Marandi Pari
Santhal
At a glance
- Called a
- Pari
- Community
- Santhal
- Found in
- Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Bangladesh
About
Marandi, also written Marndi or Mardi, is one of the twelve paris, the totemic clans of the Santhal, and one of the seven senior paris. Its totem is a grass, and in the old accounts the Marandi were the wealthy people 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
The guru Kolean, whose account of Santhal tradition Skrefsrud recorded in 1871, names Marndi fifth of the seven paris formed at Sasan Beda, and Risley's 1891 list has it fifth as well. Risley calls it a totemic clan named after a grass, and Bonnerjea (1930) and Sarma and Mukherjee (2019) also give a grass or weed. The 2018 list of Lea Schulte-Droesch names the grass as Ischaemum rugosum, and Banglapedia also says grass. That list puts Marandi third of the senior paris, after Hansdak and Murmu, where the older lists put it fifth.
Historical Journey
In Kolean's account the Badoli fort in Champa belonged to the Marandi, and Risley's pass-words for the pari include Badoligarh. Kolean says the Marandi were the wealthy class. Other traditions noted by Bodding call them kipisar, a collection of wealthy people, and Sarma and Mukherjee describe them as traders. These are traditions about Champa, not rules of present-day life. A note added to Kolean's account by Skrefsrud and Jugia in 1887 says the Kisku and Marandi became enemies in Champa and did not intermarry. Bonnerjea (1930) counts 27 Marandi sub-clans, more than any pari but the Murmu. Marandi families live in Bangladesh as well as India; Banglapedia's life of Father Lucas Marandi of Dinajpur is one record of this.
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 Marandi 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 Marandi marries a Marandi, and a man does not marry into his mother's sub-clan (Risley, 1891). The old bar on marriage between Kisku and Marandi is recorded by Skrefsrud in 1887 and by Schulte-Droesch in 2018; Sarma and Mukherjee explain it as a bar between the lower heaven, the kingfisher, and the lower earth, the grass, and write that such restrictions are no longer followed. Sub-clans named by Risley include Buru-birit (of the hills), Kekra (crab), Laher, Manjhi-Khil and Naiki-Khil, besides Nij and Sada. Bodding's dictionary adds Rupa, Sidup and Rot Marandi. Members avoid harming the 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.
Presence Across Regions
Dinajpur, Bangladesh
Tribal - Santhal
Father Lucas Marandi was born at Beniduar in Dinajpur in 1922 and was killed at Ruhea in April 1971; Banglapedia records his life.
Notable Personalities
Father Lucas Marandi
1922 to 1971
Santhal Catholic priest of Dinajpur who sheltered refugees and treated the wounded at Ruhea mission in 1971 and was killed there on 21 April 1971; Banglapedia records his life, and a road in Dinajpur is named after him.
Stories and Legends
The rot tree
Some gurus told Bodding that when the paris proved too few for everyone to find a mate, Thakur had Marang Buru send the men to hunt in the Khanderae forest, and each pari was then divided into twelve sub-clans. Bodding's dictionary explains the name of the Rot Marandi sub-clan from that time: their ancestors were sitting at the foot of a rot tree during the great hunt.