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OCTOBER, 1893.]
THE MIGRATION OF THE SANTAL TRIBE.
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now worshipped as a god, and his exploits still sung by the Gwalks and Ahîrs of Bihậr and Northern Bengal. This Hardigașh may, in fact, be the Haraduttie and Hurredgarhi of Col. Dalton's version of the legend,
Piprt is a very common village name all over Bihar ; but a well-known pre-Aryan settle. ment named Pipri exists near the south bank of the Ganges Dear Chunar, and was figured by Mr. Nesfield in the Calcutta Review for January 1889 in connection with his article on the semi-aboriginal Mushēras, or Musâ hars. It was originally a stronghold of the Chêrôs, who were dispossessed by the Ahirs under Lôrik. And this is very probably the Ahiri-piprî of the Santal story; but it would be worth wbile enquiring from Mr. Grierson, or some other correspondent well-acquainted with the Trans-Gangetic portion of North Bihar, whether there be another famous Pipri thereabouts, near Hardi, specially associated with Lôrik and his Ahirs.
Chhai is the old pargana of that name, in the modern Bhagalpur District, 489 square miles in extent, south of the Abiri stronghold of Hardi and bordering the Ganges. From its jhfl-traversed aspect it was probably in those days a dóáb, or an island, between the Ganges and the combined Gandak and Ghagrå rivers.
Directly opposite Chbai, across the Ganges to the south, is the old kingdom of Champa, now generally corresponding to the Cis-Gangetic portion of the modern district of Bhagalpur. Champa was one of the earliest Hindu settlements in the lower valley of the Ganges - according to Hiuen Tsiang's account it " was one of the first cities founded in Jambndvipa,"-and it was still the name of the country at the time of Fa Hian and Hiuen Tsiang's visits in the 5th and 7th centuries A. D. It now survives in the name of the old section of Bangalpur town, which is called Champanagar and Champapuri. The "Khairigarh" of Col. Dalton's version, and one of the recorded pass-words of the tribe, is evidently the fortified hill of Khêriya about twelve miles south-west of Champanagar, and an oatlier of the Hazaribagh section of the Vindhya range.
The Santal story also tells us that when “the Hindus drove them out of Champå they (the Santâls) established themselves in Saont," whence they have derived their present tribal name. The migration here referred to was evidently southwards into the adjoining hilly tract, extending from Southern Champâ, through the eastern part of the Hazaribagh District, to the borders of Midnapur District and the Upper Damuda Valley, in the south of which is said to be situated the village, or land, of Saont, though its exact situation does not seem to be known.
It may be worth considering, however, whether this name of Snont is not really related to their holy hill of Sãot Sikar (the scene of the Jina Parsvanitha's nirvana and therefore also called by his pame), towering high above their holy river, the Damuda. Sãêt is the Sanskritized form in which the name has been fixed in the earlier Hindu books. Sant may, therefore, not impossibly be the original name of their holy hill, which is in the very centre of their modern location. In this hilly tract, centring around Siêt Sikar, the tribe remained, hemmed in more and more by Bengali encroachments till quite recent times, when Government interference rendered it possible for the tribe to re-emerge on to the skirts of the Ganges Valley.
Their deified mountain Marang Buru, or the Great Hill,' is distinctly specified in Colonel Dalton's version to have been encountered after the expulsion of the tribe from Champa, and it is also stated to "have been the god of the Mûndås, whom the Santáls found already in occupation of the Hazaribagh platean. This pre-eminent hill must surely have been the graceful mountain of Siêt Sikar (Parasnath)--the culminating peak of this portion of the Vindhya range, and these savage refugees natarally worshipped the hills which sheltered them
Dalton's Ethnolgy af Bengal, p. 207 ff.
It means the village of the pipal tree' (ficus religiosa). • Damuda is a Santali word meaning the Home Water or Home-River.' The Brahmans have Sanskritized it into Damidar, the only word in their mythology to which it bore any resemblance; and as Dimodar is a title of the god Krishna, this river is now held by Hindus to be Krishna himself!
