Santali Language | Learn Ol Chiki

Ol Chiki - Santali Language

Johar, ᱡᱚᱦᱟᱨ today in this post we are going to discuss the Santali Language Ol Chiki which is one of the oldest language ever on earth.

Basically, the Santali Language is Ol Chiki ᱚᱞ ᱪᱤᱠᱤ and It is invented by one of the Santhali scholar Pandit Raghunath Murmu.

Santali language is mainly the mother tongue of Santal tribes of India, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
It is one of the languages which the constitution of India recognizes.

Ol Chiki is very popular in Santali Society Groups states like Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and some in the northeast part of India also.

You will be surprised to listen that there are totally more than 400 tribal groups in India and one of the emerging group is Santhals.

Outside of India also there are tribal groups in Nepal, Bangladesh.
As per the recent census 2011, the Santals population was about 50-60 lakhs.

Most of the village area in Jharkhand are full of Santals and other tribal groups. They have their own tradition, culture, literature, and a large society.

Santals are the oldest groups in India which have a very rich and diverse culture. Santhals again is also divided into lots of other small groups but they stay in unity.

Santali Language Origin

Ol Chiki

Ol Chiki is the main script in Santali language which was invented by Pandit Raghunath Murmu.

He is from MaurBhanj district. He was a very good poet and a writer.

Because of him, only Santals were able to find their Santali Language and Pandit Raghunath Murmu was a like a god for the Santhals.

Raghunath Murmu, Creator of Ol Chiki

Image Credit: famousfix

There are basically 30 letters in Ol Chiki.T his include 6 vowels and 24 consonants

The writings of the language are very much similar to the English language. Ol Chiki contains has both uppercase and lower case letters.

Just like English, it has the same kind of style of writing and at the time of writing it, you will definitely feel like you are writing English.

Santali Language Literature

The literature of  Santali language is very much like the other language, but the main difference comes in the pronunciation of different words.

The Santali Language Ol Chiki Script

Ol Chiki

Ol Chiki Script ( Cursive Writing )

The First Santhali School was made in Balasore by an American  Mission in 1836. At that time missionaries were made to spread the Christian religion.

One of the people in the missionary launched a newspaper for Santhali Language.

He used to publish the Santali short stories, poems, and Santali songs in the newspaper.

A book named “An Introduction to Santhali Language” was also published and it took at a lot of attention in the Santhals society. Basically, it was published only to able to change the Santhals religion into Christian.

Lots of other books were also published like “A Vocabulary of the Santali Language”.

• “Santali Pahil’( ᱥᱟᱱᱴᱟᱞᱤ ᱯᱟᱦᱤᱞ)
• “Santali Dosar”(ᱥᱟᱱᱴᱟᱞᱤ ᱰᱚᱥᱟᱨ)
• “Santali Serenj”(ᱥᱟᱱᱴᱟᱞᱤ ᱥᱮᱨᱮᱱ)

Three big novels are also published by a person named L.O.Skrefsurd.

He was the person who published first Santali grammar book “A Grammar of the Santali Language” in 1873 and also “Hol Koren Mare Haplam Reyah Katha"(ᱦᱚᱨ ᱠᱚᱨᱮᱱ ᱢᱟᱨᱮ ᱦᱟᱯᱨᱟᱢ ᱨᱮᱭᱟᱡ ᱠᱟᱴᱷᱟ)

One of the other most knowledgeable person named P.O Boding who studied Santali whole life and wrote 'Hor Kahani'(ᱦᱚᱨ ᱠᱟᱦᱟᱱᱤ)

P.O. Bonding is the one who dedicated his whole life to study Santhali language and after studying the whole language he wrote many books like

•  Hol Kahani
•  Material for Santali Grammar
•  Santali Grammar for Beginners
•  Santal Medicine
•  A Santal Dictionary (5 volumes).

Another person who published book Named "Hol Rol Reyah Byakaram" was R. Roseland.

Three volumes of novels "Santali Padhao" was written by Rev.Campbell.He also published A Santali English Dictionary.

A person named Ramdas Tudu united the Santhals. And Make them understand that missionaries were trying to change their religion into Christian.

And He also published a book named  ‘Kherwal Bansh Dharam’ where he told the whole Santali Tradition, religion and rituals in order to unite the Santhal Community.

The Growth of Santali Language And Tradition

Image Source: Wikipedia

After all that incident, Santali writer began to start writing books, novels. Many Santali writers like Jujhar Soren, Ramendra Nath Hembram, and Chaitanya Hembram published lots of books to unite the Santhals.
From that time till now lots of Santali Books and novels have been published. After all this, the Indian Constitution declared Santhali Language in the Indian constitution.

And Santali teachers were recruited to teach Santali to students as Regional Language.

This was a big initiative towards the growth of the Santali language. Right now Santali is taught as a compulsory language in Jharkhand.

Santali language was also accepted in Sahitya Academy of Union Public service commission.UPSC aspirants can now take Santali language as one of their subjects.

In many parts of India, the Central Institute of Indian languages publishes Santali books for Santhali Education.

Santali Language Books

Universities like Sido Kanhu University, Odisha’s Sambalpur University etc. Santali Language is taught in U.G and P.G standard.
Santali Language has now also added to Unicode
.
Santali Language has also become a lot popular internationally also.

A book named “Linguistic Survey of India “ by George Grierson has also discussed Santali Language in his book.

Some of the notable books where Santali Langauge is discussed likes

• Austric Civilization of India
• The Santal
• Sonthalia and Santal
• Santhal Bhasa: Bhitti O Sambhabana
• Santhali: The Base of Word Langauge
• Santhali: A Universal Heritage.

You will be surprised to know that a book named ‘Santhali: The Base of World Language’, has told that Santali is the origin of all the other language even English. Many researchers are doing research on Santali Language.

The anthropology director Marin Karin of Toulouse University is also doing research on Santali Language.

Santali Language Translation

There are lots of knowledgeable education which will just blow your mind. And it is very necessary to translate it into other languages so that other people can also understand the meaning of the things said in Santali Books.

In order to translate Santali Language into other languages, there are lots of software are made but no one of them is good.

But there are a lot of software and apps for smartphones and computer from where you can type Santali Language easily.

The Best Santali Keyboard for Smartphone [Read More]

Conclusion

Santali Language is the oldest language of all and maybe it’s the origin of all the languages. And it only because of the scholar Pandit Raghunath Murmu’s works. Thank you.

Also read: Santali Music Instruments
Also read: Traditional Santali Folk Dance
Also read: Santali Bibliography