Santal Saonta Sonthal caste is last name of many people in Indian subcontinent. Santal Saonta Sonthal caste definition is An important tribe of Bengal belonging to the Munda family. The transfer of five of the Chota Nagpur States has brought more than 10000 Santals into the Central Provinces. They belong principally to the Sarguja State and a few are returned from Udaipur State and from the Bilaspur District but in all those tracts they are known as Saonta and appear to have been cut off from the main tribe for a considerable period. According to Mr. Skrefsrud the name Santal is a corruption of Saontar and was given to the tribe by the Bengalis because they lived in the country about Saont in Midnapur. Sir H. Risley held that the tribe might equally well have given its name to the locality and there was no means of ascertaining which theory was correct. The forms Santal and Sonthal are only used by natives who have come into contact with Europeans. Santals call themselves harko men or harhapan man-child.81 At the present day when a Santal is asked to what caste he belongs he will almost invariably reply Manjhi which means a village headman and is the common title of the tribe; if further explanation is demanded he will add Santal Manjhi. Whether the term Santal was derived from the Saont pargana or not it is therefore at any rate a name conferred by the Hindus and affords no evidence in favour of a separate origin of the tribe. There seems good reason to hold that the Santals are only a branch of the Kols or Mundas who have been given a distinct designation by their Hindu neighbours while their customs and traditions have been modified [405]either by long separation from the Mundas of Chota Nagpur or by contact with Hindu influences. Sir G. Griersons account of the two dialects Santali and Mundari shows that they closely resemble each other and differ only in minor particulars. The difference is mainly to be found in the vocabulary borrowed from Aryan neighbours and in the grammatical modifications occasioned by the neighbouring Aryan forms of speech.82 Of Mundari he says: Aspirated letters are used as in Santali the semi-consonants are apparently pronounced in the same way as in Santali; genders and numbers are the same the personal pronouns are the same the inflexion of verbs is mainly the same.83 Some points of difference are mentioned by Sir G. Grierson but they appear to be of minor importance. The Mundas like the Santals call themselves hara-ko or men. In the vocabulary of common words of Mundari and Santali given by Colonel Dalton84 a large proportion of the words are the same. Similarly in the list of sept-names of the tribes given by Sir H. Risley85 several coincide. Among the 15 names of main septs of the Santals Besra a hawk Murmu nilgai or stag and Aind eel are also the names of Munda septs. The Santal sept Hansda a wild goose is nearly identical with the Munda sept Hansa a swan; the Santal septs Kisku and Tudu are sept-names of the Hos a branch of the Mundas; and in one or two other names there is a great resemblance. The principal deity of the Santals Marang Buru is a Munda god. In the inheritance of property both tribes have the same rule of the exclusion of daughters. In his article on Ho Sir H. Risley indeed states that the Santals Hos and Mundas are local branches of the same tribe. custom: When a man is at the point of death or actually dead they sometimes set fire to the hut in which his body is lying and run away no doubt to save themselves from being haunted and troubled by his spirit to the attainment of which end so large a part of funeral ritual is everywhere directed. The Saontas of Sarguja and Bilaspur appear to have been separated from the parent tribe for some generations and to have assimilated some of the customs of the Gonds. They have some Gond sept-names as Markam and Dhurwa. Those of Pendra zamindari have no traditions of their origin beyond saying that the adjoining Kenda zamindari was their original home. They profess to revere only the sun fire and water. In order to worship the Jal-deota or water-god they pour water round the fire and then throw a little butter on the fire in his name. Mr. C.U. Wills Settlement Officer records of them the following curious The following short account of them by Colonel Dalton may be reproduced for reference: The name Saont or Saonta directs us to the Santal branch of the Kols and as I have already noticed there is in Sarguja a small tribe so called. They are the sole inhabitants of the magnificent tableland forming the southern barrier of Sarguja called the Mainpat or more correctly perhaps the Manipat. They are a small tribe living scattered over the vast area of the plateau in about a dozen hamlets and they are strong in the belief that they were especially created to dwell there or that they and the plateau somehow sprang into existence together and cannot be separated. I saw a number of them when I was last in Sarguja and from their features I should be inclined to class them as Kols but they have some customs and notions which they must have derived from the Dravidian Gonds. They acknowledge Dulha Deo as a household god and follow