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A file picture of Bulu Imam with an elderly Santhal woman at Jarwadih in Hazaribagh
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Santhali songs on an e-reader?
Online shopping site www.amazon.com has brought out a kindle edition of The Flowering Branch: Songs of The Manjhi Santals of Hazaribagh written by septuagenarian Bulu Imam.
Imam, more popular for his wall paintings and campaigns against environmental hazards in Hazaribagh, had penned 182 serengs (songs) sung on agricultural and religious ceremonies, literature on tribal heritage and some Santhal folklore in his book that appeared online on October 20.
The kindle version of the book — a 1042 KB tome of 291 pages — has been priced at $6.5 for online sale.
“Another book on wall paintings, The Painted Houses of Hazaribagh, will be brought out by Amazon shortly”, Imam said.
Scholars like O.P. Bodding and W.G. Archer had written extensively on the Manjhi santhal tribe belonging to proto-Australoid group. Archer is even supposed to have stayed in Hazaribagh to write a book on Santhal verses.
But Imam claimed these songs were “hitherto unrecorded” and belong to a genre distinct from other Santhal-dominated regions.
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