Tribal Populations and Cultures of the Indian Subcontinent 9004071202, 9789004071209

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Tribal Populations and Cultures of the Indian Subcontinent by

C. von Fi.irer-Haimendorf

ERRATA Page 31, line 16 stucture read structure. Page 53, thirdparagraph, line 6: lang-houses read long-houses. Page 69, entry Nakani read Nakane. Page 96, fourth paragraph, second line: 103read102. Page 155, second paragraph, line 6: dclined read declined.

TRIBAL POPULATIONS AND CUL TURES OF THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT BY

C. VON FURER-HAIMENDORF

E.

J.

BRILL -

LEIDEN-KOLN -

1985

Das ,,Handbuch der Orientalistik" erscheint in Heften verschiedenen Umfangs in zwangloser Folge. Separatbande sind erhiiltlich.

HANDBUCH DER ORIENTALISTIK Herausgegeben von B. SPULER unter Mitarbeit von H. FRANKE, J. GONDA, H. HAMMITZSCH, W. HELCK, B. HROUDA, H. KAHLER, J. STARGARDT und F. Vos

HANDBUCH DER ORIENTALISTIK ZWEITE ABTEILUNG

INDIEN HERAUSGEGEBEN VON

J.

GONDA

SIEBENTER BAND

TRIBAL POPULATIONS AND CULTURES OF THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT

TRIBAL POPULATIONS AND CUL TURES OF THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT BY

C. VON FURER-HAIMENDORF

E. J. BRILL -

LEIDEN-KOLN -

1985

ISBN 90 04 07120 2 Copyright 1985 by E. ]. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche or atry other means without written permission from the publisher PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS BYE.

J.

BRILL

CONTENTS Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

vn

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I. Gatherers and Hunters .. . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . ......... ...... . . .. .. .. . .. . Chenchus ............................................................. Yanadis ................ ........ .. .. ..... ...... ........................ Kadars ................................................................ Malapantarams . . . ... .......... .. ............ ....... .............. .. Veddas . .. ........... .... ...... ...... ...... ..... ....... .......... .. .. .. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II. Archaic Farming Societies; Shifting Cultivators.................. Slash-and-burn Cultivators of Southwest India................ Jen Kurumbas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bette Kurumbas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Uralis ................ ............ ... . . ....... .......................... Mala Arayans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Slash-and-burn Cultivators of the Deccan and Middle India Konda Reddis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kolams ................................................................ Kamars ............................................................... Baigas ...... ..... ...... ..... ...... ....... .. .. .. ... . . ... . ..... .. . . . . . ... Juangs ........................................ ......................... Slash-and-burn Cultivators of North-East India............... Nishis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . ... .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kon yak N agas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Garos ........................................ .......................... Bibliography..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . III. Farmers of Permanent Holdings .. .. .. . . . . . .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Apa Tanis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tangkhuls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gadabas ..................................... ......................... Bondos ......................................... ..... .................. Dires (Didayis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Muria Gonds ... . .. .. . ............ .... ....... .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . Raj Gonds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bibliography.......................................................... IV. Advanced Farming Societies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Santals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 7 8 14 15 18 21 25 26 26 27 31 33 34 36 37 40 44 45 48 51 52 56 64 68 70 70 78 82 87 90 91 97 108 109 109

VI

CONTENTS

Khasis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Swat Pathans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gurungs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bibliography........................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V. Trading and Herding Societies .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Thakalis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bhotias. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sherpas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bibliography.......................................................... VI. The Present Position oflndian Tribal Populations .. .. . .. .. .. .. . Bibliography..................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

116 126 132 139 141 141 150 158 168 170 179

Index............................................................................

181

PREFACE This volume is designed as a cross-section of the tribal populations and cultures of the Indian sub-continent. An encyclopaedic treatment of the subject would have had to extend over several volumes comparable to the various Castes and Tribes series published during the first decades of the 20th century. In the absence of the scope of such a format completeness could not be achieved and was not aimed at. As an alternative a presentation was chosen which is restricted to concise accounts of a limited number of societies, each characteristic of one of the distinct strata and sections of the sub-continent's tribal inhabitants. In the choice of the societies selected the attempt has been made to illustrate with appropriate examples a wide range of economic and social developments of tribal cultures, extending from the most primitive foodgatherers and hunters of South India to the complex trading societies in the high Himalayan valleys. The description of eighteen of the thirty-one ethnic groups discussed is based exclusively on my own field research carried out during the years 1936 to 1983, whereas literary data were the main sources of information concerning Yanadis, Kadars, Veddas, Kamars, Baigas, Juangs, Garos, Thangkhuls, Muria Gonds, Santals, Khasis, Swat Pathans, and Gurungs. Yet in the description of some of these tribes I have drawn also on personal observations. A skeleton list of published sources is added to each chapter, but much fuller bibliographical data on all Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese tribal societies can be found in the four volumes of An Anthropological Bibliography of South Asia by Elizabeth von Furer- Haimendorf and Helen Kanitkar (Mouton, Paris/The Hague). School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Christoph voN FuRER-HAIMENDORF

INTRODUCTION The Indian subcontinent contains an unparalleled variety of ethnic groups, culture patterns and styles of living. While in most other parts of the world rising civilizations replaced those that had preceded them, and conquering populations either eliminated or absorbed earlier inhabitants of the land, in South Asia the arrival of new immigrants and the spread of their way of life did not necessarily cause the disappearance of earlier and materially less advanced communities. The old and the new persisted side by side, and this phenomenon of cultural and ethnic heterogeneity was only partly due to the size of the subcontinent and the dearth of communications. More important was an attitude basic to Indian ideology which accepted the variety of cultural forms as natural and immutable, and did not consider their assimilation to one single pattern in any way desirable. This accounts for the fact that only a few decades ago primitive tribes, subsisting like stone-age man on the wild produce of the forest, could be found at no great distance from historic centres of advanced civilizations. Cultural contrasts are matched by equally profound differences in the physical make-up of the various ethnic groups existing in present-day South Asia. The racial diversities strike even the most casual observer, and reflect the composite nature of populations formed by successive waves of invaders entering the subcontinent from the northeast as well as the northwest. Yet we know little about the earliest phases of India's racial history, a history which must have been packed with portentous events to result in a situation of such complexity and wealth of detail. Unlike China and Indonesia neither India nor Pakistan can boast of the discovery of any fossil human remains, even though contemporaries of Peking man ( Sinanthropus pekinensis) and Java man (Pithecanthropus ]avanensis) must have inhabitated the subcontinent. The stone implements they fashioned lie embedded in the gravel of river-terraces and are incontrovertible proof that during the various phases of the ice-age and the intervening warmer periods South Asia was populated by human groups producing several types of stone tools. It is probably purely incidental that so far no fossilized human remains have been found, and the efforts of the Archaeological Survey of India-one of the world's largest and most distinguished archaeological organizations-may any day be crowned by the discovery of a fossil skull or skeleton which would enable us to visualize the appearance of India's earliest inhabitants.

2

INTRODUCTION

There can be no doubt that the makers of the multitude of stone implements scattered over many parts of India and Pakistan mu st have contributed tu the composition of the present population of the subcontinent. Habitation sites were occupied throughout several millennia, and some areas saw the persistence of stone-age cultures into historical times. Skeletal remains found in the towns of the Indus civilization show that as early as 2500 B. C. there prevailed a diversity of racial types comparable to that of modern days. The isolation of hill and jungle areas, difficult of access and for long periods cut off from the main stream of civilization, has facilitated the survival of ancient splinter groups, such as in other parts of the world have long become extinct or submerged by more recent populations. They represent extremely archaic human types such as peopled South Asia long before the birth of the great historic civilizations. To find them in their natural environment we must penetrate the forested hills of Kcrala and the Deccan, where until a few years ago small groups of jungle-nomads continued to lead a life not very different from that of their stone-age ancestors. Three of the major racial divisions of mankind overlap and dovetail in South Asia. The population of the north and of large parts of Peninsular India constitute the easternmost branch of the Caucasoid race, and the close resemblance of many of the light-skinned people of Northern India to those of Mediterranean countries has led some anthropologists to speak of a Mediterranean type. In the Himalayan regions and all along India's eastern borders dwell people of Mongoloid race, and among the tribal populations of Middle and Southern India there is an element which has been described as Veddoid or Proto-Australoid. The term Veddoid is derived from the name of a small and now almost extinct jungle tribe, the V eddas, found in the interior of Sri Lanka. Veddoids are dark-skinned and often curly haired, their faces are roundish or heartshaped, with broad and depressed noses and low forehead. They are one of the most archaic sections of humanity, and extending into some of the less accessible regions of Southeast Asia they form a link between the oldest surviving racial stratum of India and the Australian aborigines with whom they share certain characteristic features. As in other parts of the world there are no clear dividing lines between the various racial types. While in certain populations Caucasoid, Mongoloid or Veddoid elements predominate, others evince a confusing mixture of racial characteristics resulting no doubt from past and present interbreeding. The amalgamation of diverse races is responsible for the occurrence of groups showing unusual combinations of physical traits. Thus the people of some parts of Southern India have facial features very similar to those of Europeans but a skin-colour of darkest brown such as

INTRODUCTION

3

occurs elsewhere in Negroes. There are indeed traces of a Negroid substratum, and the pygmies of the Andaman islands, which belong politically to India, are of pronounced Negroid type. Although a measure of interbreeding must have gone on ever since the second millennium B.C. when the light-skinned Aryans invaded India and encountered there a darker-skinned indigenous population, in many regions distinct racial types persist side by side, and their co-existence over centuries, if not millennia, is indicative of the strong barriers dividing community from community and standing in the way of intermarriage. There is moreover an association between certain racial features and distinct levels of culture. Veddoid types, for instance, are found among the more primitive tribal groups of Southern India, while the materially and culturally more advanced high Hindu castes of the same region, and particularly some Brahmin castes, are characterized by a high percentage of relatively light-skinned individuals with Caucasoid facial features. Just as the population of South Asia is made up of many different racial strains, the languages spoken in the subcontinent belong to several distinct and totally unconnected groups. Four major language families are represented on Indian soil: the Indo-Aryan, the Dravidian, the Tibeto-Burman and the Austroasiatic. Each of these groups is divided into numerous mutually unintelligible languages, some of which are spoken by only a few hundred individuals. According to official census reports the number of languages recorded within the borders of India exceeds 1500. Many of these are tribal dialects, which have never been reduced to writing and are gradually giving way to regionally more important literate languages. People speaking Indo-Aryan languages number some 322 million and occupy in a compact block most of Northern India and large parts of Middle India. Hindi, Urdu, Panjabi, Marathi, Bengali and Assamese are among the widely used languages of this group, and Hindi spoken by 133 million aspires to the position of a national language, designed to replace ultimately English as the inter-regional medium of communication. The next largest language family is the Dravidian, with some 107 million speakers. Unlike the Indo-Aryan languages, which are related to languages now spoken all over the globe, the Dravidian languages are peculiar to South Asia. All attempts to trace historic connections with other languages have failed, and the origin of this large and diversified language family is still an unsolved problem. Among them are written languages with a literature reaching back into the first millennium A.D., such as Tamil, as well as unwritten tribal languages such as Gondi. To-

4

INTRODUCTION

day the Dravidian languages are concentrated in the southern part of the peninsula, where Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam form the dominant regional languages. The northernmost Dravidian language is the isolated Brahui spoken in Baluchistan, and there is a strong likelihood that at one time Dravidian languages were spoken also in some parts of Northern India, but were later displaced by the languages of the invading Aryans. In parts of Middle India, such as Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, Dravidian languages dovetail with other languages but are spoken only by some tribal groups such as Khonds and Oraons. Wedged in between Aryan and Dravidian languages is another group of tribal languages, namely the Munda languages, which constitute the western branch of the Austroasiatic language family. The eastern branch, known as Mon-Khmer languages, which is spread mainly over Southeast Asia, is represented in India only by the Khasi dialects spoken in the highlands south of the Brahmaputra valley. The Munda languages, which are spoken by some six million people, are found mainly among the tribal people of Bihar and Orissa, and none of them was a written language until in recent years the use of the Roman script was introduced by Christian missionaries. Many scholars consider the Munda languages the most ancient surviving language family on Indian soil. Their principal connections point to countries to the east of India, and there is a strong probability that Munda-speakers reached India from the northeast long before the Aryans streamed into the country from a northwestern direction. Similarly Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in India and Bangladesh are an extension of a language family centred in Tibet and Burma. They are closely associated with people of Mongoloid race and their great diversity accounts for the great number of unwritten tribal languages spoken in the northeastern borderlands of India as well as in the Kingdom of Nepal and in the Western Himalayas. The connections of the major linguistic groups of the subcontinent thus point into diametrically opposed geographical directions, and there can be no doubt that the peoples speaking languages of unconnected groups are heirs to different cultural traditions, although by contact and borrowing some of the traditions may have spread across language boundaries throughout the subcontinent. Despite the undoubted influence of various language families on one another, India remains a land of many languages and dialects which are mutually unintelligible, and this diversity is one of the greatest threats to the political unity of the country, for language is the main focal point of regional patriotism. After the end of British rule, which had imposed on the subcontinent a

INTRODUCTION

5

political unity such as had never before existed, there arose a strong popular demand for the reorganization of administrative units according to the languages spoken by the majority of the population. In answer to this demand 'linguistic states' were created, with the result that the speakers of individual languages, such as Telugu, Gujarati or Marathi were as far as possible included within separate states carved out of the former British provinces and princely states. Language has thus assumed the role of a determinant of political structure, and the multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-racial Republic of India is divided into largely autonomous units which are ideally mono-lingual and mono-cultural. This raises the question whether there is a general coincidence between linguistic and cultural areas. In any regional classification of India's cultures, language as the most important mark of group-identification is certainly an outstandig factor. But an equation of language and culture, though apparent in some regions, would be an oversimplification in others. While the Hindu castes of Bengal or Maharashtra share a number of distinctive customs and practices, styles of dress and dietary habits, as well as a common folklore and literature, there are other regions where uniformity oflanguage does not imply cultural uniformity. Thus in the Telugu-speaking state of Andhra Pradesh we find populations ranging from city dwellers with a sophisticated brahmanical tradition to semi-nomadic primitive jungle-tribes. This cultural diversity within the same language region demonstrates that various ethnic groups speaking the same language may have little else in common and belong to widely divergent cultural traditions. In the sphere of social structure and kinship systems there are striking differences between the various linguistic and cultural zones. The family structure of the speakers of Aryan languages in North India is fundamentally different from that of the Dravidian people of the South, and even within either of these major groups there is no uniformity in marriage and kinship patterns. In Kerala, for instance, the patriarchal family system, which traditionally allows a man to marry several wives exists side by side with a system in which property and family name are inherited in the female line and women can have several husbands without, however, sharing a common residence with any. Both types of marriage had the sanction of tradition, but modern trends favour the patriarchal family, and the practices ofmatrilocality and polyandry are on the wane. Next to language as a symbol of regional patriotism religion has been one of the most powerful and emotive causes of divisions in the subcontinent, and its partition into the two states of India and Pakistan was the ultimate result of a long-standing antagonism between Hindus and Muslims. Yet where Muslim minorities remain in present-day India, the

6

INTRODUCTION

members of the two religious groups usually speak the same language and share many features of the local culture pattern. Such a wider local culture pattern does not necessarily extend also to the various tribal groups. For many of the forty million tribal people have retained their original archaic religion which is based on oral tradition and has little in common with such historic religions as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, which derive their beliefs and rituals from sacred scriptures. The island of Sri Lanka, until recently known as Ceylon, is in some respects an extension of the Indian subcontinent, without, however, duplicating in detail the social and cultural pattern of India. The main ethnic components of its population and its classical culture stem undoubtedly from India, and its most archaic tribal community, the Veddas, resembles racially and culturally the primitive tribal groups of Southern India. But Sri Lanka's position as an island on the sea routes between East and West has exposed it to many extraneous influences, and their legacy is a plurality of physical types, languages, religions and life-styles. A somewhat similar situation prevails in the Himalayan countries which occupy the northernmost part of the subcontinent. Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan are all characterized by a mixture and interpenetration of a large number of diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic elements. Throughout the greater part of the region speakers of IndoAryan languages dovetail with populations speaking Tibeto- Burman tongues, and in the hills of Nepal as well as in areas to the east and west of that kingdom races of Mongoloid stock adjoin peoples belonging to the easternmost branch of the Caucasoid section of mankind. In some parts of the Himalayas these distinctions coincide with the dividing line between Hinduism and Buddhism in its Tibetan form. But neither the dividing lines between the various religions and their adherents nor the linguistic and cultural boundaries are at all rigid or well defined, and over the millennia numerous population movements must have blurred the contrasts and brought about far reaching changes in the cultural scenario.

CHAPTER ONE

GATHERERS AND HUNTERS Prehistoric research has established beyond doubt that from the Pleistocene onward men of the Early Stone Age inhabited large parts of the Indian subcontinent. The hand-axes and chopper-tools which they must have used are found in great numbers, but so far no skeletal remains dating from palaeolithic periods have been discovered. While there is no clearly discernible link between stone-age people and specific populations of historic times, it can be assumed that the Indians of the Early Stone Age obtained their food by the gathering of wild growing plants and by the hunting or trapping of game. Among the implements of the Middle Stone Age blades, flakes and scrapers predominate, and from the absence of such tools, typical of hunting societies, in all the regions of extremely low rain-fall, it can be concluded that they represent the remains of prehistoric woodland cultures. Archaeologists have suggested that the stone industries known mainly from surface finds may be the products of the remote forefathers of populations surviving until recently in isolated refuge areas. Such populations must ultimately have replaced their stone tools by metal implements which they obtained from more advanced neighbours, but their traditional life-style based on gathering and hunting persisted almost unchanged. It is fortunate that some tribes of hunters and gatherers were studied by anthropologists before contact with progressive societies had disrupted their economy and entire way of life. The sites on which archaeological traces of the Late Stone Age hunters have been found are in positions very similar to those of the camping places of recent foodgatherers and hunters, and the vast numbers of stone tools recovered from such sites suggest not only the one time existence of large populations, but also the occupation of such sites over long stretches of time. Even though we have no archaeological evidence for the racial characteristics of the makers of the thousands of tools manufactured in Middle India during the Late Stone Age, at least one archaeologist, namely Bridget Allchin 1 , has put forward the suggestion that they are likely to have been of the Veddoid type predominant among such present-day populations as the V eddas of Sri Lanka and the Chenchus of 1 Bridget Allchin, The Stone-tipped Arrow. Late Stone-age Hunters of the Tropical Old World. London 1966, p. 79.

8

GATHERERS AND HUNTERS

Andhra Pradesh, two populations whom she considers potential lineal descendants of the hunters and gatherers of the Late Stone Age. The proposition of such ethnographic parallels to prehistoric cultures is obviously conjectural, but there can be little doubt that India's stone age populations must have subsisted on resources very similar to those which enable present-day primitive communities to make a living in an environment of roughly identical nature. Climatic changes and such man-made developments as deforestation have certainly affected the chances of gatherers and hunters to meet their needs for food and shelter, but the social structure of societies living literally from hand to mouth must always have adapted itself to the same narrow ecological framework. The number of Indian foodgatherers persisting in their traditional lifestyle can be counted in hundreds rather than thousands, and just as the shrinkage of their natural environment has led to the decimation of many animal species the most primitive oflndia's aboriginals are threatened by the increasing transformation of their environment. Even in ten years' time it may no longer be possible to discern the details of the cultural pattern characteristic of such groups of foodgatherers as Chenchus or Malapantarams, who fortunately were studied before it was too late, and who may serve here as examples of archaic communities of foodgatherers inhabiting tropical forests. CHENCHUS

The Chenchus dwell in the wooded N allamalai Hills extending to both sides of the Krishna river, which until 194 7 was the boundary between the British administered Madras Presidency and Hyderabad State, then rules by the Nizam. Today the entire territory inhabited by Chenchus belongs to the State of Andhra Pradesh. For some considerable time the lower and more open valleys of the N allamalai Hills have been infiltrated by Telugu speaking Hindu peasants, who cleared the forest and established permanent cultivation. The Chenchus living in areas affected by this invasion of relatively advanced populations were deprived of their hunting and gathering grounds, and had to accommodate themselves to a symbiosis with the Hindu peasantry. This meant that they largely depended on agricultural labour in the service of the immigrant farmers, and on the sale of forest produce which they continued to gather wherever any forest was left. Elsewhere I have described the condition of these socalled Village Chenchus 1 , and here I am concerned only with the relatively undiluted Chenchu culture found among communities leading 1

Cf. Tribes of India: The Struggle for Survival, Berkeley 1982, p. 188.

GATHERERS AND HUNTERS

9

a semi-nomadic life in the forests of the higher plateau, which does not lend itself to cultivation and thus remained for a long time safe from the incursions of the Hindu peasantry. At one time these forests were teeming with game, and Chenchus, hunting with bow and arrow, must have been able to obtain a regular supply of meat. By the middle of the 20th century the game had been depleted by ousiders who had encroached on the Chenchus' hunting grounds, killing game indiscriminately with guns and sporting rifles. Hence the Chenchus had to depend largely on vegetarian food, consisting of edible roots and tubers, leafy vegetables, jungle fruits and berries, and occasionally the honey of wild bees. While bows and arrows made of bamboo, though still habitually carried by men, have lost their importance, digging sticks, fashioned of bamboo, and tipped with an iron point, are the most vital implements in the Chenchus' possession. In addition to the spikes of their digging sticks, Chenchus obtain iron arrow-heads, axes, knives and sickles by bartering jungle produce with the villagers settled on the periphery of the forest. In recent years the Chenchus have begun to be drawn into the cash economy of the surrounding countryside, but until some thirty years ago barter was the main means of acquiring commodities the Chenchus could not produce themselves. At that time bow and arrows, a knife, a diggingstiek, some pots and baskets, and a few tattered rags constituted a Chenchu's entire material belongings. He owned a thatched hut with wattle walls in one of the small settlements lying scattered over the forested hills where he lived during part of the year, but in the hot season, when the group centred in his settlement split up, he left his hut and together with one or two families roamed the forest in quest of food, living in leafshelters, under overhanging rocks or sometimes even in the open. He camped wherever there was water and the parched forest yielded a minimum of edible fruits and roots. The gathering of roots and tubers was then still the mainstay of the Forest Chenchus' economy, and men and women, setting out in the morning with their digging-sticks and collecting baskets shared equally in the daily search for food. Occasionally the men hunted with bow and arrow or antiquated muzzle-loaders, scaled trees and cliffs where they suspected to find honey, or fished by poisoning the water of shallow pools. Yet game, honey and fish were rare additions to the Chenchus' essentially vegetarian diet. Contact with the peasant population of the plains had enabled some Chenchus to acquire buffaloes, and these they kept almost exclusively for the sake of their milk. They did not use them for traction and did not eat their meat. By the 1980s the economic life of the Chenchus had undergone significant changes. While they continued their semi-nomadic routine, they no

10

GATHERERS AND HUNTERS

longer subsisted mainly on the wild tubers, roots and berries gathered in the forest. Though the collection of forest produce remained the basis of their economy, in addition to edible produce they now gathered commodities of a commercial value, such as resin, wax, honey and herbs of pharmaceutical usefulness. These were purchased by private merchants as well as governmental trading depots, established specifically for the benefit of the Chenchus. Barter was now replaced by cash transactions and with the cash obtained for forest produce, the Chenchus bought rice, millet, pulses and spices, which replaced largely their traditional diet of roots and tubers. Thus while remaining gatherers the Chenchus found a place in the modern market economy. Yet increased contact with outsiders involved also some hazards. Thus cattle brought to the forest by lowland graziers spread disease, and many of the Chenchus' buffaloes died in epidemics mainly of foot and mouth disease. Despite novel economic developments there has been little change in the Chenchus' social life. Traditionally the principal social unit was a group of families possessing hereditary rights to a tract of land within whose boundaries its members are free to hunt and collect edible plants. The composition of such a unit was, and still is flexible, for every Chenchu has the right to reside, hunt and gather not only in his father's territory, but also in that of his mother. When he marries he acquires similar rights to the natal territory of his wife, and a couple had therefore the choice of living on the husband's or the wife's ancestral land. Most Chenchus dwell in groups of three to twelve families, and as long as they subsisted predominantly on wild tubers and vegetables a greater concentration of families would have been impracticable, because not sufficient wild produce to feed a large community could be found within reasonably easy reach of the settlement. When in the lean months of the hot season food became scarce even small groups had to split up, and then it happened sometimes that individual families camped by themselves at a distance of two or three miles from other members of their group. As a result of the individual families' great mobility, the composition of social units fluctuated even within the period of a few months. In sharp contrast to their spatial mobility stood the Chenchus' complete lack of freedom in the choice of occupation. The gathering of edible roots and other wild produce used to be an essential daily task, and even today the collection of marketable forest produce occupies the Chenchus most days of the year. There is virtually no scope for specialization or division of labour, and no one can gain economic advantages at the expense of his neighbours. Members of a local group help each other in emergencies and the sick and elderly are looked after by their closest kinsmen or other men or women of the small settlement.

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11

The only clearly defined units, apart from family and local group, are exogamous clans within which descent is in the male line. There are indications that the clans may at one time have been territorial units, but today the regulation of marriages is their one practical function. Marriages within the clan, or indeed any sexual relations between members of the same clan are forbidden and the rule of clan-exogamy is one of the basic principles underlying the structure of Chenchu society. Cases of clan-incest arouse great indignation, and there is the belief that in the past a man and a woman known to have committed clan-incest would have been killed. Today such punishment is no longer inflicted and though in theory a couple guilty of clan-incest ought to be boycotted by the entire tribe, there have been cases of couples living in endo-clan unions whose conduct had been condoned though they had to leave their own local group. The ban on clan-incest is somewhat inconsistent with the mythical account of the origin of the Chenchus. According to that the first Chenchus were the issue of a brother and sister, and the practice of brother-sister marriage continued until the Chenchus decided to divide into clans and instituted the custom of clan-exogamy. Chenchus are generally free to choose their sexual partners, and most marital unions result from the spontaneous attraction of the young people concerned. Cross-cousin marriage is common and in local groups consisting of the members of two clans most marriages are between classificatory cross-cousins. The children of sisters, on the other hand may not marry even if they belong to different clans. Although husbands and wives who do not get on with each other can separate without any formality, encroachments on the marital rights of another person, and particularly the seduction of a woman still living with her husband are disapproved of, and the aggrieved spouse usually has the sympathy of his or her group. But there is no effective machinery for giving practical expression to the condemnation of adultery. If a duped husband feels strong enough, he is likely to beat up his rival, but a weak man will appeal to the older men of his group and ask them to intervene with the leading men of the culprit's group. In the case of the abduction ofa wife the elders of the two groups concerned may hold an informal council, but the most such a gathering can achieve is to prevail on the abductor to compensate the husband by refunding him the expenditure which he incurred at his wedding. This is in itself a novel situation, for only since the Chenchus have begun to sell forest produce and have become acquainted with Hindu customs have they adopted the practice of relatively lavish wedding celebrations. Gatherings of elders for the purpose of discussing and-if possible-settling disputes are rare occurrences, but they demonstrate

12

GATHERERS AND HUNTERS

that the group as a whole endeavours to restore the disrupted harmony. Though the first reaction to a breach of custom may be anger expressed in abuse and threats directed towards the offender, the overriding wish is the removal of the causes of friction, and the reestablisment of a peaceful atmosphere. As the members of a local group are in almost continuous interaction, tension between two individuals has to be eliminated if it is not to become intolerable to the whole group. Many a dispute is resolved by one of the opponents leaving the group and thus putting physical distance between himself and his rival. Spatial mobility-so highly developed among nomadic foodgatherers-serves thus as a means to neutralize causes of conflict. As Chenchus do not possess property which others may covet, theft is virtually unknown and there are no quarrels over land so common in materially more advanced tribal societies. There are no indications that traditional Chenchu society had ever evolved institutions capable of coercing individuals into conformity with customary conduct, and it is noteworthy that despite the lack of legal sanctions premeditated crime was conspicuous by its absence. Supernatural sanctions play only a minor part in promoting conformity to the accepted moral standards. Chenchus believe in a number of deities imagined anthropomorphically, but even though some of them are thought to intervene on occasions in human affairs, they are considered indifferent to the moral conduct of men and women. Chenchus often pray to Garelamaisama, a female benevolent deity associated with the jungle and its animal population, but such prayers aim at gaining her protection in hazardous enterprises, and are not concerned with averting supernatural sanctions of moral lapses. Though the Chenchus know the Telugu word for 'sin', the concept of sin as an action causing divine displeasure is alien to their thinking. Certain eschatological ideas prevailing among rural Hindus have affected Chenchu thinking, but there is no definite idea that a person's fate after death depends on his deeds in this life, even though some stories contain references to re-incarnation, a concept undoubtedly borrowed from Hindu neighbours. More wide-spread is the beliefthat a person's life-force (jiv) is derived from Bhagavantaru, a deity associated with the sky and thunder, and returns to him after death. The nearest approach to a belief in some kind of retribution is the vague notion that the jiv of a man guilty of repeated acts of violence, quarrelsome behaviour and numerous intrigues with married women, may be unacceptable to Bhagavantaru, and be hence condemned to roaming the earth as an evil ghost, dangerous to his kinsmen and denied final rest. There is a strong likelihood, however, that the whole idea of a life-force, and its emanation from and eventual return to Bhagavantaru, a belief common to Hindus as well as various tribal populations, represents a relatively recent element in Chenchu thinking.

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13

The cult of Garelamaisama, on the other hand, would seem to be part of original Chenchu culture, for it is closely connected with the two most essential traditional occupations, the chase and the gathering of edible plants. When a hunter sets out in the morning he says a prayer in which he begs Garelamaisama to give him success, and promises her a share in any animal he may bag. If he kills any game he roasts a small piece of meat and throws it into the jungle with a prayer of thanks, requesting the goddess to partake of the meat. Garalamaisama's powers extend also over the fruits of the forest. Shortly before any kind of fruit ripens the Chenchus collect some of the semi-ripe fruits and offer them to the goddess on a simple altar made of crude stones, and pray for a plentiful harvest of these same fruits. Such first fruit offerings are not a pecularity of foodgatherers, for many agricultural tribes also offer first fruits to deities concerned with the fertility of the land. Some Chenchu tales speak of the appearance of Garelamaisama in the guise of an old woman, who assists people in need and sometimes stays with her proteges over long periods, bringing up orphaned children and guarding them against the onslaught of tigers. Besides Garelamaisama and Bhagavantaru there are numerous minor divinities occasionally worshipped by Chenchus. Most of them are associated with specific localities and are propitiated with food-offerings. Among them is Potsama, the dreaded small-pox goddess of the Telugu country, and next to Chenchu settlements there are often some stones sacred to Potsama and her brother Potraj. Offerings are placed on these in the hope of inducing the goddess to depart from the locality. Some minor deities and spirits are believed to have appeared in human form and interacted with Chenchus, even to the extent of entering into temporary marital unions. While deities such as Garelamaisama and Bhagavataru are considered basically benevolent, minor deities are credited with an ambivalent attitude towards humans, but there is no personification of evil such as occurs in the demonology of Hinduism. Unlike most other Indian tribal societies the Chenchus lack ritual experts, such as priests, shamans and seers. Deities are invoked in an informal and spontaneous manner, and each man addresses himself to the gods as necessity occurs. It is the individual hunter who offers part of his spoil to Garelamaisama and the individual householder who worships a deity believed to have effected the recovery of a member of his family from an illness. Only when the first fruits are offered to Garelamaisama does a whole local group participate in the rite and the senior man places the fruits on the sacred stones.

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GATHERERS AND HUNTERS YANADIS

In the distant past the Chenchus were probably only one of several tribes of primitive hunter-gatherers inhabiting the woodlands of the Deccan, but with the shrinkage of the forests many such tribal groups were forced to abandon their traditional life-style. A few however have retained the memory of a time when they had no other occupation than hunting and gathering, and among these are the Yanadis, whose original habitat was on the southern fringe of the Nallamalai Hills, adjacent to that of the Chenchus. Today Yanadis are dispersed over ten districts of Andhra Pradesh extending from Nellore as far as Srikakulam. On the island of Sriharikota, which for administrative purposes is attached to Nellore District, though physically it is isolated from the mainland by the Pulicat Lake and backwaters of the Bay of Bengal, Yanadis persisted in their old way of forest life until 1970 when the government took over the island for purposes of space research. An attempt to settle the Yanadis on the mainland proved predictably unsuccessful and the majority drifted back to the island and their familiar environment where they resumed their old life as hunter-gatherers. While until the early 19th century they had lived exclusively on wild tubers, roots, fruits, fish and small game, they now engage also in wage-labour, and-like the Chenchus-collect marketable forest produce for sale to contractors and government agencies. The collection of honey continues to be an important economic activity, but life on an island offers even greater scope to fishing with traps, hooks and harpoons, and in the use of such equipment the Yanadis of Sriharikota have become expert. Their hunting techniques are quite different from those of the Chenchus, for Yanadis ofSriharikota lack bows and arrows, but are skilled in the use of traps and snares of which the Chenchus have no knowledge. Another notable difference between Chenchus and Yanadis is the shape of their huts. While the Chenchus build solid huts with wattle-walls and a central post, the Yanadi huts are dome-shaped structures made of casuarina branches and thatched with palmyra leaves. Though they are so light that they can easily be shifted from one place to another within a settlement, they can withstand the storms frequent in the Bay of Bengal. Like the Chenchus the Y anadis are divided into a number of exogamous patrilineal descent groups. Several of these lineages are grouped together into larger units within which marriage is not permitted, and this system too is reminiscent of the brother-clans of the Chenchus. Cross-cousin marriage is the preferred type of alliance. The position of women is good, and for all practical purposes wives are considered the

GATHERERS AND HUNTERS

15

equals of their husbands. In the event of serious friction between spouses, the break-up of the marriage is accepted without much resentment and both partners may marry again. While the social system is characterized by considerable simplicity, the Yanadis imagine the invisible world of supernatural beings as peopled by a great variety of gods, malignant spirits and the ghosts of departed ancestors, all of whom can influence human life. The visible and the invisible world are thought of as complementary, and when one of them is active the other is at rest. Thus when there is day in the visible world, it is night for the inhabitants of the invisible world. Life is imagined as cyclical. It begins with the god Brahma sending a life-element into an embryo where upon a child is born into the visible world, and it ends when at death a person is transferred from the visible to the invisible world. The belief in a life-element which emanates from and returns to a supreme deity is paralleled by the Chenchus' idea of the jiu which stems from Bhagavantaru and returns to that god at death. Yet the Yanadis' ideas are more complex, for according to them man possesses three 'lives', one in the head, one in the heart and the third spread over all the joints of the body. The Yanadis share with many Indian tribes the belief that a man's 'life'-normally the one seated in the head-may move about while he is asleep. Because at night the inhabitants of the invisible world are active, this 'life' may be captured by a malignant spirit whereupon the man will fall ill. By intercession with a god more powerful than the spirit a shaman can free the captured 'life', bring it back to the body and thereby cure the sick man. 1 The existence of shamans (rankadu) in Yanadi society is a cultural factor lacking among Chenchus but found also among some of the Forest Tribes of Kerala. KADARS

While in the Deccan progressing deforestation has deprived most jungle tribes of their traditional environment, conditions in Kerala are slightly more favourable, and there we still find the remnants of two tribes of foodgatherers and hunters; the Kadars and the Malapantarams. The former, who live in the forested hills of the former princely state of Cochin, are described by the Austrian anthropologist U. R. Ehrenfels, who visited them repeatedly during the years 1949-1952. At that time at least some groups were still persisting in their traditional tribal life, but 1 Cf. P. C. Gurivi Reddy, Yanadi-Man in Invisible World, Unpublished Ph. D. thesis, Karnatak University Dharwad, 1983.

