An overview of the origin of Santhal Dance !

===≈≈≈=====≈≈≈≈ Santhal dance has its own history and importnace to its culture. Though the dance brings vibes and aura of celebration during Dashain festivals, its not originally meant to celebrate and enjoy. This is the dance that used to be performed for mourn and expressing sorrow and pain for the loss of family members and relatives. Historically, the santhali dance originated to express sorrow for the lost of their community leader Hodur-Durga. Then onwards, the dance became customary practices with the Santhali people to mourn over the loss of their relatives. It is in the sayings, there was a land name Chaichampa. It was a land of wealth and the people of the land were happy under the leadership of Hudur-Durga. Out of jealousy and greed this land was attacked by Diku/Deko (outsiders ) but they defeated in the history. Then to defeat Hudur-Durga, they (outsiders) sent a woman to trick him. The woman married Hudur-Durga. Finally, the Hudur-Durga was killed by the woman in a planned conspiracy. With the muder of their leader, the people of Chaichampa were then became helpless in the absence of their leader and fled from the land. The Santali people had a believe that their leader was still alive and captured somewhere till very late . To mourn the loss of their leader, Santali men used to dress with elements of nature to hide their identity and go place to place in search of their great leader #HudurDurga. Gradually, the searching of their leader and playing natural instruments made out of bamboo logs and tree leaves became a part of the Santhali culture to mourn over the death of their family members. With time, the mourning rituals of the Santhali people changed into a form of dance, which is unique and distinct.