The Santhal Parganas Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

The Santhal Parganas
Dotted and punctuated by the woods, hills and rivulets,
Highlands and downlands
Traversing the tract,
Interspersing with
A vast stretch of land.

The shaal trees, the mahuas,
The simuls, saagwans,
Shirish trees,
Dotting the areas
Under the shadow of the blue-blue hills,
Clustered around.

The vast stretch of land
Manless and lonely
And the hamlets far flung
And scattered over
Under the peepul trees,
The banyans.


Somewhere the yogini thaan, the deity place,
Somewhere the yaksharaj thaan, the powerful demi-god place,
A tract of wilds, woods and hills,
Rivulets and red soil,
The Santhal Parganas.