with our conditioned mind
that this practice could have influenced the Mundas or in other words, before
making a conclusion that this Hindu practice had entered the Munda culture who
were not originally Hindus, let us see some other variations of this festival.
The same festival is being celebrated in the coastal region
of Udupi, as a harvest festival by name “Koral Parba” or “Pudvar”. This is
celebrated on the day after the sun’s
entry into Virgo – that is, on the day after the New Year in Parashurama Era.
The choice of the plant depends of the main product produced in the region. For
example corn is the product that is brought home with religious fervour on this
day of Pudvar.
Koral Parba or Thene Habba celebrated in Mangalore.
(Pic
courtesy)
In the Kadamba festival, Kadamba twigs were brought and
worshiped. Today Kadamba festival is officially celebrated in Karnataka in
January as Kadambotsava in honour of the Kadamba dynasty which ruled Kannara and
Konkan regions. It is to be noted that the date had been changed from September
/ Bhadrapada to January to a date that occurs soon after Makara sankramana. It
is believed that this date was the time the Kadamba kings celebrated as Spring
festival. Going through all these developments in Kadamba festival, one can see
that the Karam festival of the Mundas was different and not an agricultural
festival. The semblance of an agricultural festival or a sacred grove festival
must have come after Kurukhs started mingling with them.
Kurukh also called as Oraon people are one of the Mundari
speaking people found in Chota- Nagpur. According to The Indian anthropological
Society, the Kurukhs were of Konkan origin. {4} The Kurukhs had migrated to Chota-Nagpur
regions and started to co-exist along with the already existing Munda groups.
They too follow Sarna Dharam. There is scope to believe that the kadamba
festival at the start of Parashurama year was perhaps brought by Kurukhs to
Mundari people. The date and methods of the festival perhaps signify a cultural
inflow in to Mundari life – not from “Aryans” or Brahmins but from a similar
kind of people of the Hindu stock.
Kurukhs / Oraons
But this line of thought rebels with the idea that Mundas
were chased by Parashurama. Doubts may arise that it does not sound logical for
a people who managed to escape from Parashurama to celebrate the Karam festival
on the start of Parashurama year. But the fact of the matter is that the Mundas
have a memory of an enemy encountered by their first generation ancestors but
not the identity of that enemy. The Kurukhs carried a cultural festival which
was originally a harvest festival. But the Munda’s karam festival is not a
harvest festival. It is a festival to remember and thank the Karam God
enshrined in the karam tree for having saved their ancestors. {5}. This difference is
crucial in ascertaining the origin of the festival which however has become
more like a harvest festival of the Konkan region thanks to the influence by
Kurukhs.
When we analyse the Karam festival of Mundas further, we can
see relics of Vedic practices. The Mundas celebrate it on the 11th
lunar day in the waxing period of Bhadrapada. This is one of the Pitru-tarpan
days in the Vedic society. This day (Shukla paksha Ekadashi in Bhadrapada) is
regarded as Tamasa-Manvadhi day when offerings (tarpan) are done to ancestors.
The month of Bhadrapada is dedicated to worship of ancestors. The waning phase
of Bhadrapada is known as Pitru paksha dedicated to the worship of ancestors.
Similarly the corresponding solar month of Kanya is dedicated to Pitru-worship.
The very first day of Sun in Virgo / Kanya when the Parashurama Year started,
was actually a special time called Shadasheethi punya kala when pitru- tarpan
is done in the Vedic society. The Munda’s Karam puja meant for ancestral worship coming
on the day of pitru tarpan in Vedic society cannot be dismissed as a
coincidence. It is because the Mundas do not observe Karam puja every year, but
only once in three years.
Karam festival 2009
Only once in three years the 11th lunar day of
Bhadra pada (waxing phase), either coincides with Solar entry into Virgo or
occurs after the sun had entered Virgo. In the intervening 2 years, the 11th
lunar day and Sun’s position do not occur in Virgo or in Kanya month. In the
intervening 2 years the sun will be in Leo and not in Virgo. This can be
demonstrated by the following table that shows the date of 11th moon
in Bhadrapada and the corresponding position of Sun for a few years starting
from 2012 AD.
