Religion of the Ho Tribe

The Ho are concentrated in the Kolhan area of Singhbhum district of Jharkhand and are also found in the adjacent areas of West Bengal, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh. The Ho belongs to the proto-Australoid racial stock, and their language is regarded as belonging to the Kherwarian group of the Austroasiatic family of languages. They share cultural similarities with the neighboring tribes like the Munda, Oraon, and Santhal, and there are many similarities with respect to creation myths, religious symbols, nature of rites and rituals, and conceptions of supernatural powers and deities. This cultural contact with the neighboring tribes is found in the oral tradition of the Oraon who claim that their invasion pushed the Ho tribe to the present settlement.

In the present context, the Ho name their traditional religion as Sarna ([2], pp. 56–57, [4], p. 124), but this terminology is rooted in the resurgence of indigenous religious identity among the tribes of central India. The idea of Sarna is...