'The Uraon' recognises a Supreme Deity symbolised by the Sun, superior and inferior nature spirits and

potentially beneficent ancestor spirits and maleficent spirits of certain dead human beings, besides
beneficent and maleficent impersonal powers and forces.

And the Uraon's present religion may be described as a system of animism or rather spiritism set on a
background of a still more primitive and vague animatism, in which the soul or spirit is not discriminated
from the body or object it inhabits and an impersonal magic force of the nature of 'mana' is attributed
not merely to certain living beings and certain objects of external nature but also to some objects of
human

"Some of the spirits, however, such as Candi, the goddess of hunting and war are remarkable for shape
fitting which is indeed a characteristic of most of the spirits and deities of the Uraon pantheon.

2Uraon religion, like similar other religions, primarily concerned with ancestral and certain other
disembodied souls, and nature spirits and deities.

"The help of beneficent personal spirits or rather of the supreme Spirit is also sought to control these
impersonal powers or forces.

The Uraon does not, however, attribute all the phenomena of nature and all the good and ills of life to
spiritual agencies to personal spirits, ghosts and deities or to mysterious impersonal forces and powers.

The community, as a whole, represented by the Panc or village elders, constitute, in theory, the
priesthood for the propitiation of the general deities and spirits of the Uraon pantheon, although, in
practice, only one or other of the elders of the village or of a clan, who is proficient in the ritual,
conducts the sacrificial ceremonies to propitiate them.

"It is only in respect of the village deities that a special priest or priests have come to be appointed or
elected by the Uraon village community as their representatives to offer sacrifices and otherwise
propitiate and placate such deities and spirits.

'The priests who are entrusted with the periodical propitiation of the village deities of the Uraons are
called Pahans (Uraon, Naigar) and, in some villages, Baigas, and have generally one or more assistants.
"They are really representative or mouthpieces of the community, and at the propitiation or puja of the
village deities and spirits, the village community or, at any rate, representative people of the village are
generally present, and the propitiation or worship is really congregational.

The principal, and, in many villages, the only assistant of the village Pahan is the Panbhara, who is also
called the Pujar or Tahalu in some villages.

"Besides this functionary there are in some villages another assistant of the Pahan called Susari (or in a
very few villages the Murgi-pakoa).

The Pahan performs the puja or propitiation of the village deities by offering sacrifices to them at the
Jhakhra or Sarna and other seats appointed for them.

'In the villages where the office of the Pahan is not hereditary, the method of electing a new Pahan is as
follows: All the adult male villagers assemble at the Sarna on the full moon (15th) day of Magh (January-
February), and in a few villages (e.g. Tingria.

thana Bero) in Aghan (December-January) bringing with them from the out-going Pahan's house the
Sarna-sup or the winnowing basket upon which the Sarna deity or Cala Pacco is believed to sit, and
which has been the emblem of the Pahan's office and has been used at every puja at the Sarna and
carefully and religiously kept hung from a beam of a compartment in his house known as Cala kutthi or
compartment sacred to the Sarna spirit.

*After selecting first the Pahan and next the Susari or Pujar in the village, the villagers again go back to
the Sarna, and the same procedure is again followed to elect the other assistant, if any, of the Pahan
that may have to be appointed.

Sacrifices are offered to Dharmes and the spirits are propitiated.

In the religious world-view of the Kuñrukhar, God, nature, spirits and human beings are parts of the
natural and supernatural worlds that are inter-related.
The original concept of Dharme being the author of good and evil (one who created the world and also
destroyed the world by sending rain of fire) gradually gave way to the concept of Dharme who is all pure
and all good, but not much involved in the day today affairs of the world.

According to the world-view of the Kuñṛukhar, the evil in the world is work of najar-gujar (evil eye), bai-
bhak (evil mouth) and evil spirits.

The evil spirits are in need of sustenance and periodic sacrifices of propitiation would prevent them
from causing troubles to human beings.

Dharme or Dharmes, the Supreme Being (God)

The Supreme Being is called Dharme or Dharmes.

According to E. T. Dalton, the Kuñrukhar acknowledge a Supreme God, adored as Dharmi or Dharmes,
the Holy One, who is manifest in the sun, God who is perfectly pure, beneficent being, who created us
and would in his goodness and mercy preserve us (par.

