Languages Data
M. Phil./ Ph.D.
- Loksanskriti Bidyar Aloke Uttarbanger Dhimal Janajati O Bangalir Sanskriti Ekti Tulanamulak Adhyayan
- Anthropological profile of the Dhimals of North Bengal
- The Dhimals-A Little Known Community of Sub-Himalayan Bengal: An Ethnographic Overview
- Demographic profile of North Bengal in colonial and post colonial period 1871 1991 study on economic cultural and political changes
- ধিমালা ভাষা ও সাহিত্য : একটি সমীক্ষা
Research Paper
- Expanding Horizon of Information Services to the Disadvantaged: A study on Dhimal Community at Naxalbari Block of Darjeeling District
- Demographic Profile and Population Dynamics of the Dhimals : A Forgotten Ethnic Group of North-Bengal
- The Dhimals- A Little Known Tribal Group of Sub-Himalayan West Bengal: Historical Perspectives
- The Dhimals: A Little Known Tribal Group of Sub-Himalayan West Bengal: Historical Perspectives
- Nutritional Status of Dhimals : A Little Known Community of Darjeeling District, West Bengal, India
- Role of Maniram Gram Panchayat in the Development of Dhimal Community in the District of Darjeeling, West Bengal
- Relative Clauses in Dhimal
- Exploring Noun Phrases in Dhimal
Project
Book
- Rajbansi and Dhimal: Struggle Stories Contemporary Socio-Economic Survey of two Indigenous Community of North Bengal
- People’s Linguistic Survey of India: The Languages of West Bengal
- Brief Introduction of the Dhimal
- The Majhi Warang System of The Dhimal Communities
- A Study on "The Dhimal Food Culture and Festivals" in the eastern Nepal
- Dhimal Folk Life Study
- Exploring The Relationship Between Language and Culture in Dhimal
- Essay-The first on the Kocch Bodo and Dhimal Tribes
- Essay the First: On the Kocch, Bódo and Dhimál Tribes, in Three Parts
- On the Aborigines of India. : Essay the First ; on the Kocch, Bodo and Dhimál Tribes
- Essay the First: On the Kocch, Bodo And Dhimal Tribes (1847)
- A Bibliographic Index of the Lesser Known Languages and Dialects of India and Nepal
- Dhimal-Nepali-English Glossary
- A Reference Grammar of Dhimal
- Interlinearized Texts in Dhimal with Grammar Notes
- Grammar of Dhimal
- A Grammar of Dhimal
- Languages and Dialects of Tibeto-Burman
- Bibliography of Marginal Indian Languages
- Cultural Patterns and Economic Change : Anthropological Study of Dhimals of Nepal
- The Dhimals, miraculous migrants of Himal : an anthropological study of a Nepalese ethnic group
- Indias Communities
- Dhimāla-Nepālī-Aṃgrejī śabdasaṃgraha = Dhimal-Nepali-English glossary
- धिमाल लोकधर्म र संस्कृति
- ধিমালা জাতীয় বিকাশ কেন্দ্র রা ধিমালাই
- ফুরু ধিমাল কবিতা সংগ্রহ
- ধিমাল ভাষা, তাই ভাষা আইন
- ধিমালা ,লোকসংস্কৃতি ও আদিবাসী সংস্কৃতি
- ধিমাল
- উত্তরবঙ্গের জাতি ও উপজাতি
- উত্তরবঙ্গের ভাষা
Book Chapter
- Dhimal
- Pronominalisation in Dhimal
- The affinal kin register in Dhimal
Dictionary
Occasional Paper/Brochure
Journal/Seminar Proceedings/Souvenir
Web Resource
Dhimal is an endangered linguistic community in India, mainly spoken in Nepal and Darjeeling district in West Bengal. Dhimal language belongs from the Sino-Tibetian language group. Earlier scholars have mentioned Dhimal as ‘Nomadic’ by nature. Dhimals consider themselves as Kirati descent.
Population:- Dhimal people in Darjeeling districts are mostly concentrated in Hatighisa and Maniram village in Naxalbari. The local people refer these two villages as Malladhari and Chengadhari. The total number of Dhimal family in Terai is 163 and total numbers of Dhimal speakers are 1015.
Survey Area:- The present study is based on the survey in Hatighisa and Maniram villages in Naxalbari, Darjeeling district.
