Bhubaneswar: The world, especially the Santhali community, is celebrating the birth anniversary of Pandit Raghunath Murmu, the inventor of the Ol Chiki script and Santhali litterateur on Friday. As a result, his birthplace, Dandabosh village in Mayurbhanj district, is all decked up and has worn a festive look to pay homage to its proud son in the presence of President Draupadi Murmu who will be joining the birth anniversary celebrations.
Born in Dandabosh 118 years ago on the Baishakha Purnima day, Pandit Murmu gifted the Santhali community their first script – the Ol Chiki script, to express their feelings and experiences through writing. The world has accepted Ol Chiki as a scientific language and Pandit Murmu as a great litterateur.
Pandit Murmu was born to Nandalal Murk, the then village head, and Salama Murmu on the Baisakha Purnima Tithi in 1905. Since his childhood days, Pandit Murmu loved his mother tongue, the Santhali language, and felt a sense of revolt when he first learned that his language, Santhali, had no script.
As days rolled on, he went into the teaching profession and worked on developing a Sandhali script. He succeeded in creating the Sanhtali script in 1925 and the Ol Chiki Lipi came into being in 1939 with the publication of the first book by Pandit Murmu.
On December 22, 2023, the Atal Behari Vajpayee government gave Ol Chiki and the Santhali language Constitutional recognition.
On Thursday, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik sanctioned Rs 10 crore for the development of the places related to Pandit Raghunath Murmu.
It is worth mentioning here that the Union Ministry of Tribal Welfare had launched a Rath in memory of Pandit Raghunath Murmu on his last death anniversary. Since then, the Rath has travelled through 26 blocks in Odisha and its journey will come to an end on his birth anniversary on Friday.
The Government of India as well as the Odisha government have declared Pandit Raghunath Murmu’s birthplace as a heritage site.