11th
lunar day in Bhadrapada
|
Sun’s position.
|
|
Sep 25, 2012
|
9th
day in Virgo
|
Karam Puja
|
Sep 15, 2013
|
29th
day in Leo
|
|
Sep 5, 2014
|
19th
day in Leo
|
|
Sep 24, 2015
|
7th
day in Virgo
|
Karam Puja
|
Sep 12, 2016
|
26th
day in Leo
|
|
Sep 1, 2017
|
15th
day in Leo
|
|
Sep 20, 2018
|
4th
day in Virgo
|
Karam Puja
|
Sep 9, 2019
|
23rd
day in Leo
|
|
Sep 28, 2020
|
12th day in Leo
|
|
Sep 16, 2021
|
1st
day in Virgo
|
Karam Puja
|
{This table has been prepared to show how the dates coincide
only once in three years. Today the karam festival is celebrated every year as
a worship of sacred grove and as a harvest festival. Other tribes of the
Mundari group of languages celebrate on slightly different dates.}
The above table shows that the Karam Puja of the Mundas had
been timed to coincide with solar month of Virgo that is special for ancestral
worship. Either they had knowingly followed a pre-existing custom of pitru
tarpan on the 11th day in Bhadrapada falling in Virgo or that was
the actual date when their ancestors had taken shelter behind the Karam tress.
It is too preposterous to think that the memory of the day
of escape had stayed on with them for thousands of years. But the importance
given to Moon and the stars in the karam puja as witnesses at the time of the
escape of their ancestors gives credence to the belief that they indeed
remembered the lunar thithi of the day of escape. This date must have occurred
in the solar month of Virgo, prompting them to stick to luni- solar basis for
this festival.
Another probability is that once after having settled down
to a new life, apparently under the guidance of Singbonga, they had started
doing annual pitru-worship in the solar month of Virgo. The start of the
Parashurama New Year also comes with such a connection. Why the solar sankramana
day in Virgo was chosen for Parashurama New Year is something of a surprise,
given that Parashurama Jayanthi is observed in another month namely Margashira.
The Month of Virgo does not seem to have any connection with Parashurama. It
was in fact the time of Tamasa Manu’s beginnings.
Tamasa Manu was the period of 4th Manvanthra
which was followed by Raivata Manu whose sons were headed by Arjuna, Bali and
Vindhya. (The episode of Gajendra Mokha occurred in Tamasa manvantra) The people living in the region of Vindhyas were perhaps denoted by
this. This gives credence to a thought that the people living in the Vindhyas
were perhaps remembering the previous Manvadhi of Tamasa Manu and were offering
oblations for the Tamasa Manvadhi day. This is to say that the inhabitants of
Vindhya, Narmada and the surrounding regions where Parashurama lived, could
have held this day (Tamasa Manvadhi / Virgo sankramana) as special for pitru
tarpan. Otherwise why this date was chosen for Parashurama year? There is another way of explanation too. Parashurama
was known to have made a terrible offering of blood of the people slain by him
in Samanta Panchaka, to his ancestors. In keeping with that, the Year by his
name was started on a day that is special for making offerings to ancestors.
It must be noted here that even the Tamil New Year day that
starts on sun’s entry into Aries was originally ‘celebrated’ by doing
sacrifices and making offerings to the departed pitrus {6}. Any sankramana
day is reserved for pitru tarpan. In the case of Chandramana, the New Year or
new month is started on the day after pitru tarpan (done on every New Moon
day).
In the light of these rules, the Karam puja falling on the
day of Kadamba festival in the regions that followed Parashurama Era, is truly
for the purpose of remembering ancestors and not for celebrating harvest. The
similarity in date with Kadamba festival coinciding with Parashurama New Year
must be to do with a much older practice coming from pre- Parashurama days, of
remembrance of ancestors on the first day of the solar month of Virgo. That day
being Tamasa Manvadhi day of importance to people of the Vindya range supports
the origin of Mundas from that region.
The Mundas’ Karam puja coming on a date known for
pitru-worship seems to be a conscious choice of the date by the early Mundas as
a continuing practice from their previous tradition. Even if this idea is
rejected, it is still seen that the choice of the date once in three years in
the month known for ancestor worship shows that they were previously following Vedic
tradition that accord importance to worship of ancestors.
