West Medinipur- Tribal Communities-2

Munda Tribal Festival Dance

Munda Tribal Group-These kind of tribal communities is Non-Aryan and are the original inhabitants of ancient India. According to history, their origin was from Jharkhand and thereafter they were spared in various parts of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and also other parts of the country.

The Munda tribal community had great contributions to India's independence.At the time of India's freedom movement, entire Munda tribal group were involved indirectly in such freedom movement and some of them were took direct part in freedom movement;Birsa Munda was one of them. In Munda tribal groups, Birsa Munda is a respected name as they worship him as their god. In 1900 Birsa Mundas had died in Ranchi Jain suspiciously; then his was nearly 25 years. He had dedicated his life for India's independence. His dedication is still acknowledged with honor not only by the Munda people but also by the Government of India.

Munda Women Wearing Colorful Dresses

Munda group has their own religion called Singbonga; Singobonga means Sun God. They fully rely and believe that Singbonga is the supreme power and such Singbonga is always protecting them from all evils' power and also give punishment of their sins. After established of British rule for India, most of the Christian Missionaries were come to India and they mostly started their work to do well for common people and converted mostly poor people and tribal class to Christianity; thus the major portion of the Munda group is to christens.

The cultural side of this tribal group is very strong. They have their own dance form and songs by which they can be identify separately. The Nupur dance is one most popular form of dance of them; they wear Nupur in their ankles and dance in various festivals of joy.

The work culture of this tribal group is also similar like Santali tribal group . It is the fact that the occupational life of the tribal communities is majorly depending upon the forest. Since from the ancient time, tribal communities' lives was nature dependent. Since from the ancient time they are collecting woods from the forest and selling those woods in the local market and earn money which leads their families. As the time passed, their work culture is changed like earth cutting, labor works at various construction sites, and also land cultivations.

Earlier they had no enough knowledge of cultivation as their food habit was very peculiar; they are generally animal flesh eaters; as per their need they would go forest and haunt animal and arrange their food. Thereafter, in the long run, government preserved forests and separated them from their nature-life and rehabilitated them in other places with some cultivation lands with knowhow of cultivation.

The society of Munda community has their own identical arrangement; there has sub-group of Munda tribe community and the name of those sub-groups is Patar, Mahali, Kampat etc. among those sub-groups, some subjects are common; Gotiora- is common in every Munda village, where the traditional cultural songs, dance and also music are practiced by the young Mundas under the guidance of experienced seniors. Another common thing is Panchayat heading of a surpanch or group of surpanch who controlled the entire society and every villager is bound to obey the decision of the Panchyat. Another common thing is Akhra ; this kind of Akhra is the place of entertainment of Munda tribes. All festivals of the Munda tribes are celebrated together. 

West Medinipur-1

West Medinipur

Medinipur is one of the most important districts of West Bengal in India. Earlier it was one single big district. In the long run,after many years, this district was divided into two parts, East Medinipur and West Medinipur. This division was done for smooth functioning of administrative works.

This district is important as the first swadeshi self-declared government was setup at Tamluk at that time when entire India was under the rule of British Government. The name of that swadeshi government was Tamralipta government. Medinipur is also Bengal-Orissa border district.

Following places of West Medinipur are famous for the visit;

Khirpai- In earlier, i.e. in 18th and also in 19th centuries, this town was famous as trading center. Cotton and handicrafts of this area were very famous at that time and these items were exported to foreign countries. Khirpai was also famous for indigo plantations by the British businessmen. They forcibly compelled Indian farmers to cultivate this indigo, because this kind of indigo plantation damage the soil and after cultivation of indigo, the particular land are not eligible for cultivation of any other crops like rice. Now this town has not enough impotency in trading with such cotton and crafts. It is small town and its area is now 12 sqrs. Kilometers approximately and number of dwellers is not much. The main attraction of this place is the Pancharatna temple, this temple is very ancient. The architectural of this temple are very memorable and the images of Krishnalila, Dasavatars of Lord Krishna and also the battle between Ram and Ravana, all these ideas were collected from famous Hindu epics like Ramayana, Mahavarat.Many other famous ancient temples are also existing here and these are also the center of attraction of tourists of whole over the world.

Khargeswar Shiv Mandir- this temple was built in the year of 1861. This Khargeswar Shiv Mandir is located on the north side of Radhamadhab Mandir. This Shiv Mandir is made of Tin roof of atchala style. Atchala means assembling of eight tin roofs and designed as hut.

Umapati Shiv Mandir- This mandir (temple) is also built as atchala style and in the century 19th, this temple was built. The image of Sun is set-up here. This image most probably were made of black stone and the age of 10th or 11th century.

Dalan Mandir- This temple was most probably built in 1746 and this oldest temple of Khirpai. This temple is devoted to Singhabhini (Goddess Durga).

Kankrajhor- This place is near by the north-west part of Jhargram sub-division. This place is mostly covered with various trees like Sal, Teak, Mahua, Kendua, etc. some animals like deer, bear, rabbits, etc. are commonly seen here. The famous temple of goddess Kali is seen here. It is also myth that Kapalkundala, the famous novel by the author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was written here. This place Kankrajhor is famous for its full moonlight view. In winter and spring seasons, the beauty of this place in full moon light is really amazing and memorable.

Many other places are in west-Medinipur to be visit. I will write in brief about those places in my coming episode of the part of this blog.