One of the oldest indigenous communities living in Bangladesh, India and Nepal are the Mahato tribe. The districts Bogra, Dinajpur, Naogaon, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Pabna and Faridpur are the home of the Mahto Tribe in Bangladesh.
Most of the people used to live in the remote areas of present Jharkhand state of India. The exact history of when they came to Bangladesh is still unknown.
The name of the language of Mahatos is “Kurmali “. The language is a mixture of half Sanskrit and half Hindi. This language belongs to the Indo-Aryan language class. There is no alphabet of Kurmali language so far.
There are a lot of different groups of Mahatos, and they live together in groups. There are about 71 different tribes. Some of the people who live in Katriar are Shakhuar, Kanbindha, Dumriar, Punriar, Nagtuar, Lathuar, Kesaria, and so on. They do not marry within their own tribe, they consider the people of their own tribe as people of their own clan and consider marriage within their own tribe as a sin.
Gavin shirts with dhoti are still preferred by Mahato men, but now they wear lungi. Girls frequently wear saris, although their style is dubbed 'Chiching Chinggha' by Mahatoras. Men wear gold earrings, and women wear katabaju, gargle, paddy scorpion, ribbon, and tarahara, or stars. Earlier in the day, all the girls had beautiful permanent tattoos on various places of their bodies.
The first novel in Mahato language is “Karam” written by Ujjal Mahato, a writer and researcher of Kurmali language. He was the first to make an effort to popularize Kurmali literature and language through his writings. The first play in Mahto language is Hotangtaya written and directed by Deba Mahato and Rabindra Nath Mahato. The only one to perform songs in Bangladesh in Kurmali language is Paresh Mahato.
Written by Souradeep Chakma
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