Literacy:- Literacy rate is poor among Dhimal people due to their deprived socio-economic condition.
Occupation- Dhimals are cultivators and also work as agricultural labourers and tea garden labourers.
Concluding Remark:- Dhimals are aware of the endangered status of their language and the representatives of the community people are working towards survival of their language. Dhimal poet Garjan Mallik is penning down the legacy of Dhimal community, their sufferings and their cultural heritage in their mother-tongue and fighting for their right to save their mother-tongue.
Society and Ethnic Culture, Religion, Rituals and Festivals:- Dhimals are divided into fourteen sub-casts, namely: dongdo, ding, talipa, hordiya, nuniya, rathum, hordiya nuniya, onglaiti, kasher, later, lembang, tharu, jogi, tegre.
Dhimals are quiet aware about the health of a new-mother. After she gives the birth of a baby, she is offered iyu (an alcoholic beverage) and high-protein diet which helps her to recover soon and provide proper nutrition to the new-born. They give the smoke of bhela tree to the new born to keep away the evil power as a superstition. The community does not have any naming or rice ceremony tradition.
If any community member dies, the landha or police circulates this message to all villagers. All villagers gather at the deceased place and take the deceased for burying. Burrying is known as lipika among Dhimals. If any villager misses to attend the burying they are fined by the village-head. Dhimals do believe in reincarnation. Thus, they keep on checking if there’s any new footstep near the graveyard of the deceased. The funeral ritual and prayer ceremony is known as bhuj in Dhimal. Nobody is allowed to leave the place of prayer ceremony until all rituals would be done.
Dhimal community has ten types of marriage tradition. They are namely as following: chor ka sor, panchuli, mondol, dhonukkari, jadukori, sen kelaoni, dad haoli, bantaka, ghormoili, ghorchoukoni.
The most popular marriage system is chor ka sor, which means kidnapping the bride from her parental place. In this tradition, adult men and women met with each other during any festival and fall for each other. After some days the man goes to the woman’s place and tell the guardian of the woman that there’s a beautiful flower bloomed in their place and the man has come to pluck that flower. Then he seeks for the permission of the guardian to pluck that flower. This ritual is known as golata chi holi. Then the woman elopes with the man of her choice and gets married. Later the marriage ceremony happens with the presence of two families and neighbours. But before the final wedding ceremony, the man needs to explain the other traditions of marriage to the elder members of woman’s family. If the man fails to do so, the society does not approve and accept this marriage.
Dhimal religion is very far from Hinduism, as they do not worship any idol. Dhimals are the worshipper of nature like other aboriginal communities. They offer their worship to unthur (stone), maR (Jungle), bataria (river), dangka (Hill), dahini (female ghost). Before harvesting in summer, they do the worshipping of dante waRang and dante beRang. They offer pork meat, hen and imu (home made alcoholic beverage) to the deity. After harvesting the Dhimal women do umcheka ceremony to celebrate the joy of harvesting.
Dhimals have many superstitions related to Bamboo tree. If they see someone is cutting a bamboo tree or pashing while going out of home, they consider it inauspicious. Cutting bamboo tree is forbidden on Tuesday (mongoldina), Thursday (brihospotidina) and Sunday (etoyardina) etc.
Earlier Dhimals used to build their own houses using shakuya singh (Saal tree) and wild straw. They did not have any concept of window in their houses. But nowadays they also follow the modern technique to build their houses.
Dhimals follow their traditional dressing pattern till days. Male wear lokhon (shirt) and oskot (small jacket) and dhari (towel). Female wear daka, bona, itangi. Females also love to decorate themselves with bahi (bangle), kauri tisi (necklace made by coins), sibbaan (crown) and khokoi bahi (anklet). Their ornaments are mostly made of silver.
Language:- Dhimal language has 16 primary vowels and 31 consonants sounds. Dhimal morphology shows gender agreement and honorific morpheme. Nowadays they have lost most of their lexical terms and borrowed many words from two dominant languages of the region, Bangla and Rajbangshi.
Some puzzles in Dhimal language were collected during field-survey. Some samples are given below:
- Sa ihithe finumanthe
- puRing taika Taninu pOnThOka
- dosor jingnu jiyang ma elka
- elang etang oblang otang