The Believe System of the Tribes of Jharkhand, India in Life After Death: Study on Megalith Rituals and Its Transformation into Chhahir Bhtrana and Yearly Grave Feast

Abstract (English)

Jharkhand is the hilly forest state of India that is located in the east part of the country. Due to uneven plateau and lofty hill ranges with a significant coverage of forest area made it a preferable dwelling choice of tribal communities. Interestingly Jharkhand has become the immigrant’s land of the tribes of Austroasiatic language family and Dravidian language family who settled here in consecutive timelines in specific territorial areas. Officially Jharkhand state known for the house of 32 tribes who share some common and some very uncommon cultural traits. Being the protagonist and also the custodian of primitive culture the tribes still practice some of the very ancient customs and knowledge system. Their philosophy of life reveals the secrets of early human understanding of cosmos, art, music, nature and believe system. In the course of their believe system the tribes of Jharkhand practice some of the special rituals that emphatically implies to the deep believe in the philosophy of afterlife. In almost all the major tribes of Jharkhand the elements of eschatology exist. The paper tries to study the megalithic rituals in relation to the philosophy of afterlife. The paper also tries to study how the afterlife dogmas of megalith changed into other prevailing rituals and what changes occurred in the megalithic rituals too.