According to Sarat Chandra Roy, the conception of the Kuñrukhar is of a supreme deity ruling over the
universe and over the other gods and spirits may probably have been suggested (in ancient time) by the
spectacle of the sun527

"Dharme is not sun god or sun-spirit as Ferdinand Hahn seems to think; neither is the sun his abode (par.

"It is true that in olden times Dharme or Dharmes was called Biri Belas ("Sun-King", and not "Sun-Lord")
and sometimes even today referred to as the vis52 pmol and nor actual representation of Dharmes
(pars.

"Originally, the supreme being might have also been conceived as a Supreme Spirit dwelling in and
shining through the luminary and reigning supreme over the earth, dispersing darkness and its terrors,
purging sin and subduing all evil and bringing all blessings to the earth and its inhabitants (par.
Dharme or Dharmes is not a personification of an element of nature but a Supreme Being, anterior to
all, the author and preserver, controller and punisher of human beings and spirits of all that exists in the
visible and invisible world (par.

'Ferdinand Hahn in his second edition of Kurukh Grammar (sic) translates the words Dharmes as god and
Dharme as goddess whereas in the first edition of the same work he had translated Dharme as feminine
Godhead and says that non- Christians (Non-Christian Kuñṛukhar) look upon God as being feminine only
(par.

"In the prayer, "Ana Dharme akkun ninim rahdal Dharmes is addressed as a male person (pars.

623:6-10, R-ORC), Dharme or Dharmes is addressed as a male person.

But there are times when Dharme is also spoken of as a female person especially when they want to
attribute feminine or motherly qualities to Dharme.

When the Kunṛukhar return to the house of the deceased person after the cremation, they observe the
ashes spread on the floor of the house and if they see the signs of the thread they believe that "Isin ka
idin Dharme hocca' (par.

"Here Dharme is spoken of as female as the verb used is hocca (or occa) and not hoccas (or occas) and
the name used to address the Supreme Being is Dharme and not Dharmes.

According to Sarat Chandra Roy, the name Dharme or Dharmes is derived from Sanskrit and is a later
loan- word to indicate creator (par.

It seems to us that gradually, over the centuries, because of living in close contact with the Hindus, the
Kuñrukhar developed the concept of Supreme God with "loan-words" such as Dharme, Bhagwan,
Mahadev (Mahado, Madho, Mahyadev), Parvati, Sita and in recent times, Satnarayan.

Nowadays the most common word used for the Supreme Being is Dharme (Dharmes) or Bhagwan.

'General belief of the Kuñṛukhar is that the Supreme God Dharme (Dharmes) does not have a wife.
14The Kuñrukh concept of God is very anthropomorphic and hence concepts of Old Mother, Parvati,
Sita, Bhabi and Mahado (Mahadev) complements the concept of Dharme (Dharmes).

'Since Dharme is both male and female, the male form of Dharme is seen in Dharme (Dharmes) and the
female form is seen in the Old Mother or Parvati or Sita or Bhabi.

It may not be unreasonable to assume that about 3000 B. C. the ancestors of the Kuñrukhar called the
Supreme God "Grandfather" and "Old Mother" and later on these male-female aspects were
incorporated into one term "Dharme" and gradually other terms like "Parvati," "Sita" and "Bhabi" were
used to refer to the female form of the Supreme Being.

Gradually, down the centuries, because of the Hindu influence Parvati is seen as "consort" or "wife" of
Dharme, separate from Dharme, and Dharme too is called by the name Bhagwan, Mahado, Mahyadevas
or Mahadevas.2 In one of the legends prevalent among the Mundas, Parvati is even considered as a
principle of evil and a "witch" wife of Singbonga.

Most of the spirits were human beings in the remotest time and some of them are the spirits of the Asur
women whose husbands were killed by Dharmes when they entered the iron furnace.

According to the belief system of the Kuñrukhar, the spirits of all the human beings who did not die a
natural death would not find rest in the company of Pacbalar but are bound to roam around in the
world, mostly in the forest.

"Patta bharal gach bhut bharal prithvi" or "Khekhel nu nad nindki ra'i mann nu atkha nindki ra'7" ["the
earth is as full of spirits as a tree is full of leaves"] [pars.