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the infiltration of forest officials, contractors and other traders into their habitat had begun to bring about a change in the Kadars' economy not unlike that which more recently has transformed the economy of the Forest Chenchus. There can be little doubt that until the first quarter of the 20th century the Kadars led the life of foodgatherers and hunters, only occasionally bartering some forest produce for iron knives, pottery, salt and very rarely rice. The iron tipped digging-stick was, and still is, their most important implement, for roots and tubers were their staple food. Earlier observers mentioned bamboo bows and arrows, but Ehrenfels found no bows used for hunting and he attributes their absence to the prohibition of hunting by the forest authorities. Small pellet bows are still being used by children, and this proves that the principle of archery must have been known to Kadars. Deer and smaller animals are hunted with the help of dogs, and killed with billhooks and sticks, particularly when driven into the water of a river where they are slower than men. To catch fish the Kadars dam streams with small dykes and then stupefy the fish by throwing powdered poisonous bark into the stagnant pools. The collection of honey remains an important activity and is often done by groups of men, women and children. When honey combs have been spotted on a tree, often between 60 to 100 feet above the ground, wooden pegs are driven into the trunk, and bamboo poles then tied to these pegs to serve as ladders. The collection of honey from cliffs is done with the help of ropes, which the Kadars use in the same way as the Chenchus do. One man who remains on the top of the cliff holds the rope while another climbs down on it, cuts of the combs, and is then pulled up again. Both Kadars and Chenchus say that the man holding the rope should preferably be the honey-taker's brother-in-law, for as such he is more trustworthy than a kinsman who might be a potential rival for the favours of the wife of the man at the end of the rope, whose life is obviously in his hands. The collection of honey is usually carried out at night when the bees are not active and can easily be smoked out. Whereas the traditional economy of Chenchus and Kadars is very similar, there are considerable differences in a number of cultural features. Thus the Kadar huts are usually rectangular in contrast to the round Chenchu huts, and if two families, share one hut it is usually divided by partition walls. Just as Chenchus often live in flimsy shelters constructed of leafy branches or bamboo and grass, Kadars are in the habit of erecting lean-to shelters or wind-screens when they temporarily camp in an area rich in a particular forest produce. Like Chenchus Kadars inherit the right to hunt and collect in certain territories from both their father and their mother, and a married couple

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17

may stay in the locality of either spouse, though virilocal residence of young couples is marginally more frequent than residence in the wife's natal locality. Ehrenfels speaks of a bilateral social organization, and the most striking feature of Kadar social structure is undoubtedly the absence of patrilineal clans, which play so important a role among Chenchus. Hence the possibility of clan-exogamy and the taboo on clan-incest does not arise. While cross-cousin marriage is common among Chenchus and also permitted among Kadars, the latter prefer the marriage of parallel cousins and particularly the marriage of the children of two brothers. This is a major departure from the marriage rules prevailing among all the patrilineal tribal societies of South India. Monogamy is the predominant form of Kadar marriage, but marriages are rather unstable, and many men and women live successively with several spouses. Polygynous as well as polyandrous unions occur, but the latter are rare though the prevalence of polyandry among the plains populations of Cochin may have stimulated the adoption of this form of marriage among the Kadars. Hindu influence may be responsible for the spread of pre-puberty marriage while the scarcity of marriageable girls is likely to be an additional cause for the growing preference for this practice. At the time when Ehrenfels studied the Kadars unions between Kadar girls and plainsmen had become common, and this was the reason for the shortage of women in the Kadar community. For the outflow of Kadar girls was not compensated by marriages between Kadar men and plains women. In some respects Kadar customs have more in common with those of certain South Indian slash-and-burn cultivators than with those of Chenchus and Malapantarams. Thus Kadars erect menstruation huts where women are secluded during their periods, for unlike Chenchus Kadars are very pollution conscious and there is a strict taboo on any contact with menstruating women. A small feast is given on the occasion ofa girl's first menstruation, and there are indications that this puberty rite is the remnant of an initiation ceremony which in the past included also the chipping off of parts of the incisor teeth. This deformation of teeth is no longer inflicted on girls, but many Kadar men have still the pointed teeth resulting from the operation. The reason for this mutilation seems to have been cosmetic rather than ritualistic, for Kadars consider pointed teeth more beautiful than teeth in their natural form. The Kadars share with the Chenchus a sense of dependence on supernatural beings, but otherwise there are no close parallels between the ideological concepts of the two tribes. Central to the Kadars' religious beliefs is a myth according to which the mountains, the forest and all liv-

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ing beings arc the creation of a divine couple who had emerged from the earth. This couple, known as Malavay and Malakuratti, is supposed to have made also the first humans, a man and a woman. Their progeny lived in a paradisical state, in which men did not have to dig laboriously for edible roots and tubers, but had only to reach out for delicious fruits which grew in the jungle in great profusion. At that time there was no need for stalking game, for the forest was full of large black monkeys whose tails were so long that they could easily be caught with bare hands. But this happy state of affairs came to an end when some mischievous boys and girls went to the jungle and, out of mere curiosity, began to dig into the ground with sticks. Though there was no need for this, food being plentiful above the ground, they dug for roots and the deeper they dug, the further away went the roots. Yet the children dragged them out of the earth. Ever since that foolish act the whole tribe has been doomed to the druggery of digging for food with digging-sticks. The fruits and long-tailed monkeys have gone for ever and life has become hard. The myth does not specify any sinful intention of those children, but there is a clear implication that man's condition has greatly worsened since the carefree days of a primeval golden age. Kadars pray to Malavay and Malakuratti when they are threatened by any danger, but the worship of these divinities is not centred in any special sanctuaries nor does it involve the giving of offerings. According to one of Ehrenfels' informants the two gods Malavay and Malakuratti had a daughter known as Attuvacherie Amma, who is thought of as a kind, motherly spirit residing in large banyan trees near a pool. There are no priests or other ritual experts in Kadar society, and the only ritual mentioned by Ehrenfels is a kind of funerary celebration performed some time after the simple burial of the corpse. This ritual is said to have the purpose of detaching the soul of the deceased from its former life and of allowing it to rise into the air and there join other souls. The belief in a post-mortal existence somewhere in the sky is not considered incompatible with the possibility of reincarnation in human or animal form. Any idea that a man's rebirth may be influenced by his conduct in his earthly life is extremely vague and may be derived from beliefs held by the Kadars' Hindu neighbours. MALAPANTARAMS

The Malapantarams, a tribe of gatherers and hunters dispersed over the Pathanapuram and Koni ranges of the southern part of Kerala had the reputation of being more primitive in material equipment than any other of the forest tribes of the State of Travancore. Ethnographic

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19

documentation was scanty, however, and my own reconnaisance in 1953 was only a forerunner to the intensive research of Brian Morris, to whom we owe most of our knowledge of this remarkable tribe. The traditional economy of the Malapantarams seems to have been similar to that of the Kadars, the gathering of tubers, roots and other edible plants providing the bulk of the food supply. Like the Kadars the Malapantarams have neither bows nor spears, and hunt only small animals, including hare and iguana, which can be caught by dogs and killed with sticks. It is remarkable that whereas hunter-gatherers such as Chenchus and Kadars lacked the knowledge of setting traps, the Malapantarams are skilled trappers. As early as 1883 S. Mateer mentioned that they even snared the ibex. Many of the slash-and-burn cultivators inhabiting South Asian forest areas are also experienced in snaring and trapping, but the hunting and gathering Veddas do not know trapping and this suggests that the Malapantarams differ in this respect from other hunters and collectors of South Asia. Already in 1953 several groups of Malapantarams had changed from subsistence food gathering to the systematic gathering of marketable forest produce which they exchanged for grain, cloth and other commodities regularly supplied by forest contractors who depended on the jungle dwellers for the collection of honey, wax, damar resin, and various wild growing plants used for pharmaceutical purposes. This trade relationship had led to the establishment of some semi-permanent settlements of rectangular huts not unlike those of the Kadars. From these settlements men used to set out on gathering excursions and on these they camped in shelters made of bamboo poles and banana leaves. The time was then still remembered when all members of the tribes lived throughout the years under such shelters, which enabled them to keep reasonably dry and warm even in heavy rain. Birth and menstruation huts are still of this type and accommodate women during periods of pollution. Morris mentions that typical encampments consisting of two or three conjugal families are often in rock shelters, and this tallies with my experience that Malapantarams favour rocky camping sites where they feel safe from wild elephants. Before the reservation of forests and the influx of outsiders had brought about a change in the economic and demographic pattern, groups of families had been in possession of definite tracts ofland, but the system of such rights to collecting and hunting grounds has now been blurred. It is remembered, however, that encroachment on such territories sometimes led to disputes. Married couples were free to live either in the husband's or the wife's natal territory.

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According to Morris the Malapantarams have a kinship system of Dravidian type which categorizes a person's social world into clearly defined social divisions, i.e. 'kinsmen', 'affines' and 'outsiders', but there seems to be no trace of exogamous groups. Among Hindu lowlanders the Malapantarams have the reputation of tolerating incestuous sexual relations, an aspersion which may have been caused by the fact that like the Kadars the Malapantarams permit marital unions between parallel cousins, which the Hindus of Kerala would regard as incestuous. There have also been rumours of brother-sister incest and in 1953 I was told of a concrete instance of father-daughter incest. It is not impossible however that in that case the girl described as the man's daughter was his deceased wife's daughter from a previous husband. The absence of a clan-system among both Kadars and Malapantarams suggests that primitive South Indian hunter-gatherer societies tended to be more loosely structured than the more complex agricultural tribal societies. Morris estimates that the number of Malapantarams is approximately one thousand, and this small population is dispersed over a relatively large territory. Yet there is no sign of any tendency to the development of endogamous local units, and Malapantarams are emphatic in the assertion that there is intermarriage between groups in different regions as well as in various stages of acculturation to their economically more advanced Hindu neighbours. Malapantarams worship both male and female deities associated with hills or other natural features, and it seems that the cult of such deities is perpetuated in a family even if its members move away from the locality concerned. There is no practice of offering first fruits to any of these deities, but at the beginning of the honey collecting season several families jointly go to the forest, offer coconut to the locality gods and pray for their protection. Prayers are said also before the gathering of cardamons even though this is not as risky an enterprise as the taking of honey. During the monsoon offerings are given to the ancestor spirits, and whenever any one falls ill, the ancestors are propitiated with gifts of food and tobacco. In this cult no distinction is being made between ancestors in the male and in the female line. Food offerings for the recently deceased are placed on the grave for several days after the funeral. As among other Travancore tribes, there are men and women who can at will fall into trance, and when in such a state they are possessed by a spirit or a god they can discover which deities should be propitiated to effect the cure of a sick person, or which ancestor is angry and requires to be pacified.

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So far no myths have been recorded and this creates difficulties in clarifying the nature of Malapantaram deities. Brian Morris states that he was unable to ascertain any myths, but it is doubtful whether this was due to the reluctance of people to divulge their sacred lore to an outsider or whether there is a complete lack of mythical accounts, a possibility which cannot be ruled out. The most surprising aspect of the Malapantarams is their physical make-up. Their powerful build is often commented on by neighbouring populations, and it is a fact that most of the men are of a very heavy physique very different from the slight build of such jungle tribes as Chenchus, Uralis and Jen Kurumbas. In the Malapantarams' facial features no Veddoid elements are apparent, and most men and even some women have large, heavy hands, contrasting strikingly with the rather delicate hands of most Indian aboriginals. Such Malapantaram groups as I encountered did not appear homogeneous, and gave the impression of a mixed population comprising a wide variation of facial types and skin colours. In this respect they differ sharply from such tribal populations as Chenchus, Kadars and Veddas with whom they share the same economic background. VEDDAS

The tribe of hunter-gatherers which has given its name to the entire most archaic surviving racial type found in South Asia is that of the Veddas of Sri Lanka. Despite the great spatial distance there is surprisingly a closer physical resemblance between Chenchus and Veddas than between any two other groups of foodgatherers. Indeed if it were possible to bring together two groups of Veddas and Chenchus even trained observers would find it difficult to decide who is a Chenchu and who a Vedda. The position which the Veddas occupy among South Asian foodgatherers and hunters is unique, because there seems to have been an unbroken occupation of caves and campsites from the late Stone Age to the time when at the end of the 19th century Vedda communities were found living in the same places. In Sri Lanka flake industries oflate palaeolithic type persisted longer than elsewhere in South Asia, for neolithic cultures do not seem to have reached the island, and the late Stone age is succeeded by iron age cultures without an intermediate neolithic period. When at the end of the last century the Swiss ethnologists P. and F. Sarasin made a study of the V eddas and of the caves which they inhabited they came to the conclusion that the V eddas were the direct descendants of the palaeolithic hunters and gatherers who had dwelt in the same caves. This

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view has since be supported by other archaeologists and most recently by Bridget Allchin 1 who discusses the likelihood of the continuity of the stone age population and the Veddas in great detail. The majority of the late stone age tools of Sri Lanka were made of quartz, and the tools of this quartz industry have been found in caves and rock-shelters, often in association with objects fashioned of bone. The standard of craftmanship was high, and though there were only a few blades and blade cores, there are enough to show that the technique of producing them was well known. The best tools, however, were made of flakes. Bridget Allchin has no doubt that this was an industry of people who used the bow and arrow extensively. Bifacial points and the composite points and barbs all indicated that a great variety of arrow-heads was produced. There is also an extensive range of bone tools including gouge-like tools which may have been used for the preparation of yams and tubers. The same author sums up her judgement on the stone and bone industry found in the caves of Sri Lanka in the following paragraph: ''What we are looking at in fact is the equipment of a community who lived by hunting and gathering in equatorial conditions. Hunting with bow and arrow, although important, was augmented by the collection of snails, and also no doubt of roots, honey and many different kinds of vegetables, fruits and small game. The population can never have been large, for many excellent caves show no sign of habitation in a climate where torrential rains make some kind of shelter a necessity at times.'' 2 Our knowledge of the Veddas who persisted in the traditional life-style of hunters and gatherers is derived largely from the writings of the brothers Sarasin and of the British anthropologist C. G. Seligman, who studied them during the first decade of the 20th century and in 1911 published in co-operation with Brenda Seligman the standard work The Veddas. By the time I visited Sri Lanka in 1960 only a few splinter groups of Veddas continued to live in the forest, but it was on that occasion that I was impressed by their striking physical similarity to Chenchus. While Egon von Eickstedt and others have commented on the recent fortunes of the Veddas, for an understanding of the original pattern ofVedda life we must turn to the writings of the Sarasins and Seligmans, though even at the time of the latter's research work many V eddas were assimilated to the Sinhalese way of life. A quotation from Seligman's monograph The Veddas depicts the situation then prevailing. "At the present day the number of Veddas living their natural forest life is necessarily few, for their territory has been gradually encroached upon by the Sinhalese who 1

2

Op. cit., pp. 125-141. Op. cit. p. 138.

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23

are inveterate poachers. The Veddas, who were so numerous within recent historic times, are now rapidly dying out, while many have settled among the Sinhalese and so lost their identity'' (p. 35). Like the Jungle Chenchus the Forest Veddas lived exclusively on game, wild tubers and roots, jungle fruits and honey. Wooden diggingsticks were used for unearthing tubers, and this task was shared by men and women. Hunting, on the other hand, was a male occupation and considered so important that even small boys were given miniature bows in order to acquire as early as possible the skills of archery. The bows of Veddas are much larger than Chenchu bows, but the Veddas string them in the same manner as Chenchus string theirs, namely by pressing the sole of one foot against the middle of the shaft. This identity of technique is significant since most South Indian tribes string their bows by pressing one knee against the shaft. For collecting the honey of rock-bees Veddas used rope ladders, and like Chenchus they employed smouldering leaves for smoking out the bees. The honey combs were cut off with an axe, and if they were in hollow trees or in a cleft in the rocks, they were prised out with a many pronged stick. Honey was important to the Veddas both as food and for barter. The Chenchus' and Kadars' ignorance of traps and snares was shared by the Veddas, and this renders it probable that mechanical contraptions for bagging game had no place in the equipment of the oldest hunting and foodgathering peoples of South Asia. The Malapantarams' knowledge of trapping does not disprove this thesis, for they may have learnt the skill of trapping and snaring from neighbouring tribes of more advanced shifting cultivators. Like Chenchus and Kadars Veddas used dogs for hunting. Though the V eddas relied mainly on caves for habitations they also enlarged rock shelters with screens of branches and skins, and occasionally built small grass thatched huts of rectangular shape. Wherever Veddas have taken to cultivation they live now in such huts. In the past each group exercised property rights over a clearly defined territory, and as among the Chenchus a man had free access to the hunting grounds of his wife's group, and as a rule he spent much of his time in the company of his wife's kinsfolk. The Veddas were organized in named clans, and there is reason to believe that these clans had territorial affiliations. According to Seligman descent within the clan was matrilineal, and clans were exogamous. Cross-cousin marriage was the preferred and most common form of union. Though Chenchu clans are patrilineal and Vedda clans matrilineal the structure of both societies seems to be fundamentally very similar, and there is no discernable difference in the actual relations be-

24

GATHERERS AND HUNTERS

tween the members of the kin-groups and small local communities. This seems to confirm the view that the social life of the primitive hunters and food-gatherers of South Asia was based on the essential equality of the sexes and was originally organized neither on strictly patrilineal nor on matrilineal lines. This is reflected also in the rules of inheritance which provide for a Vedda's property, meagre as it may be, to be divided between sons and daughters. There are few parallels between the religious concepts of Veddas, Chenchus, Kadars and Malapantarams. Though among all these tribes there is a more or less vague belief in the survival of a part of the human personality after the body's death, only the Veddas accord the departed a central place in their religious concepts and practices. They treat their ancestors with reverence and propitiate them with occasional offerings, in response to which the spirits of the departed are believed to extend to the living their benevolence and aid, while the neglect of their cult may arouse their hostility. Unlike Chensus and Kadars the V eddas living in the isolation of their forest homes seem to have lacked the concept of divine beings who originated outside the human sphere, but exert both beneficial and damaging influences on men and women. Nowadays the beliefin such divine figures as Kataragama. the powerful god worshipped by the majority of Sinhalese, has been communicated also to some of the Vedda communities, but there are no equivalents to such deities as Bhagavantaru and Garelamaisama, who dominate the Chenchus' religious horizon. The tribes of hunters and gatherers so far described are not the only representatives of the materially most archaic surviving cultural stratum of South Asia, but none of the few comparable primitive groups have so far been studied in any detail, and it is likely that before long they will be submerged by more advanced populations, and by that time it may be too late to reconstruct their traditional culture pattern. The Katkaris of Maharashtra, for instance, lived in the forested hills west of Poona, but since the Bombay-Poona motor-road was built their habitat has drastically changes, and with the disappearance of forest hunting and gathering could not sustain them any longer. Yet as late as the early 1950s I encountered a few scattered groups of Katkaris persisting in a life-style reminiscent of that of the Chenchus. Their round huts, digging-sticks and arrows were similar to those of the Chenchus, but we know next to nothing of their social structure and ideology. Very different is the position of the Bhils, a large tribal population of Western and Central India. Much speaks for the assumption that the Bhils, who had traditionally close links with forest areas, were originally hunters and gatherers, but today none of the numerous Bhil groups per-

GATHERERS AND HUNTERS

25

sists on that economic level. Though some of them continue to carry bow and arrows, and supplement their diet by digging for roots and tubers, nearly all Bhils are now settled plough cultivators. But traditions of a nomadic forest life are strong and the Bhils' archery and prowess in hunting were famous even a hundred years ago. Indeed Bhils are among the few hunter-gatherers who used to be depicted as such in Indian works of art. An extensive ethnographic literature covers the conditions of many Bhil groups as they prevailed at various times during the 20th century, but only casual remarks in historical sources refer to the nomadic lifestyle of Bhil forest-dwellers. BIBLIOGRAPHY Dahmen, F., The Paliyans. A Hill-tribe of the Palnu Hills. Anthropos, 1908 Vol. 3. pp. 19-31. Ehrenfels, U. R. von, The Kadar of Cochin. Madras 1952. Enthoven, R. E., The Tribes and Castes of Bombay. Vol. 1. Bombay 1920. Fiirer-Haimendorf, C. von, Seasonal nomadism and Economics of the Chenchus of Hyderabad. journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1941. Vol. 7. pp. 175-196. - - , The Chenchus. Jungle Folk of the Deccan (The Aboriginal Tribes of Hyderabad Vol. 1), London 1943. Iyer, L. A. Krishna, The Cochin Tribes and Castes. 2 Vols. Madras 1909-1912. - - , The Travancore Castes and Tribes. Vols. 1-3, Trivandrum 1937-1939, 1941. Iyer, L. A. Krishna and N. Kunjan Pillai, The Primitive Tribes of Travancore. Census of India, 1931. Vol. I, Part. III. King, W. Ross, The Aboriginal Tribes of the Nilgiri Hills. Journal of anthropology. Vol. 1, 1870-1871. pp. 18-51. Menon, K. Govinda. The Forest Tribes of Cochin. Census of India, 1931. Vol. XXXI, pp. 280-288. Nanundayya, H. V. and Iyer, L. K. A. Krishna, The Mysore Tribes and Castes. 1935, Mysore University. 4 Vols. Newbold, T. J., The Chenchwars: a Wild Tribe inhabiting the Forests of the Eastern Ghats.Journal of the R. Asiatic Society of Great Britian & Ireland 1846, Vol. 8. pp. 271-278. Rao, C. Hayavadana, The Kasubas. A Forest Tribes of the Nilgiris. Anthropos. Vol 4. 1909, pp. 178-181. Rao, T. R., The Yanadis of the Nellore District. Madras Government Museum Bulletin. Vol. 4, pp. 87-113. Reddy, P. C., The Yanadis of Madras Presidency. Man in India, 1940. Vol. 20. pp. 44-55. Sarasin, Paul and Fritz, Die Weddas von Ceylon und die sie umgebenden Viilkerschaften, 1893. Seligmann, C. G. and Brenda, The Veddas, Cambridge 1911. Thurston, E., Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Madras 1909, Vol. II. Venkataram, S. R., The Yenadis of Chittoor. The Indian Journal of Social Work, Vol. 2, 1942, p. 492.

CHAPTER TWO

ARCHAIC FARMING SOCIETIES; SHIFTING CULTIVATORS

It is well to remember, that hunters and gatherers, who constitute the numerically least significant tribal populations of India, are just those whose way of life resembles most closely the life style which prevailed throughout the world's tropical zones for a period of not less than two million years. The next step in the economic development of mankind, namely the domestication and cultivation of food-crops, occurred only some ten thousand years ago, and there can be little doubt that it was brought about by the invention of a type of agriculture still common in large parts of the less developed world. In India too this system of tillage, known to anthropologists as shifting or slash-and-burn cultivation, used to be widely practised. Though modern forest conservation and even more the ruthless commercial expoitation of forests have restricted the areas available to tribes dependent on this ancient form of farming, there remain several tribal societies representative of a type of economy which followed in time that of semi-nomadic gatherers and hunters. We shall see that some slashand-burn cultivators continue to hunt and to gather wild forest produce, and these exemplify the transition from a parasitic economy to the systematic: production of food. Shifting cultivation, though dependent on the availability of fairly large areas of forest land, is not restricted to any one part of India. Regions of heavy precipitation, such as the highlands of Southwest India and the hill-tracts flanking the Brahmaputra valley provide ideal conditions for slash-and-burn cultivation, but this type of tillage is by no means unsuitable for forest regions of medium rain fall, such as those of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. Like food-gatherers the more primitive shifting cultivators live usually in small groups. The stability of such groups is far greater, however, than that of hunters and collectors, for from the time of the clearing and burning of the forest until after the harvest, people are tied to one locality, and even when the crops have been reaped the difficulty of transporting stores of grain restricts mobility. SLASH-AND-BCRN CULTIVATORS OF SOUTHWEST INDIA

The forested hills of the Western Ghat were for long the home of small tribal communities that subsisted partly on shifting cultivation and partly

ARCHAIC FARMING SOCIETIES; SHIFTING CULTIVATORS

27

on hunting and gathering. Some of these resemble in many ways such forest nomads as Kadars and Malapantarams, and though they obtain part of their subsistence by the growing of grain crops, some have still the tradition that their ancestors lived mainly by food-gathering. Unlike many of the more populous slash-and-burn cultivators of Middle and Northeast India, such as Baigas, Reddis, Marias and Nagas, these tribes do not figure prominently in the anthropological literature. The reason for their comparative obscurity is mainly the lack of comprehensive accounts depicting the main features of their economic and social system in any detail. Some of these tribes inhabit the highlands of Kerala and the adjoining parts of Karnataka, sometimes in close proximity to groups of collectors and hunters. Populations falling within the category of primitive slashand-burn cultivators figure in the official list of the Scheduled Tribes of Kerala and Karnataka. Among them are Jen-Kurumbas, BetteKurumbas, Uralis, Ulladans, Kanikars, Palliyans, Mannans, Muthuvans and several smaller groups, but only a few tribes of special significance can here be described in some detail. In the former princely state of Travancore the rights of such tribes to cultivate free of tax in forest areas was clearly laid down and compact blocks of land of an acreage seven times of that required in any one cultivating season enabled them to continue cultivation permanently in a cycle of rotation. But in recent decades many of the forest areas have been occupied by advanced agriculturists, much to the detriment of the original inhabitants, few of whom have been in a position to retain their traditional lify-style. The following account, based largely on my observations in the 1940s and 1950s, is hence of historic character rather than a topical report on present-day conditions.

]EN

KuRUMBAS

Kurumba is a blanket term applied to a number of tribes which have little in common but the accident of residence in an area to both sides of the border between Kerala and Karnataka. Among them are the Jen Kurumbas, gatherers of wild forest produce and particularly honey (jen) to which they owe their tribal name. But they also till small plots of land according to a primitive system of slash-and-burn cultivation. The Mysore Census Report of 1891 referred to Jen Kurumbas as living "in small detached huts in the interior of thick jungles, and subsisting on wild bamboo seed, edible roots etc. found in the jungle, often mixed with honey ... ''. This quotation and some other references in the older literature suggest that if not all so at least some groups of Jen Kurumbas

28

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were primarily fooclgatherers. In more recent times, however, agriculture has been of considerable importance in the tribe's economy. Millet (eleusine coracana) raised on dry fields carved out of the forest is the principal crop, but some groups of Jen Kurumbas also grow rice, maize, sago and pulses. The dwelling of the Jen Kurumbas are low, rectangular huts usually built entirely of bamboo and thatched with grass. The roof and the side walls project and form a small porch some three feet deep. The door is so low that one has to stoop in entering, and the interior consists of a single room. A few baskets, mats and pots are usually the only household goods, and most Jen Kurumbas can carry with them all their possessions whenever they shift their settlement to a different locality. Territorial divisions known as jama are the basis of the social organization. Every Jen Kurumba group holds ownership rights in a territory, the boundaries of which arc streams, hills and open valleys. Within the limits of their jama the members are free to collect, hunt and cultivate, but if they want to follow any of these pursuits in a neighbouring jama they must obtain permission from the concernedjama headman. The group inhabiting ajama is known by the name of, the locality, and even if a man leaves his ownjama he still retains thejama-name, which assumes thus the role of a clan name. There is a peculiar system of descent which combines patrilineal and matrilinial principles. The general rule among Jen Kurumbas it that half a couple's children are allotted to the father's jama and the other half to the mother's jama. But this rule does not operate automatically and if the population of one of the two jama shows a tendency to decline, more than 50% of the children may be allotted to the jama in need of an increase in its strength. Though usually the first child takes the father'sjama name, there is no hard and fast rule as the sequence of allotment, and there are cases of the two eldest children going to the jama of one parent and the two younger children to thejama of the other parent. In many cases the decision is deferred until a boy or girl is nearly adult, or one of the parents dies. Generally a wife goes to live in the husband'sjama, but a couple may spend some years of their married life in the wife's jama. While a man may not marry a girl of his ownjama he is allowed to marry a gril belonging to the jama of that parent whose jama-name he did not adopt. Yet a man may under no circumstances marry a daugther of either his father's brother, father's sister, mother's brother or mother's sister, irrespective of their Jama-membership. In every jama there is a headman (modolz) whose office is hereditary in the male line. The modoli selects one of his sons as his successor, but his other children are subject to the usual division between the father's and

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29

the mother's jama. The headman represents the jama vis-a-vis outsiders and it is within his rights to permit any member of another jama to settle within the Jama-territory. Among his vital duties is the ceremonial inauguration of the felling of the jungle at the beginning of the cultivating season. He is the first to cut the jungle on land selected for cultivation. If all the plots chosen by the members of the jama are in one big block, he need only begin the felling on his own land, but if the land earmarked for cultivation is in different blocks, he must ceremoniously cut a tree in each of the blocks. The headman has no hand in the distribution of the land which is done informally and by the common consent of the jamamembers. At the time of the harvest, it is again the headman who does the first reaping. Then every cultivator reaps the first fruits of his millet and of all vegetables grown on his field, and placing them in a basket gives them to the headman. The grain as well as the vegetables are to be used for offerings to the god Hetaya and not for the personal consumption of the headman. The grain must be thrashed by the bachelors and husked by the unmarried girls of the jama. The organization of the unmarried boys and girls plays an important role in the Jen Kurumbas' social life. In every settlement there is a boys' dormitory called pundal mane, and a girls' dormitory called pundair mane. The word pundal means literally 'vagabond', but it is also used in the sense of 'bachelor', and mane is the usual word for 'house'. Boys and girls over seven or eight years of age no longer sleep in their parents' house, but spend the nights in their respective dormitories, which are rectangular huts built in the same style as the ordinary dwelling houses, and stand at a small distance from the cluster of other houses. The boys may enter the girls' dormitory and even spend the night there, and similarly girls are allowed in to the hut of the boys, though usually they keep to their own dormitory. From an early age boys and girls dance and play together and when they reach maturity it is taken for granted that flirtations lead to sexual intercourse. While at feasts and dances lovers sometimes seek the privacy of the forest, they also may sleep together in the girls' dormitory. No member of a dormitory may divulge information on what happens within its walls, and any breach of this pledge to secrecy is punishable by a fine. Married people are not expected to comment on the dormitory affairs, and there is consequently little interference with the doings of the unmarried boys and girls. Every boys' dormitory has a leader, the doda pundal, who is elected from among the elder boys. He is responsible for the discipline in the boys' dormitory and acts as leader in all corporative activities of the unmarried boys. Thus, if any man wants to hire a gang of boys for work on

30

ARCHAIC FARMING SOCIETIES; SHIFTING CULTIVATORS

his fields, he approaches the doda pundal, who in turn consults the other boys and of they agree fixes a convenient day. The doda pundal exerts a good deal of authority over the boys of his dormitory. Any boy who has won a girl's favour must ask his permission before sleeping with her, and if he intends to marry her he must again consult the doda pundal. The unmarried girls too have a leader known as the doda pundati. Her position corresponds to that of the leader of the boys, and girls seek her permission before entering into sexual relation with any of the boys. Should a girls disregard dormitory rules and have sexual relations with several boys, the pundal and the pundati would intervene and wanr the offending girl to be less liberal with her favours in future. If an unmarried girl becomes pregnant she names the man responsible and the pundal supported by the elders of the group will then prevail upon the boy to marry the girl. Sometimes paternity may be uncertain or a boy may manage to dodge his obligations. But such cases are said to be rare and illegitimate children do not appear to constitute a problem in Jen Kurumba society. Whoever marries leaves the youth-dormitory for ever and not even young widows and widowers are re-admitted to the company of the unmarried. Most marriages are monogamous, but provided the first wife agrees, a husband may marry a second wife. If the former refuses her consent and the man persists, he may divorce the first wife and then marry another girl. In the centre of Jen Kurumba religious beliefs stands the divine pair Hetaya and Achi. Hetaya means literally 'birth-giver' and Achi 'great grandmother'. Hetaya is believed to have been the first man, but no one seems to know how he came into being. There exists no temple or shrine for Hetaya and he may be worshipped anywhere. When people are in trouble or there is an epidemic, they offer vegetarian food to Hetaya, who in contrast to deities such as Mariamma does not accept the sacrifices of fowls or goats. However, if Jen Kurumbas kill any animal in the chase, they cook a small part of the liver, heart and meat and offer it to Hetaya. Similarly when they take honey, the give a tiny share to Hetaya, and there is the belief that, if anyone eats the honey while still on the tree and before having made an offering to Hetaya, the bees will sting him. Similarly first fruit offerings of all cultivated crops are given to Hetaya. When several people in ajama have died, all the relatives contribute to a feast called titi. On this occasion they kill a fowl and this sacrifice is meant for the departed. Subsequently a man falls into trance and through his mouth Hetaya gives his verdict on the character of all the dead persons in whose name the feast is being held. But there seems to be little difference in the fates of the good and the wicked. Hetaya is supposed to take with him the souls of all the dead men and Achi does the same to the souls of the women.

ARCHAIC FARMING SOCIETIES; SHIFTING CULTIVATORS

31

The most significant cultural feature of the Jen Kurumbas is the indeterminate allocation of children to the Jama of either father or mother, which means thatJama-membership is passed on neither patrilineally nor matrilineally. but that a child may be absorbed within the Jama of either father or mother. The effect of this practice resembles the Chenchus' custom of regulating rights of residence and utilization of collecting grounds. We have seen that although Chenchu clans are strictly patrilineal, a Chenchu has the right to reside and hunt both in his paternal and his maternal territory, and while among Chenchus this option remains open throughout a man's life, the choice of Jama-membership is made for Jen Kurumbas when they are still children and there is no possibilitv of subsequent change. For such a change would introduce an element of uncertainty into the rules of Jama-exogamy. A lack of clear-cut clans is a feature also of Kadar and Malapantaram society, and though Jen Kurumbas have attained the spatial stability of cultivators, their flexible social stucture suggests closer affinities to hunting and gathering societies than to such more advanced slash-and-burn cultivators as Baigas, Kolams or Konda Reddis.

BETTE KcRUMBAS

The forested hills of the Wynad are not only the traditional home of Jen Kurumbas but are also inhabited by a tribal group known as Bette Kurumbas who are sometimes also referred to as Uralis. It would seem that over long periods the two Kurumba tribes, though clearly distinct, have lived in a kind of symbiosis, but in recent times the Bette Kurumbas have been more deeply involved in agricultural pursuits than any group of Jen Kurumbas, and considerable areas bear the marks of their type of shifting cultivation. Most Bette Kurumbas practise slash-and-burn cultivation on hill-slopes, and each household clears a piece of forest and cultivates separately. The hoes employed nowadays for breaking up the ground are of the modern type used in tea-gardens, and there is no recollection of the kind of hoes used previously. The main crops are millet (eleusine coracana), pumpkins and various vegetables. Neither rice nor maize is grown. The felling of a new piece of jungle is initiated by the headman of the village, and he does also the first sowing and first reaping. At the time of the first sowing all the villagers contribute flour and vegetables for the offering to the deities. Even when a house is constructed it is the headman who should erect the first post. The villages are of little permanence and consist as a rule of nor more than a dozen rectangular grass-thatched bamboo huts. When the people

32

ARCHAIC FARMING SOCIETIES; SHIFTING CULTIVATORS

of a group shift their cultivation they often also shift their settlement in order to be near their fields and crops. The Bette Kurumbas make all their own pots by a primitive technique described in detail in an article by A. Aiyappan 1 • The potter's wheel is not known to them and only women make pots. The Bette Kurumbas are organized in patrilincal, exogamous clans known as maga. The clans are not localized, but each clan has a cult centre where the clan members gather once a year for the worship of the clan deity. On such occasions hundreds of clan members coming from widely dispersed settlements assemble at the shrine of the clan god. A man may marry a girl of his mother's clan and marriage with the mother's brother's daughter is considered particularly suitable. Brides are usually taken from other villages, but if a mother's brother's daughter lives in the same village she is nevertheless eligible. It is not unusual for a young husband to go to live in his wife's village, but ultimately the couple is expected to return to the husband's settlement and group. All children belong to the father's clan and there is no trace of any alternative system of descent comparable to that of the Jen Kurumbas. A widow's young children go with her to any second husband's village, but when they are grown up they are expected to return to their paternal group. In most Bette Kurumba villages there is a boys' dormitory (chital mane) as well as a girls' dormitory (bangirz). All bachelors sleep in the chital mane and visitors from other settlements, whether married or unmarried, use it as a rest-house. There is a leader of the unmarried boys, known as bene kara, who is responsible for the boys of the chital mane. If any of them commits an offence, the bene kara is fined and he in turn tries to extract the fine from the offender or the offender's parents. The unmarried girls too have a leader, knovvn as bent akka, who exerts control over the girls of the dormitory. Unlike the young people among the Jen Kurumbas, the boys and girls are not pledged to secrecy about the happenings in the dormitories, but they are nevertheless fairly independent and there is no ban on sexual relations as long as the rules of clan exogamy are observed. All Bette Kurumbas worship Hetaya, who appears to be of much greater importance than the deities of the individual clans. Hetaya is referred to as 'the old man who died first', but according to a myth told by Bette Kurumbas of Muthanga there were in the beginning two Hetaya, whose names were Nard Aja and Sambala Aja. They were the first two men and together with them two women, known as Devara 1 A. Aiyappan, Handmade Pottery of the Urali Kurumbas of Wynad, South India, Man 1947, No. 54.

