Ethnographic Study No. 23

CENSUS OF INDIA, 1971

VOlume 1. MO~OGRAPH SERIES

PARHAIYA

(A Scheduled Trib~ In Bii:ar)

FirM [l1vestigation and d,.a[t S. N. SRIVAHAVA

Edit1l1g N. G. l\AG

Consultant DR.B.K.RoYBURMAN

OFFICE 01' THE REGISTRAR GE:-.rERAL: INDIA: MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

NEW DELHT

FOREWORD

The Constitution Jays down that "the State shall promote with special care the educational and economic mterest of the weaker sections of the people and in particular of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploita­tion."

To assist States in fulfilling their responsibility in this regard, the 1961 Census provided a series of special tabula­tions of the Social and Economic data on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The Lists of Scheduled Cas'tes and Scheduled Tribes are notified by the President under the Constitution and the Parliament is empowered to include in or exclude from the lists. any caste or tribe. During the Census Operations, the enumerators frequently face the problem of identifying the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In the President's notification. though in some cases, the names of the sub­castes and sub-tribes and synonyms are given, there are many cases where such names have not been provided in the list. The Census enumerators, therefore. require guidance about the acceptance or rejection of claims that they come across during the operations of some communities to be treated as sub-castes or sub-tribes of the notified Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes. For this purpose, the Census Organisation has thought it wise to undertake detailed ethnographic studies in respect of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes of India. This is also in conformity with the past Census tradition of presenting authentic ethnographic account of Indian commu­nities.

For conducting the ethnographic studies, a number of ancillary operations are undertaken by the Social Studies Unit of the Office of the Registrar General, India, as well as the staff of the Superintendents of Census Operations in the

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various States. These ancillary operations include; (i) com­pilation of available info911atiQl1 gn ~ach Sdheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and preparation of bibliography in re~p~ct of them:. (ii) pr;yparatiQn and interpretation of maps shOWing dis,tribu,tion of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tripes over time and space, and (iii) special studies on cultu­r'll, technological and economic ~hanges taking plac~ among the .v~ri~U% tril;?¥ comml!P-iti~s.

Dr. B. K. Roy Burman, Deputy Registrar General, Social Studies Unit, assisted by' Shri N. G. Nag, Officer on Special DUty and Shri H. L. Harit, Research Officer is c(rordmating all these studies at the central revel, I avail of this OppOl'tu­nity to extend' my warm thanks 10 "all my eolleagues who have undertaken various studies on different aspects of the Sche­duled Castes and Scheduled Tribes of India.

Shri S. N. Srivastavg., Senior; Te~hnical Assistant, of the Registrar Gen~ral's Office conduct~ the field investigation on 'the J;>arhaixa of Bihar and prepared the draft.

ShriN. G. ~ag ed_it~d the report. Dr. B. K. Roy Burman act~d a~ the consultant. .

NEW. DELIll.

Jl!iy, 1973,

A. CH4-NDRA SEKliAR

Registrar General : India

PREFACE

As an adjunct of 1961 Census, preparation of ethnographic monographs on a number of selected Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes 'Gnd -ethnic gruyps with special status anlI! ethnographic glossaries on all Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been taken up by the Census Organisation.

In India, the Census Organisation has a long tradition of undertaking ethnographic studies. Besides. there are certain reasons why, for its own operational purposes, it is necessary for the Census Organisation to take up such studies. During the Census Operation, the Census Organisation is required to make a complete enumeration of all the Scheduled Castes and Schedu­led Tribes in the country. The ethnographic studies are required to establish the identity of the various communities including their segments. The social boundaries of various communities are not always rigid, they are in a state of flux. Ethnographic studies are required to keep track of these changes as well, other­wise comparison of consecutive Census figures would give altogether wrong picture in respect of them. There is anothef aspect of study in respect of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in which the Census Organisation as well as the welfare and planning agencies are il1terested ~ it is ethno-demography. li'l 1961 Census, separate tables were prepared in respect of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes on the following items :-

(i) Industrial classification of persons at work-by sex.

(ii) age and marital status,

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education.

religion.

perscms JIm at work classified by sex and type of acti­vity fdr Schedulf!d 'Cast~,

persons not at 'York classified by sex and type of activity for Scheduled tribes,

mother-tongue and biliflguaiisriI for Scheduled Tribes.

The data available in these tables are to be analysed in res­pect of each Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe. so tbat the

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historical and cultural factors responsible for the demographic pattern, can be identified and the impact of the emergent demo­graphic pattern on the social structure can be determined.

The insight gained by the -Census Organisation through ethnographic studies of the Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes will be useful for mterpietation of the demogrttphic pattern for the counlry as a whole. Recenj: studies show' that in India. even now. it is difficult to correctly appreciate the various social and economic processes without reference to castes. On the other hand: in the interest of ultimate national goal. cast~ is not being recorded in Census. except in case of Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes. The insight gained throj.l'gh ethno-demographic studies of Sch-eduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is. therefore. of inval~able help for Census. .

At the same time. such study is very much useful for planning 'Of develot>ment activities among the castes or tribes ·concerned. For instance. if~the Census shows that -great deal of .diversification df 'occtlpation has taken place among the Parayans of Kerala. it is important for the planhers to kno:n whether the community consists of a number of disconnected segments or whether 'it means that a great deal of individual mobility is taking place where the main focus of community is other than traditiomil occupation. Again. when among. the Bauris of Orissa. it is found tl'iat a very high proportion of the population is enga­ged in ag'ricult1.Iral labour and next to them a high proportion is found in cultivation and also that there is considerable diversifi­cation of .occupation. t~e following g_uestio,ns of sociological and practical Importance anse :-

(a) What is the historical relation between the agricultural labourers and the cultivators among the Bauris of Orissa? The Census data suggests one of the two possible developments. namely. (1) bulk of the Bauris were

.cultivators and by a process of degeneration of their economy have beco.me agricultural labourers (2) on tlie other hand. it is also possible that the bulk of them were agricultural labourers and through a process of improvement of their economic condition. many of them have .become cultivators.

(b) The fact" that a considerable diverification of occupation has -~aIcep.· place. sjIggests £hit the eConomy has not

~ remained in a stagnant' condition. Here, it is to be examined whether the diversification is the result of

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upward mobility, or downward mobility or even hori­zontal mobility, and what is the actual p;ocess by which the diversification has taken place.

(c) The social dimensions corresponding to the diversifica­tion in economic life have to be examined. It is also to be examined whether in spite of diversification of occupation, the ethos of a particular occupation. for instance agriculture. continueg to be dominant. In that case. diversification might have created problems of adjustment in values and attitudes. Instances can be multiplied. but it is not nccessary. What have been stated above, are enough to bring out the significance of ethno-demographic studies for planners.

The above dimensions of ethno-demographic studies have evolved through stages. In 1960, at the instance of Shri Mitra. Registrar General of Jndia. a questionnaire for collection of ethnographic data was circulated among the Census Superintcn­den~s. In October. 1961. the Handicrafts and Social Studies Unit was set up in the Office of the Registrar Gene:ral of India. to co-ordinate the ethnographic studies and a few other ancillary studies like village surveys. handicraft surveys etc. In December. 1961. a Study Camp was organised in Delhi. where the person­nd engaged in ethnographic studies. handicrafts studies and other social investigations in the offices of the Cemus Superintendent participated. Tn the Study Camp. it was considered that the ethnographic notes would mainly aim at making an objective ass~ssment of the state of development of the different Scheduled Ca&tes and Scheduled Tribes in the context of the changes taking place in technology. economic organisation and total cultuml pattern of the country. It was further <;uggested that primary focus of the study would not be on the exotic,(elements of the cutures of the different castes and tribes. It should be on the elIorts of the communities concerned to adjust to the modem conditions of life. In the lip;ht of the above decisions of the Study Camp. rapid ethnographic studies have been carried on by the "tuff of tbe Superintendents of Census Operations as well as by the Handicrafts and Social Studies Unit of the Office of the Rcd.,trar General of India, in different parts of the country. Thc1>e rapid surveys have brought out a number of methodological lind operational problems. In May and June. 1966. two Ethno­graphic Study Camps were held at Kurseong and Hyderabad. where personnel from the Offices of the Census Superintendents participated. Tn the Study Camp held at Kursoong. the Secretary,

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Tribal W,$ffare,. West Bengal, and Director. Tribal Welfare. West Bengal. also participaten. In these Study €amps an integrated frame for preparation of ethnographic notes was discussed and adopted. A copy of the same may be seen at Annexure. In addition to the ..studies ill: respect of eaah Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe sepa11UelYi a 'number of subsidiary studies were undertaken by the Handicrafts and Social Studies Uttit of the Office of +tbe:Regirutcc General'of India, for gaining insight into a numbet Uf problems of general natute which hue bearing on the different aspects of the 'lives of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled: ['tib~ of tbe country,

TheSe subsidiary studies lire as follows :-

1. Shifting Cultivation in Santa! Parganas of Bihar and Garo HiUs of Assam.

1-. Pattern of Rel1kbilittltion of displaced tribals of Rour­kela.

3. Socjo-economic Survey of the Scheduled Areas of Rajasthan.

4. Socio,economic developments among the Hillmen of North:East tnpia.

'S. SoCial'Stfucture and Cultural Orientation. of Christians convert'ed from S~heduled· Castes.

6. fcadilional rights of S&vellging as claimed by scavengers m urban. lj.reas~

1. Grou~ib.g Df. di~es and tribes With reference to ooeu­, patlon and ih'ttt=-gt'cmp apd intra-group comparative

study' on the MSlS of the data available in earlier ceii1ni~es.

8. Social mobility movements among the Scheduled Castes anti Scheduled Tribes.

On the basis of each of the subsidiary studies indicated abO'Ve. a separate monograph is under preparation. It is also proposed to prepare. separate monographs on a few Scheduled

-castes and Scheduled Tribes and ethnic ~rouJ?S with special statu'S in each State. Besides. ethnographic glossanes ate proposed to be prepared in respect,of all Schedu1ed Castes and Scbeduled Tribes. For this purpose about QUe lakh references have been indexed.

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The present report on Parhaiyas of Bihar is one of mono­graphs included in the series of ethnographic studies. The field investigation was undertaken by Sri S. N. Srivastava, under the guidance of Sri N. G. Nag, Officer on Social Duty. While editing the report, the draft prepared by Sri S. N. Srivastava, was revised by Shri N. G. Nag. The general guid~nce in the preparation of this monograph was provided by me.

Shri A. Mitra, Registrar General of India for 1961 Census, whose foresighted initiative is responsible for social investigations in a large number of fields, including ethnography deserves thanks of all students of Indology. I have been benefitted not only by his inspiration but also by his valuable suggestions in connection with the ethnographic studies as well as the other studies, conducted by the Handicrafts and Social Studies Unit.

The tradition built by Shri Mitra, has been continued by Shri A. Chandra Sekhar, the present Registrar General of India. Under his guidance, the scope of the Social Studies by! the Census Organisation has been further expanded. In spite of his other pre-occupations he has gone through the final drafts of ethnogra­phic notes and given a number of valuable suggestions. I avail of this opportunity to express my gratefulness to him.

B. K. Roy BURMAN

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

PREFACE

A Technical Appraisal

1. Name, Identity and Origin

2. Distribution and Population Trend

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8

14

3. Physical Characteristics and ethnic affiliations 21

4. Family, Clan, Kinship. Inheritance and Succes-sion 23

5. Settlement Pattern. Dwelling. Dress. Ornaments and Dietary habits. 29

6. Environmental Sanitation, Disease and Treatment

Hygienic Habits.

7. Language. Literacy and Education

8. Occupation and Economic Life

9. Life Cycle

Birth Rites

Annaprasan, .

Name giving

Tonsure Cer.emony

Sex Life and Marriage

Widow Remarriage

Divorce and Separation

Death Rites

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37

40

45

57 57

60 60

60

61

67

68

69

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10. Religion and Festivah

11. Leisure, Recreation and Child-play

12. Intra..;community and Intercommunity Relation­ship and Social Status.

13. Structure of Social Control, Prestige MId Le"ader· ship

14. Biographies

15. References cited and other Bibliography

16. Annexure - Framework for Ethnographic Study:

17. ApPENDIX - Kinship Terminology

PAGE

71

81

82

85

92

98

119 i27

PA\UlAIY~

A TECHNICAL APPRAISAL

The Parha~a a.re a smaJ! scheduleq tribe in Palamau district. They are in close touch with the Parhaiya of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In at least one case it has been found that the jurisdiction of the caste;} panchayat extends beyond the state boundary. It is of symbolic significance that according to one of the legends of the Parhaiya. they had run away from the area inhabited by them. when they were offered the fruits of settled agriculture. while they themselves were practising shifting cultiva­tion. Another legend also depicts the Parhaiya as fugitives from cultivation. A third legend links up the Parhaiya with the Panda­vas, and refers to a quarrel among the brothers for which they were punished by Krishna. The Parhaiya also have the tradition of being baiRa or priest of the local people. Hathi Baiga, one of their culture-heroes was endowed with great magical powers. Another legend relates to a confrontation between the Parhaiya chief and the Raia who trespassed into the forest for hunting. Here the Parhaiya is depicted as the friend of the wild animals. At the symbolic level these legends contain interesting materials for constructing a social history of the tribe. One would like to imagine that at an early stage of its history, there was confron­tation with settled agriculturists. Also it would appear that at a certain point of time the help of an external agency was taken to ensure solidarity among the agnate groups. It is a matter of conjecture whether this external agency later trended to assert the role of a king and not only usurped political power. but also claimed proprietary rights over the territories inhabited by the Parhaiya. In any case. it is clear that the Parhaiya had to offer resistance to some sort of trespass on their land.

Some ~ authors trace the affinity of t® Parhaiya with the Bhuiyar or tne Korku. Some again consider the Korwa as their agnatcs. In al~ these caSes. however. the affinity is i~agined primarily because of similarities in the mode of productIon.

There are traditions which suggest that the Parhaiya had arrived at their present habitat from SU1;guja via Mirzapur. Family histories also confirm a secUlar trend, oil migration from this direction. "En the light o~ this fact. the presence at a sm!lll number of persons in Purulia district of West Bengal. who claim

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themeselves to be Parhaiya seems to be rather surprising. There is no contiguity between the areas inhabited by the Parhaiya in Bihar and Purulia district of West Bengal. It seems very unlikely that the Parhaiya of these areas are identical people. Some con­fusion of name is more probable. The abnormal sex ratio of the Parhaiya in Purulia district supports this point of view.

The Parhaiya- population is a__ youthful 'one. The lower pro­portion of males in the age group 15-44 seems to suggeSt migra­tion of persons of this age group. The slow rate of increase of the Parhaiya during 1911-41. and a moderate rate of increase during the latter period suggest that they are loosing their popu­lation, perhaps due to, shift of identity. One important fact about the Parhaiya is that they do not have exogamous clans. thbugh they have a system of reckoning kinship called golia. It is" a cognatic unit. which includes both a consanguineous as well as affinal relatiorls. There are also purely patrilineal lineages called khut-katti. The distinctive feature o~ the khut-katti system is that it is based on the principle of primogeniture. where the privileges of the senior lineage are recognised.

Coming over to the household, it is found that its size covers a wide spectrum. starting from single member households to 12 member households. The mode is three, accounting for 2S households followed by two, accounting for 22 households and four accounting for 21 households. This pattern of dispersal seems to be the indicator of low survival of infant and children. rather than of controlled growth. The average size of household is 1.46.

The diversified household structure brings out the transitio­nal phase of the residential uaits. When' a daughter's son and his wife stay with the heAd of the household. some sort of cogna­tive kinship principle seems' to prevail. At the same time it is found that though ideologically the Parhaiya are oriented towards neo-Iocal residential units. under the compulsion of the situation. they frequently live in patri-Iocal units. Taking an over-all view. it appears that kinship as the dominant principle fur social organisation has been losing its ground. but the territorial princi­ple is still to have a decisive victory.

One of the' problems' which one is to consider. is whether tIre kiilship' prinCiple is undergoing a change along with the changes in the- nature of prbperty. Land was traditionally linked up with the lineage; now' it is tending to be linked up with the individual. What are the ramifications of this change on the' kinship structure?

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Following the anthropological conventions. kinship terms of the Parhaiya have been labelled as descriptive; but there are classificatory terms as well. It is doubtful whether it is appro­priate to label the system as descriptive.

The system of joking relation and avoidance follow the pattern prevailing among the other Hindu castes of the neighbour­hood. It is not clear why there should be avoidance in a system where neo-Iocal residence is the ideal. It appears that the kinship terms do not always reflect the social structure. In view of the fact that many of the Parhaiyas live in multi-ethnic villa­ges, the kinship terms are more likely to have been grafted as culture traits.

Such grafting, however, is possible only when the basic kin­ship unit, namely household is highly fragile. In fact, the fragile character of the kinship among the Parhaiya comes OUt sharply from the high incidence of broken incomplete nuclear families among them. The fragility. however, is not confined to the household: it covers their entire social polity. For instance they have given up pork so as to be able to establish an unseen bridge with the Hindu high castes. Even in their isolation they feel a SIlent alienation. Their pressing need today is not only to remove the isolation. but also to jump the alienation. Adoption of Hindu kinship system is linked up with it.

It app..:ars that some of the Parhaiya have tended to become overconformist. They even eschew egg and fish as items of food. But a good number of them are even now non-vegetarians. Change in food habit does not appear to have created real fission among the Parhaiya.

One item of material culture of the Parhaiya deserves special mention. Tatooing is common among the women. It is consi­dered to be a passport to the heaven. But what does this myth really mean? Is it an assertion of the individuality L)f the person: a painful separation from the collectivity for chartering a very personal future for the self ?

The Parhaiya settlements lack amenities. but not sanitation. The Parhaiya society has developed ritual specialists called Ojha, to treat diseases. He is not just a relic of the old world. but a symbol of the thrust of the past into the present. Till now in case of illness the Parhaiya considerably depended on the Ojha, though they also availed of allopathic medicines. Perhap~ one

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C~ll get ~rom it, a peep ipto. the Pa:ffifliya. world-view. It is that of a differentiated generality, whe,fe the specific and the universal merge together.

The mother-tongues 6f the Parnaiya are again diverse. The overwh.elming majority spea~ Hipqi a:qrl ~ small numbet speak Magahl/Magadhi as mother-t.oRgue. Only a very insignificant number of persons return P&rhaiy~. as their mother-tongue. Who are those valiant sticklers to the past? Are th.ey the old Or the isolated? How do they look upqn the WQfld surrounding them ?

It, however,' appears that they are not so isolated, because most of them also speak Hindi as a subsidiary langu&ge. One can, therefore, legitimately ask, whether there is really any dif­ference in their linguistic behaviour, or whether the difference is only in their soci&l attitude? The question can be restructured as follows: - ~'ar-e there- some P-aFhaiya who want to be only Parhaiya?" This requires to be further examined.

The literacy among the Parhaiya is only 2.3 %, very low literacy, on the one hand, and fairly high polyglotic status on the other, seem to be indicative of the cultural helplessness of the Parhaiya. They are being simply swamped culturally. But then. how do they continue to exist as a distinct identity ?

Among the literates more than 90 % are literates without educqtional level. There are only three persons who passed matrie or hi~her secondary examination. None of the females has achieved any educational level. Even at the time of survey, 82 % of the households were not sending t4eir chilqren to schools. In their case, the problem is not that of drop-out, but of non­relevance of formal education in their scheme of priorities. Alto­gether 11.7% of the boys and 6.2% of the girls of school going age were enrolled as students. How to acc@unt for the low' enrolment, in the context of the fact that the :{>arhaiya are prone to adopt the other cultural traits of their neighbours? Sli:hoo] is not only a cultural phenomenon; but also an organisational phenomenon. Perhaps non-enrolment in school should b~ linked up with disharmonic organisational principle of the school and the ·coIJlmunity. llu~' this aspect will have 'be examine4 in great qepth in a future study.

According to earlier accounts, the Parhaiya made their living by cutting wood and selling bamboo. A recent study has descri­bed them as hunters and food gatherers. This, howeveF, seems

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to be p.- ca.se· pf pyr~ist~nce of historiyal j.~age. In f~ct the Parhaiya appear to b~ve t.atcen to ~ultivat~on fairly early. Aceor­fling to 1961 eensus. th_e bul,k ot ;them are cultivators but 35.45% are agricultural labourers. A1}long the females 37.92% are in this industrial category. Again 5.54% are in mining. quarrying and forestry. The piversific¥}.9n of e.conomy is, however, an iI}dicator of their progressive dissociittion from the resources. -These ar~ also indicators of their prpgressive deviation from the community norm. It is not through the liberation of the indivi­duals that th~ deviation J:tas ta~en pl~~~ it is through their sub­jugatioI}. Th.!! cas~ study of a pl).rhaiya. who had at one time 575 acres of land at his disposal. shows that the Parhaiya society has been internally stratifieg for quite sometime. The process through which it has cO!1le about is )1ot ~lear. It. however. seems that it might not be at]. autonomous process~ but J11.ight be the out. come of a more pervasiv~ process involving other !;ommuqities als<?

The field study slJow~ tlmt ~91lJe PI the hOR$.ehpld§ hav~ fairly large-size holdings. Of course the size of the holdings by itself is not ap. indiS;a,tof o~ tlly ~p.omic s~tus. b~caus~ of the widy vari~ti<?Rs in tRe qu~litr of land.

Taking an overall view it cannot be said that Parhaiya economy is a purely subsistenae economy. It is linked up with the market. Many Barhaiya work as attached labourers . undet bani system. He receives advance paY11lent - sOPletimes a piece of lap9. for own cultivatipn. He is vil'tually an agricultural' serf and his masters are frequently other scheduled tribes like the Chero. This again shows the failure of the lineage structure· to provide s~curity to the weaker members or alternatively it shows that an inter-Ilneage stratification system has come to pre­vail within the tribe.

It has b~~n. observed th~t during the shift from slash and bum syste111 of <?~ltivation to s~ttled agrkl;lltu~y. the l~nd sy,gt~m of the Parhaiya has undergone a num1?er of changes. The Par­haiya also appear to be conscious of these changes. Their self percepti'0n is thilt they are pri~ari~y cultivaltors; bout interestingly enough their peighbours continue t'0 reckpn them primarily' ~ food -gatherin.g pelople. In other words. where~s the ParpaiYIl are Ipo~M to thylr' future through, the prism pf the prese:t:\t. ~\1~ir neighboJlrs are looking at ~hem thro\lgh pris~ of t~e p'a.st~ 2-4 R.G'-India{75

6

Before starting on hunting or fishing expedition the Parhaiya perforn'l certain religious rites which are supposed to ensure the success of the expedition. It would, however. be naive to think 'that today, wl1en the Parhaiya perform these rites, they always believe that these would ensure bigger haul of fish or game. An .analyst should not overlook the fact that these rites symbolically represent the solidarity of the community and also reinforce the

-.same. In thet:c day to day life, the solidarity is subjected to -severe strains and there are moments when they feel the need of mending the fence. The Parhaiya are also engaged as labourers in coal mines. A few of them prepare ropes and mats with leaves, as subsidiary occupations. In all these cases, however. the terms of transactions and the living and working conditions of the Parhaiya reveal their economic and social vulnerability. Their performance of pollution and putification rites, during crucial periods of the life cycle. is to be seen in this context. The Brahmanic practices are superimposed on their traditional rituals. It is still to be examined whether they see them as discrete systems, or they perceive an inner unity of Ithe two. through a process of syncretism and reinterpretation.

The symbolic meaning of some of the rules also require to be examined. For instance. after the birth of a child. the mother observes pollution rites for 12 days, others observe the same for six days. What does this pollution really mean? Is it a form of channelising the social energy for facilitating the entrance of the new comer to the community? Or is it a psychological lever to ensure that the members of the kJingroup perform their .educational and social roles in respect of the child appropriately.

It is found that among the Parhaiya. there is considerable 'elaboration of the rituals. This requires some economic expla­nation. It appears that. on the one hand. in the traditional pro­-duction system of the Parhaiya. there were great seasonal varia­'lions in the availability of goods. on the other hand. the techn('­,logy of preservation was not well developed. The elaboration of ll"ituals could be an adaptive mechanism ensuring the timely dis­posal of the perishable goods and also their flow from one seg­ment of the society to the others.

The Parhaiya marry off their girls early. They claim that it forecloses premarital sex relations. It is believed that the Par­haiya have adopted early marriage due to culture contract with the Hindu neighbours. Without undermining the importance of culture-contact, the inner need of the communify should also be

7

kept in view. One would wonder whether early marriage might not be a fundion of specialisation uf skill, which they would like to preserve as a closely guarded family ~ecret? The skill may nnt be in the field of technology only; it rna) even be in the field L)f managing the super-natural. In a society like that of the Par­haiya, whIch is a mosaic of diverse incomplete modes of produc­tion, the role specification of woman is lik.ely to VJry considerably from household to household. In such a context marrying off the daughter and bringing in the daughter-in-law early would be the mnst effective way (1f pre~erving the family "ecret and socialising the in-coming woman.

The recent trend amung the Parhaiya is towards an increase in the age of marriage. This may be con<;idered to be an indica­tor of the liberation of the woman from the unfret:dom associat­ed with "dangerous k.nowledge". Thi." may also mean debunk­ing of the "dangerous knowledge". The possihility of the Par­hai.~ a emic view challenging this framework of analysis itself ~hould not, ho\\-cver, be ruled out. But that would be the real vmdlcation of the ethnographer. The god of science avenges himself c,nly with hi~ 0\\ n blood.

B. K. Roy BeRMAN

NAME. IDENTITY AND ORIGIN

The ParhaiySl- or P1:jrhaiya. a lesser known. trib~. is notified. as a Sche9-uled Tribe ip. Bihar Cilnd P.flrts of West Bengal and as a Scheduled Caste in Uttar Pradesh according to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Lists (Modification) Order. 1956. But in West Bengal it is treated as a Scheduled Tribe in only Purulia district and the territories transferred from the Purnea district of Bihar. Though the community does not enjoy any statutory status of a Scheduled Tribe/Caste in Madhya Pradesh r

the Census returns for the earlier decades as well as the earlier literature on the community indicate that it is also found in. Madhya Pradesh in the areas adjoining Bihar viz. Surguja district. In fa9!, during the field investigation in Palamau district. where the present study was conducted in a few villages, * it was found that the P~r4€ljya of Palamau are in active social communication with ·those of Maphya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesll. in. so, much so that the he_adq1}arter of the regional Parhaiya panchayat of some of the villages located in Dhurki anchal of Palamau district in Bihar is located across the border, in a village in Ramchanderapur l'oljc~ Statiop. of Surguja district in Madhya Pradesh. In other words, there is a common regional panchayat of Parhaiya for a few villages falling in the two States.

