Musical Cosmology of the Santal

Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Rhyming the creation. 3. Rhyming the body cosmology. 4. Rhyming the generative cosmology. 5. Rhyming to spirits. 6. Drumming the cosmic rhythm. 7. Some concluding remarks.

In India, there are 573 tribes of varied nature. But it is the Santal of Proto-Australoid origin who drew attention of the administration, missionaries and academicians from different corners of the world for their revolutionary stance against the British. The Santal became their subject of portrayal. They were labeled also as hedonistic. However, very few scholars could probe deeply into their cosmic view.

The present study is an attempt in this regard, analyzing and placing their musical repertoire in a broader context of cosmology. Prof. Onkar Prasad has been among the foremost scholars in India working on cosmological dimension specially, of the Santal music which demands an approach not of unilinear but multi and interdisciplinary nature.