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Munda peoples

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Ethno-linguistic groups of people found in South Asia. For the Mundari speaking ethnic group, see Munda people.
Munda peoples
Distribution of Munda language speakers in India
Regions with significant populations
India, Bangladesh
Languages
Munda languages

The Munda peoples of eastern and central parts of the Indian subcontinent are any of several Munda speaking ethno-linguistic groups of Austro-asiatic language family, formerly also known as Kolarian, and spoken by about nine million people.

History

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According to linguist Paul Sidwell, pre-Munda languages arrived on the coast of Odisha from Southeast Asia about 4000-3500 years ago (c. 2000 – c. 1500 BCE),[1][2] during the late Bronze Age, at the time of decline of the Indus Valley Civilization in Northwest India.[3] The Munda people spread from Southeast Asia and mixed extensively with local Indian populations.[4] Robert Parkin notes that the term "Munda" did not belong to the Austroasiatic lexis and is of Sanskrit origin.[5] A popular pan-North Munda ethnonym is Kherwarian, derived from proto-Munda *kher ('bird'), which actually refers to the North Munda origin myth. According to Santal traditions, the first Santals were descended from a goose (kher), giving the identity 'Kherwal' as their alternative self-designation, but nowadays the term "Kherwarian" is used by scholars to designate the non-Korku North Munda languages which also include Santali.[6] Another name referring to Munda peoples that has been known since ancient time is Savara but it were used by different Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, and Juang groups in a wider area, henceforth led to confusion; the actual Savaras or the Sora are located further south of Orissa.[7]

Migration into India

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According to Chaubey et al., "Austro-Asiatic speakers in India today are derived from dispersal from Southeast Asia, followed by extensive sex-specific admixture with local Indian populations."[8] According to Riccio et al., the Munda people are likely descended from Austroasiatic migrants from Southeast Asia.[9][10]

According to Zhang et al., Austroasiatic migrations from Southeast Asia into India took place after the last Glacial maximum, circa 10,000 years ago.[11] Arunkumar et al. suggest Austroasiatic migrations from Southeast Asia occurred into Northeast India 5.2 ± 0.6 kya and into East India 4.3 ± 0.2 kya.[12]

Tätte et al. 2019 estimated that the Austroasiatic language speaking people admixed with Indian population about 2000-3800 year ago which may suggest arrival of south-east Asian genetic component in the area. Munda-speaking people have high amount of the Southeast Asian paternal lineage O1b1a1a (M95) (North Mundas having it at ~62% and South Mundas at ~73%), which is largely absent from other Indian groups. They found that the modern Munda-speaking people have about 29% East/Southeast Asian , 15.5% West Asian and 55.5% South Asian ancestry on average. The authors concluded that there was a mostly male-dominated migration into India from Southeast Asia. Modern people in Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia were found to represent the ancestral group, which migrated into India, and spread the Austroasiatic languages.[13]

Munda lady
Munda man

Culture

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The Munda peoples traditionally follow and practice their own religions, which are forms of animism and shamanism. They generally consume types of meat that are forbidden in Hinduism such beef, pork, bull, chicken, and goat. Due to efforts of Christian missionaries and a number of political factors, Christianity has established a stronghold among the Munda peoples during the last two centuries. The Norwegian Santal Mission began operating in Santal communities in 1867. Most Munda Christians today follow either Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, some forms of Evangelical, and Catholic Churches.

Ethnic groups

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Possible kins of the Munda peoples

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Some ethnic groups do not natively speak any of the Munda languages, but genetic evidence suggest gene flow of some Munda genetic lineages.[14]