Tbere are different versions as to the derivation of the name­'Parhaiya' and its etymological significance is interpreted different­ly. Crook has stated that according ,to Dr. Oppert the name' Parhaiya or Paraiya means a mountaine~r. from the Dravadian root para, "a hill". (Crooke, Vol. IV. 1896: 125 - 133). But the same author has arso quoted Bishop Goldwell~ accordfug to whom. "it has been said that the name Pareiya or Pariah is syno­nymous with that of the: Pahariyas (from Pahar 'A hill') a race: of mountaineers. properly called MaIers. inhabiting the Rajmahal hills in Bengal: and hence it is argued that the Paraiyas may be

*(i) Behara Tanr village in Lateharancha1, (ii) Sulliand (iii) Goria Karam villages of Ranka anchal, (iv) Lolki (v) Baraiha (vi) Su:wand (vii) Paras­pani villages of Dhurki anchal, (viii) Banijharia tola of Datam village, (ix) Sukra and (x) NawayiIlages of Chain pur anchal, (xi) Khonga tola or Chattarpur anchal and (xli) Penda tola of Simaria anchaL

8

9

considered like the Pahariyas. as a race of non-Aryan, non-Dravi­dian aborigines. It is an error, however, to suppose that there is any connection between these two names. The word Pariah, properly Pareiya, denotes not a mountaineer, but a drummer, a word regularly derived from Parei. a 'drum', eSlX!cially the great drum used at funerals. The name Pare-iya i~ in fact, the name of hereditary occupation, the Pareiyas being the people who are generally employed at festivab, and especially at funerals, as drum­mers" (Crooke, ihid). But there is hardly any other evidence ~ug­ges.ting that the Parhaiya ever acted as drummers.

Crooke him"elf appears to hold the view that the word Par­haiya in Gondi means "burners of the jungles" (ibid). Perhaps, in interpreting the name of the tribe in the above manner Crooke has taken into consideratIon the traditional '51mh and burn' system of cultivation carried on by the Parhaiya

But during the field invei>tigation the Parhaiya informants did not agree with any of the above mentioned interpretations regarding the original of the name of their community. On the contrary, they interpreted the name differently. There was broad agreement among the informants that the term 'Parhuiya' has been derived, from the wl.ml Para-;;ayu, meaning 'one who fled away'. This explanation can be interpreted in a different way in the light of the old war snngs of the commumty, referred tn by O'Malley. According to him, nne (If the '>ongs, refering to the invasion of Palamau as a refrain. "Fly, fly, Deo Sahai is coming, and we cannot resist him". He has further remarked, "This Deo Sahu was the father (If Puran Mal, one of the leaders of the invading force." (1907: 54). The above can be interpreted to mean tha't the name Parhaiya from Para-gaya implies the running away from the battk.

A number of tradition<; giving slightly different version. are prevalent among the Purhaiya which endorse the local interpreta­tion that the name of the community has it" origin in para gaya. One of the widespread traditions, collected from Behra Tanr vil­lage located in Latehar anchal runs as follows:

l. "During the reign of Raja Medini Roy of Palamau. the people living on the hil?hlands were referred to as 'Pahari' and those in th~ plains as 'Ahari'. The A haris used to carry cultiva­tion by using ploughs and bullocks, whereas the Paharis, on the other hand, practised it with their hands only because their tradi­tion had forbidden them to partake cereals produced by yoking cows and bulloch for ploughing. The I'aharis had, thus to depend

10

either on wild forest produce or on such variety of crops. which ~ould be grown by 'slash and bum' method. Raja Medini Roy once wondered that if· the rains fail and there is a drought. the Paharis would perish. He called the Pahris to a feast and serv­ed them with bhat (rice) grown by cultivation with plough and bullocks. The Pahris considered the move on the part of the Raja serving bhat to them as a humiliation and thought that perhaps because of some guilt on their part. the raja had become annoyed with them and penalized them in this manner. Thus. out of fear. they started indiscriminately running hither and thither with the result that they were called by others as 'Para-gaya' or runnl!fs." This belief is widespread among the Parhaiya as well as other tribal communities of the region. like the Kharwar and Chero.

2. According to another legend collected from Paraspani vil­lage of Dhurki anchal; "Once a cultivator made two lhalka (scarecrows) and erected them in his agricultural field so as to protect his crops from birds and animals. One day Lord Mahadev and his consort, Parwati, happened to pass from there. Parwati was amused by the jhalka and entreated the Lord Mahadev to infuse life in them. At first Lord Mahadev refused. but when she became adamant. he put them to life by sprinkling some drops of water kept in his Kamandal (wooden bowl) over them. As soon as the two jhalka came to life. one of them fell in the kora (lap of Lord Mahadev) and the other 'Para-gaya'.

, i.e., it fled away. The first jhalka, who fell down in the lap of Lord Mahadev. was called as Kora or Korwa (ttibe) and his .descendants came to be known by the same name. Similarly. the other one, who fled away, \;Vas called Para-gay a and his descendants came to be known as Parhaiya".

. Whatever the merits or the authenticity of the above tradi­tions associated with the origin of the name 'Parhaiya' they never­theless appear to be highly ingenious as a few of these not mere­ly stem from their traditional occupation of shifting cultivation, but try to explain the background leading to the practice. It may be mentioned here that to a certain extent these traditions proxi­mate with the explanation given by Crooke about the origin of the community's name. Though literally, or etymologically, the explanation of Crooke somewhat differs from the local tradi­.lions, like the latter it links the origin of the name of the com­munity with its occupation of shifting cultivation.

However. now a few Parhaiya try to explain the origin of their community's name in a different manner. They claim that they have their descent from Lahkur, identified with Nakul. one

11

of the five Pandavas of the Mahabharta. in so much so that they call themselves a~ 'Pandavanshi'. A few persons of the commu­nit) re~iding in the Latehar anchal. narrated that on the death of their father Lahkur quarrelled with his brothers on the issue of the dh ision of the kingdom. This infuriated Lord Krishna who ordained that while the four other brothers would rule over Kashi and Gaya, Lahkur should be impri~oned in a house made (,f lac for hif> dlsgraL"cful behaviour. Afterwards, when Lahkur rcpeutcd, Lord Krishna set him free and ordered hIm to go to the junglc~ of Palamau and earn his livelihood by collecting wild fore,t produce. Consequently, hi" descendants came to be known a', ParhUlya.

In Palamau distm:t, where the prC.,ent study was undertaken. a fe\\- Parhaiya claimed that they arc the traditional pri~~h of the 10e:...l people and sumX. ·Baigu·.1" an hOJlorific title ... fter their name. This:,> collaborated bv Sunder (l89~J a<;. welL The Par­hai}a trace their de.'>ccnt from one Hathi Baiga who i<; said to haw heen a renlHvned priest of the famous Gtlr!!llj shnne situated on ~alli hilk (Sulli village Whl:!fC the shrine is ~ituateu WU& for­mcrl~ a part of erstwhile Chain pur E<;,ate). There are a numb~r of le~end~ prevalent in the area about th.:: mystic power POSSC&.,­

ed b\ Hathi Billga. One ~ach leger.d. which has ~ome bearing 0:1 the pre~ent study. is given below:

"Once the Raja of Chainpur accompanied by his party vi~it­cd the Su1li hill.., for hunting and camped at Udaipur village, 3 km .... , !:.outll of Gar~ai shrine. But Hathi Baiga did not like the idea uf the animals being hunted dllwn in the vicinity of the shrine. He hecame annoyed with the Raja and shot an arrow at him from the hill-top when the latter was seated in his camp. The Raja who was unhurt became infuriated and sent for the miscreant, Accordingly, Hathi Baiga was caught and brought before the Raja, who ordered him to be tied 10 an iron chain and then thrown before an elephant to be trampled. But miraculously, the ele­phant, instead of cru~hing Hathi Baiga to death. ~topped in front of him and started >trumpeting. It i" believed that when the SuIJi Raj found Balhi Baiga mis&ing at the usual time of worship he sent his consort. goddess Malkin. to &earch him out. The goddess rushed to the &cene where Hathi Baiga was lying tied with a chain before the elephant and saved him from being trampled to death and then set him free, The Raja was astonished to sec this miracle. To further test the supernatural attributes of Hathi Baiga he asked him to shoot an arrow at a cowree (conch-shell) attached to the hoof of a running horse. The Baiga shot the tar­get accurately. On seeing this the Raja was pleased with llathi

12

Baiga alld appointed him as the chief Boiga of all the 484 vil­lages of his Estate. Besides, he decreed that an annual State homage should be paid to Gargaj Deota and granted the revenue CG111€ct€d front 22 villages, lncludirtg Sulli. Chete, Patwar. Udai­pur, Pootanghara, Chatakman, Rarhe, etc. for the maintenance of its shrine. He also authorised Hathi Baiga to appoint local Bai'ga or priest in each village. It is said that since then SuiU Raj is worshipped on a mass scale in the mortth of A ghana, once in three years, when customarily every village has to contribute some animals. like. a khasi (goat) or pathee (sheep) or a bheru (he-goat) or a buffalo, etc. for sacrifice to tIte deity. The Raja also used to contribute one buffalo, a golden tikuIi, (ornament) churee~ chumdri, luga, sindur (vermilion) and dhoti etc. as offering to the deity. On this occasion, the priests of all the villages used to proceed to the shrine for makirtg offetings to the deity.

There are divergent views regarding the affinity of the Par­haiya. As indicated earlier, they are often identified by some with the Pahariya (also called Maler) of the Rajmahal hills. But arty such relationship between Parhaiya and Paharia has been denied by others. While Dalton (1972: 126-127) considers them closely akin to the Bhuiyar, Crooke, opines that they may be Korkus. who are a branch of the Munda family. (Crooke : op cit). Some of the Parhaiya, as indicated in one of the legends recorded al­ready, also appear to regard Korwa as their brethem tribe.

In earlier accounts the Parhaiya are stated to be "the rem­"n!lnt of a tribe who according to their own traditions and the tradi­tions of other races in the district (Palamau) once formed an im­portant section of the population." (Dalton op. cit) O'Malley: (op. cit). In this oonnection Dalton has further observed, "they are orte of the numerous tribes, or perhaps. it might more correct­ly be stated as one of the branches of the great tribe, who with Turanian features and many corresponding customs have adopted Hindi as language to the obliteration of all their primitive forms of speech and who, though affecting Hindu customs, retain prac­tices that in the eyes of Hindus are impure and abhorrent;" (ibid).

As ,stated earlier. according to Sunder (op. cit.) the Parhaiya ,were originally the duar pujari or priests lof the Maharajas of the area and found only in Pa]amau. But Drake-Brochmall (1911) and Crooke (op. cit.) suggest that their original home was some­where in Surguja district of MMhya Pradesh. In this connection

-Crooke has obServed. "the members of the tribe in Mirza~ur fix

13

their headquarters in the villages of Jhansi and Uspar in Surguja. dose to the Brithh frontier. They have emigrated from there in quite recent times and the emigration is still going on. They still go to their original home at the festivals of the Ram Naumi and Dasahra. There is no temple there but in one of the chief-men's house, <there is a shrine of Devi called the h:ouse of god (deo~ ghar)." (ibid).

From the observation of O'Malley (op. cit.) referred to ear­lier in a different context, it would appear that the tribe at some point of its history faced an exodus from its original habitat due to certain inva~ion as hinted in their war songs, one of which refers to the invasion of Palamau by one Deo Sahi, the father of Puram Mal.

During the field investigation in Paraspani and Suru villages of Dhurki anchal some of the Parhaiya were reported to have im­migrated from Dudbi Tehsil of Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh and some others from Ramchandcrapur police station of Surguja district of Madhya Pradesh, during the la&t six or seven decades. On the other hand, the Parhaiya in Mirzapur district themselves are reported to have migrated from Surguja (Crooke : op. cit).

It would appear that being shifting cultivators and food­gatherers in the past the Parhaiya have earlier been moving east­wards in search of food and land for cultivation. It is quite likely that Surguja was at one time their stronghold and from there they have moved towards Palamau Plateau, possibly through the Mirza­pur basin.

DISTRIDUTION AND POPULATION TREND'

As stated earlier. the Parhaiya are found in Uttar Pradesh .. Bihar and certain parts of BengaLin addition to Madhya Pradesh. But in the latter State they were not enumerated during the 1961 census as there they are not notified as a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe. But in Madhya Pradesh they ~ppear to lJave their main concentration in Surguja district which is contiguous to the area of their concentration in Bihar. viz., Palamau district. In fact. during the 1941 Census 3841 Parhaiya were enumerated in Chattisgarh Agency States which are covered by the present Surguja district. (C. r .. 1941. Vol. VIII. Pt. II. 1942). 1n West Bengal, they are found in Purulia district which is contiguous to Bihar. In Uttar Pradesh. where. they are treated.as. a Scheduled Caste, they have'their main concentration in Dudhi Tehsil of Mirzapur district, bordering the Palamau district of Bihar. Thus. the area inhabited by the Parhaiya form a belt from Dudhi -area in Uttar Pradesh to Purulia district of West Bengal. This area is bounded by the Chota Nagpur plateau and drained by the Son and Koel rivers and their tributaries.

As can be seen from the following table. the Parhaiya appear to have their largest concentration in Bihar. During the 1961 Census, out of their total population of 13,338 persons enume­rated in the three States, where the community is recognised._ either as a Scheduled Caste or as a Scheduled Tribe. as many as 12.268 persons or nearly 92 per cent. were recorded in Bihar (C. 1'0 1961, Vol. I. Part V-A, 1966). But from the point of view of their total numerical strength in the State they are one of the­minor Scheduled Tribes of Bihar. occupying eighth position from the bottom. forming only o· 29 per cent. of the overall Schedule<f Tribe population of the State. The following table gives the dis­trictwise population of the Parhaiya in Bihar. Uttar Pradesh and'. West Bengal.

14

15

gJ4)lpULATION TREND AMONG PARHAIVA

IT

-o 0-

-

- f

I-

~

I-

I-

l-

N.A.

1 I

~ I I

,,'

il~ i r . I II ! II -I!

-II - ! 1 Ii -

I-

~

N.A.

j"'Ooo' 2POO

II " t-- ~ (I pOO , I

1'"' 0,000

.... 9,000

r--:® ,000

7,000 I~- . r 6.1)00

... ~~

H"~ ,000

1-1-$ ,000

1---2 ,000-

~~,

o

16

Table No.1

7able showing the district·wi$e break-up of the population of Parhaiya in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in rural-urban

context as per 1961 Census:

SI. N.:> S,:ate District Total Rural Urb9.n

1 Bihar 12,268 12,245 23 (i) Palamau 10,605 10,586 19

(ii) Hazaribagh 889 889 (iii) Ranchi 406 406 (iv) Santal Parganas 348 348 (v) Oaya 20 16 4

.2 Uttar Pradesh 583 579 4 Mirzapur . 583 579 4

3 West Bengal 487 487 7urulia . 487 487

-----------GRAND TOTAL 13,338 13,311 27

From the above table it is seen that in Bihar the Parhaiya are primarily concentrated in one district, namely Palamau, as

,out of their total popula!tion of 12,268 in the State as many as 10,605 are found there. In other words, 86: 44 per cent. popula­tion of the community is residing in one district alone. The other four districts which have returned Parhaiya population in Bihar do not show any significant population of the community as Hazaribagh has returned 889 persons, while Ranchi has return­ed 406 persons. The Santal Parganas recorded a popUlation of 348 persons and Gaya a negligible population of 20 persons. In Palamau district they have their largest concentration in Chainpur anchal of Sadar sub-division (1585), Ranka anchal of Garhwa sub-division (1329) and Barwadih anchal of Latehar sub-division (1508). In Hazaribagh district they have their main concentration in Pratappur anchal. while in Ranchi district they are mostly loca­lized in Kiska anchal of Sadar sub-division.

It is of some interest to mention here that the enumeration of 348 Parhaiya in Santal Parganas is rather an enigma in the sense that the Parhaiya population forms a separate pocket in this dis­trict, which is located at a distance of about 300 kilometres from the area of concentration of the community. It is not found in contiguous area. It is significant that except in 1901 and 1941 when a handful of Parhaiya-23 in 1901 and 17 in 1941- were

p

retQrned from the Santal Parganas in none of the decades since-1901 this district showed Parhaiya population. As no field inves~ tigation could be conducted in Santal Parganas the identity of the persons returning themselves as Parhaiya in that district could 11:.0t be established. But it is not unlikely that a few persons be~­longing to Paharia community, also known as Sauria Paharia or Maler which are predominantly found in this district, might have been enumerated as Parhaiya due to phonetic similarity of these two names. This confusion between Paharia and Parhaiya has also been hinted by Bishop Goldwell as quoted by Crooke (op. oit.).

Rural-Urban Distvibution

The Parhaiya are essentially a rural community as during the 1961 Census excepting 23 persons who were enumerated in the urban areas all the others returned from the rural areas. The fact that all the 23 persons who have returned from the urban areas are rna'ies suggests that they are sojourners who have gOl).e to cities or towns for employment or education.

Sex~ratio.-The district-wise sex-ratio of the Parhaiya of' Bihar, based on 1961 Census, is given in the table below:

Table No.2 District-wi'lse sex ratio of Parhaiya

,Pistrict Popula- Males Sex-tion Females r1!ti o

-Palamau 10,605 5,384 5,221 970 Hazaribagh 889 500 389 778 Ranchi . 406 197 209 1,061 Santa! .parganas 348 114 234 2,Q53 Gaya 20 14 6 4~9

. TOTAL 12,268 6,209 6,059 976

It is seen from the figures given in the table that the overall sex-ratio of the community, (976), does not follow the State pat~ tern as it is lower than the sex-ratio of the general popUlation (994) and that of the Schedule Tribe population of the State as a whole (1014).. It is also lower than the sex-ratio of 987 for tl).e­Scheduled Tnbes of the country taken together. But it is higher than that for the general sex-r~tio of the Community (941). Thus, it would seem that the sex-ratio of the Parhaiya is more in keep­ing with that of the Scheduled Tribe population of the country-

18

as a whole. One plausible reason for the higher sex-ratio in Bihar could be that many of the male tribal workers in the State migrate outside the State for seeking employment, either in the plantations or in the industrial belts 011 West Bengal and Assa~, thereby in­creasing the sex-ratio. In case of Parhaiya, however, their sex­ratio appears to reflect the actual distribution of the sexes as, unlike some other tribal communities of the State, there is. no evidence to suggest that the Parhaiya have been migrating to other State~ for securing jobs in plantations or industries there.

However. the sex-ratio of the community varies a good deal in the various districts, being 970, 1061, 778, 2053 and 429 in Palamau, Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Santal Parganas and Gaya districts, respectively. No apparent reason for such huge- variation in the sex-ratio is forthcoming. But the sex-ratio in Palamau and Haza­ribagh, the areas of their concentration appears to be more or less normal. In Gaya the very low sex-ratio is not significant due to the meagre population of 16 persons who appear to be mostly male immigrants from the areas of concentration of the commu­nity, viz., Palamau and Hazaribagh districts. In Ranchi and San­·tal Parganas the reason for higher sex-ratio is not known, but it is not of any consequence in view of the small population of the community in these districts. In ract,. as suggested earlier, the ethnic identity of. the community is uncertain in the Santal Par­ganas.

The following table gives the distribution of the Parhaiya population in the three broad age-groups, along with sex-ratio, as per 1961 Census:-

Table No.3

Table showing the sex-wise break-up of the Parhaiya by broad age-groups (with percentage of population of each group to

total population in brackets)

Age-group Total Males Females Sex ratio

0-14 5,179 2,663 2,516 945 (42.21) (42'89) (41.52)

15-44 5,112 2,425 2,687 1,108 (41,66) (39'06) (44' 35)

45+ 1,977 1,121 856 764 (16'13) (18.05) (14'13)

TOTAL 12268 6,209 6,059 976 (100%) (100%) (100%)

19

From the figures given in the table it is seen that their highest proportion (42.21 percent.) is found in 0-14 age-group followed by 15-44 age-group, which accounts for 41.65% population. As is to be expected their lowest number is found in 45 + age-group, which ·covers only 16. 13 % population.

The proportion of the Paihaiya population in the three age­groups is in broad conformity with the general as well as the Sche­duled Tribe population of the State as a whole. Similarly, their sex-ratio by broad age-groups, viz., 945 in the 0-14 age-group. 1108 in the 15-44 age-group and 763 in 'the 45 and above age­group is more or less in conformity with the two categories of population mentioned above. It is to be noted that the sex-ratio is",highest in the reproductive age grollp wHich is considered by some as progressive in so far as population growth is concerned.

Population Trend

Though the population of the Parhaiya is not available for the Census years 1921 and 1951, there being no caste-wise or tribe-wise enumeration in the latter year, it is possible to throw some light on the population variations or trend of growth of the community since the dawn of the twentieth century on the basis of their population recorded in the other Censuses. These are indicated in the following table:-

Table No.4

Table showing the variation in Parhaiya population of Bihar from 1901 to 1961

S1. CenSus Popu- Variation Percen- Source No. Year lation in num- tage of

bers variation

1901 7,839 .. (C. I·, 1901, Vol. VIA, Pt. n A, 1902).

2 1911 9,452 +1,613 +20'58 (C. I., Vol. VII, Pt. III, 1912) .

3 1921 N.A. 4 1931 9.671 +219 +2'32 CC· I., 193]. Vol. vn Pt.

II, 1933 ; 135). 5 1941 10,134 +463 +4.79 (C. 1., 1941,

Tables, 1942). Vol. VIn

6 1951 N.A. 7 1961 12,268 +2,134 +21'06 (C. I., 1961, Vol.

V-A, (ii), 1966). I, Pt.

20

It is seen from the above table that the Parhaiya community in Bihar ha,s regis~ered a m.od.::rate and steady increas~ during th_e.. first six dec/!des. The community registered largest increase in. the 1901-11 decade as its population went up by 20.58 per cent. The figure for the 1921 decade is not available. But the increase: in the two decades 1911-1931 is very low. being only 2.32 per cent in twenty years. In the 19'31-41 decade. the population registered a slight increase of 4. 79 per cent. As stated above .. in the 1951 Census individual community-wise enumeration was not carried out, but the next decadal Census. viz. that of 1961. witnessed a further increase to the tune of 21 .06 per cent. Thus .. during the first six decades of the century the population of the P.arhaiya of Bihar increased- by 36.10 per cent.-from 7839 in 1901 to 122.6"8 in 1961. This is a modest increase which is not at par with the overall growth of the popUlation in the country in. the corresponding period.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND ETHNIC A FFTL lA­TIO~S

No reliable scientific account l)n the ph} sical charactcri-.tics of the Pdrhaiyu appears to b.:: available in the: lIterature on the cummunity. Some llf the earlier writers hav..:- indiscriminately referred to them as a 'Dravadian tribe' or "non-.\r)an tribe', Daltl1n top. cit.) ha~ stated that he noticed considerable variety of features among them and observed that they might be classed as '~egro' as well as 'Mon)!olian'. Out of the four subjects observed by him. two were "dark and prognathous" while the other two "bright copper coloured with flat. broad faces and slightly oblique eye,,", But a~ his ob!>ervation was based on only four individuals. it cannnt be relied upon to arrive at any conclu­sion regarding the physical features of the community in the Statf'

Sunder has obi'ierved. "in height they are generally about 5'3". They have broad flat faces with !>lightly oblique eye~ and their colour is dark copper" (op dt). From hI!> ubservations too, it would imply that they have certain Mongloid traits. Drake Brockman Cap cit.) was cunstrained to mention that they are of stunted growth. their height being 5'3". Crooke (op cit.) has ahu stated that th~ir height is 5'3". The basis of the observa­tion~ un their height by the latter two writer .. is not known: but apparently they seem tu ha"e their recordings on the information pmvided by Sunder (op cit.), referred to above, as all have re­corded the same height, viz. 5'3".

During the field investigation On the Parhaiya community in connectinn with the present !'>tudy the height vertex and som.ltos­copic obscrvalion ... were made in respect of 32 adult male Parhaiva residing in Latehar, Ranka and Cha1tarpur anchals in Palam~tu dil-otrict. In conformity with the ubservations of the earlier writers their stature was found to be ~hort. But they did not betray any distinct Mongoloid features reported by a few of them. The salient features of their phy!>ical characteristics reoorded during the field investigation are as follows:-

They are l!enerally short in ~tature, the height vertex rang­ing from 144 ~ centimeters h) Hi5. 17 with a mean of 156.2 cen­timetn::" which falls within the range of ~hort stature. As regards the skin colour on the fa.:e. the maiority of them were having dark shades. Three (or ten per cent.) were having very dark

21

22

brown colour. 24 (or nearly 70 per cent.) chocolate colour. 2 (or 10 per cent.) yellow-brown colour. The hairs on their head were mostly wavy. Out of the 32 persons, 19. (or 60 per cent.) pos­.sessed hair with medium waves. 12 (or 37 per cent.) with low waves. while only one person was having somewhat straight hair.

The depression at the root of the nose was medium though a few individuals were having shallow depression and an equal number deep depression. To put it in terms of percentages, near­ly 80 per cent. of them were having medium depression at the root of the nose, while 10 per cent. each had shallow and deep depression. They, however, did not betray any significant Mon­goloid features or traits as their .eye slits were invariably straight without the presence of any epicanthic fold. Besides. none of them were having a broad face. In fact, 21 persons (or 65 per cent.) were having oval face and the remaining 11 (35 per cent.) round face. Further, their cheek bones were moderately develop­ed and only one person was having prominent cheek bones. Their lips had a slight tendency for thickness as 4 (or 15 per cent.) were having thick lips, the remaining 22 having medium thickness of lips. A few, i.e., 14 out of 32 persons, (or nearly 44 .per cent.) showed a slight tendency for alveolar prognathism or projection of lower jaws.

