Kisku Pari
Santhal
At a glance
- Called a
- Pari
- Community
- Santhal
- Found in
- Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Assam
About
Kisku is one of the twelve paris, the totemic clans of the Santhal, and one of the seven senior paris. In the old accounts the Kisku were the kings of the Santhal when they lived in Champa. Recent accounts give its totem as the kingfisher; the older books give none. 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
Kolean's account, recorded by Skrefsrud in 1871 and translated by Bodding, names Kisku third of the seven paris formed at Sasan Beda among the descendants of the first couple, Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Budhi; Risley's 1891 list also puts it third. Sources differ on the totem. Sarma and Mukherjee (2019) give the kingfisher, and so does the 2018 list of Lea Schulte-Droesch. Risley gives no totem for Kisku, and Bonnerjea (1930) marks its meaning as unknown. None of the sources checked explains the name.
Historical Journey
The best-known tradition about the Kisku comes from the time the Santhal lived in Champa. In Kolean's account they built forts there, and the Koenda fort belonged to the Kisku; Risley's pass-word for the pari is Kundagarh. Kolean says the rulers were of the Kisku pari, while the Murmu were the priests and the Soren the fighters. Other traditions noted by Bodding call the Kisku rapaj, a collection of kings, and he adds that some Kisku families had taken Rapaj as a surname. Sarma and Mukherjee place the Kisku third in rank with royal status, and the Encyclopedia of World Cultures also says the Kisku were kings. The same encyclopedia notes that the paris today are mainly ceremonial, and that village headmen and priests matter more than the clan in public life; the kings of Champa are a tradition, not a present rank. Bonnerjea (1930) counts 15 Kisku sub-clans.
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 Kisku 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 Kisku marries a Kisku, and a man does not marry into his mother's sub-clan (Risley, 1891). A note added to Kolean's account by Skrefsrud and the Santhal scribe Jugia in 1887 says the Kisku and Marandi became enemies in Champa and did not intermarry even then; the 2018 list of Schulte-Droesch also names Kisku and Marandi as a pair that may not marry. Sarma and Mukherjee explain the bar as one between the lower heaven, the kingfisher, and the lower earth, the grass of the Marandi, and write that such restrictions are no longer followed. Sub-clans named by Risley include Nag (cobra), Somal (deer), Kachua (tortoise), Lat (whose ancestor baked meat in a leaf platter), Abar, Ah and Roh-Lutur; Risley lists Nij and Sada sub-clans in every pari. Members avoid harming their totem. 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 forts of Champa
Kolean told that in Champa the ancestors built many forts so that no enemy could overcome them. The Khairi fort was the Hembrom fort, the Koenda fort belonged to the Kisku, the Champa fort to the Murmu, the Badoli fort to the Marandi and the Sim fort to the Tudu. There, he said, the Santhal were a great people and subject to no one, and their rulers were of the Kisku pari.