Hansdak Pari
Santhal
At a glance
- Called a
- Pari
- Community
- Santhal
- Found in
- Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Assam
About
Hansdak, also written Hansda or Hasda, is one of the twelve paris, the totemic clans of the Santhal. It is named first of the seven senior paris in the old lists, and its totem is the wild goose. 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 name is read as has, the goose or swan, and dak', water (Sarma and Mukherjee, 2019). In the account of the guru Kolean, recorded by L. O. Skrefsrud in 1871 and later translated by P. O. Bodding, Thakur made two birds, Has and Hasil, a goose and its mate. They laid two eggs, and from these the first two people, Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Budhi, were hatched. Sarma and Mukherjee write that Hansdak families tie their pari to this story and to the first ancestors, which is why it is counted first. Risley (1891) and Bonnerjea (1930) also give the wild goose as the totem; Banglapedia gives the duck.
Historical Journey
The Santhal have no written record of their early history, and what is known of the paris comes from oral tradition. Kolean names Hasdak first of the seven paris into which Haram and Budhi divided their descendants at Sasan Beda, before five more were added, and Risley's 1891 list also puts it first. In the account of Sarma and Mukherjee, Hansdak and Murmu are the two senior paris, the Hansdak counted as advisers and the Murmu as priests; this is a tradition about rank and not a rule of present-day village life. Kolean gives the Hasdak no particular calling in Champa, where the other senior paris had theirs; another tradition noted by Bodding calls them hasa panderae, which he glossed, with a question mark, as cultivators. Risley records pass-words by which members of each pari once knew one another, said to be the names of their old homes; for Hasdak they include Tatijhari, Kara Guja and Sohodoro. Bonnerjea (1930) counts 15 Hasdak sub-clans. Risley's glossary also lists Hasdak or Hansda as a totemic clan among the Ho, Bhumij, Kurmi, Mahili and other peoples of Chota Nagpur, whose members also will not kill or eat the wild goose. This page is about the Santhal pari.
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 Hansdak 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
A Santhal does not marry within their own pari or sub-clan (khunt). Risley (1891) records that a man may marry into his mother's pari but not into her khunt. Bonnerjea (1930) adds that Hasdak and Murmu do not marry each other, and Sarma and Mukherjee explain this as a bar between water, the goose, and land, the antelope; they write that such restrictions are no longer followed. Members of the pari avoid harming the wild goose, and Bodding's dictionary says the Sak Hasdak sub-clan may not eat goose meat or wear a conch-shell wristlet. Other sub-clans named by Risley are Chilbindha (eagle-slayer), Jihu (a babbler bird), Barwar, Kerwar, Manjhi-Khil, Naiki-Khil and Roh-Lutur (ear-pierced). Santhal religion is Sarna dharam, centred on the jaher, the sacred grove of the village, and on the bongas, the spirits. 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 goose and the first people
In Kolean's account the world was water. Thakur first made two people of earth, but the day-horse trampled them, so he made two birds, Has and Hasil, from his own breast. When land had been raised, the birds nested in a clump of grass and hatched two eggs, a boy and a girl: Haram and Ayo, whom others call Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Budhi. Hansdak families, Sarma and Mukherjee write, see their pari's name in that goose.