Purty Killi
Ho
At a glance
- Called a
- Killi
- Community
- Ho
- Found in
- Jharkhand
About
Purty is a killi of the Ho, the Munda-speaking people of Kolhan in the Singhbhum country of Jharkhand. D. N. Majumdar, whose study of the Ho appeared in 1937, found it the largest killi in Kolhan, made up of seven or more divisions that do not marry each other. The Munda have a Purthi or Purty killi too, which has its own page. A killi is not a gotra and names no rishi.
What “Killi” means for the Ho
Among the Ho of Kolhan a killi is a clan passed from father to children; a wife joins her husband's killi. Majumdar (1937) found that many killis bear the name of an animal, plant or thing, but that the one rule the Ho kept about them was that members of one killi do not marry. A killi is not a gotra and names no rishi.
Every killi of the Ho, with how the clan system works: the Ho page.
Name and Origin
Majumdar (1937, Appendix II, pp. 206-207) recorded the Ho account of how the Purty began. A couple were travelling through a dense forest when their sons wandered off in different directions in search of food, while the youngest stayed with his parents. In time the brothers were found again, but each had taken a killi name of his own on the way; the youngest took the name Purty. The descendants of all the brothers count as one Purty clan, and no marriage may take place between them. It is a tradition, not dated history.
Historical Journey
Majumdar wrote about the Purty more than about any other Ho killi. He found it the largest killi in Kolhan, with more than seven sub-groups, all exogamous (1937, p. 136), and he gives it as the example of a killi whose divisions still do not marry each other: marriage within the seven sections was forbidden by custom, and the few such marriages that took place were not favoured by the tribe (pp. 55-56). Where all the families of a village belong to one killi, or to divisions of one major killi like the Purty, marriage within the village was not allowed, unlike villages of several unrelated killis such as Konslaposi and Kotgarh (pp. 53-54). In religion he notes that the Purty killi worships Disum-bonga, which he gives as another name for Marang-buru (p. 136).
How the Killi Is Kept
A Ho does not marry within his own killi; Majumdar found this the most effective rule of Ho marriage, and among the Purty it extends to all seven divisions (pp. 53-56). The killi passes from father to children, and a wife joins her husband's killi at marriage (p. 57). Majumdar found no worship of killi totems among the Ho and few food rules tied to them; for the Ho the killi name marks a group of kin who may not marry (p. 55). Majumdar notes that the Purty killi worships Disum-bonga, which he gives as another name for Marang-buru (p. 136). No other family deity is tied to the killi in the sources checked.
Presence Across Regions
Kolhan, West Singhbhum, Jharkhand
Tribal - Ho
Majumdar (1937) found Purty the largest killi in Kolhan, with seven or more exogamous divisions.
Ranchi and Khunti, Jharkhand
Tribal - Munda
The Munda Purthi killi, one of the twenty-one original Munda killis in Roy's list (1912, p. 71 n.), has its own page.
Stories and Legends
The brothers in the forest
As Majumdar recorded it, a Ho couple were crossing a dense forest when their sons wandered off in different directions to look for food, and only the youngest stayed with his parents. When the brothers were found again, each had taken a different killi name on the way, and the youngest had taken Purty. Their descendants all count as one Purty clan, and may not marry each other.