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33

Muduki came into being. It is not known how the two Hetaya and the two Devera Muduki arose, but from them the ancestors of the present clans (maga) are descended. Some time after a Bette Kurumba's death, his kinsmen prepare vegetarian food offerings, and then sit up a whole night while a medium plays a rattle and prepares himself for possession by Hetaya. Finally Hetaya possesses the man and announces that he is taking the soul (galz) of the deceased with him. Often the gali comes upon another medium and says through his mouth that he is departing. URALIS

The term U rali applies not only as an alternative name to the Bette Kurumbas of the Wynad but also to a large number of small tribes groups scattered over the highlands of Southern Kerala and particularly the Cardamom and Pandalam Hills. The exact relationship of the various groups known as Urali is still doubtful, but various common features seem to link all Uralis however far dispersed they may be. In Southern Kerala Uralis are found in the Ranny Range, Pathangpuram Taluk, V endiperiyar Range of Periya Taluk, and Ayyapankoli Range, Devikulam Taluk. In the higher hills Urali settlements lie usually in densely forested areas. There small groups of two or three huts cling to slopes cleared of jungle on which rain-fed rice is grown. At a small distance from such huts may stand a few tree-houses, built on large tree-trunks the crowns of which have been completely removed. Such tree-houses provide secutiry against wild elephants which are a frequent threat to flimsy bamboo huts. The U ralis of this region are distinguished by their unusually rigid system of exchange marriage. Ideally a man should provide one of his sisters to a brother or a cousin of the girl whom he wants to marry. If he has no available sister, it is nevertheless an absolutely necessary condition for obtaining a wife to give a girl of his own exogamous group to a man of the prospective bride's family. Men who have no own sisters try to 'borrow' a real or classificatory parallel cousin to tender in exchange for a bride, on the understanding that in the next generation they or their families will render a similar service to the family which had 'lent' a girl. A man who does not succeed in making such an arrangement may have to go without a wife, or be content with a woman suffering from some disability, such as a lame leg or blind eye. As Kerala is traditionally one of the regions where polyandry is prevalent among many communities it is not surprising that this type of multiple marriage was practised also by Uralis. Normally the two

34

ARCHAIC FARMING SOCIETIES; SHIFTING CULTIVATORS

husbands of a woman were brothers or parallel cousins, but there were also some cases of polyandrous unions in which the two men were neither brothers nor cousins. As long as they got on with each other both lived with their wife in the first husband's house. But in the event of friction, the second husband moved out but continued to meet the joint wife and have sexual relations with her. Even a woman who was married only to one husband was expected to comply with a request by one of his younger brothers to let him have sexual intercourse with her. All children of a polyandrous marriage claimed only the first husband as their father. Even if it was certain that a child was the off-spring of the second husband, he was addressed as "younger father" while the address "father" was reserved for the first husband. As Uralis are scattered in small groups over a wide area extending from Wynad to the Cardamom and Pandalam Hills, it is only to be expected that there are regional differences in various cultural spheres. A characteristic feature in the eschatology of the U ralis of the Koni range of the former Travancore State is the belief that the souls of the departed remain for two or three years near the habitations of their close kinsmen. To keep them at a reasonable distance, the chief-mourner at a funeral, who is usually the deceased's sister's son, blocks the path to the house with a thorny branch, and begs the soul to remain beyond that barrier. This is done even though the U ralis expect the spirits of the dead to protect their surviving kinsmen. The departed are not believed to live in any one place or in a distant Land of the Dead, but to be scattered all over the country. Ancestors are not concerned with breaches of exogamy rules or any other social offences, but they get angry if they are not given their dues of rice and coconut after the harvest. When they are offended by such neglect the culprit will fall ill, and may even die unless the ancestors are appeased by ~n appropriate offering.

MALA ARA y ANS

Among the neighbours of the Uralis are the Mala Arayans, a tribe of shifting cultivators economically superior to the Uralis. Their social organization is characterized by regional divisions, each of which extends over one mountain range. There may be ten or twelve hamlets in such a division headed by a dignitary known as poramben, who presides over small informal meetings of tribal elders when disputes have to be settled. Though the poramben's main tasks are secular, he is also concerned with arrangements for the cult of the gods.

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35

The religious system of the Mala Arayans is far more complex than that of such tribes as the Uralis, and it contains elements of unusual interest. There is the belief that each hill is the seat of specific gods, some male and some female. On the full moon day of certain months offerings of husked rice, coconuts and fruits are given to these gods and several cocks are sacrificed; one of these is for the main deity, while the others are for the god's attendants. In the old days goats and pigs were also sacrificed but this practice has been abandoned. At the worship of the local gods a shaman (thullal) falls into trance and while possessed by a god is capable of prophesying. Apart from male and female deities, there are on every mountain one, two or three arakula, spirits of male ancestors who manifest themselves by possessing their devotees. Such ancestor spirits are worshipped not only by the members of their own lineage, but by anyone living in the locality. A special feature of this ancestor cult is the construction of stone-circles in the name of ancestor spirits. Those circles consist of small boulders laid out around a central stone. There are also some stone-circles which are dedicated to gods and serve as altars on the occasion of sacrificial rites. When a group moves their settlement to another site, the central stones, which represent deities and spirits ought to be moved into the vicinity of the new village site. For it is believed that the deities protecting the community have their seat in these stones, and that the neglect of the transport of the stones would bring about disaster. In addition to stone-circles some Mala Arayans erect small dolmens as monuments for deceased kinsmen. They resemble small stone houses, with piled up crude stones forming the side walls and a large flat stone forming the roof. These structures give the impression of being replicas of the larger dolmens put up in prehistoric times in many parts of South India and the Deccan. In front of these small dolmens Mala Arayans sacrifice animals to their ancestors. As early as 1953 arakula shrines had here and there been replaced by lingam-shrines, and Nambudiri Brahmans worshipped there in place of the tribal priests. The Mala Arayans bury all their dead irrespective of the circumstances of the death, and in order to protect the grave against any disturbance they surround it with large stones. It is believed that only important men become arakula, while others become pey, i.e. servants of the arakula. After the death of a person of importance and substance his spirit (pishaj) is ceremonious! y transferred to the sanctuary of the arakula or to any chosen place. Thereupon all the mourners place offerings on the grave and then go to the chosen spot and pray there. It is believed that the spirit then joins the other arakula. On

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the anniversary of the death more offerings are given, and on the third anniversary a great feast known as 'arakula day' is performed with the sacrifice of many fowls and goats. It is not necessary to install a new stone, but the new arakula is worshipped together with those departed earlier. The arakula are believed to protect and guide the living, who cannot prosper without their help. One of the stones of every arakula sanctuary is for Karata, a legendary figure believed to be the forefather of all Mala Arayans, who is described as being 'more powerful than the gods'. Female ancestor spirits are not referred to as arakula but as pey, but they too are given offerings. The spirits of the departed remain near their villages for two to three years. After that period has elapsed they would normally leave the locality, and to keep them near the habitations of their kinsmen, who profit from their presence, they are regularly given offerings. A person who died an accidental death, such as being killed by a tiger or by drowning in a river, becomes a malignant spirit. When such a disaster has happened the victim's kinsmen must at once establish an altar somewhere in the forest far away from their houses. The altar should be in two layers and offerings are placed on the ground and on the higher level. Despite all efforts to placate such a malignant spirit, he may return and trouble the living even as much as twenty years after the inauspicious death. The gods who possess shamans and priests are local deities, and do not come from distant places. Yet the Mala Arayans are also aware of some of the gods worshipped by Hindu castes, and the god Aiyappan, an allKerala divinity, has a secure place in the complex religious ideology of the Mala Arayan tribe. SLASH-AND-BURN CULTIVATORS OF THE DECCAN AND MIDDLE INDIA

Between the southwestern regions suitable for slash-and-burn cultivation, i.e. Kerala and Western Karnataka, and those parts of the Deccan which lend themselves to this type of agriculture there lie large stretches of semi-arid country where forest growth is scanty and shiftingcultivation, even if once practised, is today no longer possible. It is only north of a line transversing the peninsula roughly between Bombay on the west coast and the Godavari delta on the east coast that we find hillregions sheltering a number of tribes which practise a system of slashand-burn cultivation basically similar to that of such southern tribes as Uralis and Mala Arayans. Yet there is a considerable difference in the general standard of living between these Deccan tribes and the forest dwellers of Kerala. The settlements of the former are on the whole more

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37

stable, their houses more substantial, and agriculture provides a larger part of their total subsistence. Food-gathering may occasionally still contribute to the household economy, but always in a role subordinate to that of agriculture. This section will deal with Konda Reddis, Kolams, Kamars, Baigas and Juangs as representatives of an ancient stratum of slash-and-burn cultivators but there are many similar groups which cannot be described in detail. KoNDA

REoms

The wooded hill-ranges of the Eastern Ghats are the home of several tribes of shifting cultivators, and the rugged terrain and the difficulty of communications allowed some groups to retain until recently many features of an archaic life-style. Among these are the Konda Reddis of Andhra Pradesh, who inhabit the hills to both sides of the Godavari river. Until 194 7 their habitat was divided between the Madras Presidency of British India and the princely state of Hyderabad, then known as His Exalted Highness the Nizam's Dominions, but nowadays the entire region populated by Konda Reddis is comprised within the newly formed state of Andhra Pradesh. The Reddis are of a physical type which seems to be a compound of various heterogeneous elements. A Veddoid strain is well pronounced but there are individuals with more progressive traits resembling the racial make-up of the neighbouring non-tribal peasantry. All Reddis speak Telugu and there are no traces of any older tribal tongue. The development policy of Andhra Pradesh and the infiltration of nontribal populations into the Reddis' habitat have recently brought about many changes interfering with their traditional economy and social life. The following description will therefore be based on the conditions observed in the course of field-research in the 1940s 1 , and will concentrate mainly on the Reddis who dwell in the hills and practise the old established type of shifting cultivation. The Konda Reddis' small settlements consist usually of less than a dozen houses, standing in a clearing close to a natural source of water. The houses arc built of wood and bamboo, and thatched with palm leaves or in rare cases with grass. They are invariably rectangular and consist of a single room usually surrounded by a verandah where much of the housework is done. Within easy walking distance from the settlement are the hill-slopes where the Reddis have cleared and burnt the forest. There they till the 1

Cf. C. von Fiirer-Haimendorf, The Reddis

~f the

Bison Hills, London 1945.

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soil with crude digging-sticks resembling the implements used by Chenchus and other food gatherers for the unearthing of roots and tubers. Only some groups of Reddis in the hills north of the Godavari use in addition to digging-sticks heavy hoes, whose shouldered iron blades are inserted into the thickened head of the shaft. The Reddi starts cutting trees and bushes growing on the plot chosen for cultivation in January, and during March and early April he fires the dried timber and undergrowth, but does not distribute the ashes over the soil. Sowing is deferred until the break of the monsoon when after the sacrifice of a fowl or pig in honour of the earth goddess the Reddi broadcasts small millets, such as panicum miliare and eleusine coracana, and then dibbles sorghum, maize and various pulses. On each field there is a multitude of crops, including such vegetables as marrows and cucumbers, and in August, before the first grain is gathered, such a field resembles a kitchen garden rather than a stretch of grain crops. The various millets are harvested as they ripen, the reapers cutting off the ears with small sickles and carrying them in little baskets to a thrashing floor. Ownership of the land is vested in local groups, whose members may hunt, collect and cultivate anywhere within the territory traditionally belonging to the group. Any part of the communal property turned to use as a field by the labour of an individual becomes his private possession. As long as he cultivates a hill-slope the land and its produce are his undisputed property, but when after two or three years the soil loses its fertility and is allowed to revert to jungle it also returns to the ownership of the local group. After some years the land is again ready for cultivation and then any members of the group may clear the new forest growth, and the previous occupier has no prior right to its utilization. Not all the members of a group claiming the right to the utilization of a tract of land need live in one locality, and their houses may be scattered over several small hamlets. They combine, however, for the celebration of seasonal festivals, and though the atmosphere within such a group is entirely egalitarian one man is recognized as its formal head and acts as priest and mediator between man and the local deities. He performs the rites and ceremonies believed to secure the prosperity of the community as a whole, inaugurates the sowing of the grain crops and propitiates the earth goddess with animal sacrifices. Most settlements contain members of different clans, and a man's membership of his clan is more permanent than that of his settlement, for this can be dissolved at will if he decides to move to a different locality where he may have affinal ties. Village community and clan are intersecting social units, but their functions are distinct and no conflict ofloyalties results from an individual's concurrent obligations to both these units.

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39

The village community is the framework for economic cooperation, for the organization of feasts and communal worship, and for the maintenance of law and order. The main function of the clan, on the other hand, is the regulation of marriage through the system of clanexogamy. The clans are exogamous groups distributed over large areas and dispersed throughout many village communities. Descent in the clan is strictly patrilineal and the marriage ritual includes a ceremony by which the bride is transferred from her natal clan to that of her husband. Membership of her father's clan remains dormant, however, and in the event of the breakdown of her first marriage it governs the choice of a second husband. Breaches of the rule of clan-exogamy are considered serious offences, and a man guilty of such an offence is excommunicated unless he atones his guilt by feasting the entire village, and undergoing a purification ceremony. Offenders against tribal custom are usually summoned before a meeting of householders presided by the headman of the settlement. Most cases adjudicated by such a village council relate to disputes over women. For marriages are fragile and a deserted husband has to be compensated for the loss of his wife. Incidents of adultery often involve members of different village communities, and there are several ways by which the guilty man can be brought to justice. If a married woman has eloped with a man of a neighbouring settlement, the aggrieved husband, accompanied by the headmen and several other men of his village will set out for the offender's village and there lodge a complaint with the local headman. The latter may then summon a council of the villagers, at which the two headmen in conjunction with the older men of the two villages discuss the dispute. Normally the abductor is ordered to pay a fine, part of which may be used to compensate the deceived husband. Rarely will a woman be ordered to return to her husband, for the Reddis consider such a decision impracticable and unlikely to lead to a restoration of the broken marriage. If there has been bad feeling between two villages, the members of the abductor's community may not be willing to exert pressure on their covillager, and hence no agreement may be reached at the meeting of the representatives of the two parties. In general, however, every village community is expected to discipline its own members, and thereby prevent conflicts with neighbouring groups. Supernatural sanctions are rarely invoked, for Reddis do not believe that the deities of hills and forests concern themselves with the conduct of men vis-a-vis other human beings. However, they demand from men the observance of certain taboos, such as the taboo on the eating of fruits or crops before the relevant first fruit offerings have been given. Their

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favours can be gained by the performance of sacrificial rites, and the men acting as priests strive to gain divine support for their community. Deities are imagined in anthropomorphic terms, and shamans are believed to be capable of seeing gods and goddesses in trance or in their dreams. But Reddis have no definite ideas about the fate of the departed, and in that respect they differ fundamentally from the many tribal people who believe in a Land of the Dead whose nature they describe in great detail. Yet, there is the belief that the departed are entitled to being fed on certain occasions by their living descendants. However, no prayers for help are addressed to the ancestors nor is it believed that they can influence the fate of the living. Ko LAMS Dispersed over the highlands of Adilabad, the northernmost district of Andhra Pradesh are small groups of Kolams, a tribe whose traditional economy closely resembles that of the Konda Reddis. Like the latter they used to cultivate on hill-slopes cleared of forest growth and subsisted also to a large extent on wild growing tubers and leafy plants. The introduction of forest conservancy has compelled most Kolams to abandon slashand-burn cultivation, but the data on which this account of their social and cultural life is based were collected in the 1940s when many Kolams were still persisting in their original life style. Unlike the Konda Reddis, who speak exclusively Telugu, the Kolams have a language of their own unknown to any other tribal group. It is a Dravidian tongue and belongs, like Condi, to the intermediate group of Dravidian languages. According to Grierson, the author of the Linguistic Survey of India, "the Kolam must, from a philological point of view be considered as the remnants of an old Dravidian tribe who have not been involved in the development of the principal Dravidian languages, or of a tribe who have not originally spoken a Dravidian form of speech" 1 . However this may be, the Kolams clearly represent a cultural stratum far more archaic than that exemplified by the Gonds in whose midst groups of Kolams have been dwelling for centuries if not millennia. In their own language the Kolams call themselves Kolavar, in Condi they are called Pujari, in Telugu Mannevarlu, and in Marathi and Urdu Kolam. The Kolams, like the Gonds, are organized in exogamous and patrilineal clans, and most of these have names identical with those of certain Gond clans. These clans are grouped in phratries corresponding to the Gond system of seven-brother-folk, six-brother-folk, five brotherfolk and four brother-folk. But among the Kolams these groupings are 1

Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. IV., p. 561.

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41

devoid of any mythological sanction, and it is most probable that they have been formed by the coordination of existing exogamous units with the Gond clan-system. In most villages members of two or more clans live side by side, and the clan with the oldest association with the locality furnishes the priest (delak), who acts also in secular matters as leader of the small group. The Kolams are renowned for their skill in divination and the propitiation of local deities. This reputation, so similar to that enjoyed by the Baigas among the Gonds of the Maikal Hills, has led many Gond communities to entrust the cult of local deities to the priests of nearby Kolam villages, and the term Pujari, by which the Kolams are known to the Gonds refers to their traditional role as priests of the local gods. It is the Kolams' religious system which distinguishes them from all other tribal groups of the Deccan, and a detailed analysis of this system will serve to demonstrate their unique position in the cultural scene of the reg10n. Intimately linked with the localized patrilineal clans is the cult of a deity known in Kolami as Ayak, but referred to as Bhimana by speakers of Telugu and Urdu. Within the territory considered by the members of a Kolam clan as their ancestral homeland there is usually a shrine of Ayak, and even where Kolams have been dispossessed of their ancestral land, the Ayak shrines remain focal points of clan unity. For all Kolams, unless totally detribalized, return to their Ayak shrine for the performance of important rites at which the living members of the clan are united in worship and the departed are propitiated with offerings. The care of each Ayak shrine is the responsibility of the clan-priest whose office is hereditary in the male line. Certain important shrines may under no circumstances be shifted from their traditional site, but in other cases the shifting of a clan within the clan territory is permissible. Most Ayak shrines are situated in secluded forest clearings at no great distance from running water. For at the annual feasts worshippers from distant villages camp on the site and require water for cooking and washing. All Ayak shrines are built according to the same pattern, even though their size and elaborateness may vary greatly. A pyramidal, thatched roof is usually supported by five posts, the central one of which is decorated with conventional figures of men, suns and moons, carved in low relief. There are no walls, but the mud floor is raised from the ground and the interior is hence protected by low eaves. Lined up in front of the centre post are the sacred objects of Ayak: two square wooden staves, each surmounted by a bunch of peacock feathers, a few large and many more small clay animals placed there as votary gifts, a few metal lamp-stands and incense burners, and a large covered pot containing such ritual objects as bell-

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halters and bell-handled whips. Nearby there is usually a row of monuments comprising wooden pointed posts (munda) and stone slabs which had been set up as memorials for deceased members of the clan. Kolams bury their dead in the forest far from habitations, and the grave is never again visited; yet the soul of the deceased often receives attention. Those who can afford the expense of the accompanying sacrifice of a goat or a sheep erect in the dead person's name a post known as tiktan munda or a stone slab called tiktan gundu. The post or stone slab is considered a representation of the deceased, and whenever a new post is added to the row near the Ayak shrine the blood of the sacrificial animal is sprinkled over all the posts and stones erected in memory of other departed clan-members. Wherever a Kolam may have lived and died, his tiktan munda should be put up at the Ayak shrine of his own clan. The Kolams believe that after death the life giving element, which they call pandm 1 , goes to Bhagwan, whereas the tiktan, the personality of the departed, which corresponds to the sanal of Gond eschatology goes to A yak. The erection of a tiktan munda or tiktan gundu is not a prerequisite of the union of the departed with Ayak, but it is said that the tiktan for whom a post or stone has been erected henceforth dwells in this, whereas otherwise the tiktan hovers near the burial ground. In the Adilabad highlands there are five important Ayak shrines located at Dantanpalli, Pangri, Goleti, Sirasgaon and Sungapur. The Kolams refer to the gods worshipped at these places as Dantanpalli A yak, Pangri Ayak and so on, and say that these principal Ayak are brothers. This brings us to the difficult problem of the nature of Ayak. Besides the five most famous seats of Ayak, there are many shrines of lesser importance, for every Kolam clan has its own Ayak, called not after the clan but after the locality where the shrine is situated. While most Kolams readily comment on the respective status of all these local Ayak, they maintain at the same time that there is really only one Ayak whom the various clans worship under different names. The firm and often stated belief in one A yak does not seem irreconcilable with the notion that the Ayak worshipped at such locations as Dantanpalli and Pangri stand in an established order of seniority. The Pangri Ayak, who is considered the younger brother of the Dantanpalli Ayak, is taken once in several years to visit his elder brother, and the two are then worshipped together. The Kolams do not see any contradiction in these beliefs, and it would seem that they consider the ritual objects kept in each shrine not as idols of

1 Probably a corruption of the Sanskrit term prii'(lam, and identical with the jiva of Gond belief.

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separate deities, but as the different vehicles of the one and only Ayak worshipped by all Kolams. Regarding the origin of Ayak, the Kolams have no clear idea. When confronted with the question how Ayak came into being most Kolams will say that Ayak came into being when the world came into being. He and the goddess Polakama were already in existence before the first Kolams were born. Kolam priests clearly state that Ayak is a male god, and in view of this it is surprising that the verbal ending used in relation to Ayak is not the masculine ending, but the one used in relation to female beings and neuter objects. The same puzzling phenomenon occurs among the Gonds who employ the feminine-neuter verbal and adjectival ending in relation to clan-deities clearly described as male. In view of the unique position of Ayak among the divinities worshipped by tribal populations comparable to the Kolams in social and economic development it is appropriate to analyse the role and character of this god in some detail. 1. All Kolams worship A yak as their pre-eminent tribal deity. 2. Though all Kolams emphasize the one-ness of Ayak, he is worshipped under different names derived from localities containing shrines of Ayak. The different local embodiments of Ayak are sometimes referred to as "brothers", but this concept does not involve a conscious belief in a multiplicity of Ayak. 3. A yak is considered a benevolent god, accessible to the prayers and offerings of men. He is believed to care for the Kolams, and to intercede directly on behalf of those who seek his help in the cure of sickness or barrenness or in such misfortunes as crop-failures. He is also believed to exert control over the game and the wild produce of the forest, and his help is sought in food-gathering and honeytaking. 4. Ayak maintains direct contact with his people by possessing priests and other worshippers at the time of sacrificial rites and by speaking through their mouths. On many occasions his pronouncements relate to coming events and the Kolams believe that he can foresee the future. 5. While Ayak's power is great, it is not absolute, and this is demonstrated by the fact that he can mitigate but not completely avert misfortunes caused by malevolent forces. 6. All deceased Kol ams join A yak who thus appears as the Lord of the Dead as well as of the Living. 7. Ayak is propitiated with animal sacrifices; he "eats" buffalo, goat, sheep and fowl, but neither ox nor pig. 8. The Kolams believe that Ayak is accessible also to the prayers of

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members of other tribes, though a Kolam priest must officiate at all sacrifical rites. A comparison of the figure of Ayak with the deities of other Deccan tribes reveals that the Kolam god is in many respects a deity sui generis though the external features of his cult resemble in many ways the ritual associated with the cult of the Gond clan-deities. KA MARS

In Madhya Pradesh there are several tribes resembling Kanda Reddis and Kolams in so far as their economic and social development is concerned. One of these is the small Kamar tribe of Chhattisgarh described by S. C. Dube in his book The Kamar (Lucknow 1951). Since that book was published the Kamars have undoubtedly also been affected by the process of commercial forest exploitation which is transforming the environment of so many tribal societies, but here we will consider the traditional life-style as observed by Dube in the 1940s at about the same time when I first encountered Kanda Reddis and Kolams. Like the latter's villages the larger Kamar settlements are situated on hill-tops or in the depth of the forest, with the houses built on two sides of a large open space, not unlike the central part of some Kolam villages. In the wilder forests and hills scattered houses are constructed in clusters of two or three, and such settlements are separated from each other by distances of half a mile or so. Nearness to water, sufficient supply of wild roots, coupled with a certain degree of seclusion to evade the visits of non-tribals provide the ideal conditions for a Kamar hamlet. Ther is no centralized authority for the tribe as a whole but several neighbouring settlements form a group and the elders of these settlements meet to constitute an ad hoc council whenever a serious breach of customary law disturbs the harmony of the group. The decisions of such a council are held to be final and binding in all socio-religious matters. There are few offences which cannot be expiated by a fine and this is generally used to provide a feast for the assembled elders, but if there is an aggrieved party compensation may also be awarded. The Kamar's attitude to adultery is very much the same as that of the Reddis, and though the husband of an abducted woman is entitled to compensation, a council will not support a claim to the return of the wife. The assessment of an offender's guilt depends less on his motives than on the results of his action, and it is for this reason that offences such as incest between clan-members are held to be of particular gravity. For Kamars believe that such actions are likely to bring misfortune not only upon the the offenders but also upon other members of the group. Super-

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45

natural sanctions are automatic and the only way of averting them is to break off all social contact between the culprits and the rest of the community. The latter's action in such cases is one of self-preservation, and the ostracism imposed on the offender is not so much a punishment as a safety device. The Kamars' ideas about the contagiousness of pollution caused by serious breaches of customary law arc likely to be the result of marginal contacts with Hindu populations. Yet their basic values have largely been formed by the life in forests and hills, where small groups of men scratch a meagre subsistence from a soil cultivated with the simplest of implements. As land is communal property and anyone may clear as large an area as he can cultivate there are no distinctions between rich and poor, and influence and prestige are not determined by material possessions. Success and failure, seasonal affluence and occasional want, depend largely on men's own efforts and on such unpredictable factors as the weather or the ravages of pests. Control over the forces of nature and potentially harmful supernatural powers lies in the hands of magicians who play an important role in the socio-religious system of the Kamars as well as other shifting cultivators of Middle India. The Kamars refer to magicians of their own tribe as baiga, and the same term is used for medicine-men and priests by such tribes as the Khairwars and Bhuiyas of Chota Nagpur, and is in addition the name of one of the tribes of Madhya Pradesh, a tribe which has become well-known to anthropologists because of Verrier Elwin's famous book The Baiga (London 1939). BAIG AS

In Madhya Pradesh the habitat of the Baigas extends over Mandla District and part of Balaghat, but scattered groups of Baigas are also found in Bihar. They speak a dialect of Chhattisgarhi Hindi, and it is generally believed that they are a branch of the Bhuiyas or Bhumias of Chhotanagpur. That name means literally "lords of the soil", and the Baigas' function as priests is ascribed to their close affinities to local deities, whose propitiation is their specific responsability. Like the Kamars the Baigas build their houses round a large square, but in the clays when they still moved every few years from one site close to land cleared for cultivation to another, they devoted little effort to the construction of houses which they pulled down and rebuilt elsewhere so frequently. Slash-and-burn cultivation, very similar to that practised by Kolams and Kamars, is the traditional form of tillage. To the Baiga shifting cultivation is not only a means of subsistence, but is virtually a cult.

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For they believe that at the beginning of the world Bhagavan, the supreme deity, himself installed N anga Baiga, the tribe's mythical ancestor as Bhumia raja, lord of the earth, and instructed him how to cultivate with the words: "You must not tear the breasts of your mother the earth with a plough like the Gond and the Hindu. You will cut down trees and burn them, and sow your seed in the ashes. But you will never become rich, for if you did you would forsake the earth, and then there would be no one to guard it. '' Unlike Konda Reddis, Kolams and Kamars the Baigas are divided into a number of endogamous locally determined groups known by the Hindi termjat. Within such ajat there are exogamous subdivisions and these too are based on territorial affinities. The social system, though somewhat complicated by the existence of endogamous groups, is fundamentally not different from that of Kolams and Kamars, but the enormously proliferated mythology distinguishes the Baigas from most other Middle Indian slash-and-burn cultivators. There is hardly any aspect of Baiga life which is not covered by a myth explaining the origin of the custom or institution. Elwin describes the mythology as the motive power and authorization of the institutions. Every customary act, the felling of the forest, the offering of animal sacrifice, the worship of gods, the cure of disease, the war against witchcraft, the shame of barrenness, all trace their origin and maintain their credit in what are believed to be historic events which established them as part of the social order. There is the closest contact between the myths and the daily life of the tribesmen. To them they are the records of veritable happenings which set the social order on its course, instituted tribal law, and established the Baiga in his position as Bhumia raja, lord of the earth. It is not so much their rich mythology which has invested the Baigas with the reputation of exceptional knowledge of supernatural forces. This reputation, recognized by their tribal and even non-tribal neighbours is based on their expertise in the field of magic. The Baigas regard themselves as the most powerful magicians in the world, and they are looked upon with awe by other tribes and communities. The Baigas' charms are necessary for the growth of the crops, the potency of the bride-groom, the frustration of witches, and the protection of the village against bears and tigers. Magic is the most vital and potent reality of the Baiga's life, without it existence would be unbearable and it would also be extremely dangerous. For magic is a necessity in a world where nothing happens by chance, where every happening derives from some secret supernatural cause. The primary duty of the magician is to fight disease and death, to diagnose its cause and then defeat it. He stands be-

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tween mankind and the malignant forces of nature and supernature, he has authority handed down to him from remote antiquity, and his knowledge is more than a match for all the hostile powers. Yet all transactions with the world of magic are highly dangerous. The least mistake in the ritual or the failure to fulfil a promise made to the gods may have disastrous consequences. The elaborateness of the mythology, religious concepts and beliefs in a large pantheon of gods, and above all the intricacies of the techniques of the magician are surprising intellectual achievements in a tribe whose economy is as primitive as that of the Baigas, particularly if one compares it to the dearth of myths and the simplicity of religious concepts characteristic of a tribe such as the Reddis, so similar to the Baigas in the material sphere. One might expect that the interest in complex myths and the ability to match by magical means the powers of deities and spirits would be accompanied by an equally sophisticated approach to moral problems. Yet the data presented by Elwin do not reflect any sophisticated morality. The offences most heavily punished are those which infringe the integrity and prestige of the tribe. A woman who commits adultery with another Baiga is not subject to any punishment on the part of the community, but an unmarried girl suspected of sexual relations with an outsider, such as a Muslim, is excommunicated and must buy her way back by paying a fine and bearing the cost of a feast for the villagers. A man who causes bodily harm to another is not punished, but a Baiga who allows himself to be beaten by a woman or by the member of another tribe or caste will be excommunicated. The former may be morally despicable, but is not in a state of lowered ritual status whereas the Baiga who suffers the indignity of being beaten by an inferior loses his normal status. He is polluted and automatically passes on this pollution to anyone with whom he has social contact. By excommunicating him the society protects itself against such contact without necessarily passing moral judgement. In one sphere of life which more advanced societies have hedged in by numerous rules and prohibitions the Baiga is comparatively free of irksome restraints. Sex is valued as inherently good and enjoyable, and except for the rules of clan-exogamy and tribal endogamy there are few prohibtions which restrict the range of potential partners. Virginity is not valued as a virtue, and very little emphasis is laid on the merit of marital fidelity. There is altogether no explicit recognition of universally valid social virtues, and no specific reward for conformity to an approved code of conduct, neither on this earth or in the life after death. Among the shifting cultivators of the Deccan and Middle India eschatological ideas seem to be altogheter rather vague, whereas the

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materially more advanced tribes of the same region, such as Raj Gonds or Saoras have much more elaborate concepts of man's fate after death. Much more precise eschatological beliefs are found also among many of the slash-and-burn cultivators of Northeast India. There is no discernible correlation between the economic systems of tribal populations and the languages they speak. We have seen that Kanda Reddis speak Telugu, Kolams their own Dravidian tribal tongue, Kamars and Baigas dialects of Chhattisgarhi Hindi. Verrier Elwin tends to the hypothesis that the Baigas spoke originally a Munda tongue, but there is no hard evidence for such an assumption, which gains some credence, however, by the fact that the Munda speaking Korkus of Berar dwell at no great distance from the habitat of the Baigas, and the latter were originally certainly not speakers of an Aryan language. A more substantial conglomeration of Munda speakers occurs in Orissa and Bihar, and among them the J uangs resemble most closely the slash-and-burn cultivators so far discussed. jUANGS

The region inhabited by Juangs used to lie within the borders of the former princely State of Keonjhar, and this has now been constituted at the Keonjhar District of Orissa, with the result that the Juangs enjoy no longer the same freedom from interference which the previous ruler allowed them. The J uangs are in many respects the most primitive of the Munda-speaking populations. The first account of this tribe dates from 1856 when E. A. Samuells published a note in the journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1 in which he referred to the Juangs as Puttoos, i.e. "people of the leaves", a name recurring frequently in the relevant literature, such as in Vivian Meik's book People of the Leaves (1931). According to Samuells ''their sole covering consists of two large bundles of leaves (or rather twigs with the leaves attached) of which one was worn in front and the other behind.'' Meik found them wearing leaves and nothing else as recently as 1931, but in part of the picture he painted of thejuangs their primitiveness seems to be somewhat exaggerated. For he described them as "living from day to day on the fruit which they gathered from the forest ... and on the roots which they grubbed up either with their hands or with pieces of flint, like men of the Stone Age." This description does not tally with the account of Verrier Elwin, who observed the Juangs in the 1940s and describes in detail their system of slashE. A. Samuells, "Notes on a Forest Race called Puttoos or Juang",]. As. Soc. Bengal, 1856, Vol. 25, pp. 295-303.

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and-burn cultivation. But primitive the Juangs undoubtedly were and Dalton, writing in 1915, too was impressed by the simpleness of their material possessions. Thus he mentions that "their huts were amongst the smallest that human beings ever deliberately constructed as dwellings.'' According to Elwin the Juangs practised a type of slash-and-burn cultivation using both an iron hoe, with the blade inserted into a thickened handle, and a digging stick. Unlike the Baigas, who sowed the seed directly into the ashes of the burnt jungle, the Juangs dug up the soil either with hoes or with a plough, which they drove across the clearing almost as if it was a hoe. They cultivated for two years on one plot and observed a cycle of rotation of about ten years. The beginning of slashand-burn cultivation figures prominently in the mythology ofthejuangs. One myth contains the following passage: "Long ago when the first eleven brothers went to cut their clearings, they divided up the jungle, and each made a mark on a tree to show that the jungle round the tree was his. Dharam Deo then made each of these divisions into a pat (clan)." Elwin stated that "the Juangs are divided into the usual bewildering variety of septs into which it is difficult to bring any ordered scheme. Every village list reveals a somewhat different list .... The Juangs are divided on a basis of village rather than sept exogamy. The septs are linked to places and are patrilineal. There are some septs which stand in a brother relationship and cannot intermarry, while others provide each other traditionally with brides. This assessment is confirmed by Charles McDougal, whose article "The Social Structure of the Hill J uang: A Precis" (Man in India, Vol. 43, 1963) is the most recent systematic account ofjuang society. According to McDougal "the Juang are divided into named, exogamous clans based on agnatic descent. A clan or clan segment forms the core of each village which consists of ( 1) a local group composed of a co-residential aggregation of males of at least three generations together with their unmarried sisters and daughters, and (2) inmarrying female spouses." The village is the critical unit of Juangs society. The largest corporate group and the only land-owning unit, it controls access to all resources by its members and regulates the annual cycle of subsistence activities. In relation to one another villages are economically self-sufficient, ritually self-contained and politically autonomous. Yet, being exogamous, they are dependent on other groups for the acquisition of spouses. Relations between villages are of two types: (1) those of clanship and extended clanship, precluding intermarriage, and (2) those of marriage exchange.