To sum up the Parhaiya are short statured. Their height vertex recorded in connection with the present study is in con­formity with the height recorded by earlier writers. viz. 5'3". But the community does not betray in significant Mongoloid features. Their physical characteristics show more affinity with 'Proto­;australoids'

FAMILY, CLAN, KINSHIP, INHERITANCE AND SUCCES­SION

Except for Risley (Vol. II, 1891) who has reported totemistic septs among the Parhaiya no other earlier writer has made a men­tion of exogamous clans in their society. In fact. Crooke Cop cit.) and Pra~ad (l961: 202-204) are categorical that the Parhaiya do not have any clan system. The field investigation relat­ing to the present study also indicates that they are not divided into exogamous clans. though they recognise a grouping called r;otia; but the concept of the gotia among them is quite different from that of the Hindus. They refer to all th;::ir kins -consallgui­neou~ as well affinal-as their Rotia. In the absence of exoga­r.10US units they regulate their marriages by ~imply avoiding mar­riages with clos.e relations. up to third degree on the father's side and up to second degree on the mother's.

They have another type of grouping called khut katti. Each khllt kutti is named after the place where the ancestors. of Par­huiya families settled first after clearing the jungle.,. Though with the pa<;sage of time the members belonging to one "-hut katti have disper<;ed to different places, yet they maintain social and emotio­nal links with the place of their origin. This is borne out by the fact that though under ordinary circumstances the Parhaiya offer ancestral worship at the mua (abode of the dead ancestors) installed in the house. on certain occasions. especially when there is a calamity in the family, they visit the original place of their khut katti for worship of their ancestors.

Family Size and Composition

In order to gain some insight about the institution of the family and its orientation towards nuclear or extended type, the particulars about tbe size and actual composition of the house-

23

24

hold were recorded in respect of 124 Parhaiya households in the Palamau district. These are given in the table below:

Table No.5

.Table showing the .size of the Parhaiya households Surveyed

No. of individuals per household

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10 •

11 •

12 •

No. of households (with percentages to the total number of households)

6 4'84

22 17'74

25 20'16

21 16.94

17 13'71

12 9·68

10 8.06

6 4'84

2 1· 61

L 0'81

2 1'61

124 100'00

It is seen from the above table that the frequency of the small sized households is higher~ The average size of the households.. on the basis'of the above sample of 124 households comes to 4.16. which is less than the national average of 5. O. As many as 74 of the 124 households have only one to four persons per house­hold. In other words.. 62. 9 per cent., or nearly two third. of the households have less than four members each. The largest number of households-25 or 20.16 per cent - have 3 members each. These are followed by two member households numbering 22. As many as six households have only one member each. who is either a widow or widower or even an unmarried male. In the later case a thirty years old person was found living alone as he coul~

25

not be married on account:.:of oeing physically handicapped. There were only three households having ten to twelve persons. These include one household having ten members and two having t\yelve members each.

As regards the actual composition of the above 124 house­holds, it was found that the households range from single member "broken' or <incomplete' type to 'extended type'. including linearly as well as collaterally extended type of households of different configurations. The following table gives the actual composition of the 124 households surveyed:-

Table No>. 6

Table showing the composition of 124 Parhaiya households surveyed

Composition

self (widower)

2 Self (widow)

3 Self (widower) and unmarried son

4 Self (bachelor)

5 Self and wife •

6 Self, wife and widowed father Of mother.

7 Self, wife and unmarried Younger brother.

• 8 Self:wife and deceased' brother's unmarried SonS.

9 Self, wife and unmarried children

10 Self and two wives and un­married Children.

-11 Self,wife,unmarriedchildren and widowed mother.

12 Self, wife, unmarried children, and unmarried brother.

T3 Self, wife, children, including one married son and his wife.

Number TypologY

3 Broken

2

2

Ditto.

Ditto.

IncOmplete

19 Incomplete nuclear

3 In complete nuclear with adhesion.

Ditto.

Ditto .

66 Nuclear.

2 Polygynous.

3 Nuclear with adhesion

Ditto.

3 LinearlY extended.

26

Table No. 6-Contd.

composition

14 Self, wife, one married son, his wife and children.

15 Self, wife, married daughter and her husband.

16 Self, wife and son's son and his wife.

17 Self wife, daughter's son and his' wife.

18 Self, wife and children, including at least two married sons, and their wives and children.

19 Self, wife and children including at least two married sons and their wives.

20 Self, wife and unmarried children, younger brothers of the former, including one married brother, his wife and unmarried children and widowed mother.

21 Self, wife and children, including one married son, his wife and children, daughter and her husband.

Total

Number Typology

5 Linearly extented.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto·

4 Linear-cU'm-collaterally 'extended.

3 Linearly-cum- collaterally extended.

.1 Collaterial

Ditto.

124

It is seen from the above table that out of the 124 households as many as 66 are of nuclear type and 27 of broken nuclear or incomplete type. The latter include 19 households comprising a married couple without children. In addition, there are five more households which can be termed as 'incomplete nuclear with adhesion' as in these cases a widowed father or mother or un­married brother or deceased brother's son were staying with the head of the household. Four other households can be termed as 'nuclear with adhesion' as there a couple and their unmarried children stayed with the widowed mother or unmarried younger brother of the husband. In other words, 104 or 83.87 per cent. of the households are either of 'nuclear', 'broken nuclear', 'in­complete' or 'nuclear with adhesion' type. Conversely, only 20 households (16.13 per cent.) are oriented towards extended types

27

having different configurations. These include linearly extended (11) collaterally extended (1) as well as Linear-cum-collaterally extended (8).

Among the interesting households a mention may be made of two households where the head of the household is having two wives as well as children from the both. In another case the married daughter and her husband were staying with her parents. In yet another case a married daughter and her husband shared the household with her parents, brothers and sisters, including a married brother, his wife and children. Some time comparatively distant relations share the same household as in one case where a couple stays with their daughter's son and his wife.

According to the. Parhaiya it is coustomary in their society that after marriage the newly married couple sets up their own household which mayor may not be in the vicinity of the paren­tal household. Generally, the household is split up within two or three years of the marriage as it is considered that the econo­mic exigencies are unable to support a large sized household. The process of split is hastened by the small sized Parhaiya houses which cannot accommodate large families. They believe that after marriage it is incumbent for a youngman to establish his own househoLd and earn his livelihood by his own efforts. In case he does not possess any land for cultivation, he is required to support his family by collection of minor forest produce and selling the same in the weekly hat. Though it is customary among the Parhaiya that the married son should set up a household of his own; in some cases a quarrel between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was cited as the cause of the actual split. In one case a\ quarrel between mother and the son was also safd to have caused the setting up of the :sew household by the married son.

Thus, the residence after marriage is mostly neo-Iocal thougl. cases of patri-Iocality are also not uncommon. In some cases the married daughter and her husband stay in the house of her parents, the latter in the capacity of ghar-jawain.

From the composition of the households and the marriage and kinship usages, it is seen that the Parhaiya society is orga-' nised on patripotestical and patronymic principles. The father in a Parhaiya household commands high respect and authority. But there is also evidence of inter-generational conflict, which come in the way of cordial relations between the father and the married son.

28

The Parhaiya are patrilineal and the descent is reckoned in the male line. According to the customary law. the ancestral property is equally shared by the sons to the exclusion of the daughters. who can stake a claim in the parental property only in such cases. where there are no male issues. The widow has a life int~rest in her husband's property as long as she does not remarry. In case she does, she forefeits all the rights to the prop~rty of her deceased husband. The Parhiliya still like to dispense property matters in accordance with their customary laws.

Kinship.-The Parhaiya appear to follow a descriptive sys­tem of kinship terminology. But in some cases they use a com­mon term of address for a category of kins. As for example, -one may address one's own son. brother's son. sister's son, wife's brother's son and wife's sister's son and the like by the term "babu'. Similarly. in addition to one's own elder sister, the term <didi' is also used to address the husband's elder brother's wife. All the above brothers, sisters. uncles and aunts and their sons and daughters are held in a common bond of relationship. A few of the Parhaiya kinship terms have been indicated in the appendix. In view of the commonness of the Parhaiya Kinship terms with those of the neighbouring Hindus it is difficult to' say whether during the course of time the Parhaiya have given up some of their own kinship terms and adopted the kinship termi­nology of the Caste Hindus as a result of their close cu~tural -contact and in acculluration from Hindus which they have been 1Undergoing for quite some time.

The Parhaiya permit joking reiationship between the devar (husband's younger brother) and bhoujai (elder brother's wife). and between sari or sali (wife's younger sister) and bahnoi (elder sister's husband). On the other hand. an avoidance is ob­~erved between bhasur (husband's elder brother) and bhav (youn­ger brother's wife), and between bahnoi (younger sister's husband) and jethsar (wife's elder sister).

Thus, the kinship system as well as the customs of intimacy or avoidance between different .sets of relations in the Parhaiya community appear to follow the same pattern as found among the other neighbouring Hindu communities.

SETTLEMENT PATTERN. DWELLING, DRESS. ORNAMENTS AND DIETARY HABITS

:Settlement Pattern

The Parhaiya mostly live in hilly terrains and their settle­ments are located at the hill tops near the jungles. But many of them have recently come down to the hill slopes and the plains and settled there. Except in a few cases, like that of Lolki village located in Dhurki Block where barring one house belong­ing to a Brahmin, all the others belong to the Parhaiya, they generally do not form separate villages of their own. They mostly live in multi-ethnic villages along with other tribal com­munities, like the Chero. Kharwar, Korwa and Gond. etc. Dur­ing the field investigation undertaken in connection with the ethnographic study on the community it was found that exceet in a few places. like the Sulli village located in Ranka Block where their houses are inter-spersed among those of the other communities, in most of the villages their dwellings are located at one corner of the village, either clustered together in the form of tola (hamlet)-as in the case of Sukra village located in Chain­pur Block where their hamlet is known as Koraha tola-or scat­tered over a vast patch of land amidst their fields as in the case of the Behra Tanr village in the Latehar Block.

The Parhaiya do not appear to follow any definite settlement pattern. Usually. they build their houses in a block of two or three which are arranged in rows facing each other on either

_. side of the village stree't.

Sometimes two rows intersect each other as the houses are built at right angles to each other. The following are a few im­

·portant features of their settlements:-

(1) Proximity to a danri (water source). rivulet or stream;

(2) Proximity to a tank or reservoir from where they can draw water for irrigating their fields;

(3) Proximity to their agricultural fields. and

(4) Location at hill tops. upland or hill slopes. from where they can keep a watch over the fields and carryon cul­tivation.

29

30

Houses

An average Parhaiya house is generally a small and dingy­structure with bamboo walls and low thatched roof. But oeca-· sionally a few houses having low mud walls with tiled roofs arc also seen. The roof rests on a latticed bamboo framework which­is supported over the walls by placing cross b.eams of wood or stems of a tree. The roof either slopes on all the four sides or on the two long sides. in case the house has a rectangular plan.

The plan of a Parhaiya house is generally rectangular or­square shaped and having an enclosure or a courtyard, locally referred to as ghorna. The ghorna is usually fe:oced from all the sides with bamboo sticks to form a compound. Generally. each house comprises a larger apartment used as a living room and another apartment of smaller size. In most cases a portion of the larger apartment is partitioned to form a side apartment for storing household goods. A corner of the living room is used as the kitchen. There is a closed verandah in front of the rooms, one corner of which is utilised for keeping water pitchers kept over a raised plantform made of bamboo. A dhenki (paddy hus­ker) and jata (grinding stone) are installed at the other end of the verandah. The walls of a few houses are provided with a few bamboo shelves for keeping utensils or other household goods. Generally. the houses are not provided with any regular door through the entrance is sometimes closed with a bamboo frame­work. known as taIra, which is secured by inserting khunta or pegs of wood. For sheltering cattle, pigs and goats they erect..a sepa­rale shed. called dhava, at the back of the ghorna, behind the liv­ing::quarters.

In each house the courtyard in the front has a platform with a heap of chunks of stones kept over it. It is called devithan, the abode of goddess dhartimata, symbolised with a trishul (three bladed knife or a trident) which is fixed on the heaps of the stones surrounded with red flags. Besides, each house has a corner of the living room earmarked as muanthan, regarded as the abode of the spirits of the ancestors. which is worshipped by making offerings to it throughout the year on all important occasions in the household.

Before constructing a house generally they first consult a Brahmin priest for approving the proposed house site. Otherwise •.. the builder himself observes certain omells and signs to find out whether the proposed site is suspicious or not. This :includes insertion of a wooden peg in the ground on the proposed site and'

31

thorns of ber plant (zyzyphus species) and kikar tree (Mimosa spe­cies) being tied to it. The movements of the thorns in certain direction indicate whether the site is auspicious or not. I'll certain other cases the voices of certain animals hear in the vicinity of the site of the constr1!ction of the house provide the needful answer. It is believed that the voice of a jackal, fox or deer is considered auspicious while that of the tiger and certain other animals is inauspicious. Sometimes, if a house proves to be inaus­picious, they abandon it altogether and build a new house on another site. During the field investigation it came to lfght that one Jadugar Parhaiya had built a house in 1967 at a certain place after having selected the site with the performance of usual rituals in consultation with a priest. However, six months after shifting to the house his son's wife died. It is also said that the other -members of his household also found themselves in various troubles and suffered from diseases. Eventually, Jadugar had to desert the house and build a new one. The Parhaiya also prefer that the main door or the entrance of the house should face the east as it is considered auspicious. The house is constructed by the builder and his family members. But during important phases, such as roof laying, flooring, etc. the relatives and friends also help, who are essentially entertained with a feast including liquor after the completion of the house.

There are only a few household articles to be found in an average Parhaiya household. These mostly include a few cooking pots, wooden ladles, storing vessels and mats, etc. Besides, these households also possess certain implements required for carrying on agricultural operations as well as collection of minor forest produce.

A list of the common household goods is given below:­Utensils :-Karchul, a flat seived ladle made of metal used for frying. Karachi, a metal ladle_ Handi, an earthen round jar. Thari, a big metal plate. Katori, a metal bowl. Ralti, a steel bucket. Randhana, a vessel with a long beak. Kathwat, a wooden bowl.

3:2

Agricultural Implements:­Juwat, a yoke. Har, a plough. Phar, a ploughshare. Chauk, a leveller. Gainta, a rake. Sikar, a chain. Kori, a spade. Sakal, a digging tool. Basket and Mat work: Sup, a winnowing fan. Mauni, a small bamboo basket. Cholo, a big basket where hen lay eggs. Patia, a palm leaf mat. Other household goods: Silwat and Lohra, pestle and mortar. Balli, an steel bucket. T arayu, a weighing balance. Ballam, a spear. Lathi, a bamboo stick. Khati, a cot. Lalten, a lantern.

Food Habits

The Parhaiya are non-vegetarian by tradition, having no com­punction against taking meat, fish or pork. But it would appear that they adjure beef. This seems to be substantiated by the ear­lier accounts on the community such as those by Sunder and Crooke. In this connection Sunder (op. cit.) has observed, "fisn of all kinds, young pigs and castrated pig. called meda, fowls. goat's meat, deer. hare, doves, partridge. peacock and quails are eaten. They obstain from eating beef and mutton ............ ". The common local varieties of fish consumed by them include garai, charka, pothee, bicharee, getua, kusuma, garla, siriranga, guthna, babari, barar, baruani, kajar, bodar, dhanhwa, nakta, pokhalbat, katha, bagu11i, bani, goinji, chalhawa, banspataeya, jhingla, ledra, meku, balya, rohu, saur and tengar, etc.

It would, however, appear that their food habits have under­gone some change in the recent years and now they take pork only sparingly. In this connection, Sahay has observed, "the

33

atfcestors of the Pllrhaiya ate pork and still occasionally, they sacrifice pig to appease certain deities like Deehwar and Goreya~ but for a .few generations they have given it up as a regular food as well as its domestication since it is considered to be polluting and derogatory by the Hindus. Almost all of them have com­pletely given up this food" (Sahay: 1965). In fact, recently some of them have given up non-vegetarian food as they claim themsel­ves to be the followers of the sect of Gurumukhs. They even es­chew eggs and fish.

But even those Parhaiya who are still non-vegetarians adaully only occasionally take non-vegetarian diet as on account of restric-­tions on the use of forests they are not able to obtain game from there, nor are they in a position to buy non-vegetarian diet, espe­cially mutton and chicken from the local market.

Rice appears to be their staple diet, but they also take certain other varieties of cereals. like makai (maize), marua (Elusine cara­cana), barley and certain other local varieties, such as golni, Sala­ri, katka and Jatangi. But it is said that f0W families can afford to have two square meals comprising cereals along with pulse or ric~ througout the . year and most of them have to supplement their food oy edible varieties of roots, tubers and leafy vegetables grow­ing in the nearby jungles. The most common roots and tubers taken by them are locally known as gethi and kheska. They also store dry leaves of kOtinar, gendhari and chakaura and consume­them as sag (dry leafy vegetable) in the lean season.

The Parhaiya usually take bhat (rice) or roti (unleavened flat­tened bread) of maize along with pulse or a vegetable and, some­times, a non-vegetarian dish of mutton or fish. Breads prepared from marua or barley or wheat flour are taken only on certain festive and ceremonial occasions. They cook the food in the medium of jatangi or sar-son (mustard oil). Sometimes, they also use keonN or bahera oil. They generally take spicy food by first _ frying corriandar, chillies, onions and garlic and" then COOKing the vegetables or food item in the medium of above spices. Sometimes, they also roast the flesh of an animal which­is taKen witH salt. .

It would also appear that some Parhaiya are fond of handya, a country liquor prepared ff(~m rice or mahua fruits. For brew­ing the liquor they boil paddy or marua to which some tablets of ranu are added for fermentation. Sometimes, a few local roots or herbs are also added to make it more delicious and jntoxicating. The mixture is kept apart for four or five days. When it is fully feFmentated, the liquor is extracted by distillation process. Some~ times,- they also purchase.handya-from the ha~ (w.eekly market) Of

34

from local shop or bhatti. The handya has an important place in tbe ritual complex of the Parhaiya community as it is used in the worship with the offerings or sacrifices to tbe deities.

Besides handya, a few Parhaiya are said to be addicated to khaini (powered tobacco mixed with lime). which they smoke in ,hukka or chilam (hubble bubble). Now bidi is becoming popular and many of them have given up khaini in favour of the bidi.

Dress The traditional dress of a male Parhaiya, which is still in

vogue in a few areas, is a langoti (loin~cloth) only. But now~a­days the dhoti has largely replaced the traditional loin-cloth. Previously. a piece of cloth known as Pichora, was sometimes put on as an upper garment. But now the kamiz has replaced the Pichora. In addition to the pichora or kamiz, a piece of a cloth is sometimes kept on the shoulders. While working in the fields the Parhaiya generally do not put on any garment on the upper part of the body though a few put on a baniyan (vest). Lately. a few educated,young boys have started the use of under-garments. such as banyan or fangot'i which are' put under kamiz and PYiama respectively; a few afRuent elderly Parhaiya put on shirt and pyjama and jawahar vasket (vest) in addition to a Gandhi Cap as a headgear.

The traditional dress of the females comprised a sari. half of which was wrapped to cover the lower part of the body and the other half the upper part. especia1ly the breasts. As a result the sari fell short of the ankles, mostly covering the body up to just below the knees. It is said that due to their cultural COR­tacts with the plains people, the luga or choli has now become popu1ar among them, particularly among the young women folk. But even now at home generally they do not put on the luga or choli. Chlldren below the age of five or so mostly go naked.

The Parhaiya usually purchase their clothes from the weekly hat or from the local weavers known as <Baraik' or 'Chik Baraik'. The mi1l~made cloth has. however, now made itself felt in the area and is in great demand. As a result fabrics prepared by the Chik Baraiks have lost their past monopoly and. in fact, are now almost absolete.

Ornaments It would appear that the Parhaiya males as well as the females

are fond of ornaments. The men usually put on around their waist an ornament called kardhani, which is made of either silk cocoon or p1ainted thread. The kardhani is also used for

35

banging. 11Obacco pouch. thorn extractor. keys and hensia, etc. The o'ther ornaments which are common among the males are one or two varieties of necklaces. mostly made of silver coins. beads, conches or shells and a finger ring or two. They like to put ,on these ornaments during festive occasions, especially when 'they participate in the dances.

The more popular ornaments put on by the Parhaiya women include .the chichia a keel worn in the alea; lola, a ring worn across the nose sepfttm; nakvesar, a nose-ring of silver; nathni, a large nose ring; karnaphuI. an ornament put on the earlobe; jhu­.mak, an ornament worn in the lower part of the ear lobe; baria, an earring worn in the lower part of the ear lobe; tarkula, an ornament of silver or lac also put on in the.ear lobe; kana, another 'variety of earring made cvf silver; sikuri a necklace made of beads; ghengke, a necklace having a broad silver pendant; guria or laZri, a white or red colonred necklace made of beads; baju or bajua, an armlet made of silver or gillete; Pachua, a wristlet; pahunchee, 'another variety of wristlet; churee or bangles; themua or thick bangles; banguru, a bracelet made of coins;' bajni, an anklet; kan­kana, a silver bracelet; korau, a thick anklet; chanda, a ring made of silver or gillete; nupur, a chain of silver worn around the ankles; baturee, a toe-ring and anguthi, a finger ring of silver or gillete.

These ornaments are usually made of cheap materials like lac, gillete. zinc and aluminium-rarely of silver or gold. These are available in the local hat or purchased from women pedlars belonging to Maler tribe who visit the Parhaiya villages regularly. Sometimes, a'll affluent Parhaiya who can afford gold or silver ornaments. visits one of the nearby towns like Nagar. Gharwa or Daltonganj for purchasing these.

The Parhaiya women appear to be rather fastidious about their personal decoration. They oil and comb their hair regularly and keep them glossy. They use a wild loam for washing their hair, which after being combed are tied in a knot. is allowed to hang on their back as a pig tail or' pony tail.

Tottooing.-The Parhaiya practise tattooing or khodana, as they locally call it. But it is confined only to the women folk and appears to have aesthetic as well as magico-religious signi­ficance. It is believed that the tattoo marks accompany the dead in the heaven and help to identify the relations. According to their tradition a Parhaiya girl must be tattooed' before she

36

attains puberty. In any case she cannot be married without be­ing tattooed first. Even in those cases when a girl in the com­munity is married at an early age. she must undergo tattooing before the bahurata ceremony is soleminized. The tattooing is done by certain women pedlars belonging to Maler or Badin community. These women periodically visit the Parhaiya vil­lages and charge a nominal amount. varying from fifty paise tQ one rupee, depending on the labour involved in tattooing the desired design. They tattoo the desired djlsign with a needle which is first dipped in indelible ink or so01 or a suitable pig­ment before pricking the skin. The most common designs noted among them are the figurines of elephant. phulwari (garden) moon. etc. Sunder has, however. reported that the ornamenta­tion is according to the fancy of the women who performs the operation but the patterns are generally necklace, bracelet and anklet. The figures are tattooed on the arms, neck. chest and ankles of women. He has further observea that for tattooing antimony and women's milk are used and pricking is done with three needles (op cit.).

ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION, HYGIENIC HABITS. DISEASE AND TREATMENT

It would appear that the water scarcity in the areas inha­bitated by the Parhaiya has contributed to the lack of general sanitaltion and personal cleanliness among a few of them. They have to go a long distance to get potable water which is usually available in the kuchha wells in the river beds. But during the rainy season these wells are rendered useless as they overflow due to flood water. The Parhaiya have. therefore. no recourse but to rake dirty and contaminated water from the streams and rivulets. etc.. which fs generally fetched in earthen pitchers by their women folk.

Though the Pathaiya settlements leave much to be desired from the point of 'view of sanitation, they keep their dwellings fairly neat and clean. The housewives sweep the house daily and often provide the flool" and wans with a fresh coating of a mixture of clay and' cowdung. But the houses are rather dingy due to lack of proper ventilation.

The Parhaiya -2e.nerally wash their clothes with ordinary ash obtained from -the hearth which is first boiled with water and then applied to. the clothes. The clothes are then taken to. the nearby st.ream or rivulet for washing. Only a few Parhaiya_ appear to have taken to washing clothes with commercial brands; of washing soaps available in the nearby towns.

It would seem that most of the Parhaiya are a superstitiouS'. folk who believe 1fl.al the diseases are :J;llostly caused due to the­wrath or unhappiness of a deity or an evil spirit. They, there­fore. ma~e every e:ffort to appease the spirit or deity which is. associated with the disease. A functionary known as the Ojha ... who mostly belong to their OWn community, plays. an important role in the diagnosis and the treatment of the disease. On the basis of certain signs or divination he diagnoses the- disease as well as the spirit fJr the deity behind it. Next, he _performs the necessary rituars,. which sometimes include sacrifices of animals, aimed at appeasing the spirit or the deity concerned. In some places the Pahan (priest) also performs the dual role of a priest

37 4-4 R.O. India175

38

as well as a diviner or a medicine-man. Sometimes. he also presc~bes c~rt~in herba-l me~icines found i..- the' .nearby jungles. In thIS connectIqn th~ foJlowmg accol)nt of the medical practices of the Parhaiya reported by Sunder would be of ioome interest.

« •.•••• In fever a root called Satour i& crushed and mix­ed with water which is then drunk. The bark of the Karam (Adina cordifolia) tree is also crushed and mixed with water, ~hich is drunk, after being strained. IfJ high fevtlr the root of the molvan tree is crushed. mixed with water which is strained and drunk. The fruit of the mol van tree is crushed and mixed with water. This produces a froth. which is rubbed over the body. and is said to reduce the temperature. In cold. the old :stem of a cob of maize is burnt, pounded and mixed with black salt and rocJc-salt. ~ pill of this is madv ,and ,then swallowed. When the stomach is heated the bark of -the baher tree is crush­ed and mixed with water. which is strained .and drunk. Barley. turmeric and gur are grounded and mixed with water and drunk for the same complaint. In cough the juice of the sale tree is drunk. In sore throat, the harre (Terminalia .chebula) fruit is burnt. grounded and eaten. In diarrhoea the gum of the sale tree ,is powdered. m_ixed with fresh dahi (curd), ,and drunk. . In cholera. ~he seed of a,n old cucumber is grounded and given to the patient. In headache the fruit of the 'Bhel (Semecarpus ana­cardium) tree is cut, and juice is applied to' -the forehead. The

'bUsters caused thereby are said to remove fhe ,pain. The juice from leaves of the chilbil tree is also used for. blistering the head in the same manner. Garlic is sometimes used and rub· bed over the temples to remove the pain. When half the head is in neuralgia. the fruit of the panrer tree is. used. it is worn at the end of the lobe of the ear on the side of the face and llead. like an earring. In cold, chilly is ground~d. mixed with 'Water and drunk. For goitre, the root of tht? 'koinar tree and chitau or root are grounded, and rubbed' over the affected part. In small-pox cowdung is burnt. and ghi is poured over it. The ashes as soon as cool are put over the affected part." (Sunder: ib'id).