References

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  1. ^ Sidwell, Paul. 2018. Austroasiatic Studies: state of the art in 2018. Presentation at the Graduate Institute of Linguistics, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, 22 May 2018.
  2. ^ Rau, Felix; Sidwell, Paul (12 September 2019). "The Munda Maritime Hypothesis" (PDF). Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. 12 (2): 35–57. hdl:10524/52454. ISSN 1836-6821. S2CID 204901974.
  3. ^ "History of Munda Tribes". Prabhat Khabar. 11 February 2025. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
  4. ^ Schliesinger, Joachim (2016). Origin of the Tai People 3: Genetic and Archaeological Approaches. Booksmango. p. 71. ISBN 9781633239623. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  5. ^ Parkin, Robert (1993). "Second reply to Pfeffer". Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford. 24 (2): 161. doi:10.5287/ora-9obpjxz9q. The term 'Munda' is of Sanskritic origin and therefore not original in any sense to Austroasiatic speakers, although it has come to be used by one tribe as an alternative to their own term 'Horo' (Le. Roy's group; cf. Pfeffer above, p. 154; also Parkin 1990: 17, 23).
  6. ^ Parkin, Robert (1991). A Guide to Austroasiatic Speakers and Their Languages. University of Hawai'i Press. p. 14.
  7. ^ Parkin, Robert (1991). A Guide to Austroasiatic Speakers and Their Languages. University of Hawai'i Press. p. 28.
  8. ^ Chaubey, G.; Metspalu, M.; Choi, Y.; et al. (February 2011). "Population Genetic Structure in Indian Austroasiatic Speakers: The Role of Landscape Barriers and Sex-Specific Admixture". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 28 (2): 1013–1024. doi:10.1093/molbev/msq288. PMC 3355372. PMID 20978040.
  9. ^ Riccio, M. E.; et al. (2011). "The Austroasiatic Munda population from India and Its enigmatic origin: a HLA diversity study". Human Biology. 83 (3): 405–435. doi:10.3378/027.083.0306. PMID 21740156. S2CID 39428816.
  10. ^ The Language Gulper, Austroasiatic Languages
  11. ^ Zhang, X.; Liao, S.; Qi, X.; et al. (2015). "Y-chromosome diversity suggests southern origin and Paleolithic backwave migration of Austro-Asiatic speakers from eastern Asia to the Indian subcontinent". Scientific Reports. 5: 15486. Bibcode:2015NatSR...515486Z. doi:10.1038/srep15486. PMC 4611482. PMID 26482917.
  12. ^ Arunkumar, G.; et al. (2015). "A late Neolithic expansion of Y chromosomal haplogroup O2a1-M95 from east to west". Journal of Systematics and Evolution. 53 (6): 546–560. Bibcode:2015JSyEv..53..546A. doi:10.1111/jse.12147. S2CID 83103649.
  13. ^ Tätte, Kai; Pagani, Luca; Pathak, Ajai K.; Kõks, Sulev; Ho Duy, Binh; Ho, Xuan Dung; Sultana, Gazi Nurun Nahar; Sharif, Mohd Istiaq; Asaduzzaman, Md; Behar, Doron M.; Hadid, Yarin (2019-03-07). "The genetic legacy of continental scale admixture in Indian Austroasiatic speakers". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 3818. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9.3818T. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-40399-8. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6405872. PMID 30846778.
  14. ^ Chaubey, Gyaneshwer; Tamang, Rakesh; Pennarun, Erwan; Dubey, Pavan; Rai, Niraj; Upadhyay, Rakesh Kumar; Meena, Rajendra Prasad; Patel, Jayanti R; van Driem, George; Thangaraj, Kumarasamy; Metspalu, Mait (12 October 2017). "Erratum: Reconstructing the population history of the largest tribe of India: the Dravidian speaking Gond". European Journal of Human Genetics. 25 (11): 1291. doi:10.1038/ejhg.2017.46. ISSN 1018-4813. PMC 5643977. PMID 29023439. S2CID 7755962. "By considering the case of language shift we modelled the scenario considering Gond originally as an Austroasiatic population, which has recently changed its language to Dravidian. In this case, we should expect a largely similar amount of chunks donated by an outlier distant Austroasiatic population (Bonda) to Gonds and their present Austroasiatic (both North and South Munda) neighbours. However, this was not the case in our analysis, and we observed significantly higher Bonda chunks among North and South Munda neighbours than any Gond group."
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