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The kinship structure of the village is a replica of that of the extended family, for ideally a village community is an agnatic descent group. But interpersonal relations based on agnatic kinship do not congeal into an effective system of authority between members of adjacent generations. Ties of clanship with other villages are not a focus for strong cooperative relations. The most important bonds between different villages are those of intermarriage, although these relations are subject to considerable strain. The J uang marriage system is based on classificatory sister-exchange; each village maintains more or less continuous marriage alliances with a small number of local units. Affinal bonds, rather than those of consanguinity dominate interpersonal relations between members of intermarrying communities, yet there is little regular cooperation on the basis of their relations. With a few exceptions corporate activities are monopolized by males. The men's house (darbar) with its associated shrine, is the symbol of village unity. This imposing building stands in the centre of the village to one side of an open space used as a dancing ground. The darbar serves as a dormitory for the unmarried youth as well as an assembly hall for the elders. The unmarried boys and girls are organized for the discharge of regular duties to the community, which they perform under the supervision of a young family head elected by them, who acts as an intermediary between their group and the council of family heads. They are collectively responsible to the latter body for the acts of omission of any member of their group. Punishment inflicted on a group involves temporary loss of privilege and payment of compensation to the community. Dancing visits and other types of formal courtship between the unmarried boys and girls of intermarrying villages are of a highly stereotyped and competitive nature. Marriage by 'capture', the most frequent form of marriage, is associated with dancing visits. Each age-group of either village has a fixed role in the wedding ceremonial. The family is the primary unit of economic production, distribution and consumption, but the village is also an important economic unit. Thus the village regularly cultivates a communal field and uses the produce for its common fund. A series of annual ceremonies serves to regulate and coordinate the seasonal cycle of economic production and distribu tion. Persons from other villages attend the ceremonies and participate in the festivities, which include dancing, singing and drinking. These, together with weddings, are the occasions when most communication takes place between persons belonging to different communities. Because relations of agnatic kinship are not a strong focus for solidarity, there must be some alternative integrative mechanism at the village

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level and this is provided by the men's house, symbolizing village unity and the grouping of persons associated with it. Different social tasks are allocated to the various age-groups. All important activities are organized and regulated in terms of the age system. There is provision for socializing the unmarried boys and girls for participation in collective activities directed towards common goals. They not only dance at weddings and festivals, but may also be called to work on the fields of a villager who is in need of help. In the past villages used to be of one clan only, and hence sexual relations between boys and girls of the same village were not permitted. But boys could visit the girls' dormitories (dhangari basa) of neighbouring villages, and where there are nowadays more than one clan in a village, boys may go to the girls' dormitory of their own village, but may make sexual advances only to the girls of clans into which they are allowed to marry. Marriage is usually adult and may be by capture or by arrangement. Betrothals may be initiated by the young people themselves, or there may be negotiations and the payment of a bride-price. Polygamy is rare and is mildly disapproved. The religious ideas and practices of the Juangs are far more complex than those of such tribes as Konda Reddis, Kolams and Kamars, but some are similar to those of the Baigas, and the resemblance to the religion of other Munda-speaking tribes is even closer. For like the latter, the Juangs believe in a high god known as Dharam Deo, who is often identified with the sun. Dharam Deo is never represented by images, and there are no shrines dedicated to his cult. There are some myths which attribute to Dharam Deo the creation of the world, but such ideas may be due to Hindu influence. There is an elaborate cult of the Village Mother, who is often identified with Mother earth. Other deities are associated with hills and rivers, and the gods of the forest clearings have to be propitiated with offerings in order to obtain good crops. Several deified tribal heroes are invoked on many occasions with requests for their help. Priests, seers and diviners comparable to the Baiga magicians are employed for the curing of disease and also to avert misfortune. Some of them are credited with the power and skill to counteract witchcraft and to control the forces of evil which are a continuous threat to mankind unless suitably held in check. SLASH-AND-BURN CULTIVATORS OF NORTH-EAST INDIA

In contrast to Peninsular India where slash-and-burn cultivators are today a small minority even among the tribal populations, the highlands

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of North East India, and in particular territories such as Arunachal Pradesh and N agaland, comprise still vast areas within which shifting cultivation remains the predominant, and in some regions the only practicable type of agriculture. These areas represent the northernmost part of a huge expanse of wooded hill-country extending over Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, where slash-and-burn was, and partly still is, the most wide-spread method of tillage. Arunachal Pradesh is inhabited by Tibeto-Burman speaking tribes of Mongoloid race, such as Nishis, Miris, Adis and Mishmis. All these tribes practise slash-and-burn cultivation as their principal form of tillage, even though some of them live in close proximity of growers of rice on irrigated terrace fields. Their failure to adopt this type of cultivation in more than a few isolated cases is not altogether surprising, for wherever land is plentiful slash-and-burn cultivation can support a very adequate standard of living without requiring the same continuous effort which the tillage of permanently cultivated land demands. In North East India, with its ample rainfall, climatic conditions are far better for slashand-burn cultivation than in Middle India, where periods of drought often damage the crops, and there can be no doubt that the economic level of tribal communities such as Nishis and Nagas is far superior to that of Ko lams and Baigas. NrsHIS

Unlih many tribal populations first studied by anthropologists when the imposition of an extraneous administration already had brought about changes in their traditional economic and social life, the majority of the tribes of Arunacha Pradesh, the hill-country lying between Assam and Tibet, remained until the 1940s untouched by outsiders. Hence it was possible to observe their original way of life before it had altered under the pressure of outside political forces or even the cultural influence of advanced populations infiltrating into their habitat. Among the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh who were still in their pristine state when in 1944 anthropological investigations resulted in a preliminary survey of their economic and social condition 1 are the N ishis, also known as Daflas, a term coined by the plainsmen of Assam, which has the connotation "wild men" and is now superseded by the more appropriate term Nishi. Nishis and such closely related groups as the Hill Miris extend over the southern and western part of the Subansiri District, and merge in the 1 Cf. C. von Fiirer-Haimendorf, Ethnographic Notes on the Tribes of the Subansiri Region, Shillong 1947 .-Highlanders of Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi 1982.

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west with the Bangnis of the neighbouring Kameng District. Their numbers do not exceed 50.000, but this population is dispersed over a very large area, part of which consists of uncultivable mountains. Slashand-burn cultivation was the Nishis traditional mode of subsistence. They cleared the forest on hill-slopes lying at altitudes between 1000 and 6000 feet and there grew dry rice, several types of millet, maize, a variety of pulses and sweet potatoes. Iron hoes and digging-sticks were their principal agricultural implements, but in remote areas where iron was scarce bone-implements fashioned of the shoulder-blades of mithan were used like hoes to dig up the soil. Domestic animals included the mithan (bosfrontalis), ordinary cattle, goat and pig. Neither mithan nor other cattle were used for traction or for carrying, and none of the domestic animals were milked. The mithan was the main source of meat, and also served as currency for major payments such as bride-prices and ransoms. The Nishi system of land-tenure did not provide for individual rights to land. The inhabitants of a settlement were free to cultivate wherever they choose to clear the forest, and land could be neither sold nor bought. There was a great deal of mobility and in the absence of established rights to land by either individuals or village communities, families frequently moved from one locality to the other, either in search of better land or under the pressure of more powerful neighbours. Seen in the perspective of several succeeding generations Nishi society was in continual flux. There were settlements none of whose inhabitants had been born in the locality where they lived, as well as old established communities powerful enough to deny any newcomer access to the resources of the area they dominated. Yet, a Nishi settlement was in no way a corporate political or even social unit. The component parts were long-houses, each occupying a separate site at some distance from other houses, and comprising several families and housing a total of up to sixty men, women and children. A Nishi long-house was an autonomous unit, headed by the senior man, and independent of other lang-houses even if the inhabitants belonged to the same clan. Only the members of the same long-house had the duty to support each other in disputes with outside opponents, whereas even neighbouring households had no such obligation, and the families making up a settlement lacked any organization which would have enabled them to act as a community co-operating in the maintenance of law and order or in arrangements for feasts and rituals. There was no authority to protect individuals or impose sanctions on those flaunting tribal custom. An aggrieved party had no redress other than avenging the injury suffered by the use of force, and in order to do this kinsmen and allies had to be mobilized. Individual families sought to

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attain a measure of safety by concluding alliances with prominent men in other villages, and such alliances were based either on marriage relations or on formal friendship-pacts involving the exchange of valuables. Feuds and armed raids were common occurrences, and the object of a raid was not so much the killing of adversaries as the taking of prisoners who could then be held to ransom. There used to be a recognized procedure by which the kinsmen of a man or woman captured during a raid could arrange for the captive's release. This procedure necessitated the employment of a go-between who was to approach the captor and negotiate the amount to be paid as a ransom. In the case of a wealthy victim such ransom could include several mithan and valuable objects such as strings of semi-precious beads, bell-metal bowls and Tibetan bells. Once the ransom was paid and the victim released the opposing parties would sometimes conclude a formal peace-pact celebrated with the sacrifice of a mithan. In some cases of capture the victim's kinsmen could not raise the funds to provide the necessary ransom, and in such a case the captive would be kept in the captor's house as a slave, or would be sold to a remote village, from where he could not easily make his way to his home village even if he managed to escape. The children of slaves became members of their owner's clan, but with the status of dependants. In time they could gain their freedom, acquire property, build houses of their own, and even marry freeborn spouses. Hence there existed among the Nishis no permanent slave class such as formed part of the much more rigidly stratified society of their Apa Tani neighbours (See Chapter 3). According to tribal tradition all Nishis are descended from one mythical ancestor, and it is believed that his sons became the forefathers of three branches of the tribe, which are still elements in a kind of overall tribal genealogy. Each branch is divided into a number of phratries, which are exogamous units in turn subdivided into several named clans. There is no Nishi who does not have a place in that far-flung genealogical scheme. But though descent is traced through several generations there is no practical cohesion between the members of an exogamous clan. Indeed in the not so distant past there were several cases of members of the same clan raiding and even killing each other. Formal marriages were usually preceded by lengthy negotiations, for marriages were vital links in the system of alliances. Large bride-prices were paid for the daughters of men of good status, and such brides were in turn provided with substantial dowries in valuables, ornaments and textiles. Polygyny was common and many wealthy men married up to six or seven wives, mainly in order to build up an extensive circle of affinal kinsmen on whose support they could count in disputes. A man's wives

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were inherited by his sons with the exception of their own mother, and there was a disguised form of polyandry in the sense that adult sons could anticipate their right to take over their father's young wives by occasionally sleeping with them even during their father's life-time. Under all other circumstances adultery was severely punished, but not in the case of a woman's sexual relations with a son or younger brother of her aged husband. Success in war as well as in the marriage market not only increased a man's prestige, but secured him also benefits in the life beyond. For Nishis believe that on the road to the Land of the Dead the departed must pass a gate-keeper, and give him an account of their doings in their earthly life. Those who have killed or captured many enemies, married many wives and acquired much wealth are commended for such deeds and the guardian of the underworld treats them with greater consideration than the meek and humble who have no such achievements to their credit. Like other tribes of North East India the Nishis distinguish between natural death and death caused by violence or accident. The latter type of death is inauspicious, and the soul of a man killed in war or drowned in a river goes to a region different from the underworld where the majority of the departed dwell. This abode of the victims of violence or accident is believed to lie in the sky among the clouds. Though less desirable than the subterranean Land of the Dead, where the departed live in much the same style as in their previous life, the celestial sphere is neither a place of bliss nor of suffering. The Nishis imagine the invisible world as peopled by a number of deities and spirits capable of intervening in human affairs, though in general indifferent to the moral behaviour of men and women. Priests and shamans can establish contact with these supernatural beings, and it is they who are employed to discover whether an illness or other affliction is caused by the action of a deity, a spirit or a disgruntled ancestor, and what offerings or sacrifices are required to counteract such harmful influence. While the sacrifice of a fowl may placate an ancestor or minor spirit, a large pig or even a mithan may have to be slaughtered to calm the wrath of a powerful god. Deities are invoked also to bear witness to the conclusion of formal peace-pacts or to watch over the truthfulness of a solemn oath. For in the absence of human authorities to control the conduct of men, Nishis appeal to supernatural beings to act as monitors and guardians of the doings of men and women. Since in the 1950s and 1960s the Government of India established a regular administration over the greater part of the region inhabited by Nishis, the feuds and raids, which had created insecurity and fear, have been largely suppressed, and the lawless state of previous years has given

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way to an atmosphere of tranquillity. Now people can move freely from village to village without risking to be kidnapped, and trade with neighbouring tribes and with the plains of Assam has given the economy a new impetus. Disputes are settled without the resort to force and in some areas Nishis have developed a judicial system which rests on councils of elders drawn from several villages. Whereas previously the release of captured persons and the payment of ransoms was negotiated between the two concerned families with the help of go-betweens but without any involvement of the society at large, the new councils are in the nature of courts of law and decide cases on the basis of traditional tribal customs. In a few groups of villages rules for the guidance of such councils have even been laid down in writing, and thus a situation of chaotic lawlessness has been transformed into a system of local administration of justice operated largely by the tribesmen themselves, though under the overall supervision of government officials. KoNYAK NAGAS

We have seen that the slash-and-burn cultivators of the Deccan and Middle India have neither settlements of enduring stability nor permanent rights to land remaining generation after generation in the possession of individual families. Shifting cultivation was there traditionally associated with frequent changes of settlement sites. Even the villages of Nishis, with their impressive and solid long-houses used to lack permanency as long as raids and feuding between small groups forced weaker communities to yield to the pressure of warlike neighbours, and there was enough virgin land to accommodate communities ousted from their previous homesteads. Slash-and-burn cultivation was there paralleled by the periodical shifting of domicile, and the whole society was as much in flux as its agricultural base. In view of this situation prevailing in geographically widely separated regions, one might well conclude that shifting cultivation is always linked with an unstable settlement pattern. Yet there is sufficient evidence which demonstrates the untenability of such a hypothesis. At no great distance from the Nishi slash-and-burn cultivators, though separated from them by the wide Brahmaputra valley, there are the Konyak Nagas, who like the Nishis depend for their food supply entirely onjhuming, as shifting cultivation is called throughout Assam and the surrounding highlands. Yet Konyaks live in large compact villages established on sites which bear the marks of ancient habitation and are likely to have been occupied for several generations. But Konyak Nagas never practised permanent cultivation and remained ignorant of the plough even when they

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began trading with the plains people of Assam. Slash-and-burn agriculture of the classical type is their traditional means of subsistence, and we shall see that this is by no means incompatible with life in large and permanent villages. Nor is shifting cultivation necessarily associated with a system of communal ownership of land. Like the Nishis the Konyaks are of Mongoloid racial stock, and speak a Tibeto-Burman language. The peculiarity of this language, which still awaits an intensive study by linguists, is the fact that unlike other Naga languages it has tones and that many words are mono-syllabic. In their social structure too there are features not shared with their N aga neighbours, though they are found among the nearby Wanchus of the Tirap District of Arunachal Pradesh. Indeed W anchus can justly be regarded as close kinsmen of the Kon yaks, and both Kon yaks and Wanchus differ from other Nagas in many features of their appearance. Men as well as women wear only a minimum of clothes, and men dispense occasionally even with that minimum, while not long ago adolescent girls of some villages could be seen with no other attire than a single string worn round their hips. Even the skirts of adult women, woven from barkfibres, were only a few inches broad and often left one hip uncovered. Hence the Konyaks were often referred to as the Naked Nagas, a description which no longer applies to those in contact with the outside world. The habitat of the Konyaks is the extreme northeastern corner of Nagaland, wedged in between the plains of Assam and the Burmese border, and adjoining to the north the Tirap District of Arunachal Pradesh. Narrow valleys cutting deep into the hills are filled with dense evergreen forest, but these valleys are uninhabited and uncultivated, for Konyak villages lie on ridges above 4000 feet, and cultivation is on the slopes at altitudes between 3000 and 5000 feet. At the time when most Konyak villages were founded and built high up on the top of ranges, spurs and saddles strategic considerations were uppermost in the settlers' minds. For then head-hunting was rife and every village had to be a defendable fortress, surrounded with wooden palisades spiked with sharpened bamboo staves. The houses of a village, between 50 and 250 in numbers stood-and in most villages still stand-in compact clusters and streets, and at each entrance to the village there was a large men's house (morung). Such men's houses were imposing buildings, up to 90 feet in length and 40 feet broad, with a large open porch where enormous boards, 3-4 feet wide and 2 feet high, provided convenient benches. At the back of the building were compartments where boys and unmarried men slept. Elaborate carvings of men and animals on the main posts and cross beams were characteristic features of Konyak men's houses. Many were so well con-

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structed that the main posts lasted for more than a generation, but it was customary to rebuild a men's house every twenty years. Either in the porch or in a separate gong-house, stood a large xylophone often inaccurately described as log-drum, which on ceremonial occasions was beaten with wooden mallets. It also served to convey messages, such as the death of a villager or the capture of a head, to neighbouring settlements, the sound carrying over distances of several miles. The men's houses were focal points of the social structure of a village. Each was the ritual centre of an exogamous ward consisting of between twenty and sixty houses, and such wards were virtually political units within the village. It was not unusual for one ward to engage in a feud with a neighbouring village while the other wards kept aloof. In each ward there was a girls' dormitory, which boys of other men's houses, but not of the morung of the same ward, could visit at night to play and gossip with the girls. Every ward comprised a number of patrilineal named clans, and these were in turn ramified into lineages. The smallest social unit was the household, but augmented occasionally by a widowed parent or sister of either spouse, or by the orphaned children of a close kinsman. Across the vertical divisions of Konyak society into villages, wards, clans and households, ran a horizontal division into classes of unequal social status. Chiefs, commoners, and an intermediate class formed the elements of this hierarchic order, but the role and respective strength of these status groups differed from village to village. There were two types of villages, known as Thenkoh and Thendu, and their inhabitants differed not only in the main lines of their social order, but even in superficial aspects, such as dress, ornaments and tatoo. In Thenkoh villages the people of chiefly class enjoyed few privileges, whereas in most Thendu villages there were autocratic rulers, whose kinsmen dominated the social and political life of the community. The village constituted the framework within which all other social units operated and interacted. It was a territorial unit claiming an exclusive right to a clearly delimited tract of land, and in the case of a powerful village also exercising overlordship over a wider territory settled by tributary villages. A village ruled by an autocratic chief invariably faced the outside world as a united community, but in villages of the Thenkoh category the members of the individual men's houses often acted independently, and there was little solidarity in matters concerning relations with the inhabitants of other villages. In most Thenkoh villages there was a council consisting of representatives of the wards, which adjudicated disputes and punished offenders guilty of breaches of taboos or acts damaging the interests of the com-

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munity as a whole. The fines imposed on offenders consisted usually of pigs and rice, and were shared between the members of the council. In private disputes the party harmed by the culprit derived no benefit from any penalty imposed by the council. In ritual affairs, more than in others, the village acted as a unit, and it was the responsibility of the council to fix the dates for communal agricultural rites. Though most villages appeared to be autonomous units, there existed networks of alliance and patronage linking several villages. In the days of head-hunting and unrestricted warfare small villages sought the protection of powerful neighbours to whom they paid an annual tribute in return for support in feuds. The members of a ward co-operated in numerous social, economic and ceremonial activities, and the corporateness of a ward found expression in the joint ownership of a common estate consisting of such tangible properties as the morung-building and land belonging to the ward, as well as of a body of rights, such as the right to dance certain dances, sing specific choral songs, and to kill and eat a specified number of pigs of tributary villages. morung-land was jointly cultivated by the members of the morung, and the yield was used for feasts and rites celebrated in the morung. Otherwise the Konyak system of land-tenure was firmly based on the principle of private ownership, and in this respect it contrasted sharply with the communal ownership of land so characteristic of the majority of Indian shifting cultivators. The territory over which a Konyak village exercised political control, defending it if necessary against encroachment by hostile neighbours, comprised of virgin forest, cultivable land, partly under crops and partly overgrown by secondary jungle, and wasteland unsuitable for economic use. Within the large area of cultivable land extending over many hill-slopes all round the village, individual households had property rights over specific plots with recognized boundaries. Such holdings were usually scattered over the entire cultivable area, and this had its good reason. For every few years the villagers agree to take a compact sectors of the land surrounding the village under cultivation, and it was desirable that within such a tract each family should own land sufficient for its needs. There the owners felled the jungle which had grown up since the previous period of cultivation, and in the following year the villagers decided to take an adjoining tract under cultivation, and this was utilized concurrently with that tilled the previous year. The result of this system of rotation was that each plot was cultivated over a period of two years and then lay fallow for several years. The period of fallow used to be between ten to fifteen years, but with the rise in population and progressing deforestation this period has been shortened and in many villages it is now only seven to eight years, and hence not long enough for the adequate recuperation of the forest.

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After the secondary jungle had been cut, trees and undergrowth were left to dry for several weeks, and then set on fire. The burning of the forest did not complete the preparation of the fields, however, for before sowing could begin, all charred wood had to be collected and disposed of, and the soil cleaned and superficially dug over. At this time the cultivators built field-huts in which they could take shelter from rain and the heat of the sun. The sowing of the rice had to be formally initiated by a man of the lineage of the cillage founder. He first sacrified a fowl to Gawang, the sky-god, and addressed to him a prayer for good crops. He then took seed of all the six varieties of rice grown by Konyaks and sowed them in a specially prepared patch of his own field. Only after this ritual sowing was completed could the other cillagers begin broadcasting their rice. This was done exclusively by men, but women working in a line behind the sower covered the seed with earth. Taro was planted by women who used digging sticks to make holes in which to place the tubers. All field had to be weeded several times, and this was done largely by gangs of young boys and girls, who worked in rotation on the fields of their respective parents. For the harvest of the rice too groups of families combined and reaped their fields in turn, the greater part of the work being done by young people op both sexes. Wealthy men with large holdings often hired gangs of boys and girls for harvesting their fields, and such gangs were paid in grain. The rice was thrashed on the fields where it had been grown, and then carried in baslets to the granaries which stood on the outskirts of the village. It was not unusual for the granaries of affluent men to contain a store of rice from the harvest of several years. While groups of villagers, often linked by kinship-ties co-operated in agricultural activities on a reciprocal basis, the clans, though important elements of social structure, played no role in the cultivation of land. A Konyak clan was a named patrilineal and exogamous descent group whose members considered themselves consanguinous kin. The unity of the clan expressed itself in the fact that at sacrifices one clan elder functioned for all clan members. Each clan still remembered the site on which the founding ancestor had first built his house, and on this site stood the house which the clan members regarded as their ancestral home and ritual centre. It was assumed that from that house all the remaining houses of the clan had been founded, and whoever lived in the ancestral house was considered the head of the clan, and the owners of all other houses gave him a share of all animals sacrificed at domestic rites. This distribution of shares of meat was symbolic of a corporateness which involved a high degree of joint responsibility of all members of a lineage

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with an ancestral house. The occupant of this house was responsible for the debts, fines and other obligations of all the households which directly or indirectly had branched off from the ancestral house, and they in turn stood security for obligations incurred by the owner of the ancestral house. An essential characteristic of the clan was its function as the basic exogamous unit. Sexual intercourse between clan members was considered a crime and traditionally punished by banishment. But as long as the rules of ward- and clan-exogamy were observed, no one interfered with the love affairs of young people, and it was generally accepted that a girl would have sexual relations before marriage. Virginity was neither valued nor expected of a young girl. The love-making of the unmarried involved no obligations on either side, but if two young people had been lovers for some time they began to consider marriage, and it was usually the boy who took the initiative in proposing. He then asked an older man of his clan to act as a go-between and obtain the consent of the girl's parents. Occasionally betrothals were arranged by the parents when the boy and the girl were still immature, for since marriage involved the establishment of economic ties between the two families, wealthy people had an interest in finding for their children spouses of equally affluent background. Cross-cousins were considered suitable mates, and a man could marry either his mother's brother's or his father's sister's daughter. Early marriages arranged by parents for their immature sons and daughters could easily be dissolved, and it was rare for a marriage to last if there was no affection between the spouses. The husband was recognized as the head of the family and the owner of the marital home, for the house stood on a site belonging to his clan, and his clansmen had helped in its construction. But in most practical matters women were the equals of men, and in the absence of her husband a woman acted as head of the house. Men of commoner status could have only one wife at a time, though they were free to remarry after divorcing the first wife. But polygamy was permitted and fairly common among men of chiefly status, and some of the powerful chiefs of Thendu villages had a great number of wives though usually only one who was the daughter of a ruling chief of another village, and hence of a rank equal to that of her husband. Only the sons of such a wife could succeed their father as chief of the village. Apart from the co-operation between spouses living under one roof, there were also obligations involving the kinsmen of both partners. The exchange of gifts at the time of the wedding rites inaugurated a series of reciprocal services and presentations which extended over the whole span of married life. Thus a man received at every spring festival presents of

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meat, rice and rice-beer from the nearest agnatic kinsmen of his wife, and the obligation to deliver these ceremonial gifts passed from father to son. Thus a man whose father had died had to make such gifts to the husbands of all his sisters. In return he received gifts from his brothers-in-law, but the value of such presents given in exchange was usually smaller than that of the initial gift. On the death of a wife the bereaved husband had to give one field to her nearest male kinsman. If there were children he continued to receive ceremonial gifts from his deceased wife's relatives. Konyaks had very clear ideas about the fate that awaited them after death. At the funeral the corpse was exposed on a bamboo platform, usually erected close to the house of mourning, and a warriors' weapons and ornaments were attached to this platform. It was believed that the "soul" (yaha) to which a large portion of the individual's personality adhered, set out on a lengthy journey to Yimbu, the Land of the Dead. The gate of Yimbu was supposed to be guarded by a powerful spirit who questioned the yaha before allowing it to enter. Life in Yimbu was imagined as similar to life on earth. The departed cultivated the land, celebrated annual feasts, married and had children. Those who had been married on earth lived in the Land of the Dead with original spouses, even if they had contracted second marriages. There was a strong belief that everything on this earth had a counterpart in the netherworld. While at death a yaha went to Yimbu, another part of the personality remained attached to the skull and was capable of benefiting the living in various ways. This soul-matter was entirely distinct from the yaha, and the belief in it was demonstrated by the practice of feeding the skulls both of kinsmen and of slain enemies. The assumption that powerful magical forces adhered to the human skull and could be manipulated was one of the motives for the practice of head-hunting among Konyaks and other Naga tribes. The taking of heads, which were stored in large numbers in men's houses and the houses of chiefs, was generally believed to benefit the fertility and prosperity of the entire village community in addition to increasing the prestige of successful warriors. Head-hunting was suppressed when the whole of Nagaland came under Indian administration in 1947, but isolated cases occurred as late as the 1960s. The Kon yaks' view of supernatural forces resembles the religious ideas of most other Tibeto-Burman speaking tribes of North East India in the sense that Konyaks see their environment as populated by innumerable spirits, partly friendly and partly hostile to man, but controllable by the performance of the appropriate rites. Yet, Konyak ideology differs from that of most other tribes by their belief in one supreme deity, known as Gawang, which means literally "Earth-Sky". Gawang is imagined as

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dwelling in the sky and of having existed before all other beings and things. It was he who created the firmament and it is he who causes thunder and lightning. The most characteristic and in the context of tribal religions most unusual aspect of Gawang is his role as guardian of the moral order. For unlike most other deities he is believed to care for the moral conduct of men, and to punish those guilty of mideeds, such as adultery or the failure to abide by the terms of an oath. Occasionally ordinary men can see the spirits of the woods or rivers, but only men endowed with special gifts can see Gawang in dreams or visions. A characteristic feature of the Kon yaks not paralleled by other N aga tribes such as Aos or Angamis, is their extreme linguistic fragmentation. Small groups of village communities speak distinct dialects, which are mutually unintelligible, and so minute are these linguistic units that in a single day one can walk on foot through three different language zones. Closely related to the Konyaks are their immediate northern neighbours known as Wanchu. There is very little difference between the Thendu Konyaks and the Wanchus of the Tirap District. Indeed Konyaks and Wanchus would probably be regarded as a single tribe if their respective habitats did not lie in two different administrative units, namely Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Wanchu villages resemble Konyak villages in every respect, and so do the dress and ornaments of the two populations. Their systems of land tenure and cultivations are also virtually identical. Whereas in the Konyak dialects the chiefs are called Ang or Wang, the Wanchus refer to the hereditary chiefs as Wangham and to the commoners as Wangpen. The Wangham class consists exclusively of those members of a ruling chiefs lineage who are the issue of marriages between W angham men and women from other villages of similar status, for a marriage within the chiefly lineage of the same village would be in breach of the rule of clan exogamy. W angham men can marry secondary wives of commoner class, and the issue from such unions constitute the Wan gs a or small chiefly class. Girls of W angham status were never married to commoners, but if no suitable husband of equal status could be found, they were given in marriage to Wangsa men. The most striking difference between the chiefly classes, whether Wangham of Wangsa, and the commoners lies in the appearance of their women. Those of the former wear their hair long, whereas all commoner women, even those married to a paramount chief have their heads shaved or closely cropped. The only parallel to this custom is found among some low status clans of the Thendu Konyaks, and surprisingly among the women of the Bondo tribe of the Orissa highlands.

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Distinct from the Tibeto-Burman speaking tribes of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland is another branch of the same language family known as the Bodo group. Unlike Nishis and Konyak Nagas the people of that group have for long been in touch with advanced civilizations, and the most populous tribe, the Kacharis, created a powerful kingdom extending over a large part of the lower Brahmaputra valley, which was for long subject to such strong Hindu influences that about A.D. 1790 the royal house of Kachar formally embraced Brahmanism. Among the southern Bodo tribes are plains-dwellers as well as hill-people living in a style resembling in some aspects that of the Nishis and other highlanders of Arunachal Pradesh. The Bodo group which has preserved most archaic cultural elements and is known as Garos inhabits mountainous country adjoining the habitat of the Mon-Khmer speaking Khasis. Today the greater part of the Garo Hills is included in the state of Meghalaya, where Garos and Khasis constitute the dominant ethnic groups. The total number of Garos is about 270,000, and some of them are settled in Tripura, West Bengal and Nagaland, but here we are concerned only with those in the Garo Hills, who have retained their traditional life-style. They dwell in villages of ten to sixty houses usually standing close together. The long and narrow houses are built of wood and bamboo, and are accompanied by granaries and pig-sties very much like those of the Nishis. Sacrificial altars and memorial posts for the dead stand near many houses. Slash-and-burn cultivation on hill-slopes was always the basis of Garo economy, and there is a well established system of land-rotation. On newly cleared land mixed crops are sown, but the next year the same land is used exclusively for the cultivation of rain-fed rice. The introduction of irrigated rice grown in the bottom of valleys is a relatively recent phenomenon encouraged by the government. There are no permanent individual ownership rights in hill-slopes. The land of a village known as a,king encompasses large mountain-slopes surrounding the village site, and these are subdivided into several sections which correspond to the rotation of slash-and-burn cultivation. Each area of the a 'king currently under cultivation is further split up into many small plots which at the time of clearing the forest are apportioned to individual families by the headman (nokma) acting in co-operation with the villagers. Coordination of agricultural activities is necessary at the time of burning the felled trees and brushwood, for since all plots are in close proximity, none could be set on fire without burning the dried vegetation on neighbouring plots. The burning has also to be jointly controlled to avoid

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any threat to the inflammable village-houses by flying sparks. After the firing the individual plots are demarcated and each family builds a small altar where sacrifices to the god of crops will be performed. The Garos are divided into several regional sub-groups distinguished by dialectical variations. Across these regional divisions extends a system of exogamous descent groups or phratries, three of which are large whereas two are of little significance. Within each of these phratries there are lineages tracing their origin to a common ancestress. Phratries as well as lineages are matrilineal, and succession in the female line dominates also the system of inheritance. As male dominance and patrilineal succession prevail among the overwhelmingly large majority of the Tibeto-Burman speaking tribes, the reversed position of the sexes among the Garos is a matter of considerable interest and justifies a detailed discussion of the situation. Garo boys, like those of the Konyaks, sleep in bachelors' houses, but there are no corresponding girls' dormitories. Nevertheless there are many opportunties for the young people of both sexes to meet and premarital love-affairs are common and hardly disapproved of. Such affairs may serve as a prelude to marriage, and it is the girl, or at her request her parents who propose marriage. Girls are on the whole more eager to get married than young men, and some men manage to delay marriage until their late twenties. Among the Abend Garos a youth chosen by a girl is expected to resist the proposal and to hide in the forest. The prospective bride's kinsmen have then to search for him, and ultimately bring him back to the village. Only if he escapes and goes again into hiding is it accepted that he is really determined not to marry the girl in question. Yet a young woman thus spurned need not necessarily resign herself, but may at night enter the young man's house and lie down at his side. Such an initiative may induce him to agree to the marriage, but during that night the couple should refrain from sexual intercourse. Among some groups of Garos the bride serves before the wedding for a month or longer in the house of the groom's parents, and this custom is a mirror image of the well known marriage by service so common among patrilineal peoples. As soon as a Garo marriage has been formally concluded the man moves into his wife's parental home, and any children born to the young couple belong to the mother's lineage. The parents of girls designate one of them, though usually not the eldest, as their 'heiress', and her husband, known as nokrom, will take over his father-in-law's position in the village when the latter dies or becomes incapacitated. The father of a girl chosen as 'heiress' tries to arrange a marriage of his daughter to a son of one of his sisters, provided there is such a boy of the

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right age and acceptable to the girl. This kind of cross-cousin marriage is considered the ideal union, because it keeps the property within a narrow circle of kinsfolk. The link binding two lineages by repeated cross-cousin marriages is known as a'kim. The wife's house into which a nokrom moves is at the same time the house of his mother's brother. Hence the residence pattern of the Garo marriage is not only uxorilocal but also avunculocal. If an heiress marries a man from a lineage other than that of her father it implies a cutting of the matrilineal line of her father's lineage, and in such an event compensation has to be paid to the people of the father's lineage. While the husband acts as the head of the household, the wife is the owner of the house and the inherited wealth, and in her is vested the right to cultivate a part of the land associated with her lineage. Every child is affiliated to its mother's group, and though the biological role of the father is recognized and the same word is used for seed and semen no aspect of a child's body, soul or social affiliation is attributed to the father. This is an attitude in stark contrast to the belief so widespread among Tibetan-speaking populations that a person's "bones" are inherited from his father whereas the "blood and soft fleshy parts" are derived from his mother. Inheritance does not involve the formal transfer of goods, but an heiress and her husband, who becomes the successor of his father-in-law, simply remain in her parental house and continue to use the family's possessions. Hence there is no division of property at death. In addition to objects, live-stock and standing crops, social status is also inherited by the heiress and her spouse (nokrom), who becomes automatically heir and successor. His new position is reflected in the change of terms of address: the husbands of his wife's sisters call him henceforth 'father-in-law' and he addresses them as 'son-in-law' because he has stepped into his fatherin-law's shoes in every respect, and his relationship to these men is no longer that of wife's sister's husband. When the father of an heiress dies, her husband (nokrom) is expected to marry her mother, because the ownership of the property of the household (nok) is still retained by the nokrom 'smother-in-law and not by his wife, and will remain so as long as she is alive. Therefore in order to succeed to his late father-in-law's position, the nokrom most marry his widowed mother-in-law in addition to his young wife. When the male head of a house dies before his heiress daughter has married, the man chosen as the heiress's husband will marry both mother and daughter at the same time, and mother and daughter thus become co-wives, and if the mother lost her first husband while she was still young both mother and daughter may have children from the same husband.

