The Fascinating Megalithic Town of Chaibasa

 Subhashis Das

I stare at a few tall Ho birdiri menhirs

The Ho even dead does not desert their family. They become bongas and protect their families remaining a part of their families. Hence many times they are cremated and their ashes and bones are buried in their courtyard which are covered with sasandiri megalithic burial slabs as in the photograph here.

This post in actuality is a tribute to Chaibasa, a town in Jharkhand of East India which is perhaps one of the few last remaining towns of India where megaliths can be witnessed all over and where megalith building is a living tradition. You see tall menhirs dotting the countryside as you begin to approach the region of Singhbhum. Their density augments as you begin to enter the town of Chaibasa.

           The startling white biridiri menhir

Some tall menhirs

This is Ho country. Anthropologically speaking Hos are proto austroloid Kolarian people; a sister tribe of the Mundas and they are a megalithic lot too. They are believed to have entered the region of Singhbhum in South Jharkhand pretty late. Therefore their monuments, the megaliths are assumed to be relatively newer, not going beyond 500/600 years.

An anthropomorphic structure

Ho homes are pieces of art…thoroughly whitewashed and half of it from the bottom donning beige or black colour produced from seeds. The floors too are painted from the extracts of various seeds. The village women toil to paint their homes every 15 days to keep them sparkling! These white homes dazzle in the sun in the Singhbhum landscape like jewels.

                      I gaze at some enormously large biridiri menhirs

The unique fact about Chaibasa and its environs is that majority of the homes of the Hos have megalithic burials  called sasandiris in their courtyard, it is a living tradition here. 

Their departed ancestors though are dead they yet remain a member of their family so their remains are buried in the courtyard. The cremated ash of the deceased is inserted into funerary pots and  thereafter buried in the courtyard over which the sepulchral slabs or the sasandiris are placed. Later in their memory the tall menhirs or the birdiris are erected in the sacred land of the village. 

So profoundly megalithic are the Hos that they would raise menhirs to commemorate any event; a major victory in a football game or the birth of girl child or a significant meeting that may have been held or perhaps even for the formation of the Jharkhand state.

If I had it my way I would have had Chaibasa be declared a heritage town not only for the innumerable megaliths that the region houses but also for continuing the tradition of megalith making since unknown times in an uninterrupted manner.