'Sometimes a spirit is also considered as a mere caprasi (sevant) of God as the following prayer reveals:
"O God, from today do not send any more your caprasi to punish us.

The fear of the spirits was part and parcel of the Kuñrukh culture and religion but some of the spirits
that they believe in or fear are also part of the belief system of Mundas and Hindus and fear of those
spirits could have developed because of their contact with non-Kuñrukhar (pars.
The only spirits that the myths of Kuñrukhar speak of are those 2 of Asur women and those emanated
from the body parts of the dead evil vulture Sonu.

13 According to Sarat Chandra Roy, the spirits of the Asur women are supposed to be Cala Pacco,
Deswali, Khunts and the plants Chiros, Rampawans 14 and Asalgos (par.

According to P. Dehon, the spirits (bhuts) are Dehdebi and Darhädebi (par.

"According to Ferdinand Hahn, the spirits of the Asur women had become kaisago plants (par.

According to another myth that speaks about the origin of spirits, Dharmes killed the evil vulture Sonu
and from the different parts of the body of the dead vulture different spirits (nad) emanated.

'The highest class of spirits in the spirit world could be called deity-spirits.

The Kunrukhar do not believe in gods and goddesses or deities except in the supreme deity (God)
Dharme or Dharmes.

What the non-Kuñrukhar call the "gods and goddesses" or "deities" of the Kuñrukhar (par.

The Europeans had called them evil spirits or demons (pars.

All of them are not evil spirits as some of them are also benevolent or guardian spirits.

The spirits can be532

classified into village spirits, clan spirits, class spirits, household spirits, tramp spirits and other minor
spirits.

Though she is usually classified as a village spirit, she is more than a village spirit as she is worshipped all
over the country.
According to Ferdinand Hahn and Sarat Chandra Roy, she is the spirit of an Aur woman (pars.

62 There are also lesser deity-spirits that are tutelary or village deity-spirits such as Pat or Pat Raja, Devi
Mai and Candi.. Pat or Pat Raja is the master of the village spirits whom it controls and keeps under
check; it protects the village from sickness.

Duaria or Duarsini is its attendant spirit or caprasi (pars.

ORC) but she is generally represented among the Kuñrukhar by small clay cones sheltered under a small
shed without a temple in the pattern of Kuñrukh worship (par.

'The Kunrukhar fear the malevolent spirits and offer sacrifices of propitiation out of fear (par.

Darhá Deswali and Mahadania are called village spirits.

Darha is the most dreaded of the village spirits.

In some villages it is said to have another spirit named Deswali.

"Sometimes the same spirit is associated with Barnda or Darha Goesali nad that is also called Dangra nad
{par.

The Deswali spirit is the same as the Desauli spirit of Mundas.

Another dreaded spirit is Mahadania, to whom human sacrifices (Orka) have to be offered at least once
in a generation, a concept that seems to have been borrowed by the Kuñrukhar from Hindus but they
usually associate it with Darha and call it Darha Pacco (pars.

Joda and Achrael are special class spirits propitiated by women for their protection (pars.
Khunt nad are the clan spirits that are adopted by a particular clan as their own spirits.

Barnda is supposed to be the spirit of one of the Asur women whose husband were tricked into death by
Dharmes.

This is thought to be a guardian spirit of each separate household and also of threshing floor (pars.

The tramp spirits are the spirits of those who died of unnatural deaths.

"There are also other minor spirits such as Hankar Bai, Pos Bai, Kitrō Bãi, Ban- shakti or Garha-dhorha
Catur-simän, Tüsä-bürha and Pugri spirits.

The spirits believed to reside in forests (ban), rivers and streams and four corners of the village are
collectively known as Ban-shakti or Garha-dhora Catur-siman.6 14The spirits residing in the springs (usa)
are collectively known as Tüss-bürha.

"Pugri bhüts and Dain Küri bhüts are secretly adopted by the individuals as familiar spirits who secretly
offer sacrifices to such spirits for their own private ends, i.e.. for selfish and anti-social purposes (pars.

17 Barando is a spirit that causes whirlwinds, a restless spirit that goes whirling about in search of a
fresh resting place (pars, 44, H-KG: 53, H-RSO and 414, HC-O).

Sometimes, when the Kuñrukhar repeatedly lose their children, they relate the surviving child to coblers
or blacksmiths to protect it from the evil spirits.

