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Ol Chiki

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Ol Chiki at Glance
Inventor    :  Pundit Raghunath Murmu
Year          : 1920
Script        :  for writing Santali and other languages of munda family namely Ho, Munda, mahali tribes etc
It is alphabetic sharing none of the syllabic properties of the other indic scripts. This is not based on Devangari principles.
"Bidu Chandan" and "Kherwal Bir" are two famous books written by Pundit Raghunath Murmu

 

Pandit Raghunath Murmu is the inventor of the "Ol Chiki". Used for writing Santali language. He  had invented this  script not only for santali community but also for others sister  languages like Munda, mahele ,birhor,  bhumij  ( Better known as  kherwal people). On the day of Baishakh Kunami (Purnima) a boy was born in a small village called Dandbose of erstwhile Mayurbhanj princely State (now it is in the Bamanghati sub-division of Mayurbhanj District in Orissa State of India). The boy born on 5th May 1905 was Pandit Raghunath Murmu. Upon completion of his High School education from Baripada High School, he joined as an apprentice in Baripada power house. After completing apprenticeship, he engaged himself in carpet weaving. His novel method of twisting threads and quality of carpets drew visitors. Dr. P. K. Sen, the Dewan of Mayurbhanj State once visited him and persuaded him to pursue further industrial training. He was then sent to Kolkata, Serampore and Goshaba for acquiring technical know how. On return from Kolkata after getting technical training, he was made the advisor of Purna Chandra Industrial Institute at Baripada (Head quarters of Mayurbhanj). Due to increasing family burden after the death of his father Shri Nandlal, he had to proceed to his native place and took charge as the Head Master of "Badam Talia" model School. During this period he wanted to do something for the development of the society and started planning to create the letters for the use of Santali language. After prolonged perseverance and hard work "Ol Chiki" could saw the light of the day during 1935-36. He developed a hand press in order to disseminate and popularize Ol Chiki. Superintendent of Education was impressed by the new invention and on his insistence hand press was displayed in the State Exhibition in February, 1939. His Majesty Purna Chandra Bhanj Deo, the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj was immensely impressed by this invention and permitted him to propagate the use of this script. In 1946 he relinquished the job and dedicated himself for the overall development of the Santal community. He inspired the hitherto million illiterates through his writings. He has to his credit around 157 numbers of manuscripts in the form of novels, drama, poetry, story, grammar and syllabus in Ol Chiki. Some of them have already been published. Widely acclaimed Drama books are "Bidu Chandan" and "Kherwal Bir". Kherwal Jarpa Samiti, Jamshedpur provided him all kinds of support to get Ol Script in the shape of modern types suitable for use in Printing Press. He got the types cast from Kolkata Swadeshi Type Foundry. Pandit Murmu left for his heavenly abode on 1st day of February, 1982 thus ended a glorious innings of a great thinker, poet, philosopher, writer and social worker. He is remembered as "Guru Gomke" - Revered Teacher among the Adivasis.( Source IAASECA website)

Santali Magazine:
There is considerable number of Santali magazine published from various part of India. Here is partial list of the magazines.

Santal related Books:
This is a partial list of books related to Santali Language, Culture,religious and its script, Ol Chiki. This list includes only books written in english only. We are bringing the list of Ol Chiki script books soon or alternatively you may contact us for this informations.  (Click here )

 
The Santali language and literature has already been recognised by the Central Govt. and State Govt. of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orisaa in the ways mentioned below:
i). Bihar Secondary School Examination Board, Patna and Jharkhand Secondary School Examination Board, Jharkhand have accepted Santali Language/Literature as optional paper in Matriculation level.
ii). The  Govt. of Bihar is first  to publish a journal named "Hor Sambad" since 1947 which is now continue by Govt. of Jharkhand and Govt. of West Bengal Publishing Santali magazine "Puchhim Bangla" regularly  and recognise Ol chiki script for Santali in 1979.
iii).The state Govt. of Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa have already initiated action plans for imparting education in mother tongue for the Santal students in primary schools.
iv). The University Grants Commission, Delhi has started imparting education and conferring Post-Graduate Degree in Santali language and literature.
v). The Bihar Public Service Commission offers Santali Language/Literature as optional paper for its competative Examination
vi). The Govt. of Bihar ahs been conducting Santali Examination for its officers posted in Santali speaking areas in Bihar for administrative purposes/reason
vii). The reowned Vishwa Bharti University i.e. Santiniketan has been imparting education in Santali language for the last 24 years or so.
viii). The Universities of Jharkhand and Bihar, namely Ranchi University, Ranchi, Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribagh, Sidu Kanhu University Dumka, and Baba Tilka Majhi University, Bhagalpur are conducting examinations of Santali language/literature in the Post-Graduate level.
ix). Santali literature is written in Roman, Devnagari, Bengali, Oriya and its own Ol Chiki scripts in with out number. Ol Chiki is now gaining popularity day and night. Its DTP solution and computer application has been developed by the Chaichampa Sahitya Academy, Bhubneshwar in 1996,  Santali-Japanese joint Research Project, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies  developed auto-machine transcription of different Indian language scripts i.,e., Devanagri, Bengali, Oriya, Roman, Kannada, Telgu, Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and  Roman etc into Ol Chiki script and reverse of it in 1998.  

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