During the field investigation on the 'Parhaiya it was found -that they still depend a good deal on the herbal medicines pres.­cribed by the ojha or Pahan. It was reported in Gamharia viI· lrage (Ranka Block) that in case of chronic dysentery the root of arar plant is crushed, diluted with water and filtered and then administered to the patient. In some cases tasa (gum) ~r roots

39

of the Sakhu(J or Keonjhee plant is also prescribed in the simi­lar manner, For ordinary cold lmd cough the root. of a plant. locally known as Rangalli, is pounded. mixed with water and after filtering the mixture. given to the patient. The leaves of tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) is widely prescribed. especially in case of cold and fever. The method of administration is same as in case of the other medicines.

From the account given in the preceding para it seems that the Parhaiya still appear to entertain faith in indigenous method of diagnosis and treatment. Recently. however. they have start­ed availing of the allopathic treatment available in the nearby dispensaries or primary health centres especially when the indi­genous methods fail to give relief to the patient.

LANGUAGE. LlIERACY AND EDUCATION

Language

The Parhaiya have a dialect of their own which, accord­ing to Grierson (C. 1.1961. Vol. I, Pt. II-C (iii) 1967:241) belongs to the Mundari branch of austro-asiatic sub-family of languages. However. this dialect has been given up by most of them and now they have taken to Hindi or. in a few cases, the regional langu­age of the area as their mother tongue. This seems to be borne out by the 1961 Census data (ibid) on language of Scheduled Tribes according to which out of 12.268 Parhaiya in the State only 308 persons or. in other words. 2.51 per cent. returned Parhaiya as their mother tongue.

The following statemelIlt shows the distribution of mother tongue and bilingualism among the Parhaiya of Bihar as per .1961 Censlls :

Table No.7

Table on mother tongue~ spoken and bilingualism among the ParhaiyCl of Bihar

Mother tongue Total Speakers Particulars of the sub-speakers of sub- sidiary languages

sidiary languages

1 Hindi 11.288 22 Bengali (5) Kurukh (15)

Panchpargania (2)

2 Magahi/Magadhi 434

3 Parhaiya 308 241 Hindi (241)

4 Mundari 181 90 Bengali (3)

5 Sadan/Sadri 54 6 Hindi (82), Sad an/Sadri (5)

6 Bengali . 2 Hindi (6)

7 Khortha/Khotta

Total speakers 12,268 359

40

41-

. From the above table it is seen that the Parhaiya have re· turned seven mother. tongues. viz., Hindi Magahi Parhaiya Mundari. Sadri, Bengali and K'hortha. Of these, B~ngali and Khortha are negligible as o,nly 2 and' 1 personS respectively have retwned them as their ,mother -tongue. The largest' number (11288) speak Hindi as their mother tongue. In other words. 92% speak Hindi as their mother tongue. This is followed by Magahi - 438 speakers - and Patrhaiya _. 308 speakers. As regards the extents of bilingualism among >the Parhaiya it is observed that only 359 -persons of 2.93 per: 'Cent of their total population have returned one or more subsidiary languages. These includie Betngali.' Kurukh, ' . Pancbpargania. Hindi and Sadari. But except Hindi which has been returned as a subsidiary language spoken by a significant number of persons, the other languages are spoken by a ~dfu1 of persons. It is interesting that the largest number of bililngual Parbaiya are those who speak Parhaiya alS >their mother tongue, Out of 308 Parbaiya who have returned Parhaiya as their mother tongue 241 speak a subsidary language which is invariably Hindi.

From the above data it is clear that their ancestral mother tongue has been given up by most of them and now the majority, speak Hindi - 11288 out of 12268. as their mother tongue and 359 as their SiUbsidiary language. In other words. the bulk of their population speak Hindi either as their mother tongue or as a subsidiary language.

Educationally. the Parhaiya appear to be one of the most backward tribes. Banring the Sauria Pahria! they have the lowest literacy in so far as the Scheduled Tribes of Bihar are concerned! as according to the 1961 Census there were 2.3% literates among! them-against 9.2% literates among the Scheduled Tribes of. Bihar. This would imply that the Parhaiya have not eVeID kept pace with the sP.I'ead of liiteracy among the Scheduled Tribe Jx>pulation of Bihat" as a whole. As regards sex·wise break-up of literacy, it is found that 3.88 per cent of the males and 0.33 ~r ceIlJt··of the females are literate. The corresponding figiUll"es for the Scheduled Tribe categpry in Bihar is 15.22 per cent and: 3.18 per cent respectively. This would underline the fact tp.atl the Parhaiya. are lagging behind others iln the field of education. particularly their women folk as out of ,their total poulation of 6059 only a handfuL of 20 females ate literates. In other words.

not even one women in a poulatiC1n Of -300 is a' litera~ As re­gards the rural-urban distribution of literacy. -there is .nothing sigillifi~t worth comment as only 23 persons. all males. a:re residing in the urban areas and 3 -Of. in other words, 15 per cent of rthese are literate.

The following table gives the breaK-up of the' eduCational standards acllleved by the Parhaiya in the State .:

Ll.TERA~ AMONG PARHAtvA

43

Table No .. 8 Table showing .tlUf level of education achieved by the Parha1y,.{f

.in Bihar as per 1961 Census

Educational standard

Total p"j;)ulation III iterates Literates(without e<lu"

c£tional level) PrImary or junIor

Basic. • Matriculation or Hr.

SeCondary , Post-Matrfculation ..

. Total Rural Urban I .....:. _____ ---..__ ___ ---___ _---o---~rsons Males Perna es Persons Males Fe- Per-' Males Pe-

, . males sons males

11,268 6,209 6,059 12,245 6,186 6,059 23 .1.1,978 5,939 6,03911,958 5,919 6,039 20

261 241 20 258 238 20 3

26 26 26 2&

3 3 4 3

23 20 .r ~

3 .~ .. \

In view of. the 'fact rthat the literacy has a very narrow b~~e iL is no wonder that. the bulk of! the Parhaiya literates have not a:chieved any educ4tional leve.l. rthere being as many as. .261 litemtes withollt educational level among the 290 literates. ' ~n other' words. 91,.7 .PeT cent of the literates have not achieved a~y educational lever llnd' are merely expected tOo .read and write ,a simple retter. 26 persons - 'all males haVie achieved primary Qr juniQr basic level. while 3 persons - again ail males - have achieved matric· Qr, higher secondary level. A noteworthy' feature is that .none of the' females has achieved any educational le~l. not even primary- ot junior basic level.

The above dItt~ will clearly demonstrate that the spread bf education in the .pOmpmnity is a1most negligible which leaves littl~ scope for oGCilpational mobility for jobs ,or services ~n tertIary sect~ of; es.onomy.

The enumeration of 182 persons including 166 mares arid 16 females. as fulL,time students during the 1961. Census indi­cates that recently some efforts have- been made to educate their children. If the bulk of the above 182 full time students are pre­sumed to fall in the age group 0'.14. it would imply that nearly two third of the literates have received education in the deca4e preceding the 1961 Census. It can be further presumed that die remaining literates .are not expected. to be more 'that 25 years old. which WQuid lead ta infer that whatever literacy is' there it has spread amon~ the younger genetation Qnly., .

During t.he fie)d investigation for the present study a survey of 66 households having children in the schQol-going age (6-14 years) was made, .and certain particulars, relating to their, .edu­cation were collected. It was found that out. o~ the' ,66 hous9"

1 J _" I. J i ,. ., "",' ... -

'44

bolds surveyed as many as 52- or. -in other words. 82 per cent did 110t ever fiend their children to the scboo1. The remaining 14 households had sent one or more children.J;o the school at one .time or the other. Among these 14 hOU:8Oholds. altogether 24 children. 16 males and 8 females. weire. either attending SChODI at the time Qf, the surveyor were enrDlle(l- at cme time or the ¢her.

Tho num'ber of children in the schod-gOing age in -the 66 household's surveyed was as much as 127-70 males and 57 females. But out of these DnLy 17 children '(13 per cent) were enroHed in school, Among them 3 boys discontinued their studies and at the time Df survey only 14 children were att~nd­ing school. including eleven boys and three girls. In other, \yDr.ds,

_15.7 per ~nt boys and 6.2 per oenLgirls were.enrolled as -Stu­dents in the school at the time of the sUI'V'ey. Two of the boys discontinued their studies as they had no interest in the studies and used to play truant from. the school; the remaining one did not like to travel long distance to attend the school as there was

'nO' school in the vicinity of the village. Out of the 11 boys whO' were attending school. g were studying in Class 1. 2 in Class II and the remaining one in class V. The three girt students were "tudying ill clCl6S I only.

Durin,! the field investigation atn :attempt was made 10 find out the reason for low attendance in the schOOl and in this COil­nection discussions were held with a fe~ local teachers of the primary schools. The concensus was tb_at the Pachaiya. parents were mostty apathetic or indifferent to education of their chil­dren. After a good deal of persuasion a few of them have re­eently started sending their children to scbOoI but even among them the iDcidence qfl stagnation. wastage or drop outs is consi­derable.

In 8. few cases the parents withdraw their children from the school in the midt11e of the academic yCIIf on the ground of pressure Df work in the household! or agricultural field particu­!arly during the sowing and harvesting seaSQIl and at the time of the colleotion of bidi leaves.

One of the Teasons -for not sending the clu"tdren to school. as given out by the parents themselves. was that .they cequired the assistance of 'their ohildiren in atten<l:iql.t3 (be household chores or helping in earning the livelih~ . particularly in carrying out agricultund operations. Another, reasoo advanced was that the children were required to travel a tong distance to'

'attend the -school. A few frankly expresse¢ tI:teir doubts regard­ing tho utility c:A. scbool educatIon for their dtildren.

OCCUPATION AND ECONOMIC LIFE

In order to get some idea a'bout the traditional occupation and the economic life of the Parhaiya, it will be worthwhile to refer to some of the earlier literature on the community. Ac­cording to Drake-Brockman. ",The Parhaiya make a living prin­cipally by cutting an<;l selling wood 'and bamboo. and by colleot­ing and exchanging iQre~t '1?l'0duc~ such as lac" (Brockman; op. cit) The somewhat recent account given by Prasad (1961) re­.cords that the Parhpiya live by'hunting and food gathering. While the menfolk hunt . .a1}im,als ;,ro, the' jungl~, the womenfolk. along with the children, cqllect,.roots. and tubers. fruits and honey. He has also recorded that a'S" a"result of the introduction of the forest rules the Parhaiya had to come down. and settle on the foot-hills in the forest which caused a setback to their ~nomy. parti­cnklrly due to strict forest laws. He has stated that they are without land and have to depend on agricultural labour rendered in the fields .of their neighbours. According ID him, they supple­ment their, income as cutters ~ wood a!lld bamboo. on contract, (Prasad: ibid). But as early as in 1894. regarding the occupa­tiOn of Parhaiya (of Palamau). Crooke had stated. "some are good cultivators, bUrt the majority live in the hill ranges, and roam from spur to spur clearing small patches of ground and, cultivating a few hardy crops. They also bring down to the plains, honey. bee's wax. resin, lac and other jungle products. which they barter for grain. salt. tobacco and cloth" (Crooke. 011. cit).

Thus. it is seen that though as recent an account on the community as given by Prasad (1961) creates an impression that the Parhaiya are principally engaged. as foOd gatherers and hunters it appears that they have also been carrying on cultiva­tion from earlier times. This has 'been corroborated by the Par­haiya informants during the course of the field investigation. But from their account it appears that they mostly carried on 'slash and burn' system of cultivation. This type of backward system of cultivation has also been reported among the Parhaiya by Sahay Cop cit: 88}.

45

46

WORkERS AND NON WORI(ER~ AMONG PARHAIYA

P£R50NS

WORKER ~ E-=J NON WQRKER

Whatever may be. the earHer pOisition as discussed in de· tails in a subsequent account. according to the 1961 Census data most' of the 'Parhaiya workers have rt6tu~ed cultivwtion or agri.­cultural labour as their primary occupation i~dicating thereby that the community has laken to a~culture> as the m~in pl~nk of their economy.

47

Workers and Don-workers among the Parhaiya The following table gives the se:lC-wise <bfieak-up of the

Parhaiya working force in Bihar as per the 1961 Census data: ___, Table No.9

Table showing the worker~ dtnong the Parhaiya

Worker!> Percentage population of worker~

to total Population

PersoQS ". 12,268 6,905 56·28

Males 6,209 3,830 61-68

Females. 6,059 '. 3,075 50.75

It is seen. from the above tible iliat mit of 12,268 Parhaiya .. as hnany as 6905 or. in other words, 56.28 per cent, contribute to tlie working force. It is observed that the propor,tion of Wor­kers' in the community is in conformity with that of the Sche­duled 'Tribe category in the countty as a whole (57 per oent). But it is remarkably higher than that ~ong tfie general popuh~tion of Bihar, the percentage of wdrlCers ,among the latter being 41.40 per cent. But it may be observed that the percentage of workers' among the. Scheduled Tribe population of Bihar is much higber when compared to, the general population of the State. In fact; the percentage of workers . (58.93,), among the Scheduled Tribe "category 0{ Bihar is more than that of the Par­haiya community (56.28). The large difference in the proportion of working force between the tribal and non-triball population is largely due to the fewer returns of female workers in the latter catefoOTY - there being only. 27:12 per cent female workers ambng- the generit1 population against 56.98 per dent in the for­meL In otht?r w~ds!, ,tJ:l,e 'p_ro~r~on o~, Jf~ale ~orkers am~ng the Scheduled TnbeS"ls dot1151e .. tlian tliat 'among thej~nonAnbaI population. In the case of males the pe~entage of tribal wor­kers is only slightly higher (61.92) than among the others (55.60).

As regards the sex-wise break-U'_I) of die Parhaiya working force it is noticed that 61.28 per cent of the male and 50.75 per cent of the female populatiOn constitute the working; force. Though, as is to be expected, the male workers among the Par­haiya are slightly more than that among the females. - the latter make a significant contribution in the economio activities and it can be said that they are equal partners with males :in earning a livelihOOd for the family.

48

INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION' Q'F PARHAIYA WORKERS '

.. .'

-.. ..';.

· . · . . . . . . . ..... to •• . . · .. · ~ .. . · .. ; . · ... .

..: .. -... . .. ... .. .

. _--- .... ----- · ..... . .. 4 • .. ...... · .. .. .. . . . .. , ...... . . . .. . . .

o AS CULTIVA'It1A ~ AS AGRICULTUAAL l.A8OlIIID

S IN MINING QUARRfHG Etc. m AT HOUSEHOLD tNDUSTRY '

m IN OTHER SERVICE S

49

The low level of Parhaiya. economy, .discussed in the sub:-­.seque1lit acCount. reqUires a high degree of participation in sa. much so that a signifiqmt. n'u.tnbers ..oCboys, ,under age of four .. teen. have Deen -retUrned: as. ·wdtkers. Though as already stated in an earlier~se~tion. only 57.22 per Clent males are aged fifteen Or above th-e percentage of male workers returned during the 1961 Census is 61.68. Even if 1he entire male population over the age of fifteen is considered to constitute the workers. it is. obvious that stiIl 4.57 per cent workers fall in the age group' 0-14. -As regards females. though slightly less number of them have Deen returned as workers than their population over the­age of fourteen, it came to ligbt during the field invest~g,atiQn for the present study that girls of fourteen and below assist in carrying on agricultural operations, particularly. during SOWing: and harvesting seasons. in addition to household activities:

Industrial Qassification of Workers

The enclosed table on the industrial classification of the Parhaiya male and female workers based on 1961 Census data would throw some light on the OV'...cupational trend of the com­munity. It is seen therefmm that bulk of the workers have re­.turIred agriculture as .their principaf ocoupation. This is sub­stantiated by the fact that as many as 86.62 per cent. workers

Table No. 10

Table showing the Industrial classification of workers among the Parhaiya of Bihar (based on 1961 Census)

Workers and their indunri,al classification

Number Percentage of workers to total population (a)/percentage ofth'

• workers in industrialcate20TJ' to total workers

-------~-------------------Per- :Males Fe- Per- Males Fe-lons 'males Sons ma,les

Total 12.268 6.209 6.059 Total workers 6.905 3.830 3.075 (a)56.28 (a)61.68 (a)50.75

I. ~ Cultivator 3.533 1.956 1.577 51.17 51.07 51.28' II. As A'l:ricultural L .. bonrer 2,448 1,282 1,166 35.45 33.47 37.92

111. In Mining, Quarrying, Live-I stock, Forestry, Fishing,

Hunting. Plantation. Or-chard. and allied activities 376 289 87 5.45 7.55 2.83',

IV. At Household Indnstry 242 124 118 3.50 3.24- 3.84-V. In Manufacturing other

than household indu.try 4 4 0.06 0.10 VI. In Construction

VII. [n Trade and Commerce 2 0.03 0.03 0.03' VIII. In Transport, Storage and

.. Communication IX. In other serviCes 300 174 126 4.34- 4.54 4.10

50

have returned them5elves as agriculturist!;, 51.11 per cent as eul­.tiva.tors and 35.45 per cent as agricultural Jabourers. It is signi­ficant that a larger proportion of female workers is engaged all agriculturists - 51.28 per cent against 51.07 per cent males :as cu1tivato.rs and 37.92 per cent against 35.45 per cent mal·.es as agricultural labourers. The industrial category wbich has at­tracted the- Parbaiya wox}(ers. nexrt to culti.ration and agricultural labour is 'mining. quarrying. forestry .. etc.' which accounts for 5.45 per cent of their: working forcc. This is foHowed by "Other services" and household industry which accounts for 4.34 per . .ceat and 3.50 per cent workers respectively. The number o:l! Pru-baiya workers engaged in oilier i·udustrial :::fttegories is negli-gible. .

Thus, it is seen that the Parh.aiya are primarilY engaged in the traditional sector of economy (92.11 .peL cent} Only 3.60 per cent of the workers are e~~ed in secondary sector and 4.34 per cent in the 1ertiary sector> Considering tha1 only 2.30 -per cent 01 the Parhaiya are literates and that too mostly ,mth .. out acnieving any educational level, or below matricula!te in any case. it is obvious that most {)f' the persons. eng,aged in the cate­gory of '"other services~ are associa.ted with- tramtional types of. ,occupatIons. which do not require any educational qualifications.

The following account - gives. occupational details of tho Pasnaiya workers engaged in various occupations in s.ignificant numbers. particularly in cultivation and agricultural lahour.

Cultivation.-Though the Parhaiya. have been reported. to 'be- engaged. in cultivation in addition to food gathering and hunting foe quite some time.. as has aheady been stated, it appears that by and large they folic-wed 'the "slash and bum~ method of cultivation or shifHng- Cultivation. But due to the restrictions. imposed on the use of the fu:rests they had to give up th1S practice for settled" Cultivation. But it was: repo'rt­cd that even now sometimes s-ome of them leave a. part of thei~ land fallow fot two or three years after raising a 'CfOp over there to enable it to recuperate its fertility. This appeMS to' be so af they sparingly make use of the fertiliserS' or- manure. However duricg their sbif-t from c's1ash and. burn" s.ystenl of cultivation. to settled agriculture their land tenure system has ·undergone a chang.e .

Case stu-dy.-The 1teadman of the Be1rn.ra Tanr -vita~ at one tim~ held. 515 acres of land ~:bjch was distritn.Jted in. tbe fono~wing village;:

51

J'. Kon!, village = 200 acres

2. Mankari village = 25 acres

3. Behara Tanr village = 200 acres

4. Binghara vHlage = 150 acres

It was stated Ithat this land was settled about 60 years ago ; in the name of his father who cultivated about one-sixth of the abov~land" distributing the rest among certain Parhaiya families from whom he collected revenue at the following; rates:

Category of land

(i) Don, Class 1

(ii) Don, Class II

_(iii) Bari

(iv) Tanr Class I

(v) Tanr.Class II

Malguzari (revenue realised)

Rs. 3 per acre.

Rs. 1.50 per acre.

Rs. 1.50 per acre.

i of rupee per acre.

1/8 of rupee per acre.

The :ijeadn).an llsed to r:nake' so¢e profit 3S ~e deposited a fixed amount.for each village in the .revenue office.as follows:

Rs. 15./ - each for village Beh?ra Tanr :and Bingharru village; Rs. 9/- for Kone village and Rs .. 2.50 for Matikeri' village.

However, it is understood that after the land settlement was revised in 1951. the heachnan was left with 25 acres of land. the rest being transferred in the name of the actual cultivator families who were henceforth required to pay ,the land revenue ilira.."1Iy to the Government. Thus. the individual right over the land came to be recognised.

During the field investigation the Parhaiya informants complained that their land holdings have considerably shrunk du.ri~g the course of time for one or the other reason. They -stated that when there was no control over the forests, they had (ree access there. They could freely cultivate a large area in the forest according to their requirements. But after Ithe forest regulations were enforced. they could cultivate only limited land for cultivation.

S2

Land holdings.-An attempt was' made to find. ouf the­distribution and the size of the land holdings of the Parhaiya. In a sample survey carried 6ut duiiiig' ItM field investigation in the village Lolki. it was found that out of the 19 Parhaiya house-­holds residing in the village on1~ 14 possess agricultural land for cultivation. the other five households eke out I1:heir livelihood by doing ag;ricultural labour or by fol.lowing other miscellaheous occupations. The actual size of the land holdings of ·each of the households is given below in descending order:

HOUSehold

1 2 3 4 5 6 • 7 8 9

10 11. 12 13 14

Land owned (in

acres)

.-

18'02 11'88 11'51 10.42 9.90 8.82 7.70 6'93 6'6(), S'25 1'56 1'55 1·0S" 0.70

100'89.

It is seen that the 14,households possess 100.89 acres of land. the average size of their land holdings b:cing 6~S acreS; But if all the households 011 the Parhaiya in. the village. includ­ing those who do not. possess any land ,ar~ c;9psidere9._ the average size of the land hold~ngs comes down to v S,4 'aCI'es. AS" regards the individual holdi'ags' of each of .the households: it is' seen that four households possess land less than five acres each? In fact, none of them possess land more than two a'cres, ~ii households ,possess land between five acres and ten acres; wh,!le three households have land varying from ten acres to fifteen acres. This would indicate rthat the size'" of the land holdings .of different. households vary considerably. 1n another village. namely;

53

Behera Tam it was gathered that out of the 27 Parhaiya house­holds, 23 possessed agricultural land varying from 5 to 10 acres and the average size of land holdings in that village was only 3.7_ acres.

It is further observed that apart from the smalJ size of their land holdings the land cultivated by them is generally of poor quality. In Palamau district the land is categorised into two groups:

(1) Don or low land where irrigation facilities are avail­able and wet cultivation of crops. like paddy, can be carried on and .

(2) Tanr or upland! where irrigation facilities are completely lacking and only dry crops like the various varieties of pulses. such as urad. arhar and barley and maize can be raised. Obvi­ously, the output of the upland cultivation is low. Due to the nature of the habitat of the Parhaiya they are mostly having Tanr type of land. For instance, in the village Lolki it was found' that out of 100.89 acres of land shared by the Parhaiya hou:se­holds only 9.55 acres or, in other word's, 10 per cent land fan in the don or wet land categ,ory, while the remainingg 90 per­cent in the Tanr or dry upland.

Although ,the Parhaiya have given up shifting, cultivation they stiU carryon agricultural operations with obsolete and crude implements. These include tanga Or tangi (a pick-axe), hansua (a sickle), gorga (a barbed: to'ol), har (plough), phar (plO!Ugh share), JUGt (a yoke), danri (a leveller) and kudar (a spade). They also do not make use of green manure or chemi­cal fertilisers. They only sometime use cOW dung as manure", otherwise, they utilise ash as manure by burning wild growth and weeds and spreading their ash on the field.

The more common crops raised! by them include inferior varieties of paddy, gora and gondli (inferior varieties of milIet). miJrua (Elusine caracornaJ, Mhai' (Cajenus- cajana), khesari, sawan and fur (inferior vari'eties of pulses) and gram. Sometimes, they also grow oil seeds, such as til (Sesamum indica), sarson (mustard of Brassica compestris) and jatangi. The Parhaiya also raise vegetables in the kitchen gardens or hom stead land known as bari. The common vegetables and fruits sown by them lll­elude various varieties of local beans. such as, bodi and seem as. well as potato, pumpkin, ladyfinger, chilly, tama:to, cauliflower: jackfruit, banana and a local leafy vegetable, known as porald

5-4 R.G. In dia/75

54

(Tri.chosanthes diO'lica). The kitchen gardens are usually located in the backyards of their homes and fenced with wooden barri­cades fot protection from wild animals.

As stated earlier, men as weU as wLimen participate in agri­cultural activities. In fact, as pointed out in connection with the .discussion on working force even children assist the parents in agricultural operations. But the heavier tasks are carried on by the womenfolk and children. Generally the various agricultural -operations carried on by men and women are as follows:

By males mostly : Ploughing, earthwork with the use of tanga and kudar and thrashing.

By females mostly : By both sexes:

Weeding. Sowing and harvesting. transplanting, carrying of headloads of crops and bundle making.