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In the event ofa wife's early death her kinsmen are expected to provide the widower with a replacement wife, and they discharge this obligation by searching for such a substitute among the younger women of their lineage. If a young widow has to be remarried any young member of her late husband's lineage is a potential candidate and he may be captured and more or less forcibly married like any other bridegroom. The principle of matrilineal descent determines also the succession to a position known as nokma, usually translated 'headman', though this term is not very appropriate. Certain privileges, largely of symbolic nature are vested in individual lineages, and senior men of such a lineage assume the symbols and obligations of nokma-ship. The most important privilege of a nokma is the possession of titles to land. Such a title confers prestige but very little else, for the titleholder has no exclusive right to the use of the land which anybody else may cultivate without paying him rent. Such titles, which are status symbols, can be converted into heirlooms, however, and are thus a form of wealth without producing any yield. Nokma moreover are entitled to keep a sacred drum as a symbol of office, and this is used at certain ritual functions. Every nokma must be the occupant of a house of great genealogical depth, from which many other houses have sprung. He is thus considered the representative of the most senior lineage within a village or part of a village. Among his customary obligations are the performance of sacrificial rites and the recitation of incantations believed to ensure the vigour of the crops and the general prosperity of the community. There may be more than one nokma in a village, and if there are they perform major sacrificial rites in rotation. The position of nokma, though invariably held by a man, cannot be passed on from father to son, or from elder brother to younger brother, nor can a nokma appoint his successor. He can be succeeded only by the husband of his daughter or of another girl of his household. For the dignity is vested in the matriline and the responsibilities of the nokma can be discharged only by a man who has married into that line. Like all Tibeto-Burman speaking hill-tribes of North East India the Garos believe in supernatural forces, but their ideas of spirits and gods are rather vague, and there are no outstanding figures among the divinities who affect the well-being of men and women. The absence of professional priests or shamans may be one of the reasons for the Garos' blurred picture of the denizens of the supernatural sphere. There is, however, the firm belief that sacrifices can influence gods and spirits, and avert the visitations of malignant forces. Two gods, Saljong and Rabuga, are concerned with the growth of crops, but strangely enough there is no cult of an earth-mother, such as is frequently found among shifting cultivators.

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There is no belief that a man's conduct in this life affects his fate after death. Spirits and gods are not concerned with human morality, and neither punish immoral behaviour nor reward the virtuous. Indeed ideas of good and evil seem to be as vague as the Garos' picture of supernatural beings. A man's destiny after death depends largely on the circumstances of his death. Those who died in accidents or by violence are thought to have difficulties in reaching the Land of the Dead. The road to that land is guarded by an ogre called Nawang, who has to be propitiated with gifts. The belief in such a guardian of the underworld is common among tribes of North East India, but many tribes have more precise ideas about the shape and function of such a figure. Equally vague is the Garos' belief that a person's soul can be born again into this world, or that it may be transferred from one human being to the other soon after death. The three main sources of ethnographic information of the Garos are: A. Playfair, The Garos, London 1909; Robbin Burling, Rengsanggri. Family and Kinship in a Garo Village, Philadelphia 1963; and Chie Nakane, Garo and Khasis. A comparative study in matrilinial systems. Paris/The Hague 1967. It is remarkable that despite the time-gap of 54 years between the accounts of Playfair and Burling discrepancies are minor, and this seems to suggest that Garo society is basically conservative, and that despite superficial changes in living conditions the traditional social structure has been maintained. Of course there have been changes in some spheres of Garo culture. Head-hunting which in Playfair's time was still well remembered, though no longer practised, is now a thing of the past and only a few of Burling's older informants were able to describe the tactics of head-hunters and the rites performed after a successful raid. The conversion of many Garos to Christianity has eroded many traditional beliefs, though old and new concepts persist sometimes side by side. BIBLIOGRAPHY PENINSULAR INDIA

Bose, Nirmal Kumar, Marriage and Kinship among the Juangs, Man in India, Vol. 8, 1928, pp. 232-242. - - , Juang Associations, Man in India, Vol. 9, 1929, pp. 47-53. Crooke, William, The Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India, London 1896. - - , The Hill Tribes of the Central Indian Hills,Journal of the anthropological Institute, Vol. 28, 1899, pp. 220-248. Dube, S. C., The Kamar, Lucknow 1951. Elwin, Verrier, The Baiga, London 1939. - - , Notes on the Juang, Man in India, Vol. 26, 1945, pp. 1-146. Forsyth, J., The Highlands of Central India, London 1871. Fiirer-Haimendorf, C. von, The Reddis of the Bison Hills, London 1945. - - , Tribal Populations of Hyderabad: Yesterday and Today. Census of India 1941, Vol. 21, Hyderabad 1945.

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- - , The Cult of Ayak among the Kolams of Hyderabad. Wiener Beitrage zur Kultur-geschichte und Linguistik, Vol. 9, 1952-53, pp. 108-23. - - , Ethnographic Notes on some Communities of the Wynad. Eastern Anthropologist, Vol. 6, 1952-53, pp. 18-36. Gnanambal, K., The Funeral Customs of the U rali. Bulletin ~!the Department of Anthropology. Government of India. Vol, 4, No. 1, 1955, pp. 29-40. - - , The Religious Beliefs of the U rali. Bulletin ef the Department of Anthropology. Government of India. Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 97-110. Hira, Lal, Baiga. Man in India, Vol. 4, 1924, pp. 273-276. Hislop, Stephen, Papers Relating to the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces. Edited by R. C. Temple, Nagpur, 1866. Iyer, L. K. Anantha Krishna, The Mala Arayans or Kanikkars of the Travancore Forests, Man in India, Vol. 2, 1922, pp. 55-61. McDougal, Charles, The Social Structure of the HillJuang, Man in India, vol. 43, 1963, pp. 183-190. Nair, C. Gopalan, Wynad: Its People and Traditions, Madras 1911. Patnaik, Nityananda, Caste in Formation among theJuang ofOrissa, Man m India, Vol. 44, 1964, pp. 22-30. Raghavan, M. D., .Jain Kurumbers: An Account of their life and Habits. Afan in India, Vol. 9, 1929, pp. 54-65. Roy, Sarat Chandra, The Birhors, a Little-known jungle Tribe of Chota Nagpur, Ranchi 1925. - - , The Hill Bhuryas of Orissa, Ranchi 1935. Russell, R. V. and Hira Lal, Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces, London 1916. Samuells, E. A., Notes on a Forest Race called Puttooas or Juang. jounal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. 25, 1856, pp. 295-303. NORTH-EAST I:>!DIA

Alemchiba, M., The Arts and Crafts of Nagaland, Kohima 1968. Allen, B. C., The Khasi &jaintia Hills, the Garo Hills and the Lushai Hills, Allahabad 1906. (Assam District Gazetteers X). Bose, .J. K., The Garo Law of Inheritance. Anthropological Papers, Calcutta University, New Series VI, l'J.11, pp. 81-150. Bower, U. Graham, The Hidden Land, London 1953. Burling, Robbins, Rengsanggri. Family and Kinship in a Garo Village. Philadelphia 1963. Dalton, F. T. , Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal. Calcutta 1915. Elwin, Verrier, A Plzilsophyfor NEFA, Shillong 1957. - - , Myths of the North-East Frontier of India, Shillong 1958. - - , The Art of the North-East Frontier of India, Shilling 1959. Furer-Haimendorf, C. von The Naked Nagas, London 1939. - - , The Morung System of the Konyak Nagas, journal Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 69, 1938, pp. 349-378. - - , Ethnographic Notes on the Tribes of the Subansiri Region. Shillong 194 7. - - , Himalayan Barbary, London 1955. - - , The Konyak Nagas: An Indian Frontier Tribe. New York 1969. - - , Return to the Naked Nagas. London/Delhi 1976. Hodson, T. C., The Garo and Khasi marriage system contrasted, J.fan in India, Vol. i, 1921, pp. 106-127. Hutton, J. 1-1., The Serna Naga.1, London 1921. Mills, .J. P., The Ao Nagas, London 1926. Nakani, Chie, Garo and Khasis. A comparative study of matriltnea! systems. Paris/The Hague 1967. Playfair, A., The Caras. London 1909. Shukla, B. K., The Daflas ef the Subansiri Region, Shillong 1959. Sinha, Tarunchandra, The Psyche of the Garos. Anthropological Survey of Indian Memoir, No. 12, Calcutta 1966. Stonor, C.R., Notes on Religion and Ritual among the Dafla Tribe, Anthropos, Vol. 52, 1957. pp. 1-23.

CHAPTER THREE

FARMERS OF PERMANENT HOLDINGS The permanency of settlements and land-holdings cultivated by the same owners year after year marks a stage in the development of human civilization fundamentally different from the less static economy and lifestyle of shifting cultivators, who lack a lasting tie to specific habitation sites and productive holdings. While some slash-and-burn cultivators, such as the Konyak Nagas, also live in permanent villages, such instances are exceptions and as a rule long-term land-tenure is associated with stable settlements and the resultant constancy of social structure. In some parts of the Indian subcontinent we encounter the unusual phenomenon of relatively volatile shifting cultivators and settled farmers coexisting within closely adjoining territories. Such is the situation in the Subansiri District of Arunachal Pradesh where inmidst a vast tangle of rugged hills, sparsely populated by unsettled communities of slash-andburn cultivators until recently embroiled in interminable bloody feuds there is one island of stability and advanced agricultural civilization. The unstable tribesmen surrounding this island of settled farmers are the Nishis described on pages 52-56, and the compact population concentrated in the one valley providing fertile land and the resources of water essential for a complex system of irrigation is the Apa Tani tribe.

APA TANIS

Their Mongoloid physical features and Tibeto-Burman language distinguish the Apa Tanis only marginally from their tribal neighbours, but life-style and social practices differ greatly from those of the Nishis and such tribes al Miris and Adis. These differences may be due to an entirely distinct history, but the origin of the Apa Tanis is shrouded in mystery, and there are no archaeological finds which might help to elucidate the position. As in the case of other preliterate societies, legendary accounts of their migration to their present habitat do not entirely coincide. Yet, the various stories all agree that even before the Apa Tanis reached the valley in which they are now settled they formed a society with a common ethnic identity. It is also generally believed that they came from a land vaguely located in the north. The various myths also agree that the Apa Tanis arrived in three batches, and this early division still persists in certain groupings of villages and clans. There are tradi-

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tionally seven Apa Tani villages, each occupying a site close to the rim of the valley. An Apa Tani village is built on high ground which rises above the level of the flooded rice-fields. The entire area of this raised ground is occupied by hundreds of dwelling houses built on wooden piles but constructed mainly of bamboo. Space has always been limited in Apa Tani villages, and the houses stand wall to wall in streets and narrow lanes. Here and there a street broadens to form a small piazza in the centre of which there is an open assembly platform known as lapang. Such platforms made of heavy wooden planks, are used for the performance of rituals and for public gatherings, and their function resembles thus the role of the men's houses (morung) of some of the Naga tribes. While most dwelling houses are concentrated in the centre of the village site, clusters of granaries, also built on piles, stand on the outskirts where they are relatively safe from the spread of fires, the greatest danger to Apa Tani houses. Adjoining the village site there are groves of bamboo, carefully fenced-in kitchen gardens, and groups of high pines and fruit trees. Narrow paths lead from the village to the irrigated rice-fields. These extend in uninterrupted succession as far as the centre of the valley where they adjoin the rice-fields of neighbouring villages. The hill-slopes surrounding the central valley are covered with plantations of pines and other useful trees in carefully tended plots, which belong to individual families. Only much higher up, at least 1500 feet above the floor of the valley, begins the untended forest with its rank growth of enormous rhododendrons, the many trees of the sub-tropical rain-forest and a multitude of climbers, tree ferns and orchids. Seen from any vantage point on these high ranges, the Apa Tani valley appears as an oasis of human order among sparsely populated ranges stretching into the far distance. While the remoteness and isolation of the Apa Tani valley from the outside world had allowed the inhabitants to persist for generations in an unchanging life-style, the extension of the Government of India's administration over the greater part of Arunachal Pradesh in the 1950s, and particularly the establishment of the headquarter of the Subansiri District at the southern end of the valley, have brought about many changes. A motorable road now links the valley with North Lakhimpur in Assam, and jeeps and cars can enter most Apa Tani villages. There have also been modifications in the house-style. While traditionally most houses were built on wooden piles about 8-10 feet high, the piles are now seldom more than 4-5 feet high. The roofing of houses has also changed. While the roofs used to be made of split and flattened bamboo covered with thatch of rice straw, nowadays most roofs are covered with thin planks,

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and many Apa Tanis use corrugated tin-sheets for the roofing of their granaries thereby protecting the stored grain from both fires and leaks. The natural population growth and the fact that since the establishment of peace between Apa Tanis and their Nishi neighbours residence inside compact settlements is no longer necessary for security, have resulted in the movement of many Apa Tanis to new settlements at some distance from the seven traditional village sites. While this mobility is an altogether novel phenomenon, there remain many aspects of Apa Tani culture which have hardly undergone any changes. Ever since the Apa Tanis established themselves in their present habitat rice-cultivation on irrigated terrace-fields has been the main basis of their economy. The methods of tillage were and still are archaic, and indeed of a type usually associated with a neolithic economy in so far as they depended entirely on human labour and made no use of animal traction or the plough. Every one of the streams rising on the wooded heights that ring the Apa Tani valley is utilized for irrigation purposes soon after it emerges from the forest and reaches a gully wide enough to accommodate a series of narrow terraces. As the valley broadens the terraces grow in size and the differences in level dwindle to as little as half a foot. The rainfall is so ample that the flooding of all the low lying terraces is no problem. The upkeep of the terrace fields, dams and channels has always absorbed a major part of the Apa Tanis' time and energy, for they are not content with merely maintaining an established system of terraces and channels, but seek to carry out improvements whenever the yield of a field has not come up to expectations. Flat wooden batons as well as iron hoes are used in the remodelling and repairing of dams and fields. All rice is first sown in nurseries close to the village which are kept under water throughout the year and regularly manured. Before the sowing the soil is puddled into a thick paste in which the workers sink in up to their knees. The seed is broadcast dry as it comes from the granaries. Transplanting begins in the middle of April. Women and girls lift the seedlings from the nurseries, tie them into bundles and carry them in baskets to the fields where single seedlings are planted at intervals of about eight inches. The harvest of the early ripening varieties of rice begins in early August, while the main rice-harvest does not begin until October and may last until early November. Dry crops, such as millet and maize, do not rival rice in importance. They are grown on slightly raised ground above the rice-fields, and on the rolling land that leads up to the hillocks on the fringes of the valley. The principal dry crop is Eleusine coracana, which is greatly valued for the brewing of beer, and is also eaten in the form of a rough kind of bread.

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Maize is dibbled in gardens and is not transplanted. Other garden crops are beans, chillies, marrow, cucumbers, taro, ginger, potatoes and tomatoes. One of the characteristic features of the Apa Tanis' land-use, and one which sets them apart from all their immediate neighbours, is their careful husbandry of bamboo and timber resources. Groves of bamboo and pine occupy an appreciable part of every village, and no man can be considered economically independent if he does not possess at least one small bamboo grove. Pinus excelsa is also grown in groves, sometimes interspersed with bamboo. All land within the Apa Tanis' tribal territory can be divided into three categories: individually owned land, clan-land and common village land. In traditional Apa Tani society a man's prestige and influence depended mainly on the size of his land-holding, and it is only in recent years that other sources of wealth have come into being. In the value attached to land the Apa Tanis have always differed fundamentally from their Nishi neighbours who lacked the concept of privately owned land. The traditional system of Apa Tani agriculture rested on the willing co-operation of all members of the community. The most important institution for the organization of reciprocal assistance in agricultural work was the labour-gang (patang) composed of members of several households. From childhood onwards every Apa Tani boy or girl belonged to a patang and this association continued until marriage and sometimes even longer. In patang made up of members of different clans it happened quite often that working companions became lovers and even married when they grew up. An altogether novel element in the employment of agricultural labour is the payment of cash wages. A patang can now be hired on a cash basis calculated according to the numbers of its members and the time of the year. Cash wages for individual workers depend on the type of work and its urgency. Wealthy land-owners spend large sums on wages for agricultural labour. Despite changes in the organization oflabour Apa Tani agriculture has retained its main function of providing the people of the valley with the bulk of their food supply and in addition producing a surplus to be used for barter. Animal husbandry, on the other hand, has undergone considerable changes. In the traditional economic pattern the most important domestic animal was the mithan (bos frontalis) which resembles in many aspects the wild gaur (bos gaurus). Mithan have always been the supreme sacrificial animals required for slaughter on many ritual occasions, and they served also as a source of meat if large numbers of people had to be

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fed. These functions the mithan has retained, but its role as a medium of exchange, particularly for ceremonial payments and for purchases of land, has been eroded by the introduction of money. Pigs are traditionally favourite domestic animals, for pork is preferred to beef, and as sacrificial victims pigs are indispensable for many rites. Fowls are kept by all Apa Tanis for the sake of their eggs as well as their flesh. On the occasion of a single sacrificial rite one may count as many as a hundred egg-shells broken in the course of the ritual and hung up on a bamboo structure. Compared to the social system of all neighbouring tribes traditional Apa Tani society is characterized by a high degree of stability, and the basic social framework has so far remained intact. The stability of the Apa Tanis was no doubt reinforced by a strong tribal sentiment such as exists neither among Nishis nor other neighbours, by the consciousness of their 'separateness and pride in their institutions and customs, and a passionate attachment to their small homeland turned by incessant labour into a veritable garden. Unlike his Nishi neighbour, who at any moment could sever his connection with the settlement in which he had been born, the Apa Tani was tied to his valuable land and to the one valley where alone he could carry on the elaborate system of agriculture in which he was expert. Indeed most Apa Tanis ended their life as members of the village community of their birth. The cohesion of Apa Tani society was expressed in a system of ritual exchanges embracing all the seven villages of the valley. Each village comprises a number of quarters or wards inhabited by specific clans, i.e. patrilineal, named descent groups. The focal point and ritual centre of such a ward is a small isolated hut known as nago which serves as a kind of shrine where important rites are performed and in the past trophies of war, such as hands of slain foes, were kept until their disposal. Though only of a symbolic nature, the nago resembles in its function the Naga morung notwithstanding its minute size which distinguishes it from the large and imposing Naga men's houses. While two or more clans share one nago, most clans have yet another focal point of social activities in the shape of a large sitting platform, their lapang. The clan (halu) is a very real social unit whose members are bound to each other by definite obligations of mutual help. Apa Tani clans are patrilineal and in principle exogamous. Yet clans which have greatly increased in size evince a tendency to fission, and emerging lineages no longer able to trace in detail their common ancestry may split into two or more branches and cease to regard unions of members of different branches of the same clan as incestuous.

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Besides the vertical division of Apa Tani society into villages, wards, and clans there is horizontal division into two endogamous classes, known as guth and guchi, whose members may be described as patricians and commoners. The division between these two classes is considered unalterable, and so far neither wealth nor education and political success have enabled guchi to rise to the status of guth. According to Apa Tani tradition all guchi were originally the slaves of patricians, and until the 1960s when the government freed all slaves, there were still many slaves in Apa Tani villages. Some of them were Nishis, either captured in raids or more often purchased from those who had captured them. Their position was not very different from that of poor people living as bond servats in the houses of wealthy men to whom they were indebted. In the old days a slave's status depended to some extent on the manner in which he or she had been acquired. Many Apa Tanis of patrician class inherited a number of slaves, some of whom were members of families associated with their masters for generations. Such slaves bore their master's clan-name and were unaware of any other clan name by which their forefathers may have been known. Marriage across class-divisions was inadmissible, but no offence was caused if a young slave won the favours of a patrician girl even in the event of her becoming pregnant. In recent years the relations between patricians and commoners have undergone some changes. There is as yet no blurring of class-distinctions and patricians are conscious of their superior status, but some of the educated young men argue that Apa Tanis should strengthen tribal solidarity by encouraging social contacts across class lines, and should give up their prejudice against marriages between patricians and commoners. But so far such marriages cannot be concluded with full rites, and the couples concerned face some difficulties in the conduct of social relations involving kinsmen of both sides. In general Apa Tani society is characterized by a high degree of tolerance in the conduct of interpersonal relations. Great freedom is enjoyed by young Apa Tanis of both sexes, and this colours also their attitude to marriage. Boys and girls who were able to choose their partners for pre-marital love affairs tend to exercise a similar independence in the choice of those they wish to marry. Unlike their Nishi neighbours who use marriage for the forging of political alliances and derive economic advantages from the large bride-prices paid for their daughters, the Apa Tanis look upon marriage primarily as a means to provide for a life-long partnership of two congenial individuals. While polygamous marriages are not uncommon they occur almost exclusively among wealthy men, and monogamy is the usual form of marriage. Apart from informally

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concluded unions there are also negotiated alliances involving wedding ceremonies of extreme complexity in which kinsfolk of both partners cooperate in a variety of ways. Elaborate exchanges of gifts create permanent ties between the two families and these include obligations of mutual help. But unlike many other Iridian tribes the Apa Tanis have no system of preferred marriages favouring alliances within a narrow circle of related families. Indeed cross-cousin marriages are not permissible. Traditionally all inherited land should be passed on to a man's eldest son, but fathers are free to give self-acquired property to any of their sons, and as land often changes hands rich men have ample scope for providing also younger sons with adequate holdings. Immobile property is normally not inherited by women, but daughters may be given cattle and ornaments. The Apa Tani valley used to be an island of order and peace in a sea of stormy conflicts and upheavals. Though attacks of warlike Nishis inhabiting the surrounding highlands occasionally broke through the defences Apa Tani society had erected against external aggression, on the whole life in the valley was peaceful and Apa Tani men and women enjoyed a high degree of safety as long as they remained within the confines of their villages and cultivated land. Only those who went hunting or cutting wood in distant forests ran the risk of being kidnapped by hostile Nishis. There existed no centralized authority excercising control over the entire tribe, and even the affairs of a single village used to be managed in an informal manner by clan-representatives known as buliang who constituted a kind of village council. Their duties were those of arbiters rather than judges, and they usually did not take action to restrain offenders against tribal custom unless a dispute had become a public issue which concerned the community as a whole. While quarrels between Apa Tanis sometimes led to the capture of one of the opponents followed by the payment of a ransom there were still other means of fighting out a dispute. If an Apa Tani of good status and wealth thought his honour to be at stake, he resorted to a very different procedure to vindicate himself and humiliate his opponent. This procedure, known as lisudu, involved the ritual destruction of wealth, and recalled in this respect the potlatch rited of North-West American Indians. A man who challenged a co-villager to a lisudu started by killing one or several of his own mithan in front of his opponent's house, leaving the meat to be distributed to the latter's relatives. Sometimes he added to the holocaust certain valuables, such as Tibetan bells, which were smashed and thus rendered useless. If his opponent accepted the challenge he had to slaugther at least the same number of mithan and destroy property

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of equal value. The competition could go on until both parties were nearly ruined, but usually the village-councillors intervened and negotiated a settlement which saved the faces of both opponents. If a serious dispute involved members of two villages, and mediation was of no avail, the parties sometimes decided to stage a gambu sodu, an armed contest in which the supporters of both litigants turned out for an open fight. On the day fixed for the combat the men of both villages lined up and fought with long lances, bows and arrows, and sometimes even with swords. There were various rules and conventions governing the encounter, and there was no intention to inflict heavy losses on the opposing side. As soon as there were one or two serious casualties on either side the gambu was usually called off and both sides felt that honour had been satisfied. The respect of their fellow tribesmen has always been of great importance to Apa Tanis, and the fear of being shamed is a powerful incentive to conformity. There is on the other hand no sense of "sin" and no corresponding desire to acquire "merit" in a system of supernatural rewards. Neither do the Apa Tanis ascribe to their gods a general interest in the moral conduct of men. In their moral thinking and sentiments Apa Tanis remain always close to earth, and if they think of the fate that awaits them after death they think of it as a reflection of life on earth. Their idea of the world beyond is very similar to that of their Nishi neigbours as well as to the beliefs of several other Tibeto-Burman speaking tribes such as Nagas, Mizos and Adis. They believe that the souls (yalo) of all those who died a natural death go to an underworld which looks very much like the Apa Tani valley with villages and long rows of houses. Priests and shamans are credited with the ability to enter in their dreams or in trance this underworld and to establish contact with gods and spirits. There are no temples or shrines containing the images of gods and no special buildings where worshippers gather for the performance or rites. The open assembly platforms (lapang) are the venues for public rituals and a special corner in dwelling houses is used as the seat of the priest whenever a private rite is performed. There passes no day without one or another priest approaching gods and spirits on behalf of individuals who seek their help in a personal crisis, be it an illness or the appeasement of spirits after a fire. There are also feasts of merit the performance of which requires the service of priests with access to supernatural powers. Compared with many of the tribal populations of other parts of India the Apa Tanis have made surprisingly fast progress in the modernization of their economy and also in the acquisition of educational qualifications. In the past their trade was confined to barter with tribal neighbours but

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nowadays many Apa Tanis conduct a flourishing trade with the populations of the plains of Assam, and their adaptation to the Indian money economy has been so successful that numerous Apa Tanis have current accounts in the local branch of the State Bank of India. Many Apa Tanis have been to educational institutions outside Arunachal Pradesh and in 1980 the number of those holding university degrees exceeded already thirty. Apa Tanis are now serving in gazetted government posts and several Apa Tanis have been elected to the Legislative Assembly of Arunachal Pradesh. TANGKHULS

Within Arunachal Pradesh there are no close parallels to the Apa Tanis, whose economy, based on rice-cultivation on irrigated fields, differs fundamentally from the farming systems of all the shifting cultivators occupying the greater part of the territory. Nor are among the tribal populations inhabiting the hill-ranges which enclose the Assam valley many examples of comparable economies. Most of the Nagas, such as the Konyaks (see pp. 56-63), are slash-and-burn cultivators, and it is only among the Angamis and some Naga groups of Manipur that we find an economy dependent on wet rice cultivation. Of the Manipur Nagas the Tangkhuls of the highlands in the north eastern part of the state, and hence geographically not very distant from the Angami Nagas, provide the nearest parallels to the Apa Tanis. Like the latter Tangkhuls live in compact villages, but these are usually situated in elevated and hence easily defendable locations. In 1971 there were as many as 216 Tangkhul villages in the present Manipur East District, and the largest contain about 600 to 800 houses while the smallest settlements, generally offshoots of bigger villages, consist of only 10 to 30 households. Each village is divided into a number of wards (tang) containing either people of a single clan or more often members of two or three clans. Traditionally every Tangkhul village was an autonomous unit, having its own territory and its own socio-political organization. In the days of head-hunting and frequent inter-village feuds the first priority of the village organization was defence, and this meant that every able-bodied man had to be prepared and equipped to guard the village against external aggression. Internal order was also maintained by organized co-operation, and the punishment of law-breakers was the common concern of the entire village community. Unlike Apa Tani society with its division into patricians and commoners, Tangkhul society showed no signs of stratification. There was, however, an institution of village headmen who used to wield con-

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siderable authority and enjoyed a number of privileges. The position of headman was hereditary in the male line, the eldest son succeeding his father automatically unless he was disqualified by physical or mental disability. Theoretically the headman was the owner of the entire village territory, but this did not mean that he could utilize any part of the village-land for his personal benefit. His symbolic ownership may go back to the time when village headmen were usually the direct descendants of the village-founder, who had a traditional right to the land he had colonized, a situation prevailing also among the chiefs of the Serna Nagas. Until recent times a village headman could draw on the freely given labour of the villagers, who cultivated his land and built his house whenever it needed reconstruction. The headman (awunga) presided over the village-council (hangva) which consisted of representatives of all the clans of the village. Traditionally the head of every clan was a permanent member of the village council, but in practice he could nominate another suitable member to represent the clan on the council. Headman and clan-heads had not only administrative but also religious duties, such as the inauguration of festivals and the first sowing and reaping. While the actual rites were performed by the village- or clan-priest, headman and councillors had to make all the practical arrangements. The number of councillors depended on the size of the village, and very large clans could be allotted more than one seat on the council. The main function of the village council was to settle disputes and to punish villagers guilty of breaches of customary law. The council did not impose any taxes on the villagers, but collected fees from members if neighbouring villages who applied for permission to use part of the village-land for slash-and-burn cultivation. The council also collected contributions to any expenditure required for the performance of festivals and communal rites, and for the maintenance of water-tanks, foot-paths and bridges. In the administration of justice the headman played an important role, though he could not try any case without the assistance of councillors acting as a kind of jury. Most punishments of wrong-doers were in the shape of fines paid in kind, though in serious cases the culprits could also be sentenced to banishment from the village, a punishment usually imposed on murderers and on those guilty of violations of the rules of clanexogamy. A comparison of the Tangkhul traditional system of villagegovernment with that prevailing until recently among the Apa Tanis shows that although the latter had also the institution of clanrepresentatives, known as buliang, these lacked the institutionalized

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judicial powers vested in the Tanghkul councillors. And while among the Apa Tanis there were prominent and influential men of patrician class, none of them held a hereditary position of authority and power comparable to that of the Tangkhul headmen. Thus the Tangkhul may be regarded as having reached a stage in the development of a political system which is more advanced than that of the Apa Tanis, who were in the habit of fighting out their disputes with co-villagers by the use of a limited amount of force, while the buliang did little more than trying to mediate between the litigants. The difference between the two political systems becomes even clearer if we compare the tenuous links between the individual Apa Tani villages with the firm framework of the tribal council known as Tangkhul long which embraces all the Tangkhul villages. Although the origin of this institution is not precisely known there is evidence that it existed already at the time when the British extended their influence over the Tangkhul country. It is believed that the Tangkhul long developed as an organization including a large number of prominent villages in response to the need to maintain peace among the member villages at a time when frequent raids and feuds continuously endangered the security of individuals and whole communities. If disputes between two villages could not be settled by the councils of the villages concerned, the matter was referred to the Tangkhul long or to one of the four range councils (long pha) on which a smaller number of villages were represented. In the event that these councils did not reach a decision acceptable to both parties the dispute was finally put to the test of a pre-arranged pitched battle, watched by the members of the range councils concerned. Such a battle was in the nature of an ordeal, for the Tangkhuls held the firm belief that in any such contest the party in the right would defeat the opponent side. A prearranged fight was called pharva or rairei, and all the able-bodied men of the villages involved were expected to take part. The two parties met at an appointed place, and in each camp there was eating, drinking and singing, and priests invoked their gods. If the parties were equally matched and neither gave in, there would be an agreed interval during which the warriors refreshed themselves, and neutral onlookers removed the wounded from the battlefield. Women with kinship ties in both camps, and known as phukhreila acted in this role, and it was unheard of that such a woman would be hurt or impeded in her charitable task. Usually such an arranged battle did not last long, and when it was over would be concluded with the defeated party paying a kind of tribute to the victors. These pre-arranged fights are a close parallel to the Apa Tanis' sodu gambu which served also as a last resort when a dispute between two

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villages defied solution by negotiations. The last sodu gambu was held in the 1960s, but the Tangkhuls' pharwa belongs definitely to the past even though the procedure is still well remembered. The cultivation of rice on irrigated terrace-fields is the Tangkhuls' main occupation wherever the environment lends itself to this type of agriculture, and slash-and-burn cultivation is in most areas only a subsidiary economic activity. As among the Apa Tanis numerous rituals and ceremonies are connected with the various phases of the agricultural cycle, and some of the festivities involve the slaughter of cattle and pigs, and the distribution of the meat according to an elaborate system of allocation to different kinsmen. The planting of rice must be started by the family of the village headman, and for the subsequent work labour-gangs of different age-groups are formed. These gangs work in rotation on the fields of their members, and the owners of the fields on which they transplant the seedlings provide them with a midday meal. While the formation and functioning of labour-gangs resemble in every detail the organization of Apa Tani patang, the dormitory system of the Tangkhuls has its nearest parallel among Konyak and Ao Nagas. Youth dormitories were a prominent feature of traditional Tangkhul villages, and it is only since the introduction of Christianity that they have lost their importance. The term long-shim covers both boys' and girls' dormitories, but the former are known as mayar long and the latter as ngala-long. The boys entered their dormitory at the age of about 12 to 13, while the girls were a few years younger when they started sleeping in their dormitory. No girl or woman was allowed even to enter the boys' dormitory, but boys were free to visit the girls in their dormitory, and there the young people amused themselves with singing and joking. Unlike youth dormitories among such tribes as the Murias of Bastar, those of the Tangkhuls were not places where young people indulged in sexual relations, for Tangkhul public opinion disapproved of premarital sex altogether, an attitude in sharp contrast to that of the Apa Tanis and possibly developed under the influence of Christianity. The Tangkhul long-shim was not only a dormitory and club for the young, but also a place of sacredness, in which any offender, even if belonging to another village, would find asylum. The kinship system of the Tangkhuls resembles that of most Naga tribes and matrilateral cross-cousin marriage is the preferred type of alliance. Ideally marriages were arranged by negotiation, but the young people could also take the initiative and cases of elopement could subsequently be regularized.

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With the conversion of up to 90% ofTangkhuls to Christianity and the introduction of an administrative system based on the general Indian system of local democracy, traditional Tangkhul civilization has virtually vanished, and it is only due to a Tangkhul engaged in anthropological research that the outlines of Tangkhul social structure and cultural identity could be recorded at a time when old men and women still remembered the past and could be induced to share their knowledge of the original life-style of their tribe. 1 GADABAS

The highlands of Orissa are the habitat of a number of tribal groups who undoubtedly represent very archaic elements within the population pattern of Peninsular India. Several of them have remained relatively untouched by modernizing influences, and their location in hill-regions only recently opened up by motorable roads has so far saved them from any massive infiltration of economically and politically advanced populations. In view of this situation it is not surprising that their traditional cultural life has retained a number of features familiar from other refuge areas of Indian tribal cultures. There are some striking parallels between these highland tribes and some of the hill-people of North East India, and though it would be premature to suggest any historical links between the two regions, the similarities are unmistakable for those with personal experience of both areas. The fact that such tribes as Gadabas, Bondos and Saoras speak Austroasiatic languages and languages of the same linguistic family, such as Khasi, are also old established in Meghalaya is only one of the factors which suggest the possibility of ancient connections between the highlands of North East India and those of Orissa. The Gadabas, a tribe of some 67 ,000 individuals are distributed over parts of the Koraput District, and fall into several groups slightly differing in appearance and customs. The following description relates mainly to the so-called Bodo-Gadabas, whose villages lie in several valleys in the vicinity of the Dudma Falls recently harnessed to the Hydro-Electric Machkund project. While the ethnographic information here presented was first gathered in 1941, a revisit to the same villages in 1981 served to establish the basic continuity of Gadaba culture over a period of 40 years. The Gadabas' traditional agricultural system comprised slash-andburn cultivation on hill-slopes as well as plough-cultivation on permanent dry fields and on irrigated terraces suitable for the growing of wet rice. 1 See Kashim Ruival, Socio-Political Institutions of the Tangkhul, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis of the University of Gauhati, 1982.