the customs of the Gonds and other southerners in their marriage ceremonies. They worship the sun as Bhagwan and like the Kharias offer sacrifices [406]to that luminary in an open place with an ant-hill for an altar. The Mainpat is their Marang Buru and as it is 16 miles long 12 miles broad and rises 3850 feet above the sea-level it is not unworthy of the name but they do not use that or any other Kol term. The great Mainpat is their fatherland and their god. They have it all to themselves except during the summer months when it becomes a vast grazing field for the cattle of Mirzapur and Bihar. The Saonts are armed like the Korwas with bows and arrows and the peculiar battle-axe of the country but it is against the beasts of the forest that these weapons are used. Formerly the Mainpat was a magnificent hunting field especially noted for its herds of antelope and gaur. The late Maharaja of Sarguja strictly preserved it but on his death it fell into the hands of his widow a very money-loving old lady who allowed it to become one of the great grazing tracts and the pasturage alone gives her an income of 250 a year; but the wild animals have in consequence withdrawn from it. The position of the Saonts is altogether very curious and though they now speak no language but a rude Hindi the evidence is on the whole favourable to their being a remnant of the ancient Kol aborigines of Sarguja cut off from connection with those people by successive inroads of other races or tribes. Their substitution of a Hindi dialect for their own language seems to indicate that they were first subjugated by Aryans. The Gond chiefs only count about twenty-four generations in Sarguja and they have all adopted the Hindi language.. Santal Saonta Sonthal caste is one of the many castes subcastes of India.
India has thousands of castes and subcastes, they are in existence and practice since the Vedic times. They were created to solve the problem of division of labor. Santal Saonta Sonthal caste name could indicate the type of work people belonging to the Santal Saonta Sonthal caste do or did in earlier times. Many last names in India indicate the place the person originally belongs to. All castes sub castes are primarily divided into 4 categories:
1.Brahmins – The learned or priestly class
2.Khastriyas – The warrior class or those with governing functions
3.Vaishyas – The trader, agriculturalists or cattle rearers class
4.Shudra – The class that serves other three categories
Santal Saonta Sonthal caste belongs to one of the above 4 categories. Indian caste system is the best system to solve the problem of division of labor. In earlier times there was no rigidity in caste system. Indian caste system is still the best solution for the problem of division of labor, the only change that is needed as per changed times is that rather than having a vertical hierarchical system with Brahmins on top and Shudras at bottom, it would be good to have a horizontal socialist system with Brahmins, Khastriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras all at same level.
The caste system of India is in ruins at present. It is also cause of bloody quarrels in certain parts of the rural India. People of backward castes have reservations in government jobs, this facility is widely misused in India. Many of the backward caste people have become rich and still use the facility for their benefit. Many in India believe reservation in jobs should be given on the basis of poverty rather than caste because there are many poors in upper castes as well.
Many foreginers and followers of Abrahmic religions criticize the Indian caste system because of bad material condition of lower castes but if they observe in an unbiased way they would find that there are many in upper castes with bad material conditions. The problem lies in power not in castes, power can corrupt anyone be it from upper caste or lower caste.
Secondly I have seen Abrahmic religions especially Muslims and Christians claiming that they have no caste system – It is an utter lie. All cultures, all countries, all religions have caste system in one form or the other. Christians have different churches depending on the region or language or skin color of people. Muslims have a priestly class that tries to control everything. Arab Muslims before the oil boom were so much divided among tribes that if you drank water from a well of a different tribe you could be shot dead. Tribal divisions still exists among Muslims. You can also see the caste system in a different form in your corporate companies. I had seen different food and drinking facilities for people at different levels.
Santal Saonta Sonthal caste is also known as Santal Saonta Sonthal Gotra.
Caste situation is quiet different in urban India, people in urban areas especially youngsters don’t bother about castes. Inter caste, inter religious, inter lingual marriages are quiet common in urban India. Inter caste, inter religious and inter lingual marriages in rural areas attract severe criticism and many times people are expelled from community for not marrying as per religious and caste rules.
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