Agricultural labour.-As stated earlier, a large number of Parhaiya primarily depend on agricultural labour for their liveli­hood. But because of their small landholdings even some of the other Parhaiya. particularly those who have returned ,themselves as cultivators, alsO' carryon agriculturaI labour as their subsi­diary occupation. It was claimed by Parhaiya informants that in the past the incidence of agricultural labour was not so high among them but in course 0'1' time the Parhaiya land prog:res­'sively passed O'n to non-tribals. particul,arly to' the moneylenders. One of the many su.ch cases quoted in SUppO'rt of their conten­tion is given below:

Case study.-It is stated that J. R. Parhaiya of Behra Tanr village once took a loan on 10 mds. of paddy from R. L., a moneylender settled in Tarwadih village, and promised' to repay the loan with an equal amount of interest at-the time of the next harvest. But it is said that J. R. could not repay the loan at the next harvest and so accumulated a debt of 80 maunds of paddy in the next harvest season. He a.g~a.in flailed to repay the lo'an in the next harvest. This was the case every year and. eventually he was forced to mortgage his land to R. L. against the ori­ginal loan and the interest which was manyfold the princip:il. Ultimately, he was forced to part with his mortgaged land on account of non-payment of the loan.

The Parhaiya are generally employed as agriiCultura] labourers by the other Scheduled Tribe communities of the area. 'Such as the Chero and Kharwar, mosrtly under bani system. This

55

system sti'pulates agricultural labour throughout the year 011 daily payment of 1.5 kilo of food-grains per day. In addition. the agricultural labourer under this system receives 10 katta of land (300 square fleet) for carrying on cultivation for himself. The agricultural labourer is also provided with plough and bullocks and seeds for sowing. But in lieu of these facilities he has to be in ;~ompletely at the beck and "Call or the employer and required to undertake whatever task desired by the latter. The activities carried on by the labourers include ploughing the land. sowing, harvestin,g, thrashing and similar other agricul­tural operations. In addition he is also required to assist in minor household work as well as other activities. like grazin~ of cattle, etc.

In some cases ,those Parhaiya who have no means to buy plough and bullocks for their own agricultural fields hi,re the same from some other affluent "'Ilember of their community and in return render som'e agricvhru:ral labour. According to the

".usual practioe one is required JO put up five days of agricultural labour for the loan of two ploughs and four draught animals hired for one cay. But during the service period the indebted person receive two meals Q1n the days on which he renders the agricultural labour in addition to five kilos of food-grains.

Mining and forestry.-As stated towards the beginning of the chapter on economic life, the Parhaiya are traditionally ,engaged in food gathering and hunting economy and a significant number of the Parhaiya workers, viz. 5.45 per oent, have been returned as engaged in this categ,ory of occupations as per the 1961 Census data. However, these figures relate to their primary economic activity. During the field investigation it actually came to light that many or the Parhaiya who returned them­selves as cultivators or agri,~ultural labourers .suppl~meITt their income by collecting minor forest produce, fishing and hunting. etc. Therefore. hunting and food gathering plays a greater role in the economic life of the community than what is evidencctl from the 1961 data, which relate to only the primary e.~onomic :activity.

Though the wild ju~gle produce collected by the Parhaiya have considerably diminished in volume, it includes honey, gum, mahua flowers (Bassia latifolia) wild bel. Jamun etc. They also hunt rabbit, fowl. bear. etc .• whenever they can do so. Besides above, the ParhRiya also carryon fishing mainly for household 'Consumption. Whenever they are free they visit small rivUlets. -streams, nallahs 01" water reiervoirs oc. sometimes. the don, ace

56

fields for fishing. They make use of vario~s kinds of fishing baskets, traps and sometimes, fishing rod also. Though by and large fishing 'is done individu.ally, they also go on collective fishing expeditions particularly after the hariari, phagua and sarhul festivals when the agricultural operations are over and they have leisure time. It was reported that before starting on a hunti,ng or fishing expedition they perform certain religious rites which are supposed to ensure the; chances of the succesSi ~ the expedition. Generally, su:ch an expedition is led by a baiga or an elderly man of the village. During communal fish­ing they often raise a bund of stones across 1:he flow of a stream and poison water by mixing the powder of dry leaves orfl a: plant locally known as patawa or gurar. It is said that the poison suffocates the fishes and forces them to come up on the surface of watbf where it is easy to collect them in the baskets. The catch of the fish is equally distributed. among the members of different housesholds participating in the expedition, irrespec':' tive of their actual :role.

In addition, some Parhaiya are engaged as labourers in Stone quarries as wel1 as coal mines. It was found during the field visit that a few Parhaiya were seasonally engaged in thf:' mines at Supra and Datam villages located in the Palamau dis­trict. The wage rates for the various operations as given by the Parhaiya informants are given below:

(~) Storing of coall - rupee one per maund.

tii) Cutting of wood from jungles ___, Rs. 1.50 per bundle.

(iii) Carrying oil coals or stones as - Rs. 1.25 headloads from the quarry to the store.

Household lindustries.-A few Parhaiya also prepage ropes. and mats with palm leaves stripes for liveliihood. But by and large this activity is taken up more as a subsidiary OCCU.patiO'll. Almost all the adult member of the household, especially the women, engage themselves in this activity and sell the produce in the locaL hut.

LIFE CYCLE

Birth Rites

According to the Pa'rhaiya the birth of a child is always a welcome event in their society. The news of the first concep­tion especially brings rejoicing to the household. But no cere­mooy...is observed by them on this occasion. They regard barren­ness as a very serious and unfortunate affair. If a woman does not conceive within two ()r three years of her marriage she is suspected of being barren. When in the absence of any concep­tio!I}, their fear is more or less confirmed, they try to find a remedy fOT the situation for whkh purpose they approach the ~ojha or 80kha or mati for redemption. After pe'rforming a few rites or by divination the ojha usually suggests performance of certain magico-religiotls !rites to appease the deity or spirit found to be the cause of barrenness of the woman concerned. Along 'With the propitiation of the spirit or deity and he also advises the use of certain indigenous herbs: for the cure of barrenness. 1n most cases an issueless Parhaiya woman also takes a vow that she will perform the mundan (tonsure) of her child ()Ill a grand 'Scale at the shrine of a certain deity, such as: Sukhaladhar and 1Jansidhan, when blessed with a child. Now-a-days more and more Pa,rhaiya women take a vow that they will perform ~atya­narayan katha (a religious discourse) and feed a few Brahmin if blessed with a child.

Though they neither perform any ceremony to mark the conception nor observe any pre-natal ceremony, every care of .the enceinte is taken to: avow miscarriage or abortion of the foetus. Besides, the parturient is required to observe certain taboos and restrictioos, a few of which are indicated below:

(1) She should avoid looking at the sun or moon during the eclipse. In case she does not observe this precaution, it is believed that the new born child will be; born with cer,tain physical deformities.

(2) She should not come near the vicinity of a burial ground or witness a dead: body lest the: soul of the de.ceased person haunts her and harms the child in the womb.

(3) She should not go near the jungle or any other secluded or desolate place in the evenin,g; or night to avoid coming under influence of evil spirits.

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58

(4) In her advanced stage of pregnancy she should not take basi or stale meals as it is believed that the stale food leads ;to abortion or miscarriage.

The delivery takes place at the husband's house.-the first delivery as well as the subsequent ones. Usually, the delivery -takes place in a separate rOom. orr in a corner of the room in 'case· of a single roomed h0'use. In the latter case the place of the ~onfinement of the pregnant woman is partitiooed by hanging) some blanket or sheets, etc.

Further, certain household goods. like the cooking utensils p

.are temporarily shifted to a neighbour's or relation's h0'uses to avoid pollutiOin. A dai or midwife, usually belonging t0' the Chamar Oor Mochi community. assists the parturient duri,ng the delivery. She cuts the umbilical cord with a hansua (sickle) and places the placenta in an earthen pot and buries the same behind the house. She attends :the mother and the new born for six days 1ll1til the Chhatti ceremony is pe,normed on the sixth day. Dur­ing this periOod she cleans the rOlom, massages the body of the mother and attends to sllch w0'rk as nursing the new born child. On the sixth day she receives a customary payment 0:15 Rs. 1.25, a set OIf d0'thes, as weIll as some quallitity of cereals. which should be adequate for cooking two meals, as her remune­{"ation.

The mother of the newly born ichild is nOit given any solid food Oon the day of' the delivery. For the next two or three days she is given some liquid diet as well as a few dishe81 prepB,red Irom wh~at floor, gur (jaggery), oil or ghee, a pioch Qif pepper or hdl11i (turmeric): After three days shflO-is served halwa (a- pre­paration of wheat flour and [fur). On the fifth and sixth days she is usually gi,ven rice and a variety of pulse, locally called barai. After the observance of the Chhatti on the sixth day she reverts to her nonnal d1et.

The Parhaiya, observe pollution for different periods in respect of the mother of the new born and the other memb~rs of the household. The period of! poIlutiOlU for the mother is twelve days, while that for the other members of the household six days. During the latter period the members of :the hous~­hold are considered as polluted, and the villagers and the other members of the community do not accept food or water from them. They are also dentied participation in any social or reli­gious function in the village or in the community. The house­hold itself observes ce;rtain restrictions 'in social, religions and

59

the commensal matters. Its members do not 'take nonvegefilrian diet. including fish. during the pollution period and also refrain from participation in any hunting expedition. Further. the male members do not shave their hair or pare the nails. Besides, no clothes in the household are given to a Dhobi for washing.

The Chhatti ceremony is performed on ~he sixth day. On this occasion. the womenfolk of the community in the villag;e and the neighbourhood are invited. 'The invitation is sent to' the J:elations in person through the Nain (harber's wife) who per­-6ollally visits all the household invited. As per the custom, ea;:;h invitee brings along with her a puranta (a basket containing sOme rice and vermilion). Early in the mOrning. the dai bathe& the newly bam child as well as the mother and dresses them in neW clothes. She keeps: the old clothes, shed by the mother .. for herself. On this occasion the newly barn child's father's sister also customarily plays on jhanjhar (a musical instrument) and receives a neg (customary payment) af one 01." two rupees. Next. the invit'ed female relations present the puranta brought by them to the mother.

On the same day, in the evening. a feast is given to the­members of the community in the village as well as the near relatians which includes bhat (rice) and pul,se often served to the accompaniment of daru (liquor). The Baithin or the washer­man', .. wife is given the old clothes in the household for washing. She is given a ,customary payment of rupee one and twenty five paise as well as one or. two kilos of cereals. Next, the entire hause is cleaned, and a mixture of cowdung and clay is sprikled all over the walls and flaor of the house. This frees the mem­bers of the household fram pollution and hencefarth there is nO' objectiDn to their free s'ocial intercourse with the other hauseholds and to participation in social and religiOUS functions ~~~~ 1

But the mather 6f the child is considered as (paUuted un­til the Barhi or 'Bishaur ceremony is observed on the twelfth da~. On this occasion, the mother after taking her bath, puts on new clothes and enters the kitchen for the first time after 1he delivery and C00'ks f00'd forr the household. In some cases, if she is still weak, she 0'nly enters the kitchen and symbalically prepares the meals by touching the utensils. This marks the end of the pollution period for her. Thereafter, she is free to move about in the house and in the village without restriction of any sort.

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Annaprasan

This ceremony relates to the first morsel of cereal food being given to the child. This is observed on any day after the child has attained the age of five months in case of the females and six in the case of the males. On this occasion. the child's mother's brother is expected to bring present of a set of new ;dothes. an ornament and some sweetmeats each for the mother and the child. It is his privileg~ to feed the child first. In his absence, the eldest male member of the household performs this role. Sometimes, a feast is also given to the com­munitymen in the evening and the menu usually comprises rice :which is served alOng with pulse and mutton. The occasion is made gay and lively by serving daTU or liquor, if possible.

Name Giving

1)1ere is no formal ceremony for name-glvmg. The child is usually named on the same day when Annaprasan ceremony is performed. Any elderly person in the family can name the child in consultation with other family members. In some househlods a Brahmin priest is invited to prepare a, horo­scope for the child and to suggest a suitable name for him on astrological reckoning,.

Tonsure

The Parhaiya perform the tonsure ceremony. Usually, this is observed on the occasion of some festival, like Shivaratri, Durgapuja or Ramnaumi. :FOT observing the tonsur a Nai (bar­her) is invited to shave the hair of the child. He customarily receives a payment of one rupee and twenty five pai~e. A por­tion of the hair clipping:SI is kept in a; cloth and lafer -on im­mersed into a river.

As stated earlier. some Parhaiya take a vow that when -blessed with a child they would observe the tonsure of the child before a particular deity. During the field investigation it was found tha.t the Parhaiya of Kathar and Lolki villages usuaUy "take the child to the sh.rine of Banshidhar, situated at Na,gar at a distance of 24 kilometreSl, on the thirteenth day of Shukla­paksha (the bright fortnight) in the month 011 Phagun (February­Ma.rch). There they secure the services of a local.nai for shaving <the hair of the child which are offered to the deity.

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Sex life and Marriage

The Parhaiya claim that their society does not tolerate any ..extra-marital or pre-marital relations and requires each member of the community to maintain a high standard of morals. They mentioned that in their community chances of pre-marital sex ;relations are otherwise minimised {is the ,girls are usually mar­ried before they attain puberty. In case any sexual lap_se comes to the notice. the paocents of the unmarried girl are fined by their tribal council as punishment for not contmlling her ac­tions. They further claim that in case of extra-marital relations their tribal council punishes the offender severely in so much so that he or she is ex-communicated.

From most of th~ case studies recorded during the field investigation and discussed in the proceeding section on, 'tradi­tional contro,l and leadership', it is howev~r fOUllld that there ,are many cases of extra-marital relations. In fact, it would ap­pear that the traditional council primarily deals with the cases of extra-marital relations or the cases of elopment of married J?arhaiya women witrr persons belonging to their own commu­nity or, more often, another community including the other tri­bal 'communities.

While in case of elopement of a married Pa,rhaiya woman with a person belonging to some other community the tribal counoil finds itsell1 helpless to take any action against her it takes out its wrath on her husband or father. In the latter case the father is fined if it is found that she eloped during a visit to her parents or he has taken the affair in tt light-hearted manner. In caSe a married Parhaiya man or woman is involved with another person belonging to' the community itself, rthen he or she is penalised by ex-commu:u.icatiDn. On the face C'f it this appears to be quite a severe punishment, but it would seem that it is Dften at pwvisional or a tempo'rary punishment as it is not difficult to be accepted: back in rthe community by paying at fine aild giving a feast to the Panchayat and/Oir undergoing penance by taking a purificatory bath in the river Ganges at Varanasi or at Baucih Gaya.

Age at marriage.-Crooke (op cit) has reported that the age at marriage for Parhaiya girls and boys is 12 years. Accord­ing to the 1961 Census data on age and marital status in res­pect of Parhaiya as many as 262 males and 219 females were mamed out of a tota.! of 2663 males and 2516 females in the age-group 0-14. In addition, in the same age-group, 10 males

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were reported as widowed, divorced or separated. In othe.r words, about 10 per cent of the males a,nd females each in th~ above age group were currently married or married once. On the other hand. only 432 males and 157 females were returned as unmarried out of 2425 mal·es and 2687 females in the age­group 15-44. This would suggest that the Parhaiya. marry at an early age and few of them, particularly the females. remain unmarried on attainment of 15 years age. The Parhaiya. males, however, show a comparatively higher range of age at marri­age as a significant number of them remained unmaxried on attainment of age 15. During the field suvery the Parhaiya. infor­mants claimed that though the incidence of child marriage was quite high in their societY' in the past during the last two or three decades the age at marriage has increased by tw.o or three years. According to them now the boys aI'e married mostly between the age of 12-19 and the girls between 10-15. This broadly conforms to the pattern emerging out from the analysis of the 1961 Census data on age and marital status of the com­munity.

However, in ot"der to gain further insight i!Il the matter,. the actual age at first marriage was recorded in respect of a Dumber of males (155) and females (179) which is summarised in the table below.

Table No. 11

Age at first marriage of Parhaiya males and females recorded during field investigation

age at marriage (In years)

Males

Females

N umber of persons rep;)rti ng age at marriage as-~--~-~----------~----------------~. 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

7 9 51 44 20 7 10 4 1 ..

3 10 32 40 52 14 9 4 7 3 2 .• 2 ••

The result of the survey of the age at marriage given in the. table above indicates that in the case of the 179 females ,covered in the sample the age at marriage varied bet~een 7 and 20' years. The most commOn range of age at marrIage w~s, how~ver. between 10 to 12 years, accounting for 32, 40 and 52 mamages respectively. In other words, out of 179 females 124, or nearly-75 per cent. were married in 10-}:2 age-group. As regards- the. earlier marriages. 'there was one case of marrlage at the age of

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seven, three ~ses at the age of eight and two at the a,ge of nine-_ On the higher side of the ratnge. there was a sudden decline in the incidence of marriage from fifty two cases at the age of" twelve, to fourteen cases at the age of fourteen. Nine females married at the age of fourteen. four at the age of fifteen, seven at the age of sixteerr. three at the age (JIf seventeen and two eac1L at the age of eighteen and twenty.

As regards the males the range of age at first marriage was .11-24 years, the lowest age at marriage being eleven (only one case), which is higher than that for the females (7 yeaJ's). Seven males married at the age olf twelve and nine at the age of thirteen. The most common ages at marriage in their case was 14, 15 and 16. accounting for 51. 44 and 20 persons respectively. In other words, in three fourth cases (115 out of 155) the marriage took place in the range of 14-16. Interestingly. except one person ..vho married at the age of 24. aU ,the other persons married at the' age of 20 or early. The only diifeJ'ence being that in the 17-20 age group the proportion of cases of marriages among the males was slightly higher than that among the females.

Preferences and avoidance in marriages.-As stated earlier. the Parhaiya do not have exogamous crans and. therefore, the­question of their playing any role in regulating marriages does not arise. But the marriages are- avoided within the lineage group or gotias. In addition, marriag.es are avoided with dose' relations on both sides with whom direct relationship can be traced. Accordingly" cross.;cousin marriage in any form is absent.

Marriage usuaUy takes pTace outside the village. There does not appear to be any preferential type of marriage. How­ever. in a few ca.ses marriage by exchmnge of sisters do occur which is considered as a measure to avoid expenditure in marriage.

Case Study.-A case of marriage oy exchange came to light 'during the fieJd investigation in Paraspani Kalan village. wh,~re' R. D. married the younger sist,er of J. D. Baiga residing ut Raxi village and in exchange ga ve the hand of his own sister to the latter. It is said that in this marriage the expenses were mini­mised as money w:as spent oaly on a cOmmon feast and impor­tant ceremonies and no bride price was: ,paid.

Though pOlygy.ny is permitted under special circumstances, Such as the barrenness of" the fir~ wife. monogamy is .the idea}

norm. In: the former case, as far as possible. the practice of sorrorate IS followed and the second wife is usually the sister of the first wife.

Case Study 2.-It came to light in Sulli village that B. P. could not beget any child from his wife for many years. He expressed his desire to marry again. Having known his inten­tions his first wife asked him to marry her younger sister which he did. B. P. has since been blessed with a few children from the second wife. Both wives, being sisters, are said to be liv­ing happily with cordial relations With each other.

Mode of acquiring the mate.-The Parhaiya marriage is an arranged affair. It takes place as a result of n~gotiatio'lls bet­ween the two parties and with the payment of sudama or bride price which is paid in both cash and kind. Traditionally, the bride price comprises Rs. 5.25 in addition to the present of a pair of new saris and a blouse, known as jhula, for the bride. The bride price is paid by the boy's father to the gid'-s father at the time of betrothal.

The first move is made by the boy's father who sends the marriage proposal to the girl's father through an intermediary known as agua, who is generally a common friend or relatiOlIl of both the parties. If the girl's parents' consent to the proposal, the boy's father. accompanied by the agua and a few relations and firiends, visits the girl's house on an appointed day for the performance of baraukhi ceremony which entails the formal proposal being mooted out by the boy's father and acceptance thereof by the girl's father in the presence of the village elders. During the baraukhi ceremony certain rites and rituals are also observed. These inc1ude drawing a squarish platform on the floor of the courtyard on which a, wooden stool is placed. The girl is brought and stated on the stOQll. The boy's father blesses the girl by throwing akshat (unbroken rice) on her and then presenting her with a pair of new saris and jhuia. On this occa­sion the boy's father also pays an amount of Rs. 5.25 to _ the girl as sudama for being passed on to her father. Sometimes, if he can afford it, the girl's father arranges a feast in the honour of the ,guests in the evening.

The same rites and rituals as are performed in the case of baraukhi ceremony are repeated in the house of the boy when after a week or· so the girl's father reciprocates a visit to the former's residence in the company o~ a few close relations and friends. This ceremony is known as gharbari. The only dif­ference in the ritualS! is tha.t this time instead o~ th~ girl the boy

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is seated on a wooden stoo~. and given a t,oken present of one rupee from girl's father. Sometimes. depending on his econo­mic status. as in the case of the girl's father the boy's father also throws a feast to the girl's r.elations who come for gharbari ceremony. All the prelimimaries and other matters regarding the marriage date and time. etc. are settled during the gharbari ceremony. Among the more 'Hinduised' parhaiya" such as those living in 'and around Dhurki Block. the marriage date is fixed in consultation with a Brahmin priest and conveyied to the boy's father through the Nai. They also consult or, tally the horoscopes of the boy and the girl with the help of a Brahmin priest.

Marriage rites and rituals.-The marriages are generally performed in the months of phagun, baisakh and jaisath. A day 'or two before .the marriage ceremony a mandwa or marriage booth is erected in ,the house of the brid~groom as wen as the bride. The marulwa comprises four thamba or bamboo poles which are tied to each other at the four corners to form a sort of squarish booth. A pole fashioned out from a branch of sidha or sakhua tree is planted in the centre of the mandwa. The central pole. which is referred to as manikhthamb, is cover­ed with a piece of r.ed cloth. A ploughshare with a woodoo replica of a sugga (parrot) dyed in red ochre is also kept in the middle of the· mandwa. A chauka (square) is made with the wheat or rice flour which is covered with leaves or twigs or sakhua tree. On the actual day of marriage. a kalash (an earthen pitcher is filled with water and lmpt near the manikhthamb. A kosi (earthen lamp) with four wicks. soaked in rendi oil in which some urid pulse and ainst grains have been kept. is placed over the pitcher.

The bride and the bridegroom are annointed with oil on their body in their respective homes by their sisters or father's sis~rs who relceive some neg for performing ,this ceremony. They take a bath while sitting on a juwat (yoke) kept across a pokhra (pit) which is dug by the side of the mandwa. After having taken the bath. the bride ailla the bridegroom dress them­se1ves in the ceremonial dress.. The dress of the bridegroom com­prises of a yellow coloured dhoti and kurra over which a jama (gown) is: also put. A maur (headgear) is placed on the head of the bridegroom by his sister~" husband who receives some neg for this purpose. Thereafter, a ceremony known as amal lottana is performed. In this ceremony the bridegroom is seated by the side of his mother under. the mandwa and his maternal uncle presents a new sari to his (bridgroom's) mother. Thereafter. the marriage party leaves for the bride's place wliich is. usually located in another. village:

66

The marriage party is formally received by the Mahato (headman,) and relations of the bride on the outskirts of the "Village. The party is first taken to the shrine of DeVlimai for ;invoking: its blessings and making offerings. Next, it is taken to the bride's house for the performance of dwar puja. Often, a Brahmin priest officates at the marriage ceremony. He makes the bridegroom stand insides a square drawn by him. Next, the

"bride's mother stands outside the square and performs aarti of the bridegroom. She also presents a bowl fi1led with rice, jaggery, ghee and a few coins to the bridegroom. The important marri­age rituals are performed at an auspicious haUl' predetermined by the priest. These include the performance of a halfan (scared fire) near the mandwa to the accompaniment of incantations by the priest. The bride's father performs kuspani or Kanyadan.

·Thereafter, the bridegroom applies vermillion on the parting of the hair of the bride's forehead five times with the assistance of her elder sister. During this ceremony, known as sindoor dan, the couple is r.overed with a sheet of cloth. The bride's sister receives neg of rupee one from the bridegroom. Now in some cases, in the marriage ceremony. the couple also takes five cir­cumambulations of the kalash, the wife leading in each round. After the performance of the marriage rites, the bride and the -bridegroom are taken to the muan inside the house where they pay their o·bisance to the deities as well as make offerings. Next. the bride's mother lifts the maur from the groom's head and keeps it in front of the deities. The groom is then fed with some sweets by hisl mother-in-law. The next day the marriage party returns to the groom's house along with \he bride. TIe

,couple is first received and blessed by the mothef' of-the groom and other female relations. Thereafter, it is taken to the muan

'inside the groom's house where the wife a.nd husband invoke the blessings of the deities and make offerings.

In case the couple has already passed the age of adolescence. 'they start living. as "husband and wife, otherwise consumation takes place only after the bride attains puberty when bahurata or gauna is performed. No rites or rituals are said to be in­volved in the performance of bahurata. On an appointed day the husband along with his brother or a friend visits his wife's home. After partaking meals there and staying overnight be returns to his village accom pariied by bis wife.

The marriage rites described above primarily relate t.o those areas whe:rein the Parhaiya have been under sttQng Brah­mani;l:al influence pr undergoing .'sans1<riti~a.(ton'. It is not un­'l!kely thl!-t the marriage c·e.r~I1)oniys a~e sligl\tly different in 'other ar~as. .

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Widow remarriage

As far as possible. the widow is retained in the household of the deceased by marrying her to his younger brother. By way of illustration it may be stated here that during field investiga­tion a recent case of junior levirate came to light wherein D. S. Parhaiya's younger son married the widow of his elder brother. She was having one daughter from her first husband. After her marriage to the younger brother of the deceased she gdve birdl to another child. a son. .

But. wherever it is not possible to prescrise junior levirate because of considerable difference in the ages of the younger brother of the 'deceased and latters widow or for other reasons the widow generally returns to' her parents. who usually arrange a se;~ond marriage for her. While a widower can remarry an unmarried girl with full marriage rites. the remarriage of the widows or deserted or divorced women, is performed under what is termed as sa{?ai system. In this form of marriage. the bridegroom goes to the widow's house in an ordinary way, without any pomp and show. in the company of a few close relations and friends and presents her a pair of bridal dress and sudama to her father. The maniage rites are reduced to the minimum. the main rite being applica.tiOln of vermillion by the groom on the thighs (not on the parting of hair of the forehead). of the woman marrying the second time. The party does not usually stay ovemight in the bride's; house and returns with her to the groom's village after taking meals in the aftemoon. It is. however, interesting that according: to the Parhaiya infor­mants though in case of marriage by sagai form rites and rituals are simple and few, the. actual expenditure on surn mar. riages is considerable as the custom demands that in remarriages the tribesmen are given a luxurious feast along with liquor.

