Raghunath Murmu was born on the day of Baisakhi Purnima (Buddha Purnima), 1905 in the Dandbose (Dahardih) village (near Rairangpur town) of Mayurbhanj State (now in Odisha State), India.[10] He is the son of Nandlal Murmu (father) and Salma Murmu (mother). His father, Nandlal Murmu, was a village head and his paternal uncle was a Munsi in the court of King Pratap Chandra Bhanjdeo of Mayurbhanj State. As per the traditional social rituals of the Santali people (known as the Kherwal community), he was named Chunu Murmu after his birth. However, later the priest, who performed his naming ceremony, changed his name from Chunu Murmu to Raghunath Murmu.At the age of seven, he went to the Gambharia U.P. School (an Odia-language school, 3 km away from his village) for his primary education. On the first day of school, he found his teacher to be an Odiya. He started wondering why was the school not operating in the language in which he spoke, Santali. He used to say - why should we learn in this language? Odiya is a teaching medium for Odiya-speaking people. We are Kherwal, and Santali is our mother language 'so' why are we not taught in Santali?. He told his father to admit him in a Santali medium school. His father then told him that Santali does not have any written script, it is an oral language. At that age, he started to think - why don't we have our own script? why are we not taught in our language?. These questions always kept buzzed in his mind.[11]
In 1914, he was admitted to the Bahalda Primary School (7 km away from his village). As this school is quite far from his native village, he built a hut near the school on a relative's land in Bana Dungri. He started to stay there with some other boys. During these days, while other children used to play together in nearby playground, he did not play with them. He used to play alone in soil, drawing different shapes on earth, writing alphabets. He used to learn through his play. This is probably the time when he started developing the script Ol Chiki.[9]
He was sent to Baripada (capital city of then Mayurbhanj State) for further study. He took admission in the Baripada High School of Mayurbhanj (present M.K.C. High School). But here too his mind was stuck with the thoughts of having his own language and script. During the school holidays, he used to go home at his native village Danbose. At that time, he used to spent his time alone roaming in a nearby jungle, named Kapi-Buru. Generally, no one ventured into that isolated Kapi-Buru jungle. He would often go off into Kapi-Buru with his notebook and pen. It is said that he created the Ol Chiki script at Kapi-Buru in 1925.[9][7][1][ Dewan of then Mayurbhanj State, sent him Serampore (near Kolkata) to get some industrial training. He took his technical training at three different places of Westteacher at thescript worth Mayurbhanj State was also invited. King understood the worth of this newly developed script. During this time, he used to stay in the house of Sudhir Majhi at the Bhutadi village. That place is now known as Master Bari. Later he also taught at the Gambaria, Bahalda, and Rairangpur high schools. During that period, he used to visit different Santali villages in Mayurbhanj, and Jharkhand and taught the use of his developed Ol Chiki script. In this way, the Ol Chiki script reached out to a large number of Santali peoples. People loved him as a teacher and started calling him Pandit Raghunath Murmu.[9][7][1][12]
During the Swadeshi independence movent in 1942, he got branded as a revolutionary when he was campaigning for his invented Ol Chiki script. He escaped to his wife's native village Jamjora and stayed hidden. He also continued his work of developing Santali literature using Ol Chiki script during that time. On 15 August 1947, India got independence. All king-ruled states are getting integrated into India. During this time, the demand for a Jharkhand state for Santali-speaking people was also gaining momentum. He was an ardent supporter of this Jharkhand Movement. Police firing was also sought to quell the protesters at Kharusan and Gundaria in Mayurbhanj. An arrest warrant was also issued in his name when the demand for Jharkhand was raised at the Baripada Tribal Convention. He left Baripada and went to Karandin Sarjom Tola village (near Jamshedpur). He stayed there in a rented house and started working for the Tata Steel in Jamshedpur. He and his friend Sadhu Murmu together started spreading the knowledge about Ol Chiki script there. Wherever they found a group of 4-5 people, they used to go there and talk about their work in Ol Chiki script.
##BIOGRAPHY OF PANDIT RAGHUNATH MURMU##
##BIOGRAPHY OF PANDIT RAGHUNATH MURMU##
##BIOGRAPHY OF PANDIT RAGHUNATH MURMU##
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