CHAIBASA, the amazing megalith townSubhashis Das

CHAIBASA, the amazing megalith town
Subhashis Das

Large menhirs in Mohulsai.

This post is in actuality a tribute to Chaibasa, a town in Jharkhand in East India which has been unknowingly celebrating megalithism since many centuries.

Tall menhirs begin to appear once you enter Singhbhum and even you are quite far from the town. And as you come close you can see tall menhirs dotting the countryside.

Such megalithic burials in every Ho courtyard are called sasandiri

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.

Ho homes are pieces of art…thoroughly whitewashed and half of it from the bottom dons 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.

One tall menhir

Enter any Ho house; you are bound to confront megalithic burial slabs in their courtyard. As it is in their courtyards they would bury their ancestors and on it they would place large burial slabs known to them as Sasandiris. Later they would raise tall menhirs in their honour called Bidiris.

Such large menhirs called Bidiris dot the villages all around Chaibasa

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.

Another set of tall menhirs (bidiris) in a village called Baiatu

What is unique about this place that majority of the homes have megaliths, it is a living tradition here.  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.

Know any place like this?