Guru Gonke Raghunath Murmu Statue
₹2499.00₹1999.00
Out of stock
Product Details
Material: Marble Powder + Resin
Colour: Black & Bronze
Statue Size: 4 x 4.5 x 7 inches (LxWxH)
Weight(approx): 1.3 KG
Product Care: Wipe Clean
Raghunath Murmu (5 May 1905-1 February 1982) was an Indian Santali writer and educator. He developed the Ol Chiki script for Santali language. Until the nineteenth century, Santali people had no written language and knowledge was transmitted orally from one generation to other. Later European researchers and Christian missionaries started to use Bengali, Odia, and Roman scripts to document the Santali language. However, Santalis did not have their own script. His development of the Ol Chiki script enriched the cultural identity of the Santali society. He wrote many songs, plays and school text books in the Ol Chiki script.
Ol Chiki is the script used for writing the Santali language, primarily spoken by the Santali people, an indigenous group from the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, and Assam. It was created by the linguist and writer Raghunath Murmu in 1925 to provide the Santali community with a script that represents their unique language accurately.
Ol Chiki is a syllabic alphabet, meaning each character typically represents a syllable rather than a single phoneme, and it has 30 letters in its original form. It is notable for its distinct shape, often resembling a combination of straight and curved lines, and is written from left to right.
This script was developed to promote literacy and preserve Santali culture and heritage, offering an alternative to using the Devanagari or Latin scripts for the Santali language. Today, it is widely used in the Santali-speaking regions for educational, cultural, and literary purposes, and has gained recognition in the Indian government's 8th Schedule, which includes languages of India with official status.
Biography
Raghunath Murmu was born on the day of Baisakhi Purnima (Buddha Purnima), 1905 in the Dandbose (Dahardih) village (near Rairangpur town) of Mayurbhanj State (now in Odisha), India. He is the son of Nandlal Murmu and Salma Murmu. His father, Nandlal Murmu, was a village head and his paternal uncle was a Munsi in the court of King Pratap Chandra Bhanjdeo of Mayurbhanj State. As per the traditional social rituals of the Santal people (known as the Kherwal community), he was named Chunu Murmu after his birth. However, later the priest, who performed his naming ceremony, changed his name from Chunu Murmu to Raghunath Murmu.