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Changes in the government's policy regarding forest conservancy, and particularly an extensive scheme for re-afforestation has made the abandonment of shifting cultivation inevitable and the Gadabas depend today mainly on the intensive cultivation of rice. Streams and rivulets are carefully utilized for the irrigation of terraces which partly occupy the broad beds of valleys and are partly carved out of the lower parts of hillslopes. Though the Gadabas' achievements in terracing and irrigation are modest compared to those of Angami N agas or Nepalese ricecultivators they are clearly expert in the cultivation of rice in mountainous country and their skill in this form of agriculture is hardly inferior to that of the Apa Tanis. The methods of the two tribes are by no means identical, for the Gadabas use ploughs drawn by bullocks and the Apa Tanis work their land exclusively with hoes. There is every reason to believe that the growing of irrigated rice is a fairly ancient element of Gadaba culture, even if the acquisition of the plough from more advanced neighbours may have been a late addition to the tribe's material equipment. The word for "irrigated rice field" is liyong in the dialects of both Gadabas and Bondos and in Munda it is loyong, and this suggests that the cultivation of wet rice must have been common to the peoples speaking Austroasiatic languages of the Munda branch before their dispersal over a wide region in Bihar and Orissa. Nowadays hunting and fishing contribute but sparsely to the Gadabas' food supply. Yet all men possess bow and arrows, and the annual hunt during the spring festival retains its character as an important tribal rite. This makes it probable that in earlier days hunting was an important economic activity. Until some thirty years ago the Gadabas were self-sufficient in the supply of their basic food, and also in the manufacture of their clothes. The women spun yarn from the bark-fibre of a deciduous shrub, coloured it with vegetable dyes, and used it for the weaving of cloth on stretch-looms of the "Indonesian" type. These cloths, which were woven with a pattern of broad red and blue stripes, were durable as well as aesthetically pleasing. Now Gadaba women have virtually given up spinning and weaving and buy machine-made cotton cloth, largely in plain and somewhat gaudy colours. Only a few old women occasionally wear clothes of the traditional type. Most Gadaba women have also abandoned the wearing of the large brass wire ear-rings and heavy metal necklets which were the characteristic tribal ornaments. Cheap trinkets obtainable in weekly bazaars have taken their place. Men too have replaced the loin-cloths woven by their women-folk by more modern garments tailored of machine-made textiles.

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Unlike many other hill-tribes of the Eastern Ghats, such as Konda Reddis, Konda Doras and the Munda-speaking Dires, the Gadabas dwell in permanent settlements which have occupied the same sites for countless generations. Their villages, lying in secluded valleys some 3000 feet above sea-level, consist usually of several compact clusters of houses, separated from each other by small gardens and a few open spaces. Today rectangular houses, built solidly of mud-walls are the preferred type, and many are attractively painted in yellow, blue or brown. An older type of house, which the Gadabas describe as their traditional dwelling, was a two-roomed building of peculiar shape, consisting of a rectangular room which gives on to a circular room with a conical roof. This type has become obsolete and can only rarely be seen, while in the 1940s it was still reasonably common. The principal units of Gadaba society are the village community, the phratry (bonso), and the exogamous clan (kuda). Marriages within the village and even within the bonso are tolerated, though they are infrequent. The population of every village consists of members of two or more phratries and each of these contains several clans. The phratries are named after animals such as tiger, snake and bear, while the individual clans have no links with animals. Descent in all these units is patrilineal, but the position of women is otherwise not inferior to that of men. A characteristic feature of the Gadabas' social life is the institution of boys' and girls' dormitories and the organization of the unmarried of both sexes under a common leader, a young man known as bise. Unlike tribes such as thejuangs and Murias, who build separate houses to serve as youth dormitories, the Gadabas no longer have houses built for this specific purpose, but they set aside parts of the houses of widowers or widows to accommodate small numbers of boys or girls. In the past special dormitory huts were made, and in the 1940s such huts were still seen by Verrier Elwin, who described them as "cosy little huts less than six feet high, made of grass and plastered over with mud. " 1 Under no circumstances do young people of different sexes sleep in the same dormitory and there is no indication thar such a practice was customary in the past. Yet a spirit of camaraderie between girls and boys is evident even to the casual observer and resembles the atmosphere prevailing among the young in tribal villages which have dormitories common to both sexes. Boys and girls instructed by the Bise play an important part on many ceremonial occasions. The youth leader is responsible for the arrangement of certain feasts and ceremonies, and he commandeers and controls the gangs of boys and girls which wealthy men sometimes hire 1

The Muria and their Ghotul, p. 309.

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for a day's work on their fields. Dances of girls and boys are a vital part of every festival and in its variety and excitement Gadaba dancing rivals that of the Murias of Bastar. The Gadabas are intensely individualistic and apart from the youth leader there were no indigenous dignitaries who controlled the social life of a village. The headmen, who represented the villagers in their dealings with the feudal lord, the Zamindar ofjeypore, had only nominal authority, and there exist no differences of rank or inherited status within a village community. Today the system of grass-root democracy expressed in elected panchayats has theoretically replaced the traditional methods of maintaining social harmony, but in practice little has changed and Gadaba villages continue to conduct their affairs with a minimum of outside interference. In contrast to many other tribal communities the Gadabas have succeeded in retaining most of their land and in warding off the influence of moneylenders and other commercial forces. The feature which lends Gadaba villages their unique character is the presence of megalithic structures, usually occupying a central space and often shaded by large banyan or tamarind trees. There horizontal stone slabs and boulders, one often piled on top of the other, form a raised platform with menhirs standing more or less haphazardly amidst flat stones used as seats. This array of stones called sodor varies in size and shape from village to village, but everywhere it serves as a general sitting-place where villagers and the occasional visitors assemble for rest and gossip, where children play and men do odd jobs. On formal occasions, such as a meeting of the village council, one particular stone seat is reserved for the headman, but others may seat themselves at random. In villages where low caste Doms, a caste of Harijans, have settled, these new-comers may not sit on the sodor, but squatting on the ground in front of the platform, they may listen to any of the discussions taking place. The inhabitants of every Gadaba village believe that their sodor has been in existence ever since their ancestors founded the settlement. But in many villages a few horizontal stones and menhirs have been added to the sodor within human memory, and the circumstances of their erection are well known. There are two occasions proper for the addition of stones: the memorial feasts (gotr mela) for departed members of the community, and the so called crab festival (ongon gotr) of the village youth. Most of the menhirs and larger stones have been set up in the course of memorial feasts, while the stones added at the crab festival are less conspicuous. Memorial feasts are performed for the benefit of the spirits of deceased kinsmen. In the eyes of the Gadabas death does not constitute a final separation from the world of the living, and the well-being of the spirits of

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the dead depends on the rites enacted by the living for their benefit, and in turn the dead are believed capable of influencing the fate of their relatives on this earth. Spirits are supposed to wander about restlessly, sometimes causing trouble. If a Gadaba becomes seriously ill he is likely to believe that the spirit of a dead kinsman has caused the affliction, because no gotr rite was held in its honour. Such memorial feasts are only within the reach of the rich, and necessitate the slaughter and disposal of a large number of buffaloes and oxen. A man planning such a feast must buy or raise a substantial number of buffaloes because for every deceased member of the family at least one buffalo must be given away for slaughter. It is usual to borrow animals from relatives and friends, and these have to be repaid. Along with the buffaloes the donor of a feast should also provide cattle and goats for slaughter and consumption at the meals which are to be served. Huge quantities of rice, salt, eggs and vegetables are required to feed the hundreds of kinsmen and guests assembling for a memorial feast. In the past the sacrifice of up to twenty buffaloes at one gotr feast was not unusual. During the ceremony the sacrificial buffaloes are decorated and fed with rice and other valued food. The buffaloes are believed to contain the spirits of the relatives in whose honour the feast is performed, and right up to the moment of sacrifice they are treated in a way normally reserved for honoured guests. Ultimately, however, they are killed by being torn to pieces by crowds of men armed with knives and battle-axes. On the final day of the feast two stone slabs are carried into the village in frameworks of bamboo or wooden poles, and these are added to the stone arrangements at the sodor. The Gadabas believe that the life-power of the deceased kinsman is bound to these stones, and that the power residing in the stone will benefit the deliberations of the people assembling on the sodor for meetings of the village-council. The essential factor in the gotr ceremony is the people's wish that the potentially dangerous spirits of the dead should be set at rest and thus disappear finally from the sphere of the living. Yet, while the dangerous element in the spirits is to be banished, the beneficial life-power of the ancestors is to be preserved and it is this element which is connected with the stones erected in memory of the dead. Megalithic monuments similar to those of the Gadabas are erected by several Munda-speaking tribes, and it would seem that they form part of a ritual complex widespread among the societies of South and Southeast Asia, and notably among the Nagas who combine the celebration of feasts of merit with the erection of menhirs.

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BoNnos The southern neighbours of the Gadabas are the Bondos, a tribe of some 5000 individuals inhabiting a block of hills which rise to a height of over 3000 feet between the plain of Malkanagiri and the Machkund River. Like the Gadabas the Bondos speak an Austroasiatic tongue, but the two languages are not mutually understandable. Both tribes are aware of a fundamental relationship, partake of each other's food and in rare cases even intermarry. Bondo women of nearby villages occasionally work as casual labourers on the fields of Gadabas. In spite of many divergencies in material possessions, social customs and religious beliefs, and a difference in appearance accentuated by dress and ornaments, there prevails among Gadabas and Bondos a similar cultural atmosphere. The Bon dos' system of phratries ( bonso), each bearing the name of an animal, and of numerous clans (kuda) is akin to that of the Gadabas, but marriage within bonso and kuda is permissible and the only strictly exogamous unit is the village. The office of village headman is generally hereditary in one family, but the villagers may depose a headman and elect one of his kinsmen. The dignity of village priest (sis a) too is held only by consent of the villagers, who may replace a sisa if his ritual performances prove ineffective. The Bondos live in villages perched on hill-tops or built on the slopes of upland valleys. The houses are low structures with mudwalls and wooden pillars supporting the grass-thatched roof, and with verandas where household chores are done and guests may rest. A Bondo village, which may comprise between 30 and 60 houses, is not only a political and social unit, but bears many features of a sacred entity. Its members are linked to each other by special ties, and only they can share the same sacrificial food. At times of ritual activities no stranger may enter the village and no householder may leave it. The sacramental unity means that sexual relations between men and women who partake of the same sacrificial food are equated with incest. For this reason the village communities are strictly exogamous. Every village is also a territorial entity. Not only the village itself, but also the surrounding valleys and hill-slopes are considered traditional village-land, even though many cultivated plots are in the hands of individual households and are passed from father to son. In the flat valley bottoms there are irrigated fields where rice is grown, but the bulk of the land is suitable only for dry crops, such as millet, maize and pulses. On the steeper slopes slash-and-burn cultivation is practised, but the shrinkage of forests has necessitated a shortening of the cycle of felling, burning and regeneration, and a growing population has had to resort to other types of agriculture, including ploughing, terracing and irrigation.

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As long as the Bondo hills were rich in game, hunting and trapping contributed substantially to the tribesmen's diet. But nowadays little game is left, for plainsmen have depleted the wildlife in nearby forests with obvious repercussions on the Bondos' traditional hunting grounds. Yet no male Bondo ever leaves his village without carrying bow and arrows. Indeed these weapons are virtually part of Bondo attire, which otherwise consists only of a narrow strip of cloth, usually woven of barkfibre yarn and tucked into a string belt. The dress of the women is unique in peninsular India though it resembles the fashion of one of the eastern Naga tribes. Bondo women normally wear nothing but a narrow strip of cloth round the hips, held up by a string belt in such a way that it covers the private parts and hangs in a loop at the back, low over the buttocks. The similarity of this skirt to that worn by Konyak Naga women is striking, and even the method of fastening is identical: the ends rarely meet and one thigh is often left bare. But while Konyak women weave their cloths with a pattern of horizontal stripes the Bondo women, using red bazaar wool to brighten the self-spun bark-fibre yarn, weave them with vertical stripes. The attire of all but the poorest women is completed by numerous strings of glass beads, sometimes entirely covering the breasts, and by solid metal necklets. The latter used to be made of brass moulded by local brassfounders, but nowadays they have been replaced by artistically less attractive necklets of white metal obtainable in the markets of the plains. Bondo women keep their heads clean-shaven from childhood until death, a practice unusual in India except among some low status clans of Konyak Nagas and Wanchus. The appearance of the men is less conspicuous. Adolescent youths wear their hair long, binding it with head-bands of palm leaves or twisted grass, but adult men crop their hair. Like several other Indian tribes the Bondos have youth dormitories where the girls of a village are visited by boys from other villages. The favourite time for these visits is the monsoon months, and the girls' dormitories, crowded with young people and warmed by a comfortable glow of fire are cheerful refuges on the wind-swept heights of the Bondo country. Most evenings are spent in song and games, but flirtation is also allowed. Though there may be some mild petting, sexual intercourse is not supposed to occur. One of the reasons for this restraint contrasting so strongly with the behaviour of the young people of many other tribes, is the fact that the boys are usually several years younger than the girls. Most older boys are already married, while the girls do not marry until they are fully grown. It is a strange phenomenon that the Bondo women have a predilection for boys many years their juniors. In every village one

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can see adult women with husbands hardly more than 11 or 12 years old, and the Bondos are emphatic in the assertion that the girls themselves have chosen these partners. It is said that women like marrying small boys in the expectation that then they will have young husbands to work for them when they are old. This attitude is understandable for women are burdened not only with the house-work and the carrying of water and fire-wood, but also with the hoeing of the soil, weeding and the reaping of crops. A characteristic feature of all Bondo villages are the built-up stonecircles (sindibor) used as sitting-platforms and general assembly places. Small villages may have only one, but in larger settlements there may be as many as five or six stone-circles. In shape these stone-circles differ considerably from the Gadaba sodor. They are usually built of rough rubble stones, the top covered with flat slabs; small slender slabs are sometimes set up at a slight angle so as to serve as back rests, while menhirs flank the entrance to the horse shoe-shaped circle. Many such structures have existed as long as anyone can remember but new ones are still being built. Once a year a major sacrificial rite is performed on the principal stonecircle of a village, and during this ceremony the village priest sacrifices a pig and sprinkles its blood on the stones and on a heap of seed grain, thereby increasing its fertility. Eggs are also offered and the priest invokes the earth-deity with the plea for divine protection for the village and all its inhabitants. Though the building of a new sindibor is today a rare occurrence, single stones are sometimes added even to stone-circles of great antiquity. The most suitable occasion for the erection of new stones is the rite in honour of the earth-deity. The Bondos also put up stone monuments in memory of deceased kinsmen, and the accompanying ceremonies involve a considerable expenditure and the sacrifice of at least one bull. On the outskirts of villages, generally not far from a path, one finds miniature dolmens consisting of a table-stone supported by two or three smaller stones, and these are memorials erected by wealthy men in honour of deceased relatives. Usually three years elapse between the funeral and the memorial feast when such a small dolmen is erected. The donor of the feast places millet beer and food in front of the monument and prays to the departed that he may come, eat and drink of the offerings and, in return, bless the crops and the cattle of the surviving kinsmen. If some of the food has disappeared by the next morning it is assumed that the spirit of the deceased has eaten it. Sometimes the donor will plant a jack-fruit or mango tree beside the dolmen 'so that the spirit of the deceased may come and sit in the shade of this tree.' While the erection of a miniature dolmen, known as gunom, is believed

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to benefit the deceased by providing his spirit with a comfortable seat, it also profits the living, who are assured of the favour and help of the spirit. The religion of the Bondos is dominated by the belief in a supreme deity called Singi-arke, i.e. literally "sun-moon", but often addressed in Oriya fashion as Maprohu. Singi-arke who is occasionally referred to as "father and mother" is worshipped only with prayers and not with sacrifices and offerings. In most villages there is a shrine where the village-mother is periodically propitiated, and various hill-deities usually residing in sacred groves are also given offerings. The Bondos have been able to maintain their traditional way of life mainly because of the inaccessibility of their habitat. A long and steep ascent from the plain of Malkanagiri is daunting for lowlanders unused to mountain paths, and a climate with low winter temperatures is a deterrent to any would-be settlers from the warm coastal areas of Orissa. DIRES (DmA YIS)

While the Bondos seem to represent the southernmost bastion of Austroasiatic language and culture in the Orissa highlands, there is in the hills to both sides of the Machkund river a small group of just over 2000 tribesmen who speak an Austroasiatic dialect closely related to the Bondo language. Certain superficial similarities between the customs of Bondos and Dires are probably due to the Bondos' influence on their more primitive neighbours. Though some of the Dires have taken to plough cultivation most of them resemble in settlement pattern and general lifestyle much more such slash-and-burn cultivators as Konda Reddis and Konda Doras who inhabit the hill-ranges to the south of the territory of the Dires. Yet, in many ways the Dires seem to have assimilated the social system and various customs of the Bondos. The main social units of a Dire village are totemistic phratries ( bonso) and clans (kuda). The bonso, which run through the entire tribe, are exogamous, and each bears the name of an animal such as tiger, cobra, bear, goat, tortoise and monkey. The members of a bonso believe in a vague relationship with their totem animal; members of the cobra bonso do not kill cobras and think that cobras will do them no harm. The kuda on the other hand are not necessarily exogamous, for branches of the same kuda may belong to different bonso and the two units of bondo and kuda can thus be compared to intersecting circles. Succession in all these units is in the male line and marriage is as a rule patrilocal. In most villages there is a special but inconspicuous building used as a boys' dormitory; the girls have no house of their own but sleep in threes and fours in the houses of widows or old couples. Neither boys nor girls are supposed to sleep in their parents' house once they have reached

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maturity. The eldest or the most intelligent of the unmarried boys acts as leader of the village youth, and it is he who organizes the young people when boys and unmarried girls work together in the fields of individual villagers. Girls from other villages come on visits, and then they are invited to the boys' dormitories where they sing and amuse themselves with the boys: in the winter the boys visit the girls of other villages and on such occasions the young people engage in singing competitions. Sexual intercourse between the unmarried meets with no social disapproval as long as it does not result in pregnancy. Marriages are sometimes arranged by the parents and sometimes by the young people. Bride-prices are substantial, but the custom compelling all villagers to corttribute towards the bride-price when any young man of the community marries lessens the burden a marriage imposes on the individual family. The Dires believe in a highest deity known under the Oriya name of Maprohu, but identified with the sun (singz}, whom the Dires salute in most prayers. Moreover they worship various hill-deities and in addition there is in every settlement a place marked with some small stones sacred to the village deity Hundi. The Dires differentiate between the shadow of a dead man and the soul. The former dwells at the place where the body was burnt, while the soul goes to its creator Maprohu in the sky. The Dires are an example of an ethnic group which seems to straddle two entirely different cultural spheres. In regard to the type of settlements, such as alternative village-sites inhabited in rotation and their agricultural methods, they conform to the pattern characteristic of all the Dravidian-speaking hill-people between the southern border of Orissa and the Godavari river, whereas linguistically and in many cultural features they clearly belong to the Austroasiatic sphere. But the fact that they speak an Austroasiatic language is by itself no unmistakable criterion of their original position, for we know how easily a small preliterate people can adopt or discard a language. MuRIA

GoNos

Whereas the highlands of Orissa and the adjoining regions of Bihar are one of the centres of tribal populations speaking Austroasiatic languages, the hill-country extending from the western border of Orissa towards the central zone of Peninsular India is the homeland of speakers of Dravidian tribal tongues which form part of another ancient language family. Among these the unwritten Gondi dialects are spoken by far greater numbers than any other tribal tongues. Some of the nearly five million Gonds, however, have abandoned their original tribal language and

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speak such major regional languages as Hindi or Telugu using them as their main means of communication even within family and village. Such a shift to another language has occurred among many Gond communities of Chhattisgarh, who now speak Chhattisgarhi Hindi, and among the majority of Koyas of Andhra Pradesh who have adopted Telugu. It would be reasonable to assume that the dividing line between Austroasiatic and Dravidian speakers coincides with a boundary between distinct cultural zones. In reality no such neat coincidents of cultural and linguistic divisions can be discerned, and some of the tribal populations of the Austroasiatic and the Dravidian linguistic regions share a great many cultural features, whereas within the Dravidian region and even among different sections of Gondi speakers there are major cultural divisions. This remarkable phenomenon emerges very clearly when we compare the Murias ofBastar, on the one hand with the Gadabas and Bondos of Orissa, and on the other hand with a Condi-speaking group such as the Raj Gonds of Andhra Pradesh. Surprisingly the Murias seem to have more in common with Gadabas than with Raj Gonds. The only explanation for this strange situation may perhaps be found in a common substratum shared by Murias and Gadabas but not by Raj Gonds. It must be admitted, however, that there is no concrete evidence for such an assumption. Like the Gadabas the Murias are mainly cultivators of wet rice on irrigated fields. In the same way as until a generation ago the Gadabas practised also slash-and-burn cultivation, the Murias followed the latter method of agriculture both on hill-slopes and on level ground. Today they have virtually given up this type of cultivation though it remains for the time being the very basis of the economy of their Hill Maria neighbours in the Abujhmar hills. The Murias depend now largely on permanent rice cultivation on irrigated fields. On level ground they embank their fields and irrigate them with the help of small channels wherever there are natural streams. Dry crops such as oilseeds, maize and vegetables are grown in carefully manured garden enclosures near the houses. Among fruit trees mango, tamarind, papaya and banana are the most common, but almost equally valued is mahua (bassia latifolia) whose corollae are gathered, dried and ultimately eaten, if they are not used for the distilling of country liquor. Hunting and trapping used to provide the Murias with much of their protein food, and ceremonial hunts before the greater festivals were as important as they still are among Gadabas and Bondos. But with the depletion of game caused by the infiltration of outsiders using fire-arms for hunting, the contribution of the chase to the food supply has greatly diminished. Traditionally hunting was almost a religious exercise, and

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the success or failure of a ceremonial hunt was believed to augur a good or a bad harvest. It is significant that these beliefs are paralleled among the Gadabas and Bondos, while there is no evidence that there ever existed a ritual hunt among the Raj Gonds. The sacred aspect of a major hunt is indicated by the fact that a Muria must observe chastity and fast before he goes out to hunt, and he must meticulously observe the prescribed taboos. Hunters must not walk across the footprints of a woman in her period nor should they cross her shadow. Adultery on the part of one of the hunters' wives also can ruin a hunt. The clan-system of the Gonds is characterized by certain features common to all tribes with minor variations. The division of society into a number of exogamous phratries is the most essential of these characteristics. The Murias are no exception, and in their case the numbers of phratries (vans) is five. But while the Raj Gond phratries, known to them as saga, are linked with numbers relating to divine ancestors (wen), no such numbers are attached to the Muria phratries. Each phratry, however, is named after an animal, i.e. cobra, tortoise, goat, tiger and fish. Of these totem-like animals only tiger and cobra occur in the same role among the Raj Gonds. Some of the clan-names are also shared by Murias and Raj Gonds. In the past each Muria clan was associated with a clan-area (bhum), where there was the sanctuary (pen-rawar) of the clan-god (anga), where the clan-members gathered for the principal clan-festivals, and where they erected menhirs in honour of their dead. The latter practice resembles the Kolams' custom of erecting wooden posts or stone-slabs near the shrine of their god Ayak (see pp. 40-44). Recent population movements have disrupted the system of clan-territories, and some Murias live now in bhum which really belong to clans other than their own. Yet, the more orthodox members of such clans still visit their original pen-rawar and erect there menhirs for their departed. Most clans have traditions regarding their origin and early history, and some of their taboos and clan-rules are based on events in their mythical past. This applies particularly to the rule not to eat or injure in any way the animal or plant regarded as the clan-totem. No Muria may marry a member of his own clan or of a clan standing to his clan in a brother-relationship. On the other hand the marriage of cross-cousins is the preferred type of union, and according to a survey undertaken by Verrier Elwin, out of 2000 marriages no fewer than 1799 were between cross-cousins. Elwin also pointed out that despite the great sexual freedom enjoyed by the unmarried 1884 out of 2000 boys married according to their parents' wishes. While the Murias' clan-system and clan-god cult play an important

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role in the organization of their social life, the institution which has lent the Murias their unique reputation is the youth-dormitory known as ghotul. Verrier Elwin's monumental work The Muria and their Ghotul (Bombay 1947) has placed this institution into the centre ·of anthropological interest, and although information on youth-dormitories of other Indian tribes, such as Nagas, Oraons, Juangs, Gadabas and Bondos has been available for some time, it was Elwin's detailed and vivid description of the functioning of the Muria ghotul which drew the attention not only of anthropologists, but also a fairly large section of the Indian educated public, to this example of a virtually autonomous society of children and adolescents, who run their own affairs and enjoy almost complete sexual freedom, secure from interference by adults. There are different types of ghotul buildings, but most ghotul stand in a fenced-in space either in the middle of the village or in a grove on the outskirts. There is generally a main building consisting of one or two large rooms. In addition there are verandas and often some open sheds. The walls of the main building are· usually plastered with mud and provide the space for drawings and decorations so typical of many ghotul. Pillars and crossbeams are usually carved with geometric or naturalistic designs, sometimes including representations of totem animals. The roof is invariably thatched and while the boys construct the walls and wooden frame, sometimes with the help of some older men, it is the task of the girls to collect the thatching grass and lend a hand in the task of thatching. There is no formal initiation or ceremony marking the entry of a boy or girl into the ghotul. Small children sometimes go to the dormitory to watch dances and games, but it is not until they are about eight years old that they begin to spend the night in the ghotul. The older children instruct them in their tasks, and ultimately introduce them to sexual play. When they grow older both boys and girls are given ghotul titles, and finally a boy may be chosen as leader (sirdar) and a girl as the corresponding headgirl ( belosa) in charge of the smaller girls. The boys of a ghotul are referred to as chelik and the girls as motiari, and apart from the titles sirdar and belosa for the two leaders there are several titles bestowed on boys and girls according to their seniority. With some of these titles go specific tasks to be performed by their holders. The choosing of the leaders is a serious matter, for they are responsible not only for the smooth internal working of the ghotul but also for the satisfactory accomplishment of various tasks concerning the functioning of village life, particularly on such occasions as weddings and funerals. There are two different systems of ghotul organization, and it is believed that one of them was the original type, whereas the other is a

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deviation from that pattern. In dormitories of both types boys and girls are allowed and indeed expected to have sexual intercourse, and it is only in the method of the selection of partners that the two systems differ. The fundamental principle of the first type of ghotul, sometimes called jodidar (''yoking'' ghotul) is that of fidelity to a single partner during the whole of the pre-marital period. In the second type of ghotul, which is today the more common, any kind of lasting attachment between a chelik and a motiari is discouraged, and those concerned may be disciplined by the ghotul leaders if they persist in monopolizing each other. In ghotul of that type chelik and motiari are supposed to change their partners periodically, for the principle is that every one should have the chance of access to everybody else. This rule is explained as a means of avoiding pregnancies, for the Murias believe that conception is only likely to occur when male and female remain together for a long period and enjoy an uninterrupted series of sexual acts with no divergence of interest. Statistics compiled by Elwin do not support this belief. The extent of ghotul promiscuity, moreover, must not be overestimated. The average ghotul is small with not more than twenty members, and of these several are bound to be of the same clan and hence excluded from the list of potential lovers. Even in a ghotul in which a boy has to change his partner every three days, he has to share his mat in rotation with members of quite a small group of girls, every one of whom he has known from childhood. A girl automatically leaves the ghotul when she marries and must never enter it again, but a boy retains his membership for some months after his wedding until he can afford to give a farewell feast. A comparison between the prospects for marital stability among the Murias and the Raj Gonds, reveals the somewhat unexpected phenomenon that the period of adolescent sexual permissiveness of the Murias is followed by stable marriages, seldom terminated by divorce. In contrast the Raj Gonds, among whom premarital love-affairs are rare exceptions, are known for the instability of their marriages, and the frequency of elopements and divorces. (Seep. 105-6). While Raj Gonds treat marital lapses with tolerance, Murias regard adultery as evil and dangerous, and on the whole Muria marriage is secure and not often marred by fear and jealousy. The percentage of divorce is particularly low (0.34%) in marriages between members of the same ghotul, while in marriages between members of different ghotul, which in practice means different villages, it is 2 .83 % . Even the latter figure is still low if compared to the frequency of the breakdown of Raj Gond marriages. In some Muria villages the ghotul has been abandoned, and this occurred mainly in areas where Hindu influence is strong, and there has

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been an infiltration of non-tribal settlers who disapprove of the institution and tend to ridicule the sexual permissiveness ofMuria adolescents. Such cases had happened already in the 1940s at the time of Elwin's observations, and in recent years they have multiplied. Quite apart from the negative attitude of Hindus and other non-tribals to the ghotul, the establishment of schools and above all of boarding schools has introduced a style of life and social values contradictory to those of Muria tradition. Yet in 1982 many ghotul were still fully functioning and some of them have even been enlarged and partly redecorated. A widespread decline of the ghotul institution would have a damaging effect on Muria culture in general, for the ghotul is not only a dormitory but is also the scene of many religious activities and in this respect plays a role similar to that of the men's house (darbar) of the Juangs and the morung of the Nagas. Muria religion is a blend of many different elements, some of which are found also in the religion of other Gond tribes, while others are peculiar, if not to the Murias alone, so certainly to most of the tribal communities of Bastar. Some of the Muria gods are clan-deities while others are of a more universal nature, such as the Earth-Mother and Bhagavan or Mahapuru, a supreme deity to whom the creation of the visible world and of mankind altogether is attributed. The Muria gods corresponding to the clan-gods (persa pen) of the Raj Gonds (see p. 103) are the anga pen whose seat is in the pen rawa, the ritual centre of the bhum or territory of the clan. In outward form the anga pen are unique among the tribal gods of India. An anga pen is symbolized by an arrangement of three parallel wooden poles over which cross pieces of bamboo or wood are tied. The central pole represents the actual god, the two side poles being simply intended to enable his bearers to raise him and carry him about. At the junctions of the logs and the cross-bars there are tufts of peacock feathers, and silver ornaments are nailed to the ends of the poles. An anga is kept in a special shrine apart from the other gods and is either suspended by ropes from the roof or placed on a bamboo support. The anga has a ''life-element'' (jiva) which is symbolized by a piece of iron, usually hung above its body. This may be a parallel to the sale or sacred spear point which is one of the symbols representing the Raj Gonds' clan-gods. An anga has often attendants in the form of wooden horses and these are taken out at clan-festivals, and the priests in a state of trance dance with them. An anga is honoured at the great clan-festivals held once a year in the pen-rawar, and may also be taken out to visit the shrines of related clan-gods, a practice which resembles the processions in which the

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Kolam god Ayak is taken out to visit other gods. The shrines housing the anga of the various clans are of different shape, but the following descrip-

tion of one of them given by Elwin conveys a general picture of such shrines: ''The temple is built with nine wooden pillars, fixed in place by the clan-priest who put iron slag at the bottom of each hole. The roof is thatched by no walls have been made. Inside the enclosure there are four stone seats and a line of pillars. The seats are for the convenience of such visiting deities as are represented by poles and flags and can be tied to the pillars. The stones also serve as seats for those gods who have a traditional or family right to come to the temple" (op. cit., pp. 196-197). The custom of enabling gods to visit each other is widespread among tribal populations of Middle India and reflects the belief that deities lead a social life similar to that of men. The priest who officiates at the shrine of the clan-god is known as pengaita. His office is hereditary within a family, and when he dies he is succeeded by his eldest son or by a brother. Another priest, known as bhumgaita, is the priest of the earth, and he offers sacrifices to the earth and keeps the village free from disease. Apart from the priests who perform the worship of gods as representatives of the community, there are seers through whom the gods make their will known to humans. Seers have the ability to fall into trance, and in that state they dance ecstatically, prophesize and on occasion diagnose disease. Muria religion has many aspects. It inspires the performance of elaborate festivals, which serve the worship of gods as well as the entertainment of men, it links deities and humans, and bridges the gap between the living and the dead by providing the ancestors with a cult and regular offerings. Morality is not closely linked with religious ideas, but some of the gods, such as Lingo Pen, to whom the establishment of the ghotul is attributed, are believed to have laid down rules for human conduct. RAJ GoNDS

Among the tribal populations of India there is none which rivals in numerical strength and historic importance the large group of tribes known as Gonds. Their habitat extends from the Vindhya Mountains at the northern edge of the Deccan to the region where the Godavari breaks through the Eastern Ghats. Substantial numbers ofGonds dwell today in Madhya Pradesh, Eastern Maharashtra and nothern Andhra Pradesh, while minor branches of the Gond people are found in Orissa and other

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neighbouring states. Less than half of the Conds speak their own tribal tongue which belongs to the so-called intermediate group of Dravidian languages. All Condi-speaking Conds refer to themselves as Koitur, but wherever Conds have adopted Indo-Aryan tongues they describe themselves as Cond. The total number of Conds exceeds four million but no precise figure is available because after 1961 the figures for individual tribes were no longer published in the decennial census reports. Spread over a number of different regions and often living in symbiosis with Hindu populations of varying linguistic and cultural backgrounds, the Conds do not form a homogeneous entity. They vary in levels of economic development as well as in cultural traditions, and there is no reason to believe that the regional differences observable today are a recent phenomenon. It is by no means unlikely that at the time when speakers of Dravidian languages established themselves in Middle India tribes of different cultural standards were caught up in a process by which a dynamic Condi-speaking people imparted its language and certain social features to a variety of aboriginal populations. Such a process may have been comparable to the Aryanization of tribal populations which occurred in more recent epochs and is still occurring. While such an explanation for the great cultural differences between such Condi-speaking tribes as Murias, Hill Marias and Raj Conds belongs to the realm of conjecture, we reach firmer ground with the Muslim chroniclers of the 14th century, who comment on campaigns and political developments in the territories described by them as Condwana. At the dawn of the 15th century several Cond dynasties were firmly established in regions now included within Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. In power and material status the Cond rajas of that time were equal to many Hindu princes, and they retained their independence until the second half of the 16th century when Mughal armies conquered their kingdoms. The following account of Raj Cond society and culture relates to an area which from A.D. 1803 until A.D. 1948 was part of Hyderabad State. This region is a hilly tract of land situated between the Codavari River and its tributaries the Penganga and Wardha rivers, and comprising several of the main landscape types of the Deccan: wide cultivated plains, rolling uplands where broad valleys chequered with fields, alternate with low wooded ridges, and finally the higher hills, rising in places to altitudes of over 2000 feet. Until the early part of the 20th century, when the government of Hyderabad State embarked on a policy of forest conservation, the Conds had a free run of the central highlands and were able to clear the forest and start cultivation wherever the land seemed

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suitable. As the population was sparse and large stretches of forest separated the cultivated areas, forest and cultivated land were well balanced. The situation changed, however, when in the 1930s and 1940s land hungry Hindu peasants from other areas infiltrated into the tribal area, and growing population pressure led to the alienation of much of the land which until then had been available for cultivation by Gonds. Agriculture and the raising of livestock have always been the basis of Gond economy, and in traditional Gond society there was no alternative to the work on the land. Myths and legends tell ofGond chiefs ploughing and herding cattle, and even today wealthy Gonds do not disdain the work of the ploughman. The tillage of the soil is intimately intermeshed with innumerable ritual observances, and the Gond does not think of agricultural work as a purely mechanical process, but relates it to many activities directed toward the gods and spirits without whose blessing the crops have little chance of prospering. Gonds are cultivators of dry land, and artificial irrigation such as is practised by their Telugu neighbours, is foreign to their tradition. Where water collects naturally in depressions and shallow valleys, rain-fed rice may be grown, but the staple crops are various millets, maize, wheat, pulses and oilseeds. Most important among the millets is sorghum vulgare, a coarse-grained plant growing to great heights and suitable as a rain crop as well as a dry-weather crop. There are some indications that the more remote ancestors of the Gonds of the Adilabad highlands had confined themselves to growing rain-crops in the light soil of the higher slopes and plateaux. When land was plentiful and the population sparse they could shift their fields frequently, and a single crop grown on well recuperated soil during the monsoon sufficed to cover their needs. Greater density of population led to the extension of cultivation to the heavy black soil of the valley bottoms. In this soil which has a much higher capacity for retaining moisture than the reddish soil of the hill-slopes millet, pulses and even wheat can be grown during the relatively dry months of the winter. It is also particularly suitable for the growing of cotton, which is now the Gonds' most important cash crop. There is no such thing as a typical Gond village. The houses may stand close together in streets and compact clusters, or they may be scattered widely in between kitchen gardens and fields. Some of the larger Gond villages consist of a number of hamlets forming jointly a unit which functions in ritual matters as one village. All dwelling houses, however, conform closely to one pattern. They are rectangular buildings about twice as long as broad, with low thatched roofs and windowless mud walls.

