THE RAJBANSIS OF NORTH BENGAL by CHARU CHANDRA SANYAL
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THE RAJBANSIS OF NORTH BENGAL: PREFACE
A Hindu social group of people called the Rajbansis living in the extreme northern region of West Bengal have been very little studied. The census reports have given some secounts but imperfectly. Hodgson, Dalton, Risley, O’Malley, Gait, Hutton, and some other scholars have described some historical and ethnological accounts of them. Grierson has touched a fringe of their dialect. K. P. Biswas has given some account of the dialect and folk culture of Rangpar. This monograph is an attempt to give an idea of the folk life and culture of the Rajbansis living in Darjeeling Terai (Siliguri), Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar of West Bengal,
The study of folk life and culture of these people has become important when attitudes are changing fast due to the impact of Western civilization and more so after the partition of Bengal when large-scale immigration of people from lower North and East Bengal is taking place in this area and within a very short time a profound culture missing is sure to take place and some of the age-long customs may disappear altogether.
The people of the villages are deeply rooted in the soil and have retained many of their ancient customs and habits. They have faith in supernatural powers and rituals to propitiate them are still to be found. Their marriage customs and religious rituals have distinct characteristics of their own. Their sports, jokes, common sayings, and songs reveal their simple nature and intelligence.
The dialect which is a local variety of Bengali language is interesting and is a storehouse of many words that may enrich any standard language of India. Simple grammar and vocabulary have been added for the purpose.
Three years after the Jalpaiguri district was created our family came here and settled in Jalpaiguri town before there was any railway connection to this place. I was born in this town and have spent three score years of my life in this district amongst these people. My public duties and profession gave me ample opportunities to move to the villages of these three districts and to live amongst them from time to time. My family had some agricultural land in far-off villages in the district of Jalpaiguri where I had to live amongst the cultivators and mix with them intimately. I understand their dialect, and most of them understand the standard colloquial Bengali. 1, therefore, required no interpreter. I could study village life firsthand hand and the information secured from my numerous Rajbansi friends was scrupulously checked by interrogating many others. Careful notes were kept and many photographs were taken, some of which appear in this monograph.
Whatever may be the opinion about the Rajbansis of this area, it is to be admitted that in this world various people with their distinct attitudes have contributed to the development of civilization, and the peoples who are now looked upon as backward, if properly understood and appreciated, may ultimately help to bring about a further achievement of our human heritage.
In writing this monograph both Romanised and Bengali scripts have been used for better understanding. A simple phonetic system has been used in the case of Romanised transcription and standard Bengali spelling has been followed in a large measure while writing in Bengali characters. The latter has in some places slightly affected the correct pronunciation of the dialect.
The author gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness to Professor Suniti Kumar Chatterji, a National Professor of India; to the late Dr. B. C. Roy, Ex-Chief Minister, West Bengal to Sri Humayun Kabir, Minister for Petroleum and Chemicals, Government of India; to Professor Nirmal Kumar Bose, formerly Director General of Anthropology, Government of India, on whose recommendations the Government of India and the Government of West Bengal sanctioned a generous sum to the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, who very kindly undertook to publish this book. To them, therefore, this book owes in existence.
I am also grateful to Professor T C Das of the Anthropological Department of the University of Calcutta, to Dr. K. P. Das of the University of Visva-Bharati and to Professor Nirmal Kumar Bose for kindly going through some portions of the manuscript and for their valuable suggestions. My thanks are due to the late Professor K. P. Chattopadhyay of the Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta, for his advice. I also express my thanks to Shri U. N Burman, M. P., Shri M. M. Burman, Shri Mona Ray, Shri Uday Das, and Shri Nikhil Ghattack, Shri D. Bhattacherjee of the Pandit family of the village Khagrabaree in Cooch Behar, who rendered me great help in collecting songs and common sayings. To many [other friends and assistants my thanks are also due.
CHARU CHANDRA SANYAL,
Jalpaiguri (W, Bengal) The 10th August, 1963.