It would be of some interest to refer to a recent case of re­marriag.e of a divorcee which came to light during the field visit. It is understood that two decades ago T. P .• a thirty five years old resident of Lolki village. was married to K. D. of Vasali village. But his wife died after a protracted illness due tOl who­oping cough leaving behind a daughter aged fourteen and two sons aged nine and six. Her husband. T. P. found it difficult to run his household without the help of a housewife and even­tually married a twe.rity years old divorcee hailing trom Amarwa villa.ge situated at a distance of 16 kilometres from his village. viz. Lolki. A year before the second marriage his second wife had obtained a divorce from her former husband on account of III treatment by him. ]n ,this case, the initiative for marriage

68

was taken by her: mO'ther's sister's SQn. whO' apprQached T. P. for the marital alliance. T. P. fQund the proposal acceptabJe to him as he was already on the lQok Qut for a second wife and immediately cQnveyed his acceptance to her family. The mar­riage was settled on a payment of two rupees and maisari (a sari fQr the bride's mother} and sOime sweets: as: sudama. In addition, T. P. alsO' presented a sari and jhula to' the bride. On the day appointed for sagai (marriage) T. P. visited his bride's village in the cQmpany of five persons including the latter's mother's sister's SQn whO' acted as the gO"between. He hired two belOinging to' Korwa community residing in Korwa P"aha:r village >to carry a palanquin and paid them twelve rupees and meals fur their services. The party left LOllki village around noon and covered a distance of 18 kilometres before reaching Amarwa village, soon after sunset. The party leould have reached the bride's: village earlier, but on the way it passed two hours by <taking 1iquor at a bh'atti (wine shop) in Berher village. On its arrival in the bride's village the party was entertained with meals comprising pulse. rice and mixed curry of potato and brinjals cooked in the medium of ghee. Thereafter, bedecked in the new sari and jhoola brought by T. P. as presents, the bride presented herself to the former who, under the cover o£ a sheet Qf cloth, applied vermillion on her thimhs and on her forehead. After having been entertained T. P. accompanied by his wife and) party left for his own village early in the morning around 4 A.M. As: T. P.'s mOither was nDt alive his mother's sister, who had come from Barpani village, formally received the couple and escorted them to the muan, the seat of the family deities:, for making the necessary offeTings and invO'king their blessings. Next, the couple shared their meals from the same thali (platter). On the next Sunday, T. P. had a Satyanarayan katha performed at his hDme wherein a Brahmin priest recited religious: discourse and later distributed prasad. The bride's father alsO' came from his village to' participate in the religiOUS discourse. It is said that after the religious discourse T. P. again perfDrmed the ritual Df applying vermillion first on her wife's thighs and later Qn her forehead. but not on the p3rtjng of the hair. On this occasion. the priest was paid Rs. 3.25 in cash and a dhoti of Icoarse cloth worth five rupees. The Nai also received a customary payment of rupee one.

Divol'Ce and Sepalration

When asked in a general manner. the PaThaiya claim that their society does nDt permit divorce easily. But when pressed further they admitted that there are a few cases of separation. elO'pment and abandonment Which evootuailly lead to div01"ce

69

in their . society. Actually. according to the 1961 Ceqs.us data on. age" and marital status 32 male and 48 female Parhaiy..a have been re~:orded as divorced -or s·e:parat~d. ConsideJ;'ing - that the Parhaiya society freely allows remarriage of divorces or sepa­rated persons. the incidence of Q_ivorce or s,eparation is bound to be much hi~her than what the above figures indipate. In fact~ from a number of case studies figuring in the discussion on tri­bal council. it is seen that divorces take place quite frequently,., but with the approval of tribal panchayat on such grounds as ill· treatment of the wife, impotency or an incurable disease of tll.e husband and adultery or, in a few cases, barrenness on the part of the wife. As stated earlier, the divorcees are free to remarry .... the only difference being that as in the case of widow remarri­age in their cases too the marriage is performed by sagai syS­tem. wherein only a few essential rites are gone through.

Death rites

The traditional mode of disposal of the dead body is burial which is still commonly practised. But in the areas where the Hindu or Brahminical influence has been stronger. as in the area: falling in the Dhurki Block. they have taken to cremation. But even in the latter area in case of death due to oertain epidemic diseases, such as plague cholera, small-pox. as well as phuln7 (swelling) of the stomach) and delivery they practise burial. Fur­ther. the I~hildren below the age of ten years are also buried.

The dead body is taken to marghati (cremation or burial ground) by four. person, including the' chief mourner. on a bam­boo bier or a cot tUI'ned upside down. The chief mourner is the' eldest son or the husband of the deceased. as the case may be who performs the main death rites. When the dead body is disposed off by cremation. he sets fire to the pyre. In case of burial he is the first person to throw a handful of dust or earth on the grave afteT the dead body is pla.ced in it. After a few large stones are placed on the grave to avoid the body being dug up by wild animals or, in case of cremation, when the fire completely consumes the body, the mourners take a bath in some nearby river, pond or stream. Thereafter., they return to the bereaved's house where each of th~m tou.ches in iron rod, a brass tumbler containing water, milk and dub (a variety of grass with long blades). Next day, the chief mourner visits the cremation groUind. He carries with him a tumbler full of milk. He collects the ashes and charred bones of the deceased. after sprinkling milk over them. He ties them in a piece of cloth and buries it under a Pipar (Ficus religiosa) tree. Next, he hangs an. earthen pitcher. having a small hole in the bottom. on a branch

6·-4 R. G.India/7S

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<>f the tree in a manner that the water drops fall over the area where the bones are buried. The chief mourner replinisnes water in the pitcher ev,eryday in the morning for ten days.

The Parhaiya observe death pollutiOl1l for ten days. During ;this period the members of the deceased!'s household are expect­ed to observe certain taboos. They do not take non-vegetarian ·diet during this period. In the vegetarian diet they avoid the use of turmeric. Besides, the male members refrain from shaving and paring their nails. They also refrain from participating in .any hunting expedition organised by the community or the vil­lagers. The other villagers also avoid social intercourse and do not accept any fond or water from the household cOtOcerned.

On the tenth day certain purficatory rites, known as daso, are performed. These include offering of Dasgami pindas (rice balls) to the soul of the deceased and a feast to the community men in the evening. On the eleventh day a Brahmin priest breaks the earthen pitcher hung on the tree. He receives re­muneration in cash or kind.

The Parhaiya perform anoestorr's worship oIn the twelvth day at the muan, which is supposed to be the abode of the deceased ancestor's soul Sometimes. they also feed a Brahmin priest on this occasion and. if possible, invite the community men for a feast. On the thirteenth day those who can afford visit Varanasi for immersilng ,the ashes in the Ganges. Otherwise, they immerse them in a nearby river or stream.

RELIGION AND FESTIVALS

From the earlier literature on the community it would ap­pear that the Parhaiya worship certain deities of >their own as well as those worshipped by the tribal communities of the area. But it would seem that their religious beliefs and practiceI' have Oeen undergoing change, particularly during the last six or seven decades. It is significant that while during the earlier Census, the Parhaiya returned ·themselves as following 'tribal religion' in addition to Hinduism. in the 1961 Census. their entire popula­tion in Bihar: returned itself as Hindu. The degree of influence dJj Hinduism, however, differs from area to area, depending on the intensity of the contacts with the neighbouring Caste-Hindu. communities. The Parhaiya residing in Dhurki Block. Bordering Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have been more 'Hinduised' than those of the Ranka. Latehar, Chainpur and Chattar'pur Blocks, al~ough in the latter areas too the Hindu influence has been considerable. In the former area, the main· criteria adopted for measuring the influences of Hinduisation among the Parhalya :is as follows:-

(1) Acceptance of Brahmin priest in various rituals eg., con­sulting almanac for preparing horoscope, name - giving C0fe­mony and for performing the marriage rites.

(2) AlCceptance of Brahmin priest (Kantaha) during death rites and offering of rice-balls to the soul of the deceased on the tenth day after death. hanging an ea1"then pitcher on a peepal tree after death and feasting the Brahmins on the Tera­havi day;

(3). Worship of important Hindu deities like Rama, Krishna, S/:tiva, Vishnu, Genesh, Parwat;, Hanuman, etc.:

(4) Celebration of Hindu festivals like HoN, Diwali. Nag Panchmi, Dasahra, Chhatha, etc.;

(5) Recitation of Satya Narain Katha by a Brahmin priest and distribution of prasad;

(6) Frequent visits to the shrines of BilInShidhar at Nagar Untari and Shukaldar in fulfillment of one's vow;

(7) Making pilgrimages to sacred places like Gaya. V<lra-' nasi and Prayag;

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(8) Recitation and listining to Ramayan by Tulsi Das and Gita, and other sacred reli$ious scriI?tl~.res;

•• .A ..... \..

(9) Wearing of a Janeo by few Parhaiya imbibing the prac­tice of the high Caste, Hindus;

Bnt as is to be expect~d while the members of the community are increasingly taking to Hindu beliefs and practices, a layman Parhaiya is not very clear about the cO'llcepts associated with different gods and goddesses commonly worshipped.

It is possible to group the deities worshipped by the Par­haiya into two categories, viz. (i) the deities which are favourite and characteristic of the Parhaiya community or these wor­shippe9. by the local tribals, and (ii) gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon, which find a mention in the greater traditions of the Hindus, such as Rama, Shiva Satyanarayan, Surya Bhag­wall, etc., as wen as the goddesses Of the Sh~kti cult, such as Durga and Kali.

Thus, it can be seen that the religious beliefs and practices of the Parhaiya include what can be termed as traditicJnal be­liefs and practices and the others to which they have taken to recently as a result of their contact with Caste Hindus. These are both followed by them in varying degrees in different areas de. pending on the intensity of contacts with others.

(a) lleities of first category

Regarding their traditional religious beliefs Sahay has ob­served that traditionally the Parhaiya are mainly concerned with prOpitiation of wild spirits and deities believed to save them 'and their cattle from ~i1d animals, evil spirits and 'give plenty of forest produce (Sahay" 1967: 69). While referring to their relig~ous observan~es, Snnder has recorded that their dei­ties are Dharti or Muchukrani who is believed to remain within the village under a large tree and worshipped by the offerings of . a kid. Rahel is another ooity mentioned by hi.m which is worshipped to keep off sickness with the annual offerings of ~ ne-goat. Another favourite ParhaiYil deity named by Sunder if­Owar-Pahar who is said to be a deified Dhoshad who remain& in the viIlag,e and appeased with offerings of male pigs. He il=­also,. offered a buffalo dur,ing Dussehra festival Devimai is men­tioned by him. as a benevolent deity worshipped with. offering~ of black sheep (Sunder OP cit). Sahay has named the spirits and deities worshipped by the community as Dhartimai. Deeh-

73

war. Bansakti. Dariha. Devimai. Chandi. Rabel and Bagtiaot. (Saha)" op cit). These il1clude Rakselt and Dhartimai which ha,,~ be,en referred to by SUJ1der as well (op cit}.

It would appear that the traditional religious beliefs of the Parhaiya are oerntred on the cult df mother gOddess as a part from Dha~rtimai they worship certain other village deities whose wo:t­.ship appears to stem from similar belief. This perhaps led Dalton t& observe, "the P'alamau Parhaiya have retained ado-ration of Sylvan deities. Dharti. whose name we shall frequently meet, and Gohet, who dwell in the hills and delight in the blood of goats". (Dalton, op cit). Crooke (op cit) has also made a refer­ence to the worship of Dih Or collective village gods and a female deity called Siari devi worshipped at the ordinary village shrine under a tree in the jungle.

As is seen from the pre~eding account on the life cycle of the Parhaiya. muan or ancestor worship also plays an important role in the religious life of the community. The ratioinale for the ancestor worship in their caSe seems to be that after the demise of a person his sOoul or vital life-giving substance escapes from the shackles or bonds of the body and merges with the supreme God, while the shadow-like substance of the body or muan goes to the world beyond and exercises a very significant influ­ence in regulating the life of the members of the ;community. They, therefore, instal the muan of the important deceased rela­tions of the family in the house and worship them during im­portaJnt events, associated with life cycle, such as birth, marri­age and death; Like the other deities the muan are also ap­peased or kept happy with sacrifices of animals on certain occa­-sions.

The Parhaiya alsOi worship or propitiate certain benevolent as well as malevolent spirits which are believed to have their abode or association with certain natural objects like trees. rivers, hills and hillocks, etc. This belief finds manifestation in witchcraft and magical conjuring by the ojha or the witch-doc­tor. In this connection during the course of the field investiga­tion, the Parhaiya informants stated that these deities control the different aspects of their life and in every village there is a 'Shrine caned dihuwar under a tree where the collective village gods (dih) live. All of them are supposed to look after the. gene­ral welfare of the viItagers. They believe Dhartimai or mother earth as the principal deity. The other .deities stated to be in­cluded among the dih are Guhail, Deo, pudhi Mai and Sat­bahini (seven sisters), The Parhaiya perfopn 'Qih!£War' worship -once in a year before th harvesting to the accompaniment of

14

a hom C(jnducted by the Baiga to the accompaniment of sacri~ fioes of sheep. pigs and: fowls. The Baiga. propitiates Budhi Mai on the occaswn of the Pha~a festival when several fowls are sacrificed to her. In propitation of Satbahini the baiga offers her a chunari, vermilliOn, incense, sweets, and flowers two times in the years--once in the month of Chaitra and the otl.J,er in the month of Akhona, Guhail Devi is worshipped in the month of Chaitra on the Ramnaumi day.

Among their gods and goddesses Devi Mai is the most im­portant and wildly reverred one and is regularly worshipped -twice in the year oin the ninth of shukalpaksh. (bright forthnight) in the months of Arghan and Chaitra, both at village and house~ hold level. Every Parhaiya villag,e or hamlet has a shrine of the Devi, which is called Devi-mandap. On festive occasions the .village Baiga performs hom and makes offerings of akshat (sun­dried rice) flowers. handia (liquor) etc. to the deity. The shrine is smeared with vermillion during the Navratri festivs.l. Tnc Parhaiya hOUse is regularly cleaned and the head of the house­hold offers worship at the than (shrine) regularly as also on fes­tive occasions.

Karamdevtas is considered to be the deity of fortune and is worshipped collectively by the entire village every year on the day fixed for Karma festival for wealth and prosperity. The Karma deity is symbolised by a branch of Karam tree (Adina­cardifolia) and during its worship sacrifies of goats. roti and pua (varities of sweetened bread) are made. The Parhaiya hold a few spirits and demons of wider spread in great awe. These are discussed below:

Goraiyabhut.-It is a deified spirit which is held respon­sible for diseased among the cattle. It is believed to loiter around the cattle sheds. Sometimes, in case a cattle falls sick. tp_e head of the househoM sacrifkes a ghenta (young pig) on the· khunta (peg) in the cattle shed\ after smearing i.t with vermil­lion. The name of this demon is believed to ha,ve its origin tn the village Goda Karam where he is supposed to have its per­manent abode under a banyan tree (Ficus fudica).

Raiyabhld.-Raiyabhut is a well-known malevolent deified spirit which is said to baunt anyone coming in its contact. It is said to loiter in the vicinity of the village and is propitiated by village Baiga when the common dihuwar worship takes place in Aghan. The Baiga sacrifices a black he-goat in its name.

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Raxaildeota or Raxailbaba.-This is a widely feared malevo­lent spirit and is propitiated by individual votaries in order to ob­tain success in a mission or a vow undertaken. At Lolki its shrine is situated away from the village at a spOot situated at a height and is called kubripathar_ and represented by a few chunks of stones.

Baghaut.-Baghaut is stated to be residing in the jungle in the disguise of some wild animal and protect crop anti human life from the wild amimals. The deity is worshipped by the vil­lage Baiga who sacrifices a goat or fowl in a dense jungle.

Among their other favourite deities sulliraj is c:onsidered to be the patron deity of the community, especially in the erstwhile Chain pur Estate. The worship of Sulliraj is performed in the month of sawan on the day of Sawani-puja, During its; worship the village Baiga offers chunari, ghee, gur, akshat. vermillion, incense, bread and takhu (varieties of cakes made from wheat-flour) and performs hom and make sacrifices of a black-khasi (she-goat), a pathee (sheep) and five fowls along with tapavan (liquor). The Baiga performs this worship collec­tively for a number of villages who make contribution.

Snake-worship.-The Parhaiya also perform snake-wor­ship in the month of Chaitra. This worship is performed by the Baiga in the shrine of snakes, represented by a chunk of sto!l1es. with offerings Lava and milk. In many places a collective wor­ship is performed by several villagers.

(b) Gods of Greater Indian Tradition

Some of the Gods of the greater Indian tradition wor­shipped by Parhaiya are Rama. Shiva, Satyanarayan or Surya­narayan Bhagwan. Anant 'Bhagwan. etc., as also goddess Kali and Durga. These are discussed briefly in the following ac­count:

Rama.-Rama is a popular God among the Parhaiya. They generally worship Rama on Ramanaumi festival. Same P.uhaiya also keep fast on this occasion and after taking bath in a nearby rivulet, listen to the recitation of a chapter or two of Ramayana and break their fast ill the evening by taki:ng non-cereal diet. During the field survey two Parhaiya were found to possess Ramacharitmanas written by sant Tulsi Das.

Shiviz.--sh.iva is now Considered 'as -one' of -the most im­portant deities of the Parhaiya and j!u some of the villages, es~­cially in the Dhnrki Block-such as LoIki - a ShivaZaya or ShIV Temple is found. The devout Parhaiya after taking bath in a nearby pond go to the Shivaiaya to make offerings of water. !:.:.-.;.ers. aT fruits. During the Shivaratri f·estival some of them observe fast which they break in the evening: by taking non­cereal and vegetarian' diet after making offerings in the Shiva­Jaya.

Satyanarayan Bhagwan.-Satyanarayau worship is becoming mcreasingly popular among the Parhaiya. Performance of Satya­narayan worship is considered as an index of one's .,enlighten­ment and progressive views. It is now quite common to' orga­nise Satyanarayan katha (religious discourse) jmmediately after marriage of th:! son. Satyanarayain worshlp has also increased the tempo of 'SankIitisation' in the community a& it invariably requires the services of a Brahmin prie&t who during the reli­,gious discourse pO'pu1arise the sanskritic or Brahaminical belief's and ideas.

Suraj Bhagwan.-Some Parhaiya regard ~uraj or Suraj Bhagwen (Sun) as synonymous with the Supreme Being. Some of them make daily offerings of water to the Sun in the morning.

Ananl Bhagwan.-The Parhaiya informants men iorred that the snake worship is an old practice among them. While snake worship forms part of th,eir traditional religion the same is now being interpreted differently. A cobra is regarded as the mani­festation of Anant Bhagwan and is worshipped by Parhaiya with offerings of milk and bread at the holes in the fields an_d jungles where it makes its home. 'the snakeworship is generally per­formed in the month of Karlik.

Goddes,~es Kali and Durga.-In the wake of chiJ,nge in their religious practices Durga and Kali have become important deities of worship of the Parhaiya. They make offerings to the image of the Kali or Durga installed in their respective shrines. The images Durga are usually br<;mght from Nagar or Garwha towns where they are m!lde during Ram N aunii.

Religious functionaries.-As stated ,earlier. the Parhaiya themselves have !nen reported as performnig tht: role of the priest, acting as dwar pujaris of maharajas (rulers) of Palamau. The Parhaiya baiga or pahan has oeen an. important ni1igious functiOlIlary for the tribals of the region. "Each village is served

77

by a baiga who is supposed to perform certain ritualistic func­tions for the entire village. On all important traditional festivals and worships, including those 00. special occasions. the balga periorms the worsbip on beha1f of the entire village by maldng offerings of sweets, fruits. etc, often with sacrifices of goats, fowls and pigs etc. His functions include determination of the trme for the celebration of the traditional festivals of the com­munity as well as the initiation of certain important agricultural .operations. like sowing and harvesting. He also spearheads hunt­mg and fishing expeditions. Sometimes. the Balga also performs the role of ojha or dewar (a sorcerer or diviner). He performs devination to determine the cause of disease and the remedy therefrom. The baiga enjoyed certain priviliges in lieu of the services rendered by him. Before the land settlement in 1951 every baiga wa? given a part of the common vi1lage land by the villagers fOor his personal cultivation without any revenue being realised from him. But nOw he has acquired proprietary ngnts over the lanq that he has been cultivating for some y,ears. Apart from the above privilege, as per custom, the Baiga also receives a major and D,ften preferential share from the sacrifices offered to the deities.

Besides the baiga, another religious functlOnary. known a~ Pujar assists the former in performing the various rituals. The latter's duties include ,~onveying to the villagers the data and details of rituals fixed by the baiga for certain festivals. He is .also required to collect contribution from each household in the village for incurring expenditure on commOn worship and sacrifices. The baiga as well as the Pujar hold their offices on hereditary principle.

However, the offke of the ojha, baiga and pUJar IS receding in the background and as stated earlier, due to the: closer ..:;OIJ.­

tact with Caste Hindus and exposure to Brahminical thougpts and 'sanskritisation', the Brahmin priest has made himBelf felt in the Parhaiya society. Now, in many cases, the Brahmin priest has completely replaced the baiga as the former officiates at the birth, marriage and death ceremonies. Even those Parhaiya who do not require his service during the ~remollies associated with rites-depassage consult him for fixing dates for marriages. The inclCeasing nopularity of Satyanarayan katha has made Brahmin priest an important functionary in the Parhaiya society.

Festivals

The chim~es in the religiOUS beliefs and Parhaiya are also reflected in! 'their festival.

practices of the They have taken

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to m~ny of the festival_s of their neighbours and, in some cases., the manner of celebration of their traditional festivalS' shows strong Brahaminical ipfluellioo. The present calender of the reli­gious festivals include festivals observed by the' local Hindus. as well as those celebrated by the tribal communities of the regjion. The characteristic features of the oelebration of some of their important festivals, particularly the traditi"onal ones. are discussed below :

Parwa.-This festival is. celebrated in the month of Chaitra when mahua flowers are in :liull bloom. The baiga per­forms worship at devi-dham for the entire village with the sacri­fice of fowls. The sacrificial meat is cooked and partaken by only male members of the community. The Parhaiya women are forbidden to witness the worship as well as from partaking the sacrificial meat.

Sarhul.-It is an important festival which is celerated in the month of Chaitra or Baisakh. This festival coincides with the blooming of flowers of sal (Shorea robsuta) tree. The date of the festival is fixed by the baiga with the approval and ,~onsent of village elders. The Parhaiya regard it as 'festival of flowers' which symbolises the onset of prosperity of the village. On this day, the village baiga offers vermillion, flowers, rice and' incense at devidham and recites incantations to invoke the blessings of Devi. But at Sulli village it was reported that the baiga sacrifices fowl, sheep and goat, brought by the villagers;" one by one and drops their blOOd at the alter of Devi. -The Il-::sh of the animals and birdsl so sacrificed is cooked outside the shrine and! :is partaken by all Parhaiy:a males. the 'lame being tabooed to the females. Some of the Parhaiya devouts alsol offer milk to the deity. On the oocasion of Sarhaul festival the mem­bers of the community observe a complete holiday and do not undertake any economio activity: they even refrain from touch­ing their agricultural implements. But. the next day, after the­Sarhul, the Parhaiya start going to' the f0'rests f0'1' collection of lac and other forest produce or to their agricultural fields f0'r manuring. etc.

Hariari.-The Hariari or Asarhi festival is celebrated on' any suitable day for the celebration in 'consultation with the village eldlers after the onset of the rains. On the day: of the celebration, he sacrifices two fowls in the shrine of Devi, and mixes the blood of the fowls with some quantity of seeds, distri-buting them latter on to all the households in the village. The

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villagers mix tlie few blood-soaked seeds with other seeds before iowing the latter in their fields. The Parhaiya believe that the seeds mixed with blood would ensure a bountiful crop.

Karma.-It is an important festival for the tribals of the. reg,iion. The Karma festival is celebrated on the .eleventh day of bhadrapad in the shuklapaksh (bright fortnight). The baiga performs the worship at the Dev; mandap or Devidham. A day before the main festival. the baiga accompanied by some Par­haiya youth of the village go to the jungle. dancing and singing on the way. There he selects a, branch of a particular shape of Karam tree, which only he can recognise. The young boys cut it and then carry it to a place pre-determined for the purpose in an agricultural field. The branich is then planted there cere-· monially. Thereafter, the branch of Karam tree is left in charge of the baiga and pujar. The baiga jnvokes the different deities with offerings of ghee and incense. Then he offers prasadi to the fasting Parhaiya men and women. In the evening the men and women drink daru (liquor') and assemble at the site of the cele­brations and sing and dance throughou:t: the night. Next day, the Karam branch is taken to a pond or rivulet and is immersed there ceremonially.

Jiitia.-Jitia festival is celebrated in the month of Kuar. On this occasion, each household plants a branch each of Karam, Ihur (Butea Frondlosa), Dumar (Ficus Hispida), Pipar (Ficus rehgiosa) and Palas trees in the courtyard of the house and there the head of the household makes offerings of sweets after burning incense. A few Parhaiya also observe fast on this day. In the eveming, after :taking their meals, all young men ana women of the vilblge gather at one place where they sing and dance throughout the night. Sometimes, the rejoicing continues for two to three days.

Sohrai.-Sohrai festival is celebrated on the Sixteenth day of the Kartik. This festival is particularly celebrated for the­well-being of the cattle. On this day they also sacrifice a gheta in the honour of Goraiyabhut,. who is regarded as the deity res­ponsible for the well-bein,g: of the cattle.

Phagua.-The phagua festival is celebrated on the full moon day in the month of Phalgun. Early morning the baiga accompanied by young Parhaiya males goes to the jungle end cuts a branch of semal tree. The Parhaiya youth carry the bralnch to the Devidham, where the baiga plants it in the ground ..

80 <covering it with straw, dry lea~s. wood etc. ·Ih the even'ing~ the baiga worships the Devi at the Devidham and ceremonially sets fire to the heap. Then the vfiillagers sing and danCe arofu"ld the heap of fire. Sometimes, on this occasion, they also play with fireworks. When the Semal branch is fully burnt. the baiga oeremonially pierces it with a balua (spear). The whole night is spent in singing and dalncing. Next moming all orfi them go to take a bath in a nearby river, return home and worship the muan. Thereafter, they indulge in fun and frolics and make merry by throwing: diy :colour,ed powder on each other.

