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In the ancient literature of Chhotanagpur. If there is mentioned a society it is only the Munda. Munda is a special society belonging to the family of Austrolayad living in the Southern Asia. They live in the areas of Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, Madhyapradesh, Orissa, Assam and Andaman Nicobar. Their concentration (population) is more in the district of Ranchi of Chhotanagpur of Jharkhand State. Sri S.C. Ray says that they would have come to Chhotanagpur area through the west of India through _________________ In this way they brought their culture and well established in this area.
1. Village head 2. Established person 3. Munda community 4. Munda language
Not only this, in the ‘HO’ community the Head of village is also called Munda. The people of Munda community also feel they belong to ‘Hoɖo’ community. The people of ‘HO’ community also say that they belong to ‘HO’ and the people of ‘Santal’ community called themselves as ‘Hoɖ̣’.
The Meaning of these three (3) words, Hoɖo, HO and Hoɖ̣ is man. It means that society is only human. In this way they called their language as ‘Hoda Jagar’. Like the societies of Jharkhand the Munda society is also called as Scheduled by the Indian constitution. They have their own culture. They have their own, rules and regulation, living style, customs and rituals. Their social, religious, political and economic life is influence by their environment. They live in the lap of the nature and their life is mixed the beauty of the nature. They are very simple and away from cheating. They developed their life struggling hard in this way.
The contribution of Christian missionaries for Mundari language and literature:
In Jharkhand after the end of Mogal kingdom the English people captured the place till their capture Mundari language and literature was uncultivated. In the Munda society all the young girls and boys, men and women had folk songs, folk stories and rhymes and they learned it through the society. During the rule of British the Christian literature were written and Mundari language in literature were collected by the officers. The main objective of the people of foreign religion that is Christianity is to teach the message and religion of Christianity through Mundari language among the Munda communities. The Jharkhand area of India was very important and good for exchanging the Christian literature and religion. With this idea only they have started developing and collecting materials on Mundari language and literature. In the beginning, the Missionaries wrote the message of ‘Jesus’ and the ‘Bible’ and related paper and magazines in Mundari, Roman and Devnagari scripts. By this, they gained some profit.
To complete their intention of spreading Christianity. They opened schools, colleges and other types of institution in different parts of the area. “In 1857, Gosner Intermediate school in 1895 in High schools were opened and in 1852 govt. approved Higher Primary school and 1947 all the schools were attached to High schools. S.P.G. Mission started in 1869 two boarding school for boys and girls. These two schools became bol bal school and saint Margaret girl’s school.
Through Roman Katholic Mission had established the saint Jhon boy’s school in 1889. In 1901 these were approved as intermediate school and in 1905 as high schools ______________ has in 1905, for the girls established a boarding school. In 1917 this became intermediate and in 1935 it became high school along with this many new educational – training centre also opened and to print the collected folk-song, folk stories and the message of Jesus a press was opened.
This religious preachers to spread the Mundari of ‘Jesus’ though Mundari language started studying Mundari language and literature for that their arose a need for learning writing the grammar of Mundari language with all difficulties they started writing them Roman Script in 1950 to ________________ and Mundari grammar ‘ ‘ has published in Roman script. This grammar book in Roman script was written in 16 volume. In other words these people have developed the Mundari language and literature. They have learnt the Mundari language for this purpose. They have done this for the development Mundari language and literature but for the spread the message ‘Jesus’ in this area. Whatever the reason the road to the development of Mundari language was opened. The Mundari of Chhotanagpur for the spreading of religion brought out the following papers and magazines.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Among the Christian missionaries of Chhotanagpur the following have done important contribution.
They have done translation of Bible into Hindi, Nagpuri, Mundari, Kurux, Khadia, HO, etc. They have also prepared dictionaries devotional songs, grammars and other religious books along with textbooks for schools.
Contribution in Mundari language and literature in the Modern times:
After the Christian Missionaries for the development of Mundari language and literature the great music lover Skhita Munda has developed folk song and folk culture, living the earlier fashion, in his own style of Modernism. Just like the ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Krishnalila’ of Budu babu were written W.G. has collected folksongs in 1943. This was published first time in that year. After this the book of Sri Jagdish, (1957), after that lot of books are being published in 1967 Dr. Ramdayal Munda and In 1975 Budhubabu’s two books were published. Thirdly Budhubabu has published five books jointly with ten (10) new, prominent singers and Sri Ram Folksongs were also published. Dr. Ramdayal Munda in the book “Budhababu and his writings” has given details of the life history of Budhubabu. He has tried to edit and bring out the official songs of Ramayana Pala and Print Pala. Besides folksongs, folk stories etc. were collected and published. Besides folksongs, folk stories etc. were collected and published famous social worker and literary person. Sri _________________ Munda has develop the already endangered Munda literature, folk stories ____________ has published in the name of Kaniko. Sri ________________ has helped in publication of the books like ______________ and Mundari people.
In the Modern singers, poets and writers we may mention a few names like _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .
The following have written books mention against their names -
In addition to this literary personalities there are many other singers and writers. The popularity of these people cannot be second to anybody. Because of financial problems their writings could not be published. In this area of literary people the followings names are also mentioned often.
In Mundari language there were three newspapers were published. They are –
1.Jagar Saɖ̣ a 2.Sarna Sakam 3.Sapɖ̣ atiɖ̣ etc.
Because of financial and lack of Masc awareness they could not be continued. After that in the name of _______________ was also published.
Some of the newspapers which are start to published are ‘Johar’. Adivasi Magazine hoɖ̣ o Seva samiti, Sena Setang etc.
After independence from 1952 the government of India has included this in the tribes and tribal languages. From that time too till today in the form of official language the speed of publication has increased. Around 1970, in the university of Jharkhand firstly in I.A., B.A., and M.A. class syllabus the Munda language was also included.
From 1970 onwards a course is in M.A. was begun. In this time books on the grammar of Mundari language were published. Out of which Prof. J.H. Men’s Mundari grammar, Narendra Ku Singh’s Mundari grammar, Dr. Ramdayal Munda’s Mundari grammar. Dr. Siril hans’s ‘Til Mor Selpa’, Mundari grammar, Miko dim Kerkatta’s ‘boitir’, Dr. Topono’s Mundari grammar and so on are important. Besides this Mundari dictionary was also published. Other than this Dr. M.M. Mundu also prepared a dictionary in which linguistic studies on Mundari language was also included, which makes the dictionary more authentic. This book was also published.
In this way along with the grammar of Mundari language and literature and its literary tradition are considered from 19th century. That period called as golden period of Mundari literature because the Mundari literature was developed during this period.
Script: In the beginning Roman Script was used to write Mundari language and literature because of the Christian Missionaries who had begun to write the Mundari language in Roman lipi, Since this language was difficult for them to study. All the works related to the language was written only in Roman script but this script was not easy for the people of this area. Because the Roman Script was difficult to write and pronounce. Forex – ‘ ‘ in English ‘put’ is pronounced as put, but its pronounced as but where you has different pronunciation. There are lot of words like this. But in Devnagari Script we pronounced the letters as their written. That is why Devnagari Script is used for writing Mundari language.
Copyright CIIL-India Mysore