Guru Gomke Raghunath Murmu
As I told previously in these 21 days of lockdown I'll share 21 blogs about some great personalities of Odisha.
So here is the twentieth day of lockdown and I'm sharing my twentieth writeup on Guru Gomke Raghunath Murmu. 
Pandit Raghunath Murmu was born in Dandbose village of Mayurbhanj in 5 May 1905 to Nandlal Murmu's family. His father Nandlal Murmu was village head and his paternal uncle was Munsi in the court of Raja Pratap Chandra Bhanjdeo.

His early name was Chunu Murmu. When he was eight years old he was admitted to an odia medium school. A little child is always obsessed towards his mother language so as Raghunath. He told his father to admit him in a Santali medium school. Then his father told him that there's no letters and scripts of 'Santali' language. This incident had a great impact in his life.
When he was a teacher in Badamatalia U P School he attracted and researched more on Santali language and in 1925 developed the "Ol Chiki" script used in Santali language and wrote "Bidu Chandan" a love drama in Ol Chiki script. 

Pandit Raghunath Murmu wrote many songs and plays. Raghunath Murmu also wrote school textbooks in the Ol Chiki script. Some of his notable works include  
  • '' OL CHEMED '' (PRIMARY SYLLABUS OF OL CHIKI)
  • '' PARSI POHA '' (ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF OLCHIKI)
  • '' DARE GE DHON ''(DRAMA) 
  • '' SIDU KANHU '' (PATRIOTIC DRAMA)
  •  '' BIDU CHANDAN '' (FAMOUS LOVE DRAMA)
  • " KHERWAL BIR '' (PATRIOTIC DRAMA)
  • '' HITAL '' (SCRIPTURE OF EVOLUTION OF EARTH AND HUMAN BEING OF KHERWALS MYTH)
  • '' HOR SERENG '' (SANTALI LITERATURE SONGS)
  • '' RONOR '' ( SANTALI GRAMMER)
  •  '' ELKHA '' ( SANTALI MATHEMATICS)
Murmu was honoured by Mayurbhanj State Adivasi Mahasabha with the title "Guru Gomke".
His birthday was declared an "optional holiday" by the Odisha chief minister in 2016, and the state culture department was directed to celebrate the day annually, in honour of his creation of the Ol Chiki script.

Pandit Raghunath Murmu is inspiration for all the tribals. His invention of "Ol Chiki" script not only given new light to Santal community but also has laid inspiration for all other tribal community to develop their own script. 

References :
  • Wikipedia