Muhan;ali.-Muhan;ali festival is celebrated in Kuar when the village baiga worships Dihuwar and! Gambhail deity at its shrine by performing havaJn and offering ghee, incense, flowers. milk and vermillion to the deity. The members of the commu­nity take mahua and satua mixed together in their diet only after observing this festival.

Aghani.-Aghani or Khariani festival is held in the, month of Arghan, when paddy is harvested 'and stored iIi kharian (store). This festival is marked by the performance of the wor­ship of Devimai by the baiga at its shrine with 'offerings of a few seeds obtained from the new harvest from his own fields. No P.lrhaiya win thrash his' harv,est -unless thy baiga does it first and Offers some of the seeds from his harvest to the 'Devidhtim.

Among the festivals borrowed from the local Hindus Ramnaumi, Shivaratri and Chhath are the important ones.

J ~amnaumi is celebrated on the ninth day. of Ghailr.a (bright fortn~ ght). The baiga performs the usual worship at D/?vidham for the welfare of the entire village. The more devout Parhai)ra observe fast, read Ramacharitmanas and make offerings in the name of Rama. They !>reak their fa~t by ta~ng non-cereal and vegetarian food.

Shivratri is celebrated in Phalgun~·pn this occasion. too the devll.1t Parhaiya observe fast aneJ make offerings of 'flowers, fruits and milk to the Shivlinga in the Sh'ivalaya.

Chhath festival is held six days after Diwali. Men and women of the community keep fast for the whole dray and night 'and break it !rext morning after offering 'fruits, milk and flowers to' Suraj Bhagwan:' -.

LEISU~. RECREATION AND CHILD-PLAY:

The Akhara is the main avenue of recreational 'and leisure' time activities for the Parhaiya. Everyday in the ev,ening the young Parha,iya boys and unmarried girls gather in the akhara tor sing.iaIg and dancing to the accompaniment of musical instru~ ments, like dho/, mandar, mridang, jhumar, etc. Usually, the young boys come to the akhara first and start beating the drums and mridang at the sound of which the young unmarried girls come and join them in singing and dancing.

The religious festivals and other special occasions, like the jatara, are a few other occasions when the Parhaiya com­pletely relieve themselves from work and rejoice by singing and dancing. Most of them join the Jatara to Sulliraj. It is an oeca­siOin When the Parhaiya of the adjoining twenty two villages gather at one spot and mix with each other. The fair held at Sulliraj also provides the Parhaiya youths an opportunity to select their life partners. On this occasion, they dress them­selves in their best attire and make merry by singing, dancing and drilnking handia freely. Besides these, the communal hunt­ing ()If fishing expedition is yet another occasion which provides them recreation. They go to fishing expeditions in a party sing_. jng and d:anciing on the way.

Some of the popular games for the Parhaiya children a,re gudra, kafthra, gulail, chikka and guW-danda. Some of these­games like gudru, chikka are of local origin..

INJRACOMMUNLTY AND INTER-COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIP AND SOCIAL STATUS

The social intercourse Or the relations of the Parhaiya with the other l~c~l coJ?munities is obvIously conditions by the types of commullltIes with whom they come in contact as well as the intensity O'f the contact with the latter. 'But the nature O'f their habitat alsO' plays a signifioant role in the matter. In the interior and hilly terrain which are primarily inhabited by the tribal commuinities. they seem to enjoy a fairly good! social status. Thus. in Ranka Block, where the Parhaiya live in difficult ter­rain with certain ather tribal commumti.es, they hold a fairly respectable social s_tatus, particularly, due to the role of the priest which they performed for the tribal communities of the area. In fact, ther.e they rank above the Gond,. Majhi, Korwa and Bhuiya ,tribal communities. though slightly lower to the Chero and Kharwar. The claim of the latter two to the Rajput status is almost recognised by the local tribal communities. In fact, a few Parhaiya work in the capacity of agricultural labourers in the fields of a few househO'lds of Chero and Khar~ war landlords. But, it would seem that the inter-community relations among the local tribal communities, including the ParhaiyClJ are not sub1ect to regorous norms callilDg for regu­lated etiquettes in commensal and other matter. But, as stated in the preceding section, in the areas around Dhurki Block the Parhai)"a ha,ve been greatly influenced by the Hindu Social Order and have adO'pted many oustoms ojj the latter as is the case with the Chero and Kharwar tribal communities. The Par­haiya priest in these areas do not always perfQrm the role of the priest, not even for hi's own community. This role has been performed by the Brahmin priest Qf the community tOi fall in lines with the Caste Hindus. fJn fact. like the Chero and Khar­war they toOl claim Kshtriya status thQugh they dOl' acknOWledge the other two tribal communities as somewhat more superior 'and ranking above them.

But in the plains such as in Chhatarpur Block. where the Parhaiya live in the midst of other Hindu communities, they are accorded! a low sOloial status. lin the multi-ethnic village - they generally reside in separate settlements of their own tOWM'ds the periphery of the village away from the main village site. They are also subjected to slight discrimination as in the matter at' use of drinking waiter they do not utilize the wells of the Caste Hin-

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dus and have to dfepend OlD. their own. Generally, the caste Hin­dus do not accept water at their hands and the Brahmin even claim their touch to be polluting.

In addition to the Brahmin priest, they receive traditional services from serving castes, 'like the Dhobi (washerman), Nai (barber) wnd Chamar. These functionaries have de·fined social relations or institutionalised roles to play vis-a-vis their patron­clients (jajmans) belong,ing to the Parhaiya community. The role performed by the Brahmin priest has already been discussed ill details in the preceding section on the religious life of the com­munity. But it may be mentioned here that under the jajmani system the Brahmin priest is entitled! to receive kharwan-patal or s,easonal foodgrains during the harvest season twice a, year -­one as chaitie during the harvest reaped i:n the month of Chaitra and the other as Aghani from :the harvest reaped in the month of Aghan. The aveFag:e amount of foodglfains received in: jajmani by the purohit or Brahmin priest varies from 4 to 5 kilos of food--grains from each harvest. This is in adldition to the remuneratiOll1 for spedfic Toles performed by him. Thus" he also receives sidha or, in other words, ration for meals, clothes, dokshina (present in cash) during the different rituals performed by, him for the jajman on the occasion of birth or marriage. Besides, a Kantha Brahmin (Mahapatra) rendlers his servioes to them otn the occasion of dasgami or the tenth day of the obse­quies when he performs the ritual of bDeaking the ghanti (a small earthen pitcher) hung on a ficus tree. above the asthi of the deceased. He IS served meals for his services besides the present of a dhoti and a utensil __, usually a tumbler - which was in use of the chief mourner. in addition to some cash as dakshina.

The Brahmiln known as panda pays annual visits to a :few Parhaiya jajmans during the month of January and February after the festival of Ml1karsankranti for performance of Satya­narayan katha wherein, as stated earlier, he popularises the Brahmanical thoughts, particularly regarding punya (charity) and the importanoe of undertakiIlgJ religious pilgrimage. He too re­ceives sidha or cash payment andl, occasionally, a cow, or calf from the hands of a dying person. The Nai pe.rlonns Iris usual role of hair dressing and shavilng for the community throughout the year. But during certain important events he performs the institutionalised role of a messenger for conveying: invitations to the commulnitymen such as on the occasion of marriage in the hous,ehold of the Parhaiya jajmcln besides assisting the Brah­min priest in performing certain rituals. During the marriage

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cer.emony he is suppos~d to !ook ~.~+ the cqmfort and acoep1 tion of the ,gmom's party. Furth<rr, it is c:ustoPlary that "fter tIle birth of a child, the N ain (barber' woman) pares the nails 0{ the (Oew born child as well as the mother. The Nai also receives the customary dues, once a year, usually nine kilos of food­grains during the harvest in addition to veceiving neg, sidha and, sometimes, cash payment on .certain ceremOlIlial occasions. in the family of the jajman.

The services of a Dhobi or washerman are requir~d: for occasional washing of clothes, but particularly for washing clothes. at t'he end of the pollution period associated with birth and death iin the jajman's household. He too is entitled to the customary dues in addition to the payment on specific cere­monial occasion. The Chamars of the locality function as musi­cians during marriages of the Parhaiya and. the Chamar women often act as! mid-wives. They receive payments in cash or. kind or both.

It may be pointed O'llt here that various functional castes are not always found in the same ~illage occupied by the Par­haiya. For instance, in Lolki village they are often called from the adjoining village. In fad, as stated earlier, in one case forr carrying the bride in the palanquin, ~wo palanquin bearers lJC­

longing to Korwa community were engaged from Karwapahar village situatedi at some distance from the village.

, It Seems that certain other factors are responsJble for the

Parhaiya adopting the rituals of the local Hindus. As mentioned elsewhere, the Parhaiya of the erstwhile Chainpur Estate and adjoining areas had revold against the appression of the local rajas. This was the time when the :national. liberation movement wa$ also going on at a high tempo. The two liberation move­ments - the movement of a small ethnic group against the oppression of the local fendelistic interests and the. movement of an entire nation ;for freedom from colomal got mixed up. The Parhai)"a come close to the 10!Zal lea:ders of the national move­ment most of whom were high caste Hindus; they imbibed the outl~k and -wages of life of the latter to a considerable extent. This set in motion on process which accderated the adoption of the ritual ideoms of the scruptures as percoleted through ,!he regional cultti.q:ll milieu on the. <;me hand! and s~al refoTm'Y driv~ of the. elites of the national movement on .the. other.

STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL CONTROL. PRESTIGE AND LEADERSIDP

Notwithstanding the inroads made by the newly introduced' statutory panchayat in the area of their habitat the Parhaiya still try to regulate their commUinity affairs through the tradi­tional tribal council whioh is a fairly effective organ of; social control. The Parhaiya, councilor panchayat is presided oryer by a hereditary headman called the Mahata or gaU'alt. He is assist­ed by 5-8 persons known as pancha(s) who are the senior a,nd respectable members of the community and few or them repre­senting the different 'lineages in the village, as well as persons select.ed Oln the basis of their knowledge about tribal matters. experience, and impartiality. Besides the institutionalised set-up of the council, the malro'fo or the pancha(s) consult the OIther elders of their .community tOi help them in solving disputes brought to 'their notice. In other words. the tribal council is a formal or :institutionalised body which WOIrks in an informal.. way.

The tribal council mOistly deals 'with the cases ansmg out of breach of social norms of the community of minOT nature, par­ticularly those relating to sexual offences, divorce, etc. though, it is said, that in the past it sometimes also dealt with certain criminal cases of theft and assault, etc. The usual punishment for the breach of cus;tomary norms or injustice meted out by a member of the community to another is payment 01' fine, the amount of which varies according to the nature and gravity of­the offenoe. In some cases, the aggrieved party receives cash compensation from the culprit or offender; otherwise the amount realised by the tribal council as fine is mostly spent on distri­buting liquor to the panJcha(s,) and other senior members of the community attending the coundl meeting. 'The extreme penalty of ex-communication is also evoked' many times, but often the ex-communication is provisional in the §ense that the ostracised person is readmitted in the community soon after or after pass­age of some time on payment of stipulated fine and undergo~ng penance by taking a purificatory bath in the ho,ly Ganges, at Gaya, at Vara:nasi and or by giving a feast to the community­men. Now-a-days, ex-'communi.cation is also condoned some­times by some sections of Parhaiya who consider themselves as progressive, if the guilty person arranges the recitation of satyG.-, narayan katha.

85 7-4 R. G.India/7S

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There is no apex body of th~ tr.ibal council for the Par­haiya community as a whole or in respect of the members of rhe ~unity in Bihar State. The Panchayat either operates at the village level 01." at the regional level. covering a few vil· lages. For instance. in certain areas. such as in Dhurki Block. it was found that though there is a hereditary headman in each village., the disputes are dealt with by a regional panchayat covering about twenty five villages and headed by a senior mahato. In the pancbayat of the area the motato resides in Barai Tanqar village, located in Madhya Pradesh. He is baving a representative, known as prodhan (tbe hereditary headman) in each village covered by the panchayat. The very fact t:;'1at the mahato belongs to Barai Tangar village located in Madhy1l. Pradesh indicates that sometimes the regional panchayat covers adjOining villages located outside the border of the State, cutting across the administrative boundaries of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and covering a few villages in each of these States ..

The procedure fOr convening the meeting of the regional panchayat is that a person who wishes to bring a case befor·e the panchayat informs the headman or the pradhan of the village

who in turn informs the mahato or the headman of the regional panchayat through a messen,ger. The mahato usually holds the meeting of the pan'chayat in the village of the complainant where the council meeting is held in which the headman of each vil­lage also participates. The othel." elderly members of the com­munity also offer their views. The judgment is arrived at after protracted deliberations after hearing the complainant and de­fendent and their supporters. Sometimes, in case of breach of community norms the Panchayat meets 0iI1 its own without any complaint being lodged to it.

When the matter is dealt with by the village panchayat the procedure is more or less the same as in the case of the regional

l'anchayat. As stated earlier, the village panchayat is presided over by the vi11agje mahato and a few elderly persorts. act as a pancha. But where the& is no regional panchayat and the dis­pute relates to members of the community residing in two difIe­rent villages, the matter is dealt with in the following manner:

The aggrieved person brings his grievances before the mahato of his village. who get in touch with his counterpart in the other village where the party resides. O'n a convenient day, agreed upon by mutual conSent, the mahato of the village of the complainant visits the village of the party against whom the

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complaint has been lodged and the matter is deliberated in the common tribal council meeting comprising the headman and pancha(s) of the two villages involved, - the senior mahato of the two presiding over the meeting.

A few cases of disputes dealt with by the Parhaiya tribal councils recorded during the field investigation in connection with the wesent study are discussed here:

1. It is said that the wife df a Parhaiya residing In Sulli village eloped with a person belonging to Vaish community engaged in the business of money lending in the village. They first went to' another village known as Sasaram. But Dfter stay­ing there for two years they rdumed to Sulli. where the money­lender left her to her oWin lot. The woman in question went back 10 her Parhaiya husband who after rapprochement and accepted her. But the tribal council took a serious exception to his beha­viour as it was of the view that in accepting a woman who had led an amorous and sinful life with another persOln, after desert­jng her husband, he had lowered the prestige of the community. The council promptly outcasted him from the oommunity and decre,ed that in case he desired to be readmitted in the Parhaiya society he should stand a feast to the commUlnity. But as the husband was financially not in a pOSition to meet the conditions imposed by the tribal council he has remained outcasted.

It may not ~ out of place to mention here that the Vaish Mahajan who had seduced the married Parhaiya woman men­tioned above, later kept another married Parhaiya woman as his concubine. The woman in question was married to a Parhaiya two years ago before beilug allured and seduced by the Vaish. However. in the present case she continued to live as the con­cubine of the Vaish for twelve years untii her death. She begot three children from him - one son and two daughters - the youngest of whom died later of smallpox. The tribal council fOUind itself helpless in the matter as it could do nothing about it.

2. A few years ago the sister of -a Parhaiya Baiga residing in Gamharia village was married to a person residing in Goda Karam village. But once, after: visiting her brother during a fes­tival. she refused to go back to her husband.' Her husband naturally felt aggrieved as he had not giveiD. her any cause for seeking separation from him .. He approached the tribal council of his village to intervene in the matter. After a month accom­.panied by the mahato, the pancha(s) and a few elderly men

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of his village. he visited the parental village of his wife. There a meeting of the tribal COUThcil oomprising members of the two villages involved was convened. After hearing the case of both the parties and ascertaining the views of all concerned, the council decided that the wife was obviously in the wrong and she should immediately return to her husband. Though, un­willing, she was fOTced to accompany him in deferen.ce to the wishes of the communitymen.

(3) It is said that twenty years ago K. D., the wife of J. P. Parhaiya of Gamharia village eloped with a person belonging to Lohar community, residing in the same village. After some time both of them were apPTehended in Ramgarh village by a few Parhaiya of Gamharia village. They were both brought back and produced before the tribal council. In the meeting of the council. K. D. pLeaded that she was innocent and was a.ctually allured and seduced by the Lohar who had deceived her by making false promises of love and rich presents. She pleaded that she be shown mercy and pardoned for het folly. The pan­chayat ascertained the wishes of her husband who expressed his desire to accept her again in his home as his wife. The councit decided that she could be pardoned provided she and her hus­band undertook a pilgrimage to Gaya and after return arral'ged a satyanarayan katha as well as gave hhat (feast) to. the com­munity. The couple fulfilled the conditions laid down by the council and succe'eded in remaining in the icommunitv. But as the panchayat of the Parhaiya had no control over the Lohar who had seduced the Parhaiya woman he was handed over to the police who, it is said, released him after beating and warning him.

(4) A Parhaiya resident of Gamharia village while on a short visit to his wife's parental village developed illicit relations with a woman bel9nging to Korwa community. He deserted his wife and started living with the Korwa. woman. It is understood that he met the KOTWa woman during the course of a folk dance held on the olccasion of a festival while he was playing mandar. When the matter came to the notice of the village elders, they immediately convened a meeting of the tribal coun­ciL The council felt very much offended and indignant ov,er h~s behaviour and promptly outcasted him. It is understood that he still lives a life of an outcast with the Korwa woman.

(5) A few years ago a married Parhaiya woman of Goria Karam villagle eloped with S. P., a Parhaiya residing in the same villag:e, and started living with him. The matter came to the noti,ce of the tribal council who in its meeting decided that since'

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S. P. had committed the sin of seducing a hihaut (a m~uried woman) of the same community he should pay cash compensa­tion of a hundred rupees to her husband. This. it was pointed out tc, S. P., was necessary for grrunt of formal divorce to the woman and recognition of her marriage with him. Out of the hundred rupees realised from S. P .• an amount of !'U_pe('s ten was spent on serving liquor to the pancha(s).

(6) In runother case, A. D., daughter of R. P., was married to G. B. of Nawa village. But after having lived wi:th her hus­band for six months she returned tOi her father's village on some plea and refused to go back to her husband. It is alleged that in her behaviour: she was motivated by her ~ar1ier illegimate rela­tionship with a person belonging to Korwa commUinity residing in her parental village. In falCt after sometime she started living With the Korwa. But she proved to be of confirmed unsteady character and loose morals, as she decieved her Korwa para­mour as well and deserted him in favour of another Korwa residing in a different village. Her beha.vioui' infuriated the communitymen and the tribal council felt shaken by her beba­yiour, but it could not take any action against her. The council, however, took its wrath on her father who was held responsible for the immoral conduct of his daughter and ex-communicated! him. Later on, as is the usual practice, he was admitted to the community after he had served a feast to the communitymen oifj the village.

(7) A few years ago, the tribal council of Suru village dealt with another case of elopment. In this caSie too a married Par­]1ai.va woman eloped with a person belonging to Korwa com­munity. As in the preceding case, the tribal icouncil found itself helpless to punish her but it found her husband responsible :or his wife's behaviour on the ground that he could not control his wife properly. The council punished him by ex-communicating him from the community; but accorded him the usual com:es­sian that if he paid a visit to Gaya and took a dip in the holy Ganges and, on his return, gave a feast tOi the communiiymen he would be readmitted in the Parhaiya society. But it is five years since he was ex-communicated. He has not been readmitted in the Parhaiya community, as he has not fulfilled the condition indicated.

(8) In yet another case in Suru village it is said that the wife of R. P. had developed illicit relations with a person belong­inl?" to Gond community and eventually eloped with him to Da1 village situated at a distance of twenty five kilometers frolt'.

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Suru village. They were traced after six months and with the 'help of local assistance apprehended by R. P. and some persons of his village. But the Gond fled away before he could be caught though the wayward Parhaiya woman was brought back to Suru village, However, after living with R. P. for three days she again ran away with someone elsoe. The tribal council this time found R. -P. guilty of not exercising proper control over his wife and awarded him the usual punishment of excommunication. He still lives as an outcaste in the villagJe.

(9) A few years ago the wife of T. P. of Gamharia village deserted her husband and started living with a person belonging to Korwa tribe. T. P. approached a local inffuential person belonging to Brahmin community to intervene in the matter and use his good offices in persuading his wife to return to him. He succeeded in his efforts, But the tribal council took offence to the 'light·hearted manner' in which her husband treated the affair and imposed a fine on him. As he paid the fine. he was condoned of his guilt and the fine realised was spent on serving liquor to the members of the community. It is a different matter that the money spent by T. P. was wasted as four months later his wife again deserted T. P. in favour of her former para· mour. This time the Parhaiya panchayat was not in a position 'to punish anyone except decreeing that no person of the community should have anything to do with the woman.

(10) In a case of slightly different nature a Parhaiya of Kun­dauli village was jailed by a court of law as he was caught in a robbery case. On his release from the prison he came back to his village. But the Parhaiya tribal council thought that his internment in a jail on a theft case ruined the prestige of the community. It took a decision that unless he took a purificatory bath in the Ganges or visited Baudh Gaya and. on his return. 'served a feast to the communitymen. he would not be accepted by the community, The Parhaiya ex-convict. however. complied with the caste council's wishes and was readmitted in the com­munity.

Thp foregoing case studies relate to sex offences in which male members of the community or female members of the community and outsiders are involved. There are also cases 'where male members of the community are parts to sex others involving female members of other communities. But those cases are not generally dealt with by the Paharia punchayat. One such case would be discussed here.

The Parhaiya bachelor of Chete village is said to have developed illicit relations with a married Korwa woman. They went on having clandestine meetings for two months. But then the rumours about their affair spread and they were kept under observation. One day they were caught red handed in a maize field. The Parhaiya was caught by the local Korwa and tied to a tree. Later, he was rol'dbly made to eat a, handful of boot (cooked rice) from the hands of the Korwas present there; this signified his formal acceptance of. the Korwa woman as his wife and his admission into Korwa community.

It may be mentioned here that while the traditional tribal council has been trying to conduct the affairs of the community in the matters of lapses of sexual nature on the part of the members of the community, most other matters are now dealt with by the statu~ory panchayat. The traditional leadership of the mahat'o and the baiga is no longer as effective as in the past and the community is more and more dependent on the non-traditional leadership which has come up in the wake of the activities of the political parties. Besides, as stated earlier. some of the Parhaiya plaged an active part in the national free­dom movement and got enrolled themselves as members of some political parties which took an active part in the movement. These personalities are respected by the local Parhaiya who often take their advice in personal matters as well as matters concerning the well-being of the community as a whole.

BIOGRAPHIES 1. C. N. aged 54 years. is considered to be an important and

leading personality among the Parhaiya of Palamau district. He has been associated with an important political party for the last three decades and. it is understood. he took an active part in the Independence movement of the country.

When C. N. was three years old. his father died after having become a victim of cholera. He was brought up lovingly by his maternal grandfather (mother's father) who was very found of him. According to C. N. he has always been of a jovial and playful disposition. from the very childhood. and spent most of his time in playing gulail and chhikka which were his favourite games or pastimes. He also used to sing and partici­pate in folk dances. He appears to be really a talented person as he is still rated as a good player of man dar, a local musical instrument. When he was 17 years old. C. N. got married to D. D. who was 12 years old at that time. His marriage was arranged by his guardian. viz., his maternal grand-father by holding negotiations with his wife's father. He paid a bride price or dalitaka, as it is locally known. amounting to Rs. 9.50 a Jhapi or basket full of sweets. a daura or a basket full of food grains. in addition to the bridal dress as well as a set of dothes for his wife's mother. The marriage ceremony was solemnised on an auspicious day falling on a Monday. On the same day in the evening the barat or marriage party, whIch inclu­ded fifty persons. visited the bride's village to the accompaniment of a group of seven drummers belonging Chamar community, hired from Padra village at a distance of three kilometres from his village. The party of the musicians was paid at the rate of Rs. 3/- per drummer. The marriage rites and rituals were ,observed in the night and N. R. - a Brahmin priest residing in Kurka village (2 kilometres away from Nawa) - officiated at the marriage rites. D. T .• a barber belonging to Nai caste and residing in Shahpur village was also present. The Brahmin -priest was paid sumangli (remuneration for his services for ,conducting the marriage ceremonies) amounting to a cash of Rs. 4.50, dhoti and some quantity of cereals, while the Nai was paid Rs. 4.50 only. After the essential marriage rites were ov~r, the barat as well as other guests were entertained to a fcast. The bidai or bride's departure for groom's house took place next day in early morning. The bride after staying at C. N.'s

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house for 5 days was escorted back to her parental village by her brother. After the passage of four months. C. N. in the company of his friend visited his bride's house during the Dus­sehra festival to bring her back to his residence. They returned the same day. But C. N. and his wife shared the bed. two days later.

C. N.'s wife begot him eight children but unfortunately none of them survived. The first seven children died in infancy or: early age after falling victim to one disease or the other. while the eight died as a result of an attack of rabbies. after having been bitten by a jackal at the age ofi 15 years. His wife was also snatched away by death after thirteen years of married life. But C. N. married again after having lived as a widower for three years. K. D.. his second wife hailed from Pire village. The marriage was celebrated under sagai system with the pay­ment of a bride price amounting to twelve rupees - in cash. one panseri of cereals and a set 0:1l clothes each for the bride as well as her mothers. After two years of his second marriage, K. D., the second wife. gave birth to a female child. During the delivery and subsequent confinement K. D. was attended for five days by a dai belonging to Mahara caste who was paid three rupees in cash. eight kilos of cereals and some old clothes for her services. Besides. a Nai and a Dhobi from Chainpur village were paid three rupees and eight Kilos of cereals each for rendering customary service. But unfortunately his only daughter from his second wife also died at the age of six after developing high fever on account of a disease which could not be diagnosed.

According to C. N. he entered politics at the age of eighteen years. soon after he got married. when late Dr. Rajendra Prasad visited his village in the month of Aghana. He stated. that he was very much impressed by Rajendra Babu's speech and got himself enrolled as a "four minas" or primary member of the Party. Thereafter. he took active interest in political activities. He narrated that once he visited Daltonganj to listen to J aiprakash Narain who addressed a meeting there. When he was returning home he was caught by the sepoys of the former Raja of Chainpur. He alleged that he was subjected to physical torture. However. as a result of agitation carried on his behalf by the local leaders of Daltanganj his release could be secured in a short time. But, according to him. he had to spend fifteen days in the local civil hospital for treatment of

.injuries infl.icted on him. by Raja's .sepoys ..