In the present context we can see Vedic connection in
another myth of Karam festival. According to this myth there were two brothers
called karma and Dharma. Dharma had a dream in which Karam God appeared and
told him to celebrate and arrange for a puja in his honour in return for which
he will have many crops, livestock and riches. When Dharma told this dream to
Karma, Karma ignored it. A few years later Dharma became rich and Karma became
poor. Karma understood his folly and started celebrating Karam God along with
Dharma. They became rich and this formed the basis for the celebration of Karam
festival.
This story is a symbolism of the need to do one’s work in
rightful ways. Such work pays well. The work in the context of Mundas is to
raise food (crops and livestock) in the forested and hilly tracts. This
requires hard work but if they do that, it will pay. The name Karam and Dharam
and the idea of doing karma and getting fruits of it when done in dharmic ways
are all ideas of the Vedic culture. The karam puja is an indigenous one and no
one brought it to them. Even the Kadamba / karam details that we saw above do
show that Mundas had an independent and original reason to celebrate it as seen
from the time and cause of the festival. A pre-existing idea among them had
been formulated as a myth and they had stuck to it as it induced them to do
hard work in unfriendly terrains.
(continued in Part 2)
References:-
{2} Ponette P. Foot note in “Social water management
among Munda people in the Sundarban” Part 3, Page 32
{5} “Social water management among Munda people in the
Sundarban” Part 3, Page 35
{6} “Madras Journal of Literature and Science” Vol 1, page
42. http://archive.org/stream/madrasjournalli01socigoog#page/n40/mode/2up
5 comments:
Hello Jayasree,
I have been a regular reader of your blog.
This is off topic but could you please let me know the timeline of Mahabharata war and events related to it.
Would highly appreciate that.
Thanks
Amit
Thanks for being a regular reader. This article is not off topic. You can see the aim of this blogspot written on top. It is to bring out the past and forgotten issues of India/ Hinduism. In this series I will be actually bringing out historicity of Parashurama. In one of the articles I will be bringing out the time period of Parashurama. It is 7000 years BP.
For Mahabharata period, check out these articles:-
Inscriptional evidence = http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.in/2011/11/inscriptional-evidence-for-mahabharata.html
Archaeological evidence = http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.in/2009/01/krishna-reality-archeological-proof.html
Evidence through astronomy =http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.in/2013/10/is-vedic-astrology-derived-from-greek_5.html
Thanks Jayasree.
Reading your next article wherein you mentioned about getting carried away by emotions while reading certain section of the Ramayana, I too was reminded about something similar in my childhood.
Studying in Sai Baba's school in Puttaparthy and being thankfully exposed to content on Indian Culture and history, I too used to feel something similar while reading the Ramayana. And we had so much of time then. As I have so much of time now, being jobless for the last 3 months.
They are showing Mahabharata on Star Plus these days and a whole week was devoted to events leading to the Vastraharan. I felt bad for Draupadi.
Sometimes I wonder what were divine weapons, what was Brahmastra. How could warriors just invoke something like that? How would it have been in Dwarka?
I recently visited Dwarka and observed there's nothing much there. It's all past glory.
Don't know what I am trying to say. Some random thoughts passing.
Have a great day.
Amit
You sound pessimistic Mr Amit. No need for pessimism. Knowing the past helps us in refining ourselves and our thoughts better. If there is no story of Rama or Krishna we wont be knowing the practical ways of overcoming problems or looking forward to union with Him. These stories and locations that revoke memories of them, do help us in realizing the goal of Moksha, Union with Him.
You got it right Jayasree. Don't know if I was born a Pessimist or became one over the years. The past surely helps us in refining ourselves but the past also reminds one of failures.
I often call on Mahadev when I have problems. And that I do often. Because I'm always having problems. But I often wonder whether he listens to his devotees. 50,000 people died in Somnath temple praying to him to save them from the butcher Ghaznavi. But we all know what happened.
I tried to be an atheist but I failed in that too. There's so much dependence on Mahadev. He's almost like a friend who only listens. But I guess that's ok too...
And yes - Har Har Mahadev is a battle cry in one of the Indian Army Regiments.
Amit
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