Besra Pari
Santhal
At a glance
- Called a
- Pari
- Community
- Santhal
- Found in
- Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Assam
About
Besra, also written Beshra, is one of the twelve paris, the totemic clans of the Santhal, and one of the five junior paris. Its totem is a hawk; besra is also a common name of a small sparrowhawk. 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
The guru Kolean, whose account of Santhal tradition Skrefsrud recorded in 1871, names Besra second of the five paris added after the original seven, and Risley's 1891 list puts it ninth. Risley gives the small hawk as the totem; Bonnerjea (1930) and the 2018 list of Lea Schulte-Droesch give the falcon, and Sarma and Mukherjee (2019) make it the hawk among their three birds of the sky. Risley also records a story that the pari was separated from the others because of the conduct of its first ancestor, Besra, after whom it is named. His glossary lists Besra as a hawk clan among the Munda, Lohar, Chero and Gond as well.
Historical Journey
Risley's pass-words for the pari, said to be names of old homes, are Dhokrapalania and Gulu. A note added to Kolean's account by Skrefsrud and the Santhal scribe Jugia in 1887 says the Tudu and Besra became enemies in Champa and did not intermarry. Some accounts also say other paris once avoided marrying the Besra and ranked them low; Sarma and Mukherjee (2019) write that this way of thinking is no longer held. Kolean remembered no calling for the Besra in Champa. Bonnerjea (1930) counts 14 Besra sub-clans, and Risley names Kahu (crow), Kara (buffalo), Bundra, Sibala, Son and Sung among them.
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 Besra 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 Besra marries a Besra, 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 also tell of a bar among the three birds of the sky, the owl, the hawk and the pigeon, and of the Chore once not marrying the Besra or the Tudu, now no longer followed. They write that the Kahu Besra may not kill crows. Bodding's dictionary says the Rok lutur Besra are named for a rite at the jom sim festival, when a man pierces the ears of his wife's brother's children. 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 crow sub-clan
Risley lists a Kahu sub-clan of the Besra, kahu being the crow. Sarma and Mukherjee write that the Kahu Besra may not kill crows, one of several sub-clan rules they give to show how a totem shapes daily habits: the Sole Hembrom will not eat eels, and the Chilbindha Hansdak remember an ancestor who killed an eagle.