Santal Origins

The Birth of Santal Scroll
Lutfa Chitrakar

In the beginning, with the blessings of JagannathLord of the World; name of an image of Krishna in the temple of Puri, Orissa (a state south of Bengal)., Balaramthe elder brother of Krishna who shared some of his adventures and is regarded as an incarnation of the cosmic snake Shesa or a partial incarnation of Vishnu. In some parts of India he replaces the Buddha in the icons of the ten major incarnations (avatara) of Vishnu, and Subhadradaughter of Vasudeva, sister of Krishna and wife of Arjuna, who appears especially as sister of Krishna in his form of Jagannath, and according to tradition there was an incestuous intimacy between them. the crab, turtle, snake, and fish went to Hades to collect soil. Then three cows were produced by Mother Earth.

The cows were Ayen Gai, Rayengai, and Kapila Gai. From their saliva, two birds came. From the eggs of the birds, two humans were born, a man and a woman—Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Buri.

They had seven boys. Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Buri abandoned the sons. Seven went to the forest where they had seven daughters.

The boys grew up, surviving on fruits and roots in the forest.

They found seven girls in another forest where they had gone to hunt.

They didn’t know that these were their own sisters, so they exchanged sacred threads and got married.

Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Buri died from imbibing too much Haria (a homemade liquor made from fermented rice).

When they died, the sons thought that they must have sinned.

Then one of the brothers, Jadab, became a scroll painter and painted eyes for his mother and tulsi leaves for his father.