..94

According to C. N. he continued to take an active interest in the Independence movement as well as some local agitations in the company of a few fellow tribesmen and some other villa­gers of the area. He mentioned that his main contribution in an endeavour to protect the poor from exploitation was to organise a movement against begar or forced labour in the area. which used to be rendered to the Raja of Chainpur and a few zamindars by the Parhaiya and other tribal inhabitants of seven adjoining villages, viz. Kabripathan, Koth Mahua, Lamtee,. Berma, Bachlewa, Lalheya and Bamandi. He mentioned that once the sepoys raided the place of their meeting and mercilessly beat him and a few other active agitators. They were also tortured with the result they had later to be carried in a palan­quin to the hospital at Daltongani where from they were dis­charged after treatment for ten days.

He mentioned that he was imprisoned by the Raja of Chainpur a number of times for agitating against oppression. He claims to have taken an initiative in organising a movement against the custom of offering salami (offering of a goat by the villagers of each viIlage) to the Raja every year during the Dussehra festival. He was first beaten for organising a meeting in this connection. Later, when he organised a rally in front of the police station of Chainpur, he was imprisoned in the Dal­tonganj jail. Next, he was caught again and imprisoned in Bankipore Jail near Patna where he met a number of interned national leaders.

C. N. ekes out his livelihood by CUltivating a small piece of land inherited by him from his ·maternal grandfather. He claimed that he was also having some gair muzrua land for which he did not have to pay any revenue. He alleged that after inde­pendence the Patwari valuated the land and transferred it to two Ahir or another village after having accepted bribe from them. A portion of the remaining land was occupied by the village mukhia. III luck seem to have always dodged him and his domestic life has been most unhappy as he lost his first wife and eight children from her. His only daughter from his second wife also died. He stated that had he not kept himself busy in social welfare activities. he would have died of a broken heart and sufferings.

2. S. S., aged seventy two, is a respectable and intelligent person of the community, holding the office of mukhia or mahato of Lolki village panchayat. He possesses about twenty acres of agricultural land which he has been cultivating for himself.

95

According to S. S: he belongs to Kashi gotra which has its origin in the decendants of Pandavas of Mahabharata. He stated that after coming to age he found himself surrounded by family mis­fortunes. But he had a happy childhood. He mentions that he was very found of singing jhumar songs and playing on man dar during his childhood. He married four times as his wives died one after another. He first married A. D. when he was sixteen years old and she twelve years. She hailed from Bokhani village located at a distance of twelve kilometres from his own village. Her parents were originally residing in U. P. in Dudhi Tehsil of Mirzapur district but had migrated to Palamau district in Bihar a few years ago. His marriage was arranged by his father and father's brother who held negoitations with his wife's parents-. His father paid sudama (bride's price) amounting to a cash amount Rs. 7.25, bridal dress and maisari or a set of dress for the bride's mother and a basket full of sweets. The marriage was solemnized in the month of baisakh (April) which is considered to be particularly auspicious far celebrating marriages. The marriage party included twenty five persons who visited the bride's village on foot. They, however, took a paTki (palanquin) which .was carried by four persons belonging to Oraon Dhangar com­-ulUnity hailing- from the nearby Kathar village and hired for fourteen rupees for bringing the bride back after marriage cere­mony. The barat was also accompanied by a party of four musicians, two of them belonging to Chamar community played on morbaja and dafia and the other two belonging to Ghasi com­munity played on shahnai. As per custom the dafla players were paid Rs. 1.25 each while the shahnai players Rs. 2.00 each. The: marriage rites were performed in the night and a feast was given to the marriage party as well as other guests. Early next morning the barat returned to the village. The bride was carried in the palki brought by the marriage party while the bridegroom rode on a horse. She stayed with S. S. for five days. On the sixth day her brother visited her and she returned to her parental village in his company. Mter three months, during the Karma. festival, S. S. visited his wife's parental home in the company of his younger brother and after staying there overnight returned with her next morning. Thereafter. he consumated the marriage.

His first wife gave birth to a son after six years but the child died soon after the birth before the chhati ceremony could be performed. After four years she too was snatched away· by death, falling a victim to Cholera. Mter two years of her demise

·S. S. married a widow by sagai system. His second wife hailed from Pachkheree village located in Nagar Police Station. He

96

:paid a sudama of Rs. 5.25, a set of bridal dress each and maisad -or a set of clothes far the bride's mother. But his second wife tO'o died after six years. This time small pox snatched her. In the meanwhile she had given birth to two daughters but none of them survived as smallpox took further toll.

S. S. married again after the demise of his second wife. His third wife, a widow. hailed from Chattarpur village located in Dudhi Police Station in Mirzapur district in Uttar Pradesh. But actually her village is located only 12 kilometers from his village of Lolh But misfortune cO'ntinued to dodge S. S: and his third wife also died after eight years without leaving any issue. He remained single for about one and a half years but eventually he married again. His fourth wife, also a widow, hailed from laharasarai village in Nagar Pcilice Station. As luck would have it his fourth wife has survived so far. She has also given birth to a daughter who is now married. But S. S. had the misfor­tune of losing his first three wifes as well as all children begot by them.

While narrating the birth of his daughter from his fourth wife, S. S. mentioned that she was born in 1942 at midnight :in the month of Asadh when he was sent to jail for participating in freedom movement. His wife was assisted by a dai belonging to' Chamar community and residing at Kathar village. His daughter's chatti ceremony was observed on the sixth day and the dai was paid one rupee and twenty five paise as well as .five kilos of

,cereals and a set of old clothes for the customary service render­ed by her. The harhi ceremony was performed on the 12th day which marked the end of the pollution period for his wife. During the harhi ceremony his female relations presented custo­mary gifts of gur, ghee and turmeric to his wife. The alVlaprasan ceremony of his daughter was performed when she was six months old. On that occasion his wife's father ~d her on kheer and later a feast, which included puree and sweets, was served to the close relations. His wife's father also presented a set of clothes and an ornament each to his wife and daughter. An offering of puree, ghee and goat was also made to the village deity. He took his daughter to Thakurbari temple in Nagar Town for performance of her tonsure ceremony ....

S. S. has been actively associating himself with political activities. He has been a member of an important political party ,and claimed to have worked with some of the prominent leaders of tbe district. He also claimed that during the Independence movement he participated in terrorist activities and was a member

97

of the gang which blew an important road bridge in 1942. Accor-· ding tohim aftel: independence the government sanctioned an ad-· hoC" amount 'of seven hundred rupees to him as a political sufferer as he was imprisoned a number of times for taking part in the independence movement. He stated that he received this amount in two instalments of rupees two hundred and five hundred each.

It appears that S. S. is liberal and progressive in outlook. He has been exercised over the 'perpetual state of backwardness of his community', as he puts it. He believes that lack of edu­cation coupled with poverty is the main reason for this backward­ness. He was, however, heartened to see that recently his com­munitymen have made some efforts to improve their lot. In this connection he mentioned that about a decade or so earlier no member of his community could read or write but now-a-days quite a significant number of children are attending schools and can read or write a letter. He also feels encouraged to see that the community men are also trying to diversify their economy. This he illustrated by mentioning that a few members of his community have now taken to plucking bidi leaves in the lean summer sea­son to supplement their income. He also feels pleased to note that the communitymen have now become concious of tbe un­necessary extravagence in the celebration of social and religious ceremonies and taken steps to give it Up. He cited the instance of abandoning 0:£ elaborate rites and rituals in worships or fes­tivals and in certain areas altogether giving up of some festivals, like that of Karma and Jitia.

According to S. S. their community is faced with two im­portant problems which stand in the way of their progress. One is that the scbools in th,e rural areas are situated at long distances. As a result the children have to travel a long distance which effect their attendance in the schools. The other problem referred by him relates to lack of irrigation facilities in the area forcing the people to depend on dry or upland cultivation, he pleaded that the g0'Cernment· should take urgent steps to solve this problem by opening more .schools, at least O1~e in each village, and digging -tanKs, ponds or reservoirs for feeding their parched agricultural' land with. water.

REFERENCES CITED AND OTHER BIBLIOGRAPHY

References cited

1 Archer, W. G. C.ensus of India, 1941, Vol. VII, Bihar, pp. 28, Simla, 1942.

'2 Crooke, W. The Tribes and Castes of North Western Provinces and Oudh, Vol. IV, pp. 126-133, Calcutta, 1896.

:3 Dalton, E. T. Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 126-127, Calcutta. 1872.

4 DrakeBrockman,D. L. District Gazetteers of United Pro­vinces of Agra and Oudh, MIRZA­PUR, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 113-114, Allahabdad, 1911.

S Galt, E. A.

6 Hutton, J. H.

7 Lacey, W. G.

,8 Mitra, A.

9 Mitra, A.

1{) O'Malley, L. S. S.

11 O'Malley, L. S. S.

• G~nsus of India, 1901, Vol. VIA. The Lower Provinces of Bengal and Their Feudatories, Part II, Tables, 1902.

• Caste in India, pp. 160, 28 (gloosary) Bombay, 1957.

CenSus of India, 1931, Vol. VII, Bihar and Orissa, Part 1, Report p. 288 Patna 1933 and Part II Tables, p. 135, Patna, 1933.

Census of India, 1961, Vol. I, INDIA, Part V·A (ii), Special. Tables for Schdeduled Tribes.

Census of India, 1961, g Vol. I, INDIA, Part V-A (ii), Special Tables for Scheduled Tribes.

• Bengal District Gazetteers, Pala­mau, Vol. IX, p. S4, Calcutta, 1907.

• Census of India, 1911, Vol. V, Bihar and Orissa Part Ill, Census Tables.

98

12 Prasad, N.

-r3 Prasad, S. D.

14 Risley, H. H.

IS Sahay, K. N.

16 Sunder, D. H. E.

17 Turner, A. C. .

1 Bhatnagar, pp ..

2 Chatterjjee, P. K.

3 Choudhury, P. C.

99

Land and People of Tribal Bihar, pp. 202-204, Ranchi, 1961.

Census of India, 1961, Vol. IV, Bihar Part V (a), Sepcial Tables for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes , pp. ix., X., xv., xxvii, xxviii; xxx, Patna. . . '

The Tribes and Castes of Bengal Vol. II, p. 164, Calcutta, 1891.

A study in the Proqess of Trans­formation from Tribe to Caste Parhaiyas of Lolki-A Case Study, Journal of Social Re­search, Vol. X, No. 1., March 1967 pp. 64-89.

Final Report on the Survey and Settlement on the Palamau Go­vernment Estate, Palamau Dis­trict in Chota Nagpur, Bengal Seasona. 1894-95 to. 1896-97. pp. AppendIces co. XXV1-CO xxviii, Calcutta, 1898.

• Census of India, 1931, Vol. XVIII United Provinces of Agra and Oudh., Part I, Report, p. 634, Allahabad, 1933.

Other Bibliograpby

• Census of India, 1961, District Census Handbook, Uttar Pra­desh, No. 54-MIRZAPUR District, pp. 106-107, Allahabad, 1966.

Parhaiya in Transition, Mastet Degree Filed Report submitted t~ Ranchi University (UnpublisheA) 1964.

Bihar DiE.trict AMAU, 'PP. 1961.

Gazetteers, PAL 123-129, Patm,

4 Ekka,'W.

5 Grierson, G. A.

6 Prasad, D .. :0 •

7 RoY, B, '.

8 Sahay, B.

9 Srivastava.; A. R. N.

100

Social Oraganisation of the 'l>a'~ hiaya Master's Degree, Field Report submitted to Ranchi University (Unpublished), 1964.

• The Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. IV, 1964.

• Census of India, 1961, Vol. IV, Bihar, Part llA, Population Table, pp. 173-1/5, Patna.

Census of India, 1961, West Ben­gal, District Census Handbook, PURULlA District, pp. 205-106.

Census of India, 1941, Vol. V, Uttar Pradesh, Tables, p. 67, Simla, 1942.

Parhaiyas : An Anthropological Pers­pective to their Magic, Religion and Fe&tivals, Master's Degree, Field Report submitted to Ranchi University, (Unpublished) 1964.

101

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II. A Parhaiya kitchen.

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ANNEXURE FRAMEWORK FOR ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

f. Name, Identity, Origin and lIistory

1. Name: Synonym; sub-caste I sub-tribe, as in President's Order and in other published sources such as census reports, monographs. etc., grouping with other castes and tribes during various c,ensuses. Affinity with other castes and tribes accordi;:_~ to recognised authorities.

2. Etymological significance of the name; names bv which the community is referred to by (a) others and (b) itself.

3. Identification of the community by occupation or any <Jther way of life.

4. Myths and legends connected with the origin and history of the community and its segments; historical references and IJOpular beliefs about history and migration of the community.

II. Distribution and Population Trend

1. 'Area where. found, population and concentration in the State' and outside; physical aspects of the areas of concentration.

2. Numerical strength in 1961 and population variations during 1901-1961; sex ratio; age-groups and rural-urban distri­bution in 1961.

III. Physical Characteristics

1. Racial stock: appearance and affinity with other known communities.

IV. Family, Clan Kinship and' other Analogous Divisrons

1. Family; size (observed and published), Types, residence after marriage, descent, lineage and its economic and religious functions and inheritance.

2 .. Clan! gotra and. sub-clans; I1ames, etymological meaning. clustenng of clans. bebef and mythology about origin, status am0I?-g. ~lans, clan l;lnd regulation of marriage (preference and prohIbItton), OccupatIOn and clan, clan and rituals, clan and food (res1rictions, prescriptions etc.).

119 10-4 R. G. India{75

120

3. Others: Phratry. Duel organisation, like moieties etc. as in 2 above.

V. Dwelling, Dress, Food, Ornaments and Other Material Ob­jects Distinctive of the Community.

1. Settlement; village site, location, settlement pattern, agglomerated. nucleated. dispersed. sprinkled, isolated. amorph­ous, star-shaped. horseshoe-shaped. linear. rectangular. circular or ring-shaped etc.) and variations; regional pattern vis-a-vis pattern of the community.

2. Neighbourhood pattern on the basis of religion, castes (Caste Hindus. untouchables) and tribes etc. with segregations. if any, and the basis thereof.

3. Dwelling unit: Compound, entrance, source of water, the use of different parts of the house (latrine. cattle' shed. 'isolation huts etc.); shape (square, round, irregular etc.); storeys; nature of floor, plinth, wall, roofiing. thatching; ventilations and doors; materials used; decorations and embellishments; temporary structures

4. Dress. including head gear and foot-wear used ordinarily. on ceremonial occasions and special occasions, sex-wise and ac­cording to majority or minority; dress of priests and office bearers: variations.

5. Ornaments use; materials used; from whom obtained; variations according to sex and age.

6. Personal decoration; Tattooing; mutilatioft (chipping of teeth. etc.); hair cutting; how done. purpose, attitude and varia­tions according to sex and age.

7 Food and drink: Materials (staple and other), prescrip­tions and prohibitions, fuel, utensils, and mode of preparation, practices connected with serving and taking of food; preservation of good and rituals, if any.

8. Equipments connected with economic pursuits, religion and ritual, how procured; materials used, construction, manipula­tion and purpose.

9. Other household equipments: As above.

lD. Equipments connected with recording of time. space and weight and their methods of use: As above.

121

VI. Environmental Sanitation, Hygienic Habits, Disease and Treatment.

1. EnVIronmental sanitation, settlement. disposal of night soil. garbage, etc.

2. Hygienic habits; cleanliness of body, teeth, dress houses. utensils. etc.

3. Diseases: Incidence: local names, interpretation of the causes; symptoms; diagnosis and cure-persons and methods involved.

4. Modem systems of medicines and attitude of the com­munity towards it.

VII. Language and Education

1. Ancestral Language: Classification according to Grierson, persistence of ancestral language and literature.

2. Mother tongue: classification according to Grierson; bilingualism and multi-lingualism, regional language.

3. Information collected during 1961 Census on language and literature.

4. Education and literacy: Traditional and modern attitude, information collected during 1961 Census-literacy and levels of education.

VIiI. Econ{)mric Life

1. Economic resources: Land, community land, individual ownership and types of land possessed and land utilised. I.

2. Forest wealth: Flora and fauna; nature and ex:tent of right in the forest, rarest utilization.

3. Fishery, Livestock and others.

4. Working force: Sex-wise, urban and rural variations and comparison of the same with the region.

5. Non-workers.

6. Industrial classifications: Details as collected in the field and con:pari~on with that of the 1961 Census figures; traditional occupatIOn and changes in the pattern; main and subsidiary occupations.

122

7. FQroo(l laboql', bQIld~d labour. patron-cliept relationship (Jajmam). mode of payment.

8. Seasonal migration connected with occupation: recruit­ment, formation of working groups.

9. Nomadic movement: C~de and occupational pattern.

10. Shifting cultivation: method, implements and equip­ments, produce. participation cycle of rotation, measure to regu­late shifting cultivation and its impact.

11. Terrace cultivation: As above.

l2. Income and expenditure: Sources of income, extent, expenditure on food. clothing. house. education. social functions and others.

1~. Other ~spects of economic life.

IX. Life Cycle

A. Birth

1. Beliefs and practices connected with conception, barren­ness, still birth, miscarriage. abortion, child death. regulation of sex. etc.

2. Pre-natal and natal practices: Residence. diet. work taboos etc., delivery place, assistance, equipments used in delivery, position during delivery, severance of umbilical cord (who does and how done), disposal of placenta.

3. Post-natal practices; Confinement and segregation, cere­monial pollution, diet for mother and child. rituals

4. Protection and care of child and training.

S. Attitude towards birth of child, preference about sex, preference about number, segregation. of sex etc.

B. Initiation

1. Initiation ceremony: Descriptions.

2. P.re-marital sex, relations within the community and out­side the community. sanctions and taboos.

123

C. Marriage

1. Age at marriage for both sexes: Prohibited degrees of relationship. preferences. widow marriage (preferences and taboos).

2. Civil status' and social status. 3. Type..s of marriage; Monogamy, polygamy (polyandry and

Polygyny).·

4. Selection of spouse: Qualities valued (for hdde and groom), mode \')f selection procedure.

5. Modes of acquiring mate: By negotiations. force intrusion, elopement, etc.

6; Terms of settlement: Payment of bride price, dowry. service. exchange. adoption etc.

7. CeremQnie~ connected with marriage: Details including who presides over the marriage and services of functional castes.

8. Statistical data as per 1961 Census.

9. Divorce: Reasons and procedure.

D. Death

1. Concept about death. measures to ensure future well being of the soul, measures to avert harm by the spirits.

2. Methods of disposal : Burial. cremation. exposure, float­ing on water,. -etc.

3. Preparations for . disposal of dead. inform:ing friends and relatives. treatment of the dead body, digging of pit etc. for dis­posal. how, carried, who carry, who accompany, place of disposal, methods of disposal. norms and taboos.

4. Ceremonies connected with disposal.

S. Death 'rites: Details.

6. Monuments: Tombs. megaliths, etc.

7. Pollution: Duration, restrictions in work. food. dress~ . shaving, hair .cropping. sex life, etc. removal of pollution.

8. Mourning: Mourners and duratiQn.

1~4

x. Religion

1. Deities: Supteme deity. benevolent deities. meleVole?t ,spirits. presiding deities of village and other aspects of life including occupation. clans-gotras, etc. -

2. Place of the deities in the rt!gional pattern and Btahmani­cal and other traditions.

3. Rituals and concepts associated with the pantheon.

4. 'Spots associated with the deiiies, pilgrim centres and methods of worship.

5. Re1tglbu~ fuftciitltnlties.

6. Calender of festivals and their observance."

7. Concepts of sou1: Hell, heaven. rebirth': transmIgration of soul, etc.

8. Sects and denominations: Name. distribution beliefs and practices, etc. '

9. Statistical information.

XI. Leisure, Recreation and Child Play

1. Use of leisure tjme; For male, female children and adult; se~sona} variation in leisure time.

2. RecreatMns: Mode and extetJ.t fbr m'al~S-. fema.les and children.

3. Leisure and recreation with reference to work.

xu. Relation Among Dlierent Segments dI €be Community

Recoghised se~men1:s: Name. basis ~territorial. ceremonial, social. prestige. religion, sect, educalion. age etc.). inter-relation­ship among various segments; status of the segments, status of women.

xnI. Inter-community Relationship

1. Ceremonial rela'tionship: Service by Bralimins. traditional servtce by castes like barbers. washermen. etc.

2 .. 'PollutiOn by touch or proximity to high "Caste Hindus, U~y of wyll, fl<;lmjssiOJl to temple.

125

3. Secular relationship: Model for other communities domin­ance due to economic resources political status, social status, etc.

4. Bridge role, buffer role. alliance and antagonism of the community.

XIV. Structure of Social Conn-oJ, Prestige and Leadership

1. Social control: Levels of social control, community level. regional level. hereditary. special functionaries etc., social control by other agencies.

2. Mode of acquiring offices.

3. Control exerC;lised by traditionally recognised leaders. func· tionaries of statutory bodies of the tegion. pdwenul individuals belonging to the community, etc .• at tlie regional level and local level.

4. Reationship between sphefds of social control and agen· cies of social control.

5. Leadership: For social change. for tech11blogical c1llirige, for political action and for other organised activitIes at the com~ munity level. regional level and local level.

6. Social presti~e: Method of gaining social prestige (by per .. forming dtual, merIt or feast, associating with historical associa­tion etc.). symbols of social prestige.

XV. Social Reform and Welfare

1. Social reform movements: Intensity, reasons (for raising social status. establishing traditional norms. for westernisation, etc.), history and import of the movements.

2. Social welfare: Agency, religious organisation. community as a whole, Government officials and non-official. role of the social welfare measures and impact.

XVI. Biographies

References cited and other bibliography.

APPENDIX

KINSHlP TERMINOLOGY

Relationship Terms of- Re-_ ference

Terms of Address

1 Father · Bap Babai 2 Mother Mai Mai 3 Elder brother • · BIiai Bhaiya 4 Younger brother · Bhai Babu 5 Elder brother's wife. · BhouJai Bhoujai 6 Younger ,brother's wife. · Bhav Nanhki 7 Huslldnd's elder brother • Bhasur Barakwai 8 Husband's younger brother Devar Babu 9 Wife's mother · Sas Mahatwain

10 Wife's father . . -- · Sasur Mahto 11 Husband's mother . · Sas Aaiya 12 Husband's father · Sasur Babuji 13 Daughter'S husband • Damad Babu 14 Son's wife · Pathou Nanhki 15 Elder sister Bahen Didi 16 Younger sister. · Bahen Maiyan 17 -'Elder sister's husband Bahnoi Pahun 18 Younger sister's husband Bahnoi Pahun, Babu 19 Father's elder brother Chacha Dara 20 Father's younger brother · Kaka Nanu 21 Father's elder brother's Chachi Baree

wife 22 Father'S youI!ger brother's Kaki, Chachi Kaki

wife. 23 Mother's brother Mama Mama 24- Mother's elder or younger Mami Mami

brother's wife.

127

128

APPEM>IX-Contd.

Relationship Terms "'Of Re- Terms of Address ferc;nce

2~ F3t.ber's sist~r . • Phuphi 26 Father's sister's husband"" Phupha 27 Mother~s ~i!lter Ma'iISl 28 Mother's S~lSter's husban~ ~ Mausa 29 Father's father • Ba:ba 30 Father'S" Illother Da.i 31 Son's Soli', or daughter's Nctti

son. 32 Son's daughter; Daught@r's :Natin

daughtef 33 Mother's father 34 Mo.ther's n1'uther 35 Daughty('& hilsband 36 Wife's eJfle.tprother 37 Wife's 'yplluger brother

• N~1}l:t N(\D.i

t _pa"mad • _ _$a!a ~ Sara

38 Wife's- ~14er brother's Wife 39 Wife's el<;l.er prother's wife 40 Wife's ~l~eF sister .

'Sarhaj Sarahaj Jefhsar Sari 41 Wife's younger sister

~

42 Wife's elder sister's hus- Sarhu band.

43 Wife's youuger sistet;.'s Sarhu husband.

44 Husband's elder brothre's Gotinj wife.

45 Husband's younger bro" Gotini ther~s wife

46 Son ~etl;l

47 Daughter • Beti

.fl'hl,l~jl ~hua Phu:pha

- Mab:si Ma:usa Baba Dar ~

Babu fbY--nattlej'

Maiyau:- .... (by lA<m1e).

~l\!ll\. _.N~:qi _ Babu J~p~i}'a Babl,l, fJ>y"

ll,1i1mer Bahen, P'idi' Ba.h~~ ~tyap-13arijani Maiyai ~(bl'·

namej-Bbiiya-

,;J3ag1,1, • na~e)

Didi

Bahell. '-'JMlme~ llabu,. . :~G} MaiY~ll;

name)

(by

129

APPENDIX-Contd.

Relationship Terms of Re- Terms of Address ference

48 Wife's father's father Ajia Sasur Budha Raut 49 Wife's mother's father . Ajia Sasur Budha Raut 50 Wife's father's mother Ajia Sas Budhi Rautian 51 Wife's mother's brother Ajia Sas Bhudi Rautain S2 Son's daughter's husband. Natin damad Babu (by

namt1) 53 Dauhter's daughter's Natin damad Babu, (by

husaband. name) 54 Husband's father's father Dada sasur Budha Raut 55 Husband's father's father Dadi Sas Budhi Rautain 56 Sons son's wife Natin Patoh (by name) 57 Daughter's son's wife Natin Patoh (by name) 58 Father's father's father . Parpaja Babu 59 Father's father's mother Pardadi Dai 60 Son's Son's Son Pardadi Babu, (by

name) 61 Son's daughter son . Parnati :Habu, (by

name) 62 Daughter's daughter son . Parnati :Habu, (by

name) 63 Daughter's son's son Parnati Babu, (by

name) 64 Son's sons's daughter Parnatin Maiyan, (by

name) 65 Son's Daughter's daugh- Parnatin Maiyan, (by

ter. name) 66 Daughter's daughter's da- Parnatin Maiyan, by

ughter. name) 67 Daughter's son's daughter. Parnatin Maiyan, (by

name)

aIP~-S4~4 R G Inctiaf75-1.9-17-300