Weird Indian Tribal Traditions
6. Mundas, Jharkhand
This tribe from Jharkhand is small in number but has achieved distinguished feats. The members of the tribe are not backward or restricted to their villages and have earned laurels in the fields of sports, politics, literature, revolutionaries, etc. Ram Dayal Munda, a member of the tribe, has been awarded the Padma Shri award too. However, one unique thing about the tribe is how they derived their surnames. The names are derived from the legends of the past. For eg: The surname Dodrai is attributed to the lineage of the man who once ventured into the forest in search of honey. He found honey in the hollow of a tree but in trying to extract it, his hair and body were completely smeared with the liquid. The villagers carried him home and used 7 vessels of oil to clean and soften his hair. Since then, his name became Dodrai and his lineage acquired the surname! Each Munda surname has such tales behind their inception. Crazy, innit?