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Whatever its size a Gond house usually comprises a kitchen, a living room in which the family sleeps in cold weather and where women do such work as grinding and pounding grain, and a front verandah protected from the glare and from rain by low eaves. The verandah is the men's favourite place of rest and work during hot weather, and here most visitors are received. The floor of the house may be built up of stones and mud to a height of as much as two feet, or it may be almost level with the surrounding ground. The roof is supported by two forked posts and a ridge pole, while slanting wood and bamboo rafters carry the thatch, which is held in place by a light superstructure of bamboo. The walls, built independently of the roof and of no structural importance, consist of wattle-screens plastered with mud and cow-dung. Many houses have wooden door frames and a few have also wooden doors with iron lock and chain. Gond houses contain little in the way of furniture. There are usually one or two light cots with string webbing and several low wooden stools. Mats are used to sit and sleep on, but Gonds do not mind sitting on the floor. There are earthen and brass pots in the kitchen, and numerous baskets and implements in the living room, but many of the owner's possessions, all his valuables and often also his grain-store, are kept in the attic, accessible from the kitchen by a short portable bamboo ladder. Apart from the household and agricultural implements a Gond family's material possession include a limited number of cloths and often a few silver ornaments. The dress and ornaments of the Raj Gonds of Andhra Pradesh do not differ very much from those of Hindu cultivating castes. The men wear a loincloth of white cotton cloth and a white or coloured turban. In recent years shirts have become increasingly popular, and so general is their use that they can be said to form part of the tribal dress. Girls and women wear a cotton sari, which they tie firmly around the hips with one end drawn between the legs and tucked in at the back, while the other is thrown over the right shoulder, its fold covering the stomach and breasts. Bodices, such are in general use among the local Hindu women, are seldom worn by Gonds. Shoulders and the greater part of the back remain bare and are often adorned with an elaborate tattoo. The ornaments of both men and women consist mainly of silver and are bought from professional silversmiths who produce specifically for Gonds certain types of heavy jewelry, such as anklets, armlets, necklets and belts of small embossed plaque-links. The economy and material resources of the Raj Gonds are only marginally different from those of the more backward Hindu peasants of the Deccan. Their social system, on the other hand, follows a pattern

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diametrically opposed to the social order of all the non-tribal populations of Middle India. While the recognition of a hierarchy of caste groups is basic to the thinking of all Hindu populations the general outlook of the Gond is egalitarian. Even though there are still lineages of chieftains who used to exert secular power, there has never been a rigid horizontal division between several distinct status groups. The fundamental framework of Gond society presupposes the equality of all Gonds insofar as intermarriage and participation in rites and ceremonies are concerned. The Gond language contains no honorifics, and the poorest agricultural labourer addresses the members of a family of feudal chiefs in the same familiar terms which he uses when speaking to his own kinsmen. The idea of the equality of all Gonds is supported by a mythology which provides a consistent conceptualization of the social order, sanctions ritual and kinship ties, and allows the Gond to view his society as an integrated and self-sufficient whole. According to this mythology, which hereditary bards have preserved by oral tradition, all Gonds are descended from a single primordial ancestress, and the consciousness of this common origin account for the sense of solidarity prevailing among all sections of the tribe. While every Hindu caste sees itself as part of a complex society, consisting of a large number of mutually dependent but inherently different components, Gond society is ideally a universe of its own which could exist independently of other communities. Though appearing as a monolithic unit vis-a-vis the outside world, Gond society is elaborately structured, and no aspect of the social and ritual life of the Gonds is explicable without an understanding of this structure. Its basis is the division of the tribe into four exogamous patrilineal phratries known in Gondi as saga. Seen from the perspective of Gonds these saga are a social organism which functions by their continuous interaction in marriage relations and ritual undertakings. Tribal opinion unanimously regards Kalikankali as the ancestress of almost the entire Gond people. The myths tell how after conceiving in a miraculous way and without the intervention of a biological father, she gave birth to a large number of children, the divine ancestors of the Gonds. The primeval Gonds were imprisoned in a cave by the Hindu god Shri Shembu, but were ultimately liberated by the culture-hero Pahandi Kupar Lingal. When they emerged from the cave they appeared in four batches and this division laid the foundation for the basic structure of Gond society. For each of the four saga traces its origin to one of the four batches of divine ancestors. The saga have no names but are referred to as the descent groups of the "four", "five", "six" and "seven ancestors". These numbers of the original ancestors are reflected not only in the description of the phratry (saga) but also in the use of numerals as phratry

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symbols. On many ritual occasions the number of persons, actions or objects involved in the performance corresponds to that of the number of ancestors of the celebrant's phratry. Myths and epics tell of the origin of totemistic links between individual phratries and animal species., and eventually of the growth of the complex structure of Gond society as we know it today, with its ramifications of clans and subclans, each linked with the memory of a deified ancestor or epical hero. An asymmetric feature of the phratry system is the accretion of a fifth group, which traces its descent to the human son of a tigress, and is thus genealogically unconnected with the original divine ancestors of the Gonds. For exogamous purposes, however, this group, known as Sarpe saga, is included within the phratry linked with the figure six, While the members of a phratry claim descent from common mythical ancestors, their dispersal over several ten thousands of square miles and the absence of a common political authority precludes the possibility of any organized action of all or even a substantial number of phratry members. The mainspring of phratry solidarity lies in the ritual sphere and is manifested in the cult of a deity or deities known simply as persa pen (great god) and worshipped by all clans of a phratry. All worshippers of the same persa pen regard themselves as agnatically related kinsmen and use the same kinship terms as those who can trace a genealogical relationship. Hence the character of the phratry as the principal exogamous unit is deeply anchored in Gond consciousness; marriage with a phratry member is forbidden and extramarital sexual relations between men and women of the same phratry are considered incestuous. Phratry solidarity manifests itself on numerous ceremonial and ritual occasions, when all members of a phratry present automatically act in unison. At ritual meals, for instance, the guests divide into four groups: the men of each of the four phratries sitting in a separate row. The character of the phratry as a putative descent group with maximal span is manifested in the rule that for ritual purposes a person may be replaced by anyone of the same sex and generation who belongs to the same phratry even if of different clan. Thus at a marriage performed in the absence of the groom's own agnatic kinsmen, any couple of suitable age belonging to the groom's phratry may assume the ritual role of ''bridegroom's parents''. While the phratries are the main pillars of the social structure, it is the clans, known in Gondi as pari, which provide the visible architectural details and form the framework for the organization of numerous ritual activities. Each clan has an individual name, and this name is used like a surname when Gonds have to define a man's identity, and it always precedes the personal name.

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The clans are the major segments of the phratries, and the members of a clan claim descent from a mythical founding ancestor standing to the forefathers of the other clans of the phratry in a brother-relationship. No Gond has any conception of the actual distribution or numerical strength of his clan, but he assumes that wherever Raj Gonds are found there will be also some families of his own clan. Ideally a clan is a ritual unit with a common cult-centre where the clan deity (persa pen) is worshipped and clan members gather at the annual clan feasts. The bodily symbol of ritual unity is the clan priest (katora), who arranges for the proper performance of rites and handles at such occasions the ritual objects symbolizing the persa pen of the clan. These objects consist of a sacred spear point (sale) and a fly whisk (chauwur) made of a yak's tail. It is the responsibility of the clan-priest to perform the rite by which departed members of the clan are ''joined'' with the clan god and the ancestors living in the Land of the Dead. Attached to every clan is a lineage of Pardhans described by the clan members as their House Pardhans. These Pardhans, although not Gonds, but members of another ethnic group, are known by the clan name of their patrons, worship the same clan god, and have the important function of preserving by oral tradition the myths and legends of the clan and of reciting them on ritual occasions. For ritual purposes the Pardhan bard is an active member of the clan, but socially he does not enjoy equal status and is not a full member of the community of clansmen: Gonds do not extend to Pardhans the right of commensuality and connubium, and Pardhans may not enter Gond houses. Considering that the system of phratries and clans operates effectively mainly at ritual level, its persistence as the principal integrating force in Gond society is remarkable. The strength of this system remained unimpaired even during the past three decades which saw the collapse of the remnants of chiefly authority, and it continues to counter-balance the extreme !ability of the residential pattern. Whereas the composition of residential groups is fluid and Gonds have on the whole little attachment to localities, the place of every individual in the framework of descent groups in undoubted and immutable. This stability in a vital sphere of social relations provides the social security which has enabled the Gonds to retain their tribal identity in the face of political subjugation and prolonged pressure from materially more advanced neighbours. The incidence of birth determines a Gond's membership in phratry and clan, and no effort on his part can modify his position within the exogamous '>ystem. But every man is free to sever his connection with the village of his birth and to settle in any place where he can obtain cultivable land or find employment. Indeed it is not unusual for a man to live successively in three or four villages.

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From this mobility of the individual family results the variable and fluctuating character of the village community, which is a unit of little permanence. Indeed when land was still plentiful it was not unusual for a village site to be deserted and the inhabitants moving to other localities. Yet notwithstanding its ephemeral composition, the village community is a very real social unit which provides for co-operation between its members. Every villager, whether he is a member of one of the founding families or has joined the village at a later date, enjoys certain rights and is subject to certain obligations. He has the right to build a house and cattle sheds on the village-site, to use the common well, and to graze his cattle on all the uncultivated land which lies within the village borders. A villager's obligations may be classified into positive duties which prescribe active participation in certain undertakings, and negative obligations which involve abstention from certain acts in conformity with tribal custom, such as observance of various taboos at the time of communal rites. Both negative and positive obligations serve to unite the villagers in common endeavours for the welfare of the community. Although in principle all villagers are equal there are in every village two personalities with special functions, namely the headman and the village priest, who represent the community in the secular and the religious sphere. The most important task of the headman is the maintenance of a spirit of amity and co-operation among the villagers, and it is in the execution of this task that tact and qualities of leadership become apparent. If the headman fails to settle a dispute, he convenes a village council, the panchayat, to be attended by all householders. As chairman of the council, he conducts the meeting and the interrogation of the opposing parties, and though he cannot override the opinion of the other villagers, he can give a lead which in a doubtful case may prove decisive. Ideally the headman should be a descendant of the village founder, but the chain of succession may be broken either by a sequence of deaths among the descendants or owing to the unsuitability of a headman's heir. Any headman may be ousted from his position by a majority of villagers dissatisfied with his leadership. The main function of the village priest is to establish contact with the local deities, but his role as mediator between men and gods is not vested in any single individual but in a whole lineage. If a priest has younger brothers, any of them may take his place in the performance of rites, and it is believed that their ministration is as effective as that of the eldest brother. Besides the vertical division of Gond society into phratries and clans, there exists also a horizontal division into a small aristocratic class of hereditary chieftains and the great mass of commoners. While the

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segmentary organization of clans and phratries is without territorial implications, the feudal system used to have a territorial and political basis. Today the members of chiefly lineages known as raja or described by the Marathi titles of mokashi and deshmuk no longer wield any political power, but they still enjoy prestige, and the older Gonds remember the days when the influence of the traditional feudal leaders was still a factor to be reckoned with. As recently as the early 1940s there were in Adilabad District 37 chiefly houses whose authority in tribal matters was recognized by local Gonds. Though lacking political power, these aristocratic families maintained to some degree the traditions of feudal times, and their respective jurisdictions could still be delineated with reasonable accuracy. Though there was then a preference for the marriage of rajas and other chieftains with girls of similar background, marriages of members of chiefly families with commoners were valid and in recent years they are fairly frequent. Status was independent of economic position, and impoverished members of chiefly families continued to be described as raja or mokashi. Every Gond expects to marry and there are few adult men or women who have remained unmarried beyond their middle twenties. The majority of boys and many girls marry only after reaching maturity, but the Hindu custom of child marriage has been imitated by some families, and it is no longer unusual for boys and girls to undergo the wedding rites in childhood. Unlike the Muria Gonds of Bastar the Raj Gonds do not have the institution of youth dormitories where adolescents of both sexes can mingle freely in an atmosphere of intimacy and sexual permissiveness. The division of labour in everyday life involves a certain segregation of the sexes, and an unmarried girl will seldom be seen talking openly to a young man. But despite the decorum observed in public, there arc opportunities when boys and girls can meet in field and forest, and village opinion regards attachments between the unmarried of different exogamous groups with tolerance provided that a measure of discretion is observed. But marriage, not adventure, is considered the proper aim of courtship, and romantic love such as flourishes in the Bastar ghotul has no acknowledged place in the value system of Raj Gond society. There are three ways in which a first marriage can be concluded, and all three are considered legitimate and leading to a union fully recognized by society. The three ways are known as marriage by negotiation (khaja khopra marming), marriage by service (lamsare marming), and marriage by capture (pesiwatmal marming). The marriage by negotiation is the most desirable type, but involves heavy expenditure on the part of the groom's family. For this reason poor men resort to one or the other of the alternative types of marriage. In many cases a "capture" is in reality an elopement prearranged between the couple.

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The stability of a marriage depends mainly on the emotional relationship between the spouses. There is no prejudice against the dissolution of an unsatisfactory union, and both men and women can take the initiative in bringing about the end of a marriage. In contrast to their Hindu neighbours, Raj Gonds do not consider a wife's infidelity a compelling cause for divorce. Many a Gond husband whose wife has left him and gone to live with a lover appeals to a panchayat in the attempt to get her back. In such a case the members of the panchayat will summon the woman and ask her whether she is willing to give up her lover and return to her husband. If she agrees to do so and the lover undertakes to keep away from her, no fine, or only a nominal one, may be imposed on him. If the woman is umvilling to rejoin her husband, no pressure is exerted on her, but the lover must pay compensation to the husband before he can marry her. It is not unusual for Gond women to live with several men in succession, and in practice such instability does not affect their status in society, even though the ideal is certainly a wife faithful to her first and only husband. There seems to be no positive correlation between divorce and multiple marriages. Most women acquiesce to, or even welcome, the addition of a second or third wife to the household. The advent of a co-wife greatly reduces the burden of domestic chores. For a rich man with large landholdings and particularly for a village headman expected to dispense hospitality to visitors, two or three wives are a great advantage, and the senior wife shares her husband's prestige. In the mind of the Gond, society does not consist of only those who live on this earth. The deceased members of the clan dwelling in the company of the clan deities form part of a community which remains a unit, even though divided by the line between life and death. This line is not unsurmountable. The living can reach across it and influence by ritual acts the fate of their departed kinsmen, and the dead are believed to be capable of aiding their relatives in the world of the living. The funerary rites are the visible expression of this belief in the community of the dead and the quick. Various factors determine whether the funerary rites are performed with greater or lesser elaboration. A poor man or woman, an unmarried person, or a man without near relatives in the neighbourhood is always buried with little circumstance. But even an important man may have to be buried rapidly if he died of smallpox or any other epidemic disease. Normally most men and women of good status are cremated with elaborate rites. Such a cremation is attended by scores of kinsmen and has a festive character. Far from abandoning themselves to a mood of

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gloom, the mourners honour the deceased by drumming and dancing round the pyre from evening to dawn. In the past a cow was sacrificed near the funeral pyre and its meat used for a ritual meal. All those who can afford the expense subsequently perform a memorial rite known as karun. This may follow immediately upon the cremation, or it may be delayed for some months or even years. The celebration of a karun rite extends over two days and should include the sacrifice of at least one cow-nowadays usually replaced by a goat-and numerous goats and fowls all required for feeding hundreds of guests. Apart from performing the mortuary rites, in which the co-operation between the deceased's agnates and affines is compulsory, some affluent Raj Gonds honour the memory of their father or a brother by the erection of a monument. This may take the form of a cenotaph in the shape of a stepped pyramidical mound built over the place where the body was cremated or buried. Alternatively a carved wooden post, pointed at the top and incised with symbols of sun and moon, or a high pole with a flag, may be erected in the name of the deceased. The ceremonies accompanying the setting-up of such monuments are slight affairs, and the monuments themselves have no other function than to glorify the name of the deceased and keep his memory fresh in the minds of the living. To the Gonds the world consists not only of human beings, animals and the tangible and visible objects of nature, but also of a multitude of beings that are not normally visible, though on occasion they can be seen and heard by seers in a state of trance. The frequency of states of trance and possessions, when gods speak through the mouth of a seer, are to the Gond irrefutable proof of their presence and their interest in human affairs. The ways in which the various deities are propitiated differ widely, but underlying the somewhat confusing variety of ritual is the belief that all gods expect and desire to be worshipped by men, that they are accessible to prayers and offerings, and that they have the power, if not always the will, to grant the applicants' requests. The most distinctive feature of Gond religion is the cult of the clandeities referred to by the general term persa pen or' 'great god''. There is a firm belief that the clan-god affords to all the members of the clan his protection and in return demands their offerings and acts of worship. While the persa pen cult forms the mystical tie between the members of a clan scattered over a wide territory, the members of a village community join in the worship of a number of deities closely associated with the locality in which they dwell, the village guardian and the village mother being the most important. On a level entirely different from that of the clan gods and the locality deities is Bhagavan, also known as Shri Shembu Mahadeo, the lord of the

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gods. The concept of Bhagavan, a supreme deity who is the giver of life and death and presides over the court of immortals, is probably derived from Hindu ideas. He is equated with Shiva and in some myths he figures as the husband of the goddess Parvati. While the cults of most other deities are confined to certain groups, be they clans or local communities, Bhagavan is considered the supreme lord of the whole world, worshipped by both Gonds and Hindus. BIBLIOGRAPHY PENINSULAR INDIA

Buradkar, M. P., Totemism among the Gonds. Man in India, Vol. 20, 1940, pp. 114-143, 268-289. Deogaonkar, S. G., The Madia of Bhamragad. With a Foreword by C. von Fiirer-Haimendorf, Delhi 1982. Elwin, Verrier, Maria Murder and Suicide. London 1943. - - , The Muria and their Ghotul, Bombay 1947. - - , Bondo Highlanders. Bombay 1950. - - , Tribal Myths of Orissa. Bombay 1954. - - , The Religion of an Indian Tribe. Bombay 1955. Fuchs, Stephen, The Gonds and Bhumia of Eastern Mandia. Bombay 1960. Fiirer-Haimendorf, C. von, Megalithic Ritual among the Gadabas and Bondos ofOrissa. JoumaloftheRoyalSocietyofBengal. Vol. 9, 1943, pp. 149-178. - - , Avenues to Marriage among the Bondos of Orissa, Man in India, Vol. 23, pp. 1943, pp. 168-172. - - , The Raj Gonds of Adilabad, London 1948. - - , The Pardhans-the Bards of the Raj Gonds, Eastern Anthropologist, Vol. 4. 1950/51. pp. 108-123. - - , Morals and Merit-A Study of Values and Social Controls in South Asian Societies, London 196 7. Grierson, Sir George, Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. IV. Munda and Dravidian Languages. Calcutta 1906. Grigson, Sir Wilfrid, The Maria Gonds of Bastar, London 1938; reissued with supplement, London 1949. Izikowitz, K. G., The Gotr Ceremony of the Boro Gadabas. In: Culture and History: Essays in Honor of Paul Radin. Edited by Stanley Diamond. New York 1960. pp. 509-530. Jay, Edward, A Tribal Village in Middle India, Calcutta 1970. Ramadas, G., The Gadabas. Man in India. Vol. 11, 1931, pp. 160-173. Somasundaram, A. M., A Note on the Gadabas ofKoraput. Man in India, Vol. 29, 1949, pp. 36-45. Wills, C. U., The Raj Gond Maharajas of the Satpura Hills. Nagpur 1925. NORTHE-EAST INDIA

Betts, U., The Village Duel in Apa Tani Society. Man in India. Vol. 28. 1948. Dubey, S. M., Modernization and Elites in Arunachal Pradesh. Census of India 1971. Delhi 1973. Fiirer-Haimendorf, C. von, The Apa Tanis and their Neighbours. London 1962. - - , A Himalayan Tribe: From Cattle to Cash. Delhi/Berkeley 1980. - - , Himalayan Adventure. Delhi 1983. Hodson, T. C., The Meitheis, London 1909. - - , The Naga Tribes of Manipur, London 1911. Hutton, J. H., The Angami Nagas, London 1921. Mills, J.P., The Rengma Nagas, London 1937.

CHAPTER FOUR

ADVAN CED FARMING SOCIETIES SANTALS

With a numerical strength of over three million the Santals are one of the largest tribes of India, and their distribution extends over Bihar ( 1, 541, 345), Orissa (411, 181), West Bengal (1, 200, 019) and Tripura (1, 562). They live in a wide range of eco-demographic environments, some in relatively isolated hill-tracts and some in industrial pockets. Some Santals have retained their tribal traditions and beliefs while others are Hinduised and some are Christians. Though dispersed over several political units and subjected to a great variety of cultural influences the Santals have proved more tenacious in the retention of their original language than most of the major tribal groups. Their language belongs to the Munda branch of the Austroasiatic family, and is closely related to Mundari, Ho, Korku, Saora, Gadaba and Bondo. The relationship of the Santals with these tribes is racial as well as linguistic, but materially and economically they are more advanced than most of the smaller Mundaspeaking tribes. Thanks to the past interest of numerous missionaries and British administrators the history of the Santals during the colonial period is relatively well documented and some of the early reports go back to the first half of the 19th century. Though the Santa! language has no script of its own, there exists a substantial literature in Santali written in Roman, Devanagari, Bengali and Oriya script. Some new scripts have been developed by Santa! writers, but none of these has ·gained currency, and the Roman script, first introduced by missionaries and associated with Santali for more than a century, has remained the most favoured medium. The Santals entered the limelight of modern history owing to a movement of resistance against oppression and exploitation by Hindu landlords and usurers known as the Santa! Rebellion. The developments which preceded and caused this rebellion go back to the 18th century, when British administration was extended to the Santa! Parganas of Bengal. This event led to the penetration of the villages by large numbers of Hindu traders and shopkeepers, who not only made large profits by cheating the simple tribesmen but also gradually dispossessed the Santals of their land. This they achieved by leading tribal farmers into debt and then using the machinery of the civil courts to obtain decrees against the original owners of the land. The same courts also enforced on the unlet-

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tered Santa! the observance of written bonds, the real nature of which he did not comprehend. Bonds of this kind contained undertakings to work for the creditor in consideration of the debt until the debt and the interest were paid off, which in practice meant for ever. On the part of the officials of the East India Company no efforts were made to learn about the Santals and their plight, and there were no attempt to redress their grievances. In 1855 Santal leaders started a tribal movement, and submitted applications to the revenue officers and to the Commissioner of the Division. When these were rejected thousands of Santals set out to march to Calcutta to petition the Governor-General. Armed with bows and arrows, they demanded the regulation of usury, the reform ofland revenue, and the expulsion of Hindu oppressors from the Santal country. The march was orderly as long as it was unopposed, but ultimately it led to violence against some Hindu landlords and moneylenders. When the government called out armed forces to squash the insurgency, clashes between regular British troops and tribesmen armed only with bows and arrows resulted in massacres in which up to 10,000 Santals were killed. The disturbances dragged on for over two years, until finally the government took some constructive measures to pacify the Santals and prevent further acts of exploitation by non-tribals. The Santa! Parganas were established as a separate district, the administration was simplified, and the Santals themselves were made responsible for the maintenance of law and order. Yet not all abuses could be eliminated, for since non-tribal settlers were not excluded from the district many of the old ills tended to recur. Not until 1872 was legislation introduced under which the alienation of Santa! land was restricted and tenants were protected against eviction. In 1918 the Bengal government prohibited the transfer ofland from Santals without permission of the courts, and prevented the attachment of their lands for debts arising out of causes other than the non-payment of rent. But by that time most of the damage had been done, and the majority of Santals continued to be in the position of sub-tenants. As in other tribal areas legislation was not very effective in freeing the tribesmen from the unrelenting economic pressure of the more advanced non-tribal populations. Writing in 1949 W. J. Culshaw gave expression to his assessment of the Santals' continued subservience to the interests of their Hindu neighbours and exploiters: '' .. .legislation has done little to lift the burden of despair about the future which is an unhappy characteristic of Santa! life today. " 1 1

W.

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Culshaw, Tribal Heritage. A study of the Santals, London 1949, p. 7.

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The ownership of land is of crucial importance for the well-being of the Santals, for their economy, like that of most Indian tribal communities, is based on agriculture, and except in mining areas there are no other sources of income. Behind the houses of a Santal village fields of open upland begin. A plot near the house may be used as a kitchen garden where vegetables and bananas are grown, but most of the upland is ploughed and used for the cultivation of maize, bajra millet, some of the smaller millets, such as Eleusine coracana, and pulses. These crops ripen early in the cold weather and supplement the rice-crop which provides the Santals with their staple food. In the uplands there is usually also pasture-land reserved for grazing. There the village cattle is taken when the rest of the land is under crops. Beyond the uplands lie the rice-fields, which are built along the main lines of drainage and arc divided into stepped terraces, each field rimmed by embankments of pounded earth. In June the seed is sown in nurseries and then transplanted in fields which have ploughed up and irrigated. The rice-crop comes into ear in September and is ready for reaping in November. A month later the rice is thrashed either by dashing the ears against a stone, or by driving cattle round the thrashing floor and letting the ears be trampled out. In contrast to the ephemeral houses built of wood and bamboo by tribes such as the Gonds, Santal houses give the impression of solidity and permanence. W. G. Archer described this in the following passage: "The mud-walls have a hard cement-like precision, a suave and solid neatness, and the roofs, softly thatched or ribbed with tiles, compose a vista of gently blending curves. Even in the rains the walls contrive to keep their trimness. Of all the other tribes of eastern India, none has quite the same relish for neatly ordered buildings, the same capacity for tidy spacious living or the same genius for domestic architecture.'' 1 W. J. Culshaw also emphasized the compactness and orderliness of Santal villages, aspects which I found equally impressive when comparing the villages of the Dumka area with tribal villages of other parts of India. According to Culshaw the community life of the Santal centres in his village, and is so organized as to make common action inevitable in social economic and religious affairs. Within each village the street, which must be left wide enough for two bullock carts to pass each other, dominates the scene. Along this thoroughfare the crops and firewood are brought in, and it is up and down its sandy surface that the women dance, and the villagers share their feasts and collect for gossip and councils. The houses 1

W.

J.

Archer, The Hill of Flutes, London 1974, p. 20.

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set close together have their main door opening to the village street, and each household is responsible for the state of the road outside its own residence. The village headman (manjhz) is the man of greatest consequence in the community. The post is hereditary and passes ordinarily from father to eldest son, though failing sons it may pass on to a brother or near relative on the paternal side. There is a ceremony at the beginning of each year, which suggests that at one time the appointment of the headman was renewed annually, but this ceremony is nowadays without practical function, and the post is held for life. When an offender against tribal custom is fined the headman receives a fourth of the whole amount, and during the spring hunt he is given a part of the flesh of every animal killed by a man of his own village. He also occupies an important position at all weddings celebrated in the village. A marriage party first pays its respect to the headman, and at festivals the young men start dancing outside his house. In all matters involving the members of more than one village, the headman is the acknowledged representative of his own community, and is treated with great respect at all times. None of the other village officials rival the headman. There is often a deputy headman (paranik), who stands in for the headman when he is ill or away on official duties or family affairs. Next in status is thejogmanjhi, who acts as guardian of the conduct of the young men of the village, while his wife plays a similar role vis-a-vis the unmarried girls. The position of the johmanfhi is somewhat similar to that of the bise among the Gadabas, but unlike Gadabas, Bondos and Juangs, the Santals have no youth dormitories. In every Santai village there is a priest (naeke) who conducts sacrifices on behalf of the villagers and is responsible for the maintenance of amicable relationships with the spirit world. In this task he is assisted by a co-priest known as kudam naeke, whose main function is the worship of the pargana bonga, the guardian spirit of the territory in which the village is situated. W. G. Archer has pointed out that "Santa! officials are the servants, not the masters of the villagers, and that their role is purely functional. The headman summons village meetings and may give the meeting a firm lead, but the accepted principle is that no one may overrule any one else, and that the sense of the meeting should prevail.'' The organization which binds groups of villages together is loose by comparison with the structure of an individual village. The Santals distinguish between various regional units called pargana and in each pargana there used to be a parganath, or nominal head, who was supposed to help settle disputes involving members of different villages. The pargana constituted the biggest assembly, and outstanding matters of common concern were brought before that council.

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There is no formal political organization embracing the whole tribe. The largest congregations of Santals are communal hunting and fishing expeditions, and in the past the annual hunt was especially arranged by a number of pargana heads in a region. Such annual hunts used to cover a wide territory comprising a number of pargana, and at the end of three days chase a formal meeting of the elders and headmen was held in the forest itself. Such gatherings, which may be described as tribal councils, have become obsolete, and although joint fishing and hunting parties are still being organized, there are no more ceremonial hunts leading up to large tribal councils. Apart from the territorial divisions which cut across clan-groups, Santal society is divided into a number of exogamous, patrilineal clans. According to a myth passed on by oral tradition the clans were originally established for the purpose of preventing incest. In the beginning the number of clans is said to have been seven, but later it rose to twelve and this is the number which has persisted. The Santal word for clan is pari, and this is remarkable because the Dravidian speaking Raj Gonds also refer to their clans as pari, and there are otherwise no known linguistic parallels between Santals and Raj Gonds. In each Santal clan there are several sub-clans and these are called khunt. Thus in the Murmu clan there are 35 sub-clans, in another clan 18, and in yet another 17. The exogamy of clans is strictly enforced, but there are no "brother-clans" which may not intermarry. Only two clans avoid inter-marriage, but not because of a tradition of consanguinity, but because of an old enmity. The sub-clans observe some taboos restricting the items of food which may be eaten and even the types of ornaments which members of the sub-clan may wear. Clans and sub-clans are also linked with the worship of spirits and there are special clan and sub-clan sacrifices. In each clan there is one sub-clan whose members claim to be the descendants of the original clan-ancestors. In every Santal village there are members of different clans and hence marriages within the village are permissible very much in contrast to the custom of such other Munda-speaking tribes as Bondos who forbid marriage within the village community. But although there is no objection to marriages within the village, those negotiating a man's marriage consider the location of the bride's home by no means irrelevant, for Santals think that a girl is not likely to settle down easily in her husband's house if her parents are too close at hand. There are also restrictions on marriages between certain relatives. Cross-cousins are not supposed to marry, and a man may not marry the sister of his younger brother's wife, while he may marry the sister of his elder brother's wife. A practice which some observers have described as a form of polyandry is the licence of a woman

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to have sexual relations with her husband's younger brother, who is also expected to marry her in the event of her husband's death. Most Santal marriages are monogamous, but in special circumstances, such as the sterility of the first wife, a man is allowed to take a second wife. A man may divorce his wife on the grounds of adultery, and in such an event her father has to return the bride-price. A wife cannot formally divorce her husband, but she can refuse to continue to live with him, and it is not unusual for a woman to take this way out of an unsuccessful marriage. Violation of the rule of clan-exogamy is a serious offence which has to be expiated by the payment of a heavy fine. Pending such payment the culprits are subjected to a kind of excommunication, which cuts them off from normal social contacts such as sharing meals or participating in ceremonies. Even more serious than clan-incest is the breach of the rule of tribal endogamy. Any sexual relations between a Santal and a member of another tribe or of a Hindu caste is strictly forbidden, and it pollutes the Santal involved in the relationship. The punishment for such an offence is the performance of a ceremonial demonstration by a large crowd drawn from several villages. This type of punishment known as bit/aha is unique among Indian tribes and expresses the intensity of the feeling aroused by any infringement of the cohesion and integrity of the Santal community. The ceremony of bit/aha, described in great detail by W. G. Archer 1 , consists of the symbolic defilement of the offenders and their houses. The idea is that just as the tribe has been defiled by their conduct, they have to be subjected to a public defilement by a large crowd. Regional approval has to be obtained for the holding of a bitlaha. The headman of the village staging the ceremony had to inform the headmen of the five nearest villages, and ask them to support the action of his own village. Once they have agreed an emissary is sent to all the local markets to tell the people gathered there what has happened and what the bitlaha will be held. A bitlaha is staged like a hunt and the offenders are the quarry. On the evening before the appointed day men from the neighbouring villages converge carrying sticks, drums, flutes and buffalo horns. The next day the offenders are called, but they seldom face the gathering, and the crowd then advances on the house of the guilty villager. To the thunder of drums the crowd enters the culprit's courtyard and defiles it by urinating and defaecating on the verandahs. Some of the men strip naked and perform obscene dances symbolizing the forbidden sexual acts which have polluted the culprits and with them the village. 1

W. G. Archer, The Hill of Flutes, pp. 90-100.

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Archer described the bitlaha as a form of tribal punishment. He points out that in Santai society individuals wish to remain inconspicuous and not to attract attention, and he concludes that a bit/aha reverses all this. "It invests the offender with all the publicity that he most dislikes. It pulls him out of his obscure setting and dangles him before the whole region'' (ibidem, p. 98). Some Santals subjected to a bit/aha run away to distant places where they remain incognito. The fact that a bit/aha requires the co-operation of the men of several villages demonstrates the sense of tribal solidarity prevailing among Santals. No comparable crowd demonstrations against breaches of tribal rules are reported from other tribes and the Santals thus stand out even from among the other Munda-speaking populations. The sharp distinction between Santai and non-Santai does not permit social mobility between the two spheres. The Santai who adopts Christianity or Hinduism is no longer regarded an equal by the tribal Santals. When somebody becomes a Hindu or a Christian the whole village resents his conversion. He loses the right to participate in village activities such as festivals and sacrifices and thus stands outside the social life of the community even though he may continue to live in his house and cultivate his land like any other villager. Some of those who have embraced Hinduism even continue to worship their family spirits (bonga) though instead of animal sacrifices and rice-beer they offer flowers and sweets in Hindu fashion. The relationship between traditional Santai society and parts of the universe inhabited by spirits is very close. These spirits (bonga) are believed to dwell in three different spheres. The first is largely an underground replica of the upper land, and this concept reminds one of similar ideas of a multi-tier world held by Apa Tanis and Wanchus. The second sphere is the realm of the dead, a region vaguely located in the sky. When his final funerary feast has been performed a Santai becomes an ancestral bonga and enters this airy region. As long as he is remembered in the village, he continues to influence its affairs. The third bonga territory is the village and its environs. Here reside the boundary bonga, the forest bonga, hill bonga, and many others associated with specific places. The spirit who possesses the most clearly defined individuality is Maran Buru, a name which means Great Mountain. He is invoked on all occasions when offerings are made, and he shares in all the fortunes of the Santai tribe, good and evil. References to Maran Buru in the mythology indicate his dominant position. He appeared on the scene at a very early stage in the life of the first pair of Santals, whom he instructed in sex and in the brewing of rice-beer. He also taught them to establish

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sacred groves and to worship tribal bonga. Closely associated with Maran Buru and sometimes described as his consort, is Jaher Era, the Lady of the Grove. Both these deities are benevolent and their cult is common to all Santals irrespective of clan or locality. Some observers have reported a belief in a supreme deity referred to as Thakur and sometimes identified with Sing Bonga, the deified sun, but the cult of this deity plays no role in present-day Santal religious practice. Though some Santals have converted to Hinduism and Christianity their change of affiliation has not meant a complete break with earlier religious conventions. The belief in bonga is still strong and some rites de passage are performed in a modified form. The greatest changes in their cultural life have occurred where Santals have found employment in collieries. In Burdwan district, for instance, a good many Santals have settled down in villages adjacent to collieries, and though their economy is largely dependent on wage earnings, they have not altogether lost their agricultural mooring, and carry on cultivation on small plots belonging to the collieries and allotted to their employees. It is in such areas transformed by industrial developments that the traditional village community has weakened and the emergence of a new socio-economic class has resulted in involvement in modern political activities. The relative role of old occupations has changed and new occupations have been introduced. Growing indebtedness, loss of land, and the increase in the number of land-less labourers have created acute economic problems. To solve them new movements, economic, socio-religious, and political have developed. KHASIS

In South Asia the Austroasiatic language family is represented mainly by the speakers of Munda languages, who are found in Orissa, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, whereas languages of the Mon-Khmer branch of this family occur in Northeast India in the highlands between Assam and Bangladesh. Most prominent among the speakers of these languages are the Khasis of Meghalaya, the state established in 1970 which they share with the Tibeto-Burman speaking Garos. Like the latter the Khasis are characterized by Mongoloid racial features, but otherwise the two neighbouring tribes have little in common and each is determined to preserve its ethnic identity. The term Khasi in its narrow sense applies only to the tribe living in the highland part of the Khasis and J aintia Hills district which has the town of Shillong as its headquarters. In a broader sense it also applies to those living in the north of the Khasi hills, who are known as Bhoi, to

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those living in the south known as War, and those living in the westernmost part known as Lyngngam. Those living in the J aintia Hills are known as Pnar or Synteng. The total strength of all these groups is approximately 462,000, but no recent census figures are available. There are considerable differences in the nature of the habitats of the various groups. They range from subtropical forests to bare grasslands on plateaux lying at altitudes between 5,000 and 6,000 feet. Distinct dialects are spoken in the different areas, but the dialect of Cherrapunji in the Shillong subdivision is understood by all and is recognized in all the educational institutions as the standard Khasi language. In view of the linguistic links with speakers of Mon-Khmer languages such as Wa, Palaung and Mon settled in Burma it is widely assumed that the ancestors of the Khasis entered their present habitat from the east. The date of this infiltration of Mon- Khmer speakers into Meghalaya and Assam is not known, but some historians have suggested that this event must have occurred several hundred years B.C. and certainly long before the advent of Aryan speakers in Assam. 1 As the Khasis had no written language until Christian missionaries introduced the Roman script, they have no recorded history of their own and what we know of their past is derived from traditions transmitted orally and from the chronicles of neighbouring populations. From the 16th century to 1835 the people of the J aintia Hills formed part of the Hindu Jaintia kingdom, whose capital Jaintiapur is close to the present border of Bangladesh. Later it was moved to Nortiang near Jowai. A highly developed economic system based on rice-cultivation on irrigated fields provided the material foundation for the establishment of a kingdom modelled in part on the pattern of the Hindu states in the adjoining plains of Bengal. The high plateau which constitutes today the heartland of Meghalaya and traditional Khasi culture remained for long free from Hindu influence. This region was ruled by more than a dozen chiefs called Siem, who were frequently at war among themselves. The most powerful of these chiefs was the Siem of Khyrim, who was frequently engaged in armed conflict with the Jaintia Raja. In 1835 the Jaintia kingdom was annexed by the British despite strong resistance. By that time the Khasi chiefs had been subjugated piecemeal, for each Siem had fought on his own and there was no concerted effort to oppose the British forces. However, the Siems were allowed to retain their independence substantially subject to the overall control of a British political agent. Hence the

1

Cf. B. K. Barna, A cultural history of Assam, Gauhati 1969.