THE RAJBANSIS OF NORTH BENGAL TABLE OF CONTENTS
| CHAPTER I Distribution, Environment, and Character of Northern Rajbansis– The Ruling Dynasties of Cooch-Behar and Jalpaiguri– Antecedents of Northern Rajbansis (a) Historical and Ethnological Data (b) Census Figures (c) Inferential – Hindu Scriptures | CHAPTER II The Material Culture of the Rajbansis The Village, growth, naming, Typical Village The Home of the Rajbansis — Building Customs, Selection of the Site, Plan of a Hut, Hut, House Entrance Living Conditions Males, Women, Sleeping, Meeting place, Cleaning of Clothing Daily Life-Duties of Men, Women, Children, Elders and Songs Parts of a House, A Hut Household Articles Personal Decorations Fishing, Fishing Implements, Traps Hunting, Traps Foods and their preparation, Special Foods Agriculture and Implements, Songs Spinning and Weaving Animal Husbandry Transport, Parts of a Bullock Cart, Boats |
| CHAPTER- III Birth Customs Pregnancy, Labour, Delivery, Care of the Mother, Care of the Child First Look at the Child Period of Confinement, First Unclean Period Complications of Child Birth, Protracted Labour, Remedies, Songs Diseases of the New Born, Midwife, End of the Second Unclean Period Childhood, Care of the Child, Lullaby Name Giving First Feeding Puberty, Sports, and Games Jokes and Songs | CHAPTER IV Marriage Customs, Inheritance, Types of Marriage, Porua or Gotra Regular forms of Marriage, Bride Price, Marriage with other castes Irregular forms of Marriage Marriage Limitations, Prohibition, Divorce Marriage Rituals Other forms of Regular Marriage Marriage Songs |
| CHAPTER V Death and its Attendant Ceremonies Transportation of the corpse, Burial, Cremation, Funeral Pyre Lighting the Pyre, Circumambulation, Return Home Gathering of Frontal Bone, Purification of the House Period of Mourning Post Funeral Rites (Sraddha) Disposal of the Frontal Bone Concept of the Soul after Death | CHAPTER VI Social Relations Family, Village, Grouping, Acquiring or Losing Membership Social Structure, Family Genealogical Tables Terms of Relationship |
| CHAPTER VII Religious Beliefs and, Practices Divine Orders Images, Rituals of Worship Religious Festivals and Rituals, Some Old Shrines and Deities Meceni Khela, Modon Kam, Kali, Dhoroin Thakur, Jogannath, Gotsupuna, Satyanarayan, Jitna, Othai-pothi, Goroknath, Devi, Bhandani, Luxmi Dak, Monosha, Siva-ratri, Dham, Bisua, Chorok, Hudma, Tista-buri, Saleswari, Bhadra-Kali, Dhap-Chandi, Mahakal, Pet-kati, Utthan-ekadasi, Dhan-Kata, Naya-Khawa, Baruni, Religious Songs | CHAPTER VIII Supernatural Agencies and their Propitiation Protective Measures Magical Beliefs and Practices Charmed Arrow, Exorcism Village Medicines Witches |
| CHAPTER IX Riddles Proverbs, Unusual Phenomena. Common Sayings | CHAPTER X Songs Music and Musical Instruments Marriage songs Love songs, Dotrar Gan, Gulapeswarier Gan, Chor Churnir Gan, Religious songs, Siva’s marriage song, Vote song, Girir Addas, Gua-paner Gan, Asiba Din |
| CHAPTER XI Quarrel between two villagers A few texts to show the difference between Jalpaiguri and Cooch-Behar Dialects | CHAPTER XII Dialect of the Rajbansis and an Outline of Grammar |
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| Publishers | The Asiatic Society |
| Year of Publication | Published in 1965 First Reprint in 2002 Second Reprint in March 2020 |
| Place of Publication | Kolkata |
| Language | English |
| Pages | 272p.; |
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