The Flowering Branch

The Manjhis belong to the great Santal tribe of India. They live in scattered villages and homesteads on large tracts of agricultural villages in the forested eastern part of the plateau of Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, in east India. Their occupations are traditional farming and hunting. Their annual ritual hunt (Desom Sendra) is well known as is their passion for singing and dancing, and telling of folk stories. The author has made many studies of this interesting tribe over the decades and has researched their hunting dogs and hunt rules extensively. In this volume the author has translated 182 songs of different seasons and sung with different dance forms and explained their meanings with a detailed commentary. The book is illustrated with photographs which bring the songs to life.