By: MA AUNG MARMA
Oraon tribals are basically caste with bad culture, customs, traditions, religion etc. Because – their rituals, religious festivals, dances, songs, music etc. are involved in all levels of Kundukh history. Kundukhs are also called Oraon. They have been living sporadically in Chotanagpur, Assam, Bhutan, Nepal, Andaman, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rangpur, Dinajpur, Bogra, Jaipurhat, Naogaon, Rajshahi, Pabna, Sirajganj, Khulna, Dhaka and Sylhet districts of Bangladesh.
According to anthropologists, the Kundukh caste or Oraons were indigenous to the Konkan region. From there they migrated to North India. Some of them later came to Bangladesh and started living.
Anthropologists say that in the pre-Aryan era, the four classes of non-Aryan peoples – Austrik, Dravidian, Mongolian and Nigrobatu lived in the Indian subcontinent. Today’s tribals are the descendants of that primitive culture, the descendants of Anarya. The life cycle of the Oraunds is considered to consist of three distinct events. Birth, marriage and death.
Marriage is a joyous festival with a social recognition of family formation.
Birth
The birth of a new baby is a joyous festival in the Oraund family. Preconceived notions about baby’s gender: This is a prevalent concept in Oraon society. They can tell whether the child will be a boy or a girl by observing the movements of the pregnant woman.
When it is time to give birth, the pregnant woman is kept behind the door in the corner of the room. There lives a ‘Kushrain’ or midwife. And there are some elderly women to help him. No one else is allowed in the house. Even the doors and windows of the house are kept with thorns. Immediately after the birth of the child, the Kushrain takes the pulse of the child by placing the kudda on a copper coin at a distance of 4/5 fingers with a jhikti or a bamboo stick. Of course, many people use blades or knives these days. To dry the sores of the kudda, they take out bamboo shoots and put them on the kudda. And keeps ‘tappa’ or ‘flower’ in the broken bowl. After burying it under the ground and lighting a fire on top.
The child is bathed in stale water and smeared with raw turmeric paste and mustard oil. An iron object is placed near the child’s head, so that no thief can approach it. You have to be very careful until the puddhi is done. Iron is also given to his hands. And until the milk comes from the breast, the baby is fed with the milk of another mother.
They usually name the child according to the day of its birth. For example, if born on a Wednesday, the name becomes Budhu. If born on Friday the name is Shukra, if born on Thursday the name is Birsha or Birshi. Through religious and social ceremonies, the child’s grandparents and close relatives sit with the Panchars and choose the name.
marriage
Marriage is a very important event in the life of Orands. They also believe in this world and the hereafter. For them, marriage is the only way to bond together in this world and the next. Their ‘Bairakhi’ and ‘Gota pratha’ refers to their right to afterlife. Marriage brings the daughter into the family caste of the son in the caste life, and the child of his family is seen in the family of birth, religion, wealth and kinship.
In fact, through marriage, Apan Kul expresses unity between Purkha (patriarch) and Bhabhi children. That is why they leave some food and water on the ground outside the dish to remember their ancestors while eating food and water. Flowers, water, roosters are offered in the name of Purkhars in various pujas.
Parents consider their duty to Dharmes to be over by marrying off their children. So they do their best to engage children while they are still alive in the service of purkhars and dharmes; May they be forgiven for their sins in this world and become partakers of the hereafter from being bound in a rope with the Bhabhi family. From these concepts of the Orands, it is understood that the family is the only place to worship Dharmas.
Cremation of the body
They also mourn the death of the society, grief and tears.
They also believe in the afterlife. They call the spirit of the deceased ‘Pachoa Alar’. Through ‘Pachoa Alar’ they invoke them in various puja-parbans for the welfare of the world and offer food in the puja. While eating rice, while drinking pot water, put a few drops of pot water on the ground in the name of ‘Pachoa Alar’. They also understand two types of death. Like natural death and accidental death. After a natural death, the body is buried in a mass grave or cremated in a crematorium. But not buried in the same mashara or cremated in the same crematorium. Make separate arrangements. But nowadays, many of them who are educated leave their previous beliefs and cremate the person who died in an accident with equal dignity.
funeral
Burial and cremation are both practices in Oraon society. Usually the bodies of the four months of Asadha, Shravan, Bhadra and Ashwin are buried. Remaining eight-month-old bodies are cremated. But usually cremation is done if the deceased is married. Not for singles.
Burial Process
The dead body is bathed and smeared with turmeric. A new piece of American cloth is put on and covered with another piece. The body is placed in a ‘Sharha’ made of bamboo. If the deceased is married, the wife puts a drop of vermilion on the husband’s forehead and two julpi with the finger of her left hand. If the deceased is a woman, her husband puts vermilion on the wife’s sinthi and two julpis with the finger of his right hand. Everyone who attends the funeral brings 2/3 kg of rice or money and keeps it near the Sharha.
Cremation rules
The dead bodies are taken to crematoriums near designated water bodies for cremation. The fire is lit on the pyre following the same rules that are observed before taking it to the grave. After the fire is extinguished, the remaining bones are buried in the mud on the edge of the pond in new pots. Every evening till the Haar Boda ceremony is performed, rice is offered on a kalapata somewhere in the house.
Bones After 7-12 days of death, the buried bones are taken out and immersed in a large water tank while playing drums and singing songs. From that day the soul of the deceased is purified and joins with the Pachoa Alars.