Santali People - Santal Surnames

Santal Surnames

A total of 12 clans is found in Santals. Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Budhi divided the clans as per the traditional tale as listed below:

1. The original Nijhasak
2. The one who ground down the horn-Marandi
3. The one who killed a sunbird-Soren Sipahi
4. The one who carried a deer-Hembram
5. The one who killed an owl- Tudu
6. The one who killed a kingfisher-Kisku
7. The one who made a bundle of stale Rice-Baske
8. The one who carried an umbrella over his head-Besra
9. The one who killed a rough-necked Iguana-Core
10. The one who killed a dove-Pauriya
11. The one who killed a bushy-haired monkey -Donka or Bhaduli-some scholars give the name of the lost clan as Bedea/ a title that is not known.
12. The one who restores us to tribal Status-Murmu.

The clans are exogamous and, with two exceptions, the members of one clan may marry a person belonging to any of the other clans. The first exception to the general rule prohibits a marriage between a Marandi and a Kisku because of the quarrel in which these two clans were involved. The second prohibits the marriage of a Tudu and a Besra. Another version of the origin of the clans bears rather obvious traces of the influence of the surrounding culture by dividing them on an occupational basis after the analogy of Hindu castes. According to it, the Murmu became the priests, or Brahmins, of the tribe;The Soren were the warriors, or Kshattriyas: hence the addition to their name of the epithet sipahi, or "sepoy". The Marandi were traders, the Kisku were rajas, the Tudu were drummers, and so on. This version, now widely current, is probably of comparatively recent date and may have arisen out of the need to compensate the Santals, or at least certain of the clans, for their low social status in the eyes of their caste Hindu neighbours. The totemistic basis is very clearly marked, and in certain directions it still exercises a powerful influence on the habits of the Santals. The Nijhasak are always named first and they are the original clan. Their name is related to the goose and gander of the myth, from which the first human beings were born, and they do not eat either goose or duck.

Tradition says that each of the twelve clans are divided into twelve sub-clans, or khut. At the present day in the case of most of the clans there are in fact many more than twelve sub-clans. These sub-clans do not affect the rules govern-ing marriage outside the clan. Some of the sub-clan names are found in more than one clan, and while it is unusual for the member of a sub-clan in one clan to marry a member of the corresponding sub-clan in another clan, there is no absolute barrier preventing such marriages. In each clan there is a division that is taken to have been the original sub-clan, the word Nij being prefixed to the clan name.

The Santal clan system is not rigid and thus the society is free from untouchability, non association and other ill effects of harsh class laws.