Raghunath Murmu

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.

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.

At the age of seven, he went to the Gambharia U.P. School (an Odia-language school, 3 km away from his village) for his primary education.

On the first day of school, he found his teacher to be an Odiya.

He started wondering why was the school not operating in the language in which he spoke, Santali.

He used to say - why should we learn in this language? Odiya is a teaching medium for Odiya-speaking people.

We are Kherwal, and Santali is our mother language 'so' why are we not taught in Santali?''.

He told his father to admit him in a Santali medium school.

His father then told him that Santali does not have any written script, it is an oral language.

At that age, he started to think - ''why don't we have our own script?

why are we not taught in our language?''.

These questions always kept buzzed in his mind.

In 1914, he was admitted to the Bahalda Primary School (7 km away from his village).

As this school is quite far from his native village, he built a hut near the school on a relative's land in Bana Dungri.

He started to stay there with some other boys.

During these days, while other children used to play together in nearby playground, he did not play with them.

He used to play alone in soil, drawing different shapes on earth, writing alphabets.

He used to learn through his play.

This is probably the time when he started developing the script Ol Chiki.

He was sent to Baripada (capital city of then Mayurbhanj State) for further study.

He took admission in the Baripada High School of Mayurbhanj (present M.K.C. High School).

But here too his mind was stuck with the thoughts of having his own language and script.

During the school holidays, he used to go home at his native village Danbose.

At that time, he used to spend his time alone roaming in a nearby jungle, named Kapi-Buru.

Generally, no one ventured into that isolated Kapi-Buru jungle.

He would often go off into Kapi-Buru with his notebook and pen.

In 1924, he passed his matriculation examination (10th) from the Patna University.

In the same year, he married Noha Baskey, a resident of Jamjora village.

After his matriculation in 1924, he started a job at the Baripada Power House as an apprentice.

It is said that he created the Ol Chiki script at Kapi-Buru in 1925.