The mystery of evil is explained in terms of najar-gujar ("evil eye"), bai-bhakh ("evil mouth') and bisaha-
bisahi (sorcerers and witches).

The Kurukhar stand in constant dread of the mysterious occult powers or forces residing in 'the evil eye'
(najar) possessed by certain people or in the 'evil mouth' (bai-bhakh), that is to say, words of intentional
or unintentional malice or envy, and, to a lesser degree, in the 'evil touch' (chut) of alien tribes and
castes and of persons of their own tribe when under ceremonial pollution, and in other vague and
indefinite evil powers, contact with which produce evil effects on health, cattle, crops, food and drink.
The tradition asserts that the earlier religion of the Kurukhar centred round the Supreme Spirit or the
Spirit of Good, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, round the 'evil eye' and 'evil mouth' as
representing the spirit of evil.

'According to Sarat Chandra Roy, although the elaborate art of the magician and sorcerer, spirit-finder
and spirit-doctor, with their long-winded incantations, mostly in the local Hindi dialect and invocations
to Hindu deities as well as local Vil spirits, would appear to have been originally adopted by the Kurukhar
from the lower classes of their Hindu neighbours, and although most Kuñrukh magicians and sorcerers,
witch-finders and spirit-doctors receive their training either under low-caste Hindu gurus or masters or
under tribal gurus who had their training under Hindu masters, the idea at the back of the magic art is
not alien to the Kuñrukh mind.

As the Kunrukhar adopted most spirits of Munda demonology which fitted in with their own original
conception of the spirit of evil as manifested in the 'evil eye' and the 'evil mouth,' and as they have also
adopted the Hindu deities Mahadev ((lit., the Great God) - the God of procreation, and Devi Mai or the
mother-goddess, who respectively coincided with the Kuñṛukh conception of Dharme or the Creator and
Dharme's consort called in the Kuñrukh legend of genesis by the Hindu name Parvati, so too they
adopted the beliefs and practices relating to beneficent magic and maleficent magic - the 'seer ship' of
the Bhagat as also the black art of the Mati which easily fitted in with the same Kuñrukh conceptions of
the spirit of good and the spirit of evil respectively.

It is also performed by the village priest called Naigas or Pahan or Baiga or Dehri whose main function is
propitiation of the spirits.

The three colours, red (of the burnt clay of the hearth)," white (of rice-flour), and black (of the coal-dust)
are believed to represent the rainbow the largest and most powerful bow in heaven or earth - and
therefore most potent in warding off the evil eye and the evil attentions of the malignant spirits.

a sing-song tone a long story, the first part of which gives the traditional account of the origin and
multiplication of mankind, and the institution of agriculture, and the second part commemorates the
discovery of iron and gives the traditional origin of spirits (par.

When the recital is finished, the man takes up the egg in his left hand, sprinkles rice over it with his right
hand, and says, "O Dharme, I am offering arua rice to you.
From today may so and so's house and family be shunned by evil spirits and by persons with the evil eye,
(even) as bitter jhinga and bitter laua (pumpkin) are thrown away by men.

He first scratches out a little of the yolk with his finger nails and offers it on the ground in the name of
Dharmes saying, "Here, O Dharme, I am offering you the heart of the victim."

16A libation of water to Dharmes and libations of rice beer to the ancestor spirits are also offered.

"Before beginning the recital of first two chapters of the genesis myth, the Sankatalas, while he is
drawing the lines says, "See, O Dharmes, I break the teeth of the evil mouth that the grasshoppers and
lizards may not eat the crops, that the fields may yield a good harvest, that the cows and calves and
goats and children of... (here he pronounces the name of the man in whose behalf he is making the540

1 break the teeth of the Keonts, Kumhars, Ghansis, Dhobis, Chiks, Chamars, who either on the way to
the fountain or in the village may have made use of their evil mouth, that the paddy of this man may not
die or be eaten by rats, mice and lizards, that all the people of his house may not get sick but keep in
good health" (pars.

The branch of the Keond is in memory of the monkey, and branch of Bhelwa is to break the evil mouth
and destroy the evil eye; for the oil of the Bhelwa tree is such that if even a drop of it falls in anyone's
eye the man becomes blind; and a drop taken in the mouth produces sores.