Baske Pari
Santhal
At a glance
- Called a
- Pari
- Community
- Santhal
- Found in
- Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Assam
About
Baske, also written Baskey or Baski, is one of the twelve paris, the totemic clans of the Santhal, and the first of the five junior paris. Its name and totem are tied to rice offered to the gods, and in the old accounts the Baske were the merchants of Champa. The Santhal are a Scheduled Tribe with their own religion, Sarna dharam. A pari is not a gotra, and the Santhal are not described here as a Hindu caste.
What “Pari” means for the Santhal
A pari (plural paris) is one of the twelve totemic clans of the Santhal. Each has a totem, a Santhal does not marry within their own pari, and the pari name is carried today as the surname.
Every pari of the Santal, with how the clan system works: the Santal page.
Name and Origin
Risley (1891) gives the story that the Baske at first belonged to the seven senior paris, but were made a separate pari in Champa because they offered their breakfast, baske, to the gods. Sarma and Mukherjee (2019) say the Baske are linked with stale rice, which they offered to the gods and so may not eat themselves, and the 2018 list of Lea Schulte-Droesch also gives stale rice as the totem. The guru Kolean, whose account of Santhal tradition Skrefsrud recorded in 1871, names Baske first of the five paris added after the original seven; Bonnerjea (1930) marks the name's meaning as unknown.
Historical Journey
Kolean says the Baske people were the merchants of Champa, buying and selling, and elsewhere that they later carried on trade by barter. Other traditions noted by Bodding call them cooks, as do Sarma and Mukherjee. These are traditions about Champa, not rules of present-day life. Risley gives pass-words, said to be names of old homes, for every pari except the last three; for Baske they are Banga and Chunuk-jhandu. Bonnerjea (1930) counts 16 Baske sub-clans, among them Saru Gada, Jihu, Okh, Manjhi-Khil and Sada, and Bodding's dictionary also has the Saru gada and Sada Baske.
Migration and Diaspora
Kolean's account follows the ancestors from Hihiri Pipiri to Sasan Beda, where the paris were formed, then through Jarpi to Chae and Champa, and from there east to the present Santhal country. Today Baske families live wherever Santhals live: mainly in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Bihar, with communities in Assam, Bangladesh and Nepal.
How the Pari Is Kept
No Baske marries a Baske, and a man does not marry into his mother's sub-clan (Risley, 1891). Older accounts say members of the seven senior paris did not marry into the five junior ones (the 2018 list of Schulte-Droesch gives this rule); Sarma and Mukherjee (2019) write that marriages now take place between all paris. Sarma and Mukherjee say the Baske do not eat stale rice, the food their ancestors gave to the gods. Kolean's account says each pari has its own abge bonga and house bonga, that they differ even within a pari, and that their names are passed from father to eldest son and not told to others; they are not named here, and no kuldevi or kuldevta is given for the pari.
Stories and Legends
The breakfast for the gods
Risley heard that the Baske were once one of the seven first paris. While the Santhal still lived in Champa, they offered their breakfast, baske, to the gods, and for this they were made a pari of their own and named after it. Sarma and Mukherjee give the same idea from the other side: because their ancestors gave stale rice to the gods, the Baske do not eat it.