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traditional socio-political system of the highland Khasis persisted to a great extent until the end of British rule. Major economic changes commenced in the first half of the 19th century, when British missionaries introduced the cultivation of potatoes into the highlands. Climate, altitude and soil proved ideal for this crop, and within a short time potatoes, for which there was a good market in the plains of Assam and Bengal became the staple crop of the Khasis. In earlier times the Khasis had practised a kind of slash-and-burn cultivation, growing maize, millet and yams, and this was adapted to the cultivation of potatoes. When the construction of motor roads linked the highlands with Assam and Bengal, and Shillong grew into an important trading centre the acreage under potato cultivation was expanded, and new crops, such as oranges and pineapples were introduced. Today the Khasis can meet all their requirements of rice and manufactured goods by the sale of such cash crops and potatoes. Minor crops grown are turmeric, ginger, chillies, sesamum and sugar cane. In the course of modernization many Khasis have taken to occupations other than agriculture. Considerable numbers earn their living by working as wage labourers in road construction and other public projects. With the development of education an increasing percentage of Khasis have become eligible for government service as officials, clerks and teachers, and some have entered the professions and academic life. The present high educational standards among the Khasis is largely due to the efforts of Christian missionaries. The British administration had opened the way to missionary activities, especially to those of the Welsh Methodists who set up a mission in the hills in 1841. Subsequently churches, schools and hospitals were established, and modern education attracted young Khasis of both sexes, not least by the promise of clerical positions. Later Roman Catholic missionaries joined the field and today the majority of upland Khasis are Christians of various denominations. Khasi culture in its pristine form is now found mainly in the remoter villages, and for an understanding of the structure of original Khasi society we have to turn to the accounts of observers who knew Khasis in the early years of the 20th century. Unlike the hill tribes of North East India, who prefer the tops of hills and ridges as sites for their settlements, the Khasis built their villages on slopes below the top or more frequently in depressions. Such a situation afforded some protection from the strong winds and rain storms sweeping across the hills. The houses were not clustered together, but were built apart, providing for adequate space for domestic chores undertaken out of doors. The Khasis seldom, if ever, changed the site of their village to which they were deeply attached, especially because it contained the

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family tomb and the memorial stones dedicated to their ancestors. In the vicinity of every Khasi village there were to be found clusters of oak and other trees. These were the sacred groves where the Khasis worshipped their guardian spirits, and where it was forbidden to fell any tree. The typical Khasi house, now largely superseded by buildings in modern bungalow style, used to be of oval shape and divided into three compartments. These houses were substantial structures with plank walls and thatched roof. An older style of stone-built houses was abandoned after the great earthquake of 1897 when most of the stone houses had collapsed. When the construction of a house was completed a cermony accompanied by the sacrifice of a pig was performed. Like all other tribal societies of North East India Khasi society is divided into unilineal descent groups or clans, known as kur, but unlike the clans of the great majority of the tribes of the region the Khasi kur are not patrilineal but matrilineal descent groups. Yet, the same process of fission which can be observed among the patrilineal Apa Tanis prevails also among the Khasis; when the members of a clan become too numerous the clan divides into sub-clans, and these are called kpoh. The next smaller unit is the family or iing, a term which means literally "house". An iing usually consists of a grandmother, her daughter and the daughter's children. A clan has been likened to an outgrown family descended from a common ancestress bound together by the tie of jointly performed ancestor worship and of a common sepulchre (mauba), except in cases in which a clan, owing to its size is split up into sub-clans. When the sepulchre of a clan becomes too small to accomodate the bones of all clanmembers or if some members move away to a distant place, they construct a new mauba, and thereby establish a new sub-clan. Every clan has a name, which in many cases is derived from that of the ancestress, but its name may also be that of an animal. Some sub-clans have separate names, but all those which are segments of one and the same clan form an exogamous unit. Marrying within the clan or within such a unit is a grave offence, and relationships between sub-clans are remembered, or can be traced, so that marriages between their members are sure to be avoided. A Khasi clan is not a corporate unit with a sense of solidarity nor do clan-members necessarily meet together or acknowledge a common leader. Most clans have no clear-cut geographical distribution, but are dispersed over a wide area cutting across the boundaries of villages. In the past when 'states' headed by a Siem were still important political units some major clans were spread over several states, with the result that individual members owed allegiance to different chiefs. Even the small segments of clans located in a single state had little sense of

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kingroup solidarity, unless the members had close kinship ties. Such ties exist among the matrilineal descendants of one greatgrandmother forming a kpoh. There is a high tendency to village endogamy, and this contrasts with the village exogamy practised not only by the neighbouring Garos, but also by the Austroasiatic Bondos of Orissa. The Khasis are endogamous also in the sense that they do not marry outside the tribe. A Khasi of the uplands would consider it demeaning to marry a War, Bhoi or Lyngngam girl. Until the end of British rule under which the Khasi chieftains had enjoyed a position comparable to that of minor Hindu rajas, the Khasi chieftains had retained their privileges, and their position up to 1947 reflects thus the traditional political system of the tribe. There were in all fifteen chieftainships in the Khasi Hills, and in each of the small autonomous states there was a Siem clan and only a member of that clan could act as ruler. Succession was strictly in the female line. Normally a Siem was succeeded by the eldest sister's sons in order of birth, and if the eldest sister had no male issue the succession passed to the sons of the next sister. An electoral college, composed by the heads of clans, the village headmen and the priests, controlled the succession, and if the legitimate heir seemed unsuitable, the college could pass him over and decide on the next man in the line of succession. In such a state the Siem was the central figure round whom social life revolved. He maintained regular contact with important members of the villages within his domain, and to these he paid regular visits. During such visits he received customary presents and tributes from the people, and this kind of allegiance was also expressed on the occasion of annual religious festivals and dances. The most important prerogative of the Siem was his right to get free labour, and he also derived income from markets and crown lands. The Siem, as head of the state, presided over his durbar, which had powers to legislate, adjudicate and execute the laws. All clans in the state were represented in the durbar, and in emergencies all the adult men attended the durbar and participated in the deliberations. The Siem and his ministers were the chief judicial authority, and cases and disputes were heard in the open and in the presence of all adult men of a village. Most penalties for breaches of tribal custom consisted of fines, but murderers were put to death, and clan-incest brought upon the culprits the punishment of excommunication or exile. In 1934 the Khasi states had formed a federation with the objective of acting as an intermediary body between the states and the Government of India, and after India's attainment of Independence the chiefs of the

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states agreed to their accession to the Indian Union. In 1952 the District Council of the United Khasi-J aintia Hills was formed and this superseded the authority of the hereditary chiefs. This council consisted of 24 members elected on the basis of adult franchise. With the creation of the state of Meghalaya and the holding of elections to a legislative assembly this council was replaced by the normal legislative and administrative machinery common to all the states of the Indian Union. Hence the status of the Khasi Siems is now in law not different from that of all the former Indian Princes whom the government of Indira Gandhi stripped of all the privileges which had been guaranteed by the terms of the Instrument of Accession. The attention paid to the Khasis in the anthropological literature is largely due to their virtually unique type of matriarchy. Within a kpoh, a matrilineal kin-group with a common great-grand-mother, there may be two or more iing (houses) which are the most important functional descent units. The members of an iing consist of a set of strictly matrilineal descendants who have a common claim to the ancestral property, and who perform joint rituals. The iing property passes in every generation to the youngest daughter, the 'heiress' who after her mother's death has ownership rights over the house, the farmland, movable possessions, cattle and cult-objects. No one else is entitled to dispose of any part of the property or to give it even on loan. With this right goes the obligation to perform the daily worship of the ancestors of the iing, and the youngest daughter is hence not only the heiress of the property but also the priestess of the iing. If a woman in that position has no daughter, she is succeeded by the youngest daughter of her sister next to her in age. A Khasi cannot take a wife from his own clan, and while there is no objection to cross-cousin marriage in principle, a man cannot marry his maternal uncle's daughter during the life time of the uncle. Similarly marriage with the daughter of a father's sister is not allowed during the life-time of the father. A Khasi household may consist of a wife, her husband and their children, and sometimes of the wife's unmarried sisters and brothers, but some households include all members of an iing, i.e. all the descendants of a woman comprising three or more generations. A husband is supposed to live in his wife's house, but he may go to his sister's house for meals, and occasionally even sleep there. But he must work on his wife's fields, though he may also do some work on his mother's or his sister's land. The residential arrangements depend largely on the wife's status. If she is a youngest daughter and hence an heiress, she and her husband live usually in her parental household with her unmarried or divorced

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brothers and sisters. The husband's position in such a household is a difficult one, particularly if an adult male member of the wife's kin lives under the same roof. For the management of property and all economic activities are controlled by the authority of the wife's brother or maternal uncle, and the ties between the children and the maternal uncle are closer than those between son and father. The Japanese anthropologist Chie N akane draws a vivid picture of the position of a Khasi husband married to an heiress by recounting her own experiences in such a household: ''I had hardly any opportunity to talk to the husband during my stay. He left the house early in the morning and came back late in the evening from the fields. While he was at home, he was always somewhat outside the family conversation which was centred on the maternal uncle and his sisters, nephews and nieces .... There is therefore inevitably an element of tension between the wife's maternal uncle and the husband, and this tension makes the latter's life extremely uncomfortable.'' According to Chie N akane this accounts for a very high divorce rate, and for the fact that 70 % of all divorce cases concern marriages to heiresses. In Khasi society it is as easy for a widow or divorcee to remarry as it is to get divorced. While a man is insecure in his wife's house, he may find himself as the authority in his sister's house, or occupy at least a respected position as uncle or brother. Hence a married man may act as the head of a family (iing) other than his wife's. The attachment of a man to his iing is very great, and if his wife dies, he will usually return to his sister's house, where he is received warmly. The situation is different if a man marries a girl who is not an heiress, and there are many such marriages in which the man's status as a husband and father is good and stable. Because a non-heiress has usually no property of her own, the husband's labour is of vital importance, and the economic circumstances allow such a man to be the de facto head of his household, even though his earnings are automatically passed on to his wife. Yet, the husband's authority is not permanent for theoretically he exercises it in the absence of a male adult member of his wife's iing, i.e. until his son is grown up. Whatever property has been accumulated by the family will ultimately go to his youngest daughter, who will be the central figure of a new iing, the economic basis of which may have been created by her father's efforts. Khasi men seem to prefer to marry a non-heiress, since they will then form an independent household and remain immune to pressure from their wife's kin. Yet, even a successful man who works for his wife and children may concern himself in addition with the interests of his natal iing, and often visits the house of his youngest sister or niece. Thus the matrilineal principle makes itself felt even in a situation where a man

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seems to have established a household entirely dependent on his own economic efforts. Polygyny is now rare among Khasis and Christian influence has created the feeling that it is not quite respectable. But Chic Nakane, who worked in remote villages, had encountered cases of polygyny and obtained the views of Khasis who did not disapprove of the practice. As a Khasi woman normally does not move into the house of her husband, it is easy for a man to have two wives and to alternate his attentions staying with each in turn. There is, however, a status distinction between a wife married with a full wedding ceremony and one who was married with a minimum of ceremonial. There is a great difference between a matrilineal and a patrilineal society in so far as the attraction and the rewards of polygyny are concerned. A Khasi does not achieve any economic advantage by having two wives, nor does he increase his social status. According to Nakane rather the reverse is true, for in her experience a polygynist is regarded as a somewhat ludicrous or tragic figure. Nor is there any tendency to polyandry, as there is among such prominent matrilineal societies as those of Kerala, for a Khasi woman is placed in a situation in which she can hardly monopolize even one husband, because a man's ties to his sister's household and family are in continuous competition with his loyalty to his matrimonial household. The traditional Khasi religion is today overshadowed by Christianity which enjoys the allegiance of the majority of educated Khasis, most of whom have been to mission schools. Yet the old Khasi religion survives in the remoter villages and as a substratum underlying even the thinking of Christians it still plays a role in validating many practices which persist among both Christians and non-Christians. In the forefront of Khasi religion stand the two deities U Blei Nongthaw, the Creator, and Ka Blei Synshar, his female counterpart. Tradition has that U Blei Nongthaw created sixteen families who lived with him in a sky world. Seven of these families were the ancestors of the Khasis, and they came down from heaven and settled on earth. Though U Blci Nongthaw is invoked in ceremonies he receives no offerings and is not the object of true worship, the idea being that he is too remote to take note of petty human problems. It is the minor gods and spirits, capable of helping or harming men and women, who are propitiated with the sacrifices of goats, pigs and fowls. There are gods of mountains and rivers, and of other natural objects. Even some trees are sacred and may not be cut down. Illness is supposed to be caused by spirits in retaliation for some act of omission or commission, and health can be restored by propitiating the offended spirits.

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Ancestor worship plays an important role in Khasi religion, and there is a deep-rooted belief that the departed wield great power over the living. To secure their beneficial influence elaborate funeral ceremonies are conducted. Closely linked with the funerary ritual is the erection of megalithic monuments and these are the most characteristic feature of the scenery of the highlands round Shillong. The ceremonies connected with the disposal of the dead are mainly the concern of the iing. Normally corpses are burnt, and the cremation ceremony is performed by the dead person's maternal kinsmen. After the cremation the remaining bones are collected by the deceased's mother's brother, brother or sister's son and received by his mother's sister, sister, or sister's daughter. They are then placed into a small stone cist, which members of the deceased's iing have constructed either in their own garden or on a hillock on the outskirts of their village. The bones remain in this cist until the maternal relations have collected sufficient funds to perform the subsequent rites. These include the sacrifice of a bull or cow, and the transfer of the bones to another cist, where they are deposited together with the bones of other members of the same iing. This is not their final resting place, however, for after several years the bones of all the lineages descended from a common ancestress are deposited in a large ossuary constructed of heavy stone-slabs. Some ossuaries of this type have been in existence for so long that no one knows how many generations ago they were erected. Distinct from the cists containing bones are memorials consisting of roughly carved menhirs and dolmens put up in memory of one or several members of a lineage. The upright stones are usually in groups of three, but there are also rows of five, seven or nine menhirs. The memorial stones vary in height between two to sixteen feet, with the tallest menhir always standing in the centre. In front of the row of menhirs there is invariably a large flat table-stone resting on supporting stones. While the upright stones commemorate male members of the lineage the table stones commemorate ancestresses. On the flat table-stones food offerings used to be placed and these were for all the ancestors. The ceremonies culminating in the erection of such menhirs were performed some years after the final disposal of the bones in the clan ossuary. The last major monument of this kind was put up in 1890 and the accounts of eye witnesses of the elaborate rite have been recorded. 1 Large numbers of men, using cane ropes, dragged each stone from a considerable distance to the site of the memorial, and as the procession 1 David Roy, The Megalithic Culture of the Khasis, Anthropos, Vol. 58, 1963, pp. 520-556.

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moved forward, drums were beaten, and one man sat on the stone waving a fly-whisk and singing. As long as the dragging of stones went on every night one bull or cow was sacrificed at the house of the family organizing the ceremony, and the horns and lower jaws of the sacrificial animals were placed inside the house. But ultimatly they were tied to a stick which was erected at the back of the tallest stone. These megalithic monuments so characteristic of the Khasis recall the megaliths put up in the course offeasts of merit by the Angamis and other Naga Tribes, as well as the megalithic structures of the Gadabas, who like the Khasis speak an Austroasiatic language. Increasing modernization and above all the conversion of the majority of Khasis to Christianity have brought about changes which have transformed many aspects of the Khasis' cultural and economic life. The change is nowhere more obvious than in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya. Shillong has outgrown its rural past, and has become a populous city. Connected with Assam by a national highway it is now the headquarters of the State Government, and has a sizable population of officials both of the state and the central government. While it continues to be predominantly a Khasi town it is also a meeting place of people of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds such as Bengalis, Assamese, Nepalis, and other outsiders. There are numerous shops, godowns and tea-houses, and buses and cars make their way through the narrow streets. Christian missions operate in the fields of education and health, and there are numerous schools and colleges including the North East Hill University. In many of these institutions English is the medium of instruction, and most of the educated Khasis are fluent in that language. As a reaction to these modernizing influences a Khasi solidarity movement, administered by a number of committees, works for the preservation of the Khasi heritage, particularly in the fields of social customs, cultural activities and folk arts. This movement promotes publication of the writings of Khasis both in English and in the Khasi language, and sponsors traditional festivals. Dancing forms an important part of all Khasi festivities, and the dancers dress up in colourful costumes, the girls wearing whatever jewelry the family possesses or is able to borrow for the occasion. Whereas the more puritanical of the Christian sects used to discourage participation in dances connected with 'pagan' festivals, the influence of the Khasi solidarity movement which is supported by many personalities of the Khasi elite holding high office in government, has made dancing respectable and non-Christians and Christians can be seen joining in the same functions with the deliberate purpose of bridging the gaps between the different sections of Khasi society. Newspapers and political weeklies circulating extensively among the

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Khasis consistently stress the importance of revitalizing the Khasi heritage. Thus the high standard ofliteracy, originally resulting from the intervention of foreign missionaries, is now benefiting the movements which plead for the retention of traditional values.

SWAT PATHANS

The Pathans, also known as Pakhtuns, constitute a large tribal group, about 13 million strong, whose distribution extends over parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The western Pathans, Afghans proper, live in the country which includes the territory of Kabul and the plains of Kandahar. The eastern Pathans occupy the north-eastern part of Baluchistan, and the mountains of northwestern Pakistan. They are divided into a number of different tribes each of which is again split into units referred to as khel. The Pathans speak Pashto, an Indo-Aryan language related to Persian and Baluchi, and their racial type is basically Caucasoid, though their location along one of the main migration routes into the Indian subcontinent has brought them in contact with a variety of invaders of different race, such as Turks and Mughals. Most Pathans are of medium pigmentation and heavily bearded. Their facial features show a maximum of bony relief, and on the whole their bone structure is heavier than that of the other ethnic groups of Pakistan. One of the centres of Pathan settlement is the Swat valley, which gives its name to a Pathan population of approximately four hundred thousand. The Swat valley is bounded by mountain ranges rising to 19,000 feet, and the Swat river draining it flows southwards into the Peshawar plain. In so far as communications are concerned the valley is a dead end and this explains its historical isolation from the extensive trade connexions centered in Peshawar. The Yusufzai tribes, who at present dominate the region, established their control between A.D. 1500 and 1600, after having been ejected from the Kabul valley. War has been endemic among the Pathans and no foreign power, including the British, has ever succeeded in establishing permanent and effective administrative control over the martial tribesmen of the Swat valley. Right up to the British era the valley lay wholly in tribal territory and thus enjoyed complete local autonomy. Though as late as A.D. 752 Swat was a centre of Buddhism its inhabitants are today fervent adherents of Islam. The economy of the Pathans of Swat is based on agriculture and animal husbandry. Until a few decades ago it functioned almost entirely without money, and even now, when there is some inflow of cash from migrant labour, barter transactions have not become obsolete. Yet the

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growth of a money economy has slowly eroded barter and the patronclient redistributive network. The main grain crops are wheat, barley, rice and maize, and in addition mustard, sugar-cane, pulses and a variety of fruits and vegetables are grown. Agricultural land includes artificially as well as naturally irrigated plots, dry fields and orchards, particularly orange groves. A complex system of channels, largely fed by the Swat river, provides irrigation for a large part of the valley bottom, and makes possible the raising of two crops a year. Dry land is cultivated in rotation with a two or three year cycle of fallows. Bullocks are mainly used for ploughing, cows and buffaloes provide milk and beef, sheep are kept for the sake of their wool, and both they and goats are raised for slaughter. Donkeys, mules and horses are used as pack animals and for riding. Villages are compact clusters of stone houses, usually surrounded by arable land. Inside a village there is a maze of narrow lanes between the high walls of houses built of rounded stones held together by mud. At the side of the path of such a lane there is often a rivulet which serves as a source of drinking water as well as for bathing and washing clothes and dishes. Occasionally a lane widens and leaves an open space in front of a small mosque or a men's house, one of the few buildings with some decoration in the form of carved pillars. An ordinary Pathan house has usually one room, sparsely furnished with a few string cots and some cupboards built into the mud walls. A hearth in the centre of the room serves for cooking, and the smoke escapes through a hole in the roof. The houses of some affluent families have several rooms, and these may accommodate more than one nuclear family but husband, wife and children still live in the cramped conditions of a single room. vVomcn spend the greater part of their life in the confined space of such a house, and its claustrophobic atmosphere may well be responsible for much of the tension prevailing in many families. The men's house is characteristic of the Pakhtun class; it is found only in areas dominated by Pakhtuns, and never in areas administered by Saints. It is at one and the same time club-house, dormitory, guest house and place for ritual and feasting. It is the scene of the greater part of Pa than political life. In the past most of the men and the unmarried boys slept in the men's houses (hujera) owned by prominent men. Nowadays only some widowers and their servants live full time in such hujera, and to replace them in their role as guest houses, some men have built small guest-rooms as annexes to their houses. Mosques serve also as meeting places for men, and are often centres of political discussions, notwithstanding their sacred character. In shops too men gather for

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gossip, particularly poorer men who want to demonstrate their independence from the rich owners of men's houses. In the days of frequent feuding villages were compact and built for defence, but in the present more peaceful atmosphere settlements are spreading out, a phenomenon which for precisely the same reason can be observed among the Apa Tanis (see p. 72). The village is the most important unit of territorial nature for a Swat Pathan, and its occupants are the main focus of his political interest. But villages vary greatly in size, comprising 500 to 10,000 inhabitants. The units of social life into which a village is segmented are the wards (palao or cham) and these contain usually 200 to 500 inhabitants. A ward may bear the name of its chief or of the dominant descent group residing in it, or a name relating to its topographical position. Essentially a palao is a ward governed by one dominant Yusufzai chief, while a cfzam is a ward led by by a non-Yusufzai, either a man of holy descent, or a man to whom a non-resident landowner has delegated administrative duties. All persons resident in a ward depend on a common mosque and a common leader of prayers. In a ward there are usually forty to eighty houses inhabited by landowners, who are the chiefs equals, by tenants and dependants, and by artisans such as blacksmiths and carpenters. Every household has a formal head who must be male and who has authority over all the other members. The landowners of a village are the chiefs equals and potential rivals, whom he has to dominate in order to maintain his leadership role. Central to the political ambitions of a chief and designed to re-enforce his position is his men's house. There is at least one men's house in each ward, and this is dominated by a chief who maintains it and provides hospitality in the shape of food to all those who spend their time in it. Allegiance to the chief is expressed by the mere act of spending some time in his men's house and of partaking of the food served there. Many chiefs collect more grain from their tenants than they and their immediate family are able to consume, and as in a traditionally nonmonetary system such perishable grain cannot easily be converted into imperishable capital, it is used to build up social status and prestige through the mechanism of lavish hospitality by which the allegiance of the people regularly visiting the chiefs men's house is secured. This is a situation not very different from that which motivates wealthy Nagas or Apa Tanis to give ''feasts of merit" in the course of which huge quantities of food arc lavished on the entertainment of numerous guests. As the many men within a ward with whom a chief has social relations are not necessarily obliged to render him political support it is only through

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the regular offering of hospitality that he can build up a network of men on whose loyalty he can depend in the constant competition for power and prestige. The Pathan population of Swat is divided not only into territorial units with demarcated boundaries, i.e. wards, villages and local areas, but it is divided also into social strata. Each of these strata is spatially dispersed, but hierarchically homogeneous, and a person's position within the system is determined by parentage. These social strata are referred to as qoum, and the different qoum constitute patrilineal, hereditary ranked occupational groups which are ideally endogamous. As they evince some similarities with Hindu castes, some observers have used for them the term "caste" but this practice can be misleading and it is preferable to use the local term qoum, even though in a other contexts the Urdu word qoum is translated "tribe". There are numerous occupational qoum, such as tailors, smiths, carpenters, barbers, etc., but the only two which are relevant in the local authority systnn are Sayyid "Saints" and Pakhtun ''landholding tribesmen''. The belief in the inherited power and superior piety of Saints sets these people apart from ordinary individuals. The landowning trjbesmen, Pakhtuns, serve as political patrons to all other groups, and are thus superior to everyone but the Saints. Farmers who have the status of tenants as distinct from labourers are persons of some means, owning cattle and agricultural equipment, though normally not land. Only members of the Pakhtun or Saint families own land and among these most land is concentrated in the hands of a small number of chiefs and landlords who do not themselves engage in manual labour. They provide land and sometimes also seed and equipment. The dwelling houses of the village belong to landowners in numbers proportionate to the area of land held by each. Most villagers thus reside in houses belonging to other persons. In return for the right to occupy the house, a tenant must pay a rent, and this may be in kind, labour or money, but the majority of house tenants pay in labour or kind. In the same way as houses are given on tenancy cultivable land is also given on rent, and this may be a fixed amount or a share of the crop. Sharecroppers do not have to be landless labourers, for poor Pakhtun farmers also take on extra land on sharecropping to augment their income. Land is important to the Pakhtun not only as the principal source of income but also as the base on which political relationships can be built up. Attempts to increase one's own holding are held in check by the rule that land must not be alienated outside the patrilineage. A man who is obliged to sell land in order to meet an unavoidable commitment may sell it only within the circle of his close patrilineal kinsmen. Descent among Path ans

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is reckoned strictly in the male line. A woman does not control any productive resources, and a mother has no rights which can be passed on to her children. Pathans recognize only one form of marriage; it is made legal by a simple Islamic ceremony, and by this ceremony the husband obtains full and exclusive rights over his wife. Bride-price payments may be necessary to make the girl's father give his legally required consent to the marriage, but their payment or non-payment in no way affects the extent of the husband's rights over his wife. Swat Pathans following Islamic law in its Hanafi form impose few restrictions on the choice of a spouse. Crosscousin marriage is permitted and incest prohibitions apply only to the third generation ascendant and descendant, to siblings of father and father's father, to ascendant or descandant of wife and to divorced wife of ascendant or descendant. The secular ideal favours marriage between equals but permits women to be given to ther social superiors and such hypergamous unions are frequent. To give a girl to a social inferior in marriage is regarded as shameful. The landed gentry insists on the most stringent seclur,ion of women, and there are stories of husbands who killed their wives on account of even an inadvertant breach of purdah, actions which are consistent with the Pakhtun proverb "Women belong in the house or in the grave". Among the poorer classes women have slightly more freedom, and whereas the seduction of an upper class woman leads to death for both parties in the affair, the seduction of a lower class woman may be ignored or punished merely by a fine. Despite the general denigration of women, expressed in a plethora of proverbs, wealthy men strive to have as many wives as possible, not so much for the sake of sexual gratification, but as symbols of success in the competition for every sort of chattel. Indeed men of the elite view the taking of women as an aspect of their hobby of warfare and one-upmanship. Husbands take pride in beating their wives regularly and only if bones are broken is a woman allowed to flee to her family, but even then she must ultimately return to her husband. For divorce is not tolerated except among the very poor, and to refer to a man as "divorced" is a deadly insult, because it implies his failure to have exerted his absolute dominance over his wife. The provision for divorce in Islamic law is ignored as are the rules of Islamic law regarding the inheritance of property. The basic aggressiveness in interpersonal relations so characteristic of Pathans pervades also the attitude towards kinsmen. Members of the same lineage do not necessarily support each other, and feuds between patrilineal cousins result in gun fights and deaths. Such disputes are not only over land, but concern also dominance and power. Often they lead

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to the utter destruction of both parties, blood demands blood, and once it has been shed, the game of revenge killings has to be played to its bitter conclusion. In the days of British rule in India the Pathan tribes were often admired for their martial qualities, and there can be no doubt of the courage and endurance they evinced in the pursuance of tribal feuds. The proverb ''The Pakhtun is never at peace except when he is at war'' illustrates this trend towards violence, but the inside view provided by Charles Lindholm's recent study Generosity andjealousy: The Swat Pukhtun of Northern Pakistan (New York 1982) suggests that the blind pursuit of honour and dominance imposes an intolerable strain on human relations and deprives in the long run all members of the society of any prospect of individual happiness. For if it is true that within the Swat social order ''all relationships contain elements of hostility or contempt, or both'', neither the domineering men nor the despised and bullied women are likely to attain any fulfilment of their individual aspirations. The Pukhtun seem to lead their lives in an atmosphere of continuous anxiety and struggle. Rivalry and jealousy are the normal state of affairs within the house, and children are taught how to survive in a hostile world. Though the harshness meted out to them may be a suitable preparation for the severity of Pakhtun reality, it also smothers any tentative search for amicable relations between contemporaries and thus lays the foundation for the unrelenting rivalry between kinsmen. In view of the endemic tensions even within nuclear families, it is hardly surprising that aggression does not stop before blood ties. Squabbles between brothers over land sometimes lead to fratricide, and killings of fathers and sons by each other are even more frequent. As the killer in such a case is also the murdered man's closest relative the community as a whole refrains from any action. For revenge is among Pukhtun virtually the only form of punishment, and this can be imposed by no one else except the victim's agnates. Warfare was traditionally the prime occupation of Pathans and in the past there were innumerable fights between villages and districts. Fatalities in such wars could be quite high, but the rewards seem to have been primarily in the realm of renown. Though there was some pillaging of fields of defeated villages, homes were never ransacked, successful warriors did not intend to hold on to their conquests, and neither land nor other possessions were permanently alienated. It was only in wars between regions, fuelled usually by the ambitions of leaders intent on raising their personal prestige, that hostile invasions of territory caused devastation, scarcity and hunger. Although today the government bureaucracy of Pakistan endeavours to avert such conflicts and to mediate whenever they have broken out, struggle and opposition between local groups remain elements of the Pathan way of life.

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GVRVNGS

The Gurungs are a tribe of hillmen of Central Nepal who inhabit the southern slopes of the Annapurna range in a region which extends from the Gorkha district through Lamjung and Kaski to the Syangja district. Smaller groups of Gurungs are found on both sides of the Kali Gandaki river and a few scattered groups of Gurungs are found also in the middle ranges of eastern Nepal. While the majority of Gurungs dwell in the mountains south of the Annapurna range, people claiming to be Gurungs occur also in the Manang valley north of Annapurna. They are largely Tibetanized and resemble Bhotias in appearance and life style, but have Gurung clan-names and speak a dialect akin to the Gurung of the Lamjung and Kaski region. The dividing line between Gurungs and Bhotias is not clear cut, for the relatively high status accorded to Gurungs in the Nepali caste system has induced many Bhatia groups to declare themselves as Gurung for no other reason than to raise their social status. The Gurungs are predominantly of Mongoloid racial stock and speak a language which belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family even though it has absorbed some Nepali elements. According to the Nepal Census of 1971 there are 171,609 Gurung speakers, but in eastern Nepal there are substantial numbers of Gurung settlers who have lost their original language, speak only Nepali and have hence not been enumerated as Gurungs. With the exception of some hundreds of men who have enlisted in British and Indian Gurkha regiments, the Gurungs depend for their subsistence mainly on agriculture, the raising of live-stock and a limited volume of trade. Villages are usually sited on the top ofridges or spurs, at altitudes ranging from 3,500 to 5,000 feet. On the higher hill-slopes close to the village dry crops such as millet, maize and potatoes are grown. In the lower parts of the valleys lie terraced and irrigated fields on which rice is grown in the summer and wheat in the winter. Characteristic features of Gurung settlements are long flights of stone steps leading from the village to the fields in the bottom of the valley, and the extensive use of stone paving inside the villages. Indeed most houses stand on terraces paved with large stone slabs. They are built of irregularly sized stones with a binding of mud, and the roofs are covered either with stone slates or with thatch. The traditional Gurung house is of oval shape, but most of the larger houses are now of rectangular form. The average Gurung village contains 150 to 200 houses standing in one compact cluster, but in the largest villages there are as many as 700. The extensive stone work of the villages speaks of their age, but although the villages are permanent many Gurungs spend much of their

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time moving from camp to camp with their herds of sheep. Today the raising of sheep plays no longer as important a role in the Gurungs' economy as it did in the past, but as late as the 1950s many Gurung villages had still large herds of sheep in addition to cows, bullocks and buffaloes. In the village of Ghalegaon, for instance, the old system continued at that time. There were then four flocks belonging to the people of the Ghalegaon cluster. The individual settlements did not have separate flocks, and a man might have sheep in different flocks. A flock consisted of between 200 and 400 sheep, and there were about five professional herdsmen with five dogs looking after one such flock. Each village had to have several herdsmen's camps (goth) in the high mountains, and each flock was taken to a different goth. There was then a regular cycle for the movement of flocks. In the winter months herdsmen and herds stayed in the lowest camps, not far from the village, and after all the crops had been harvested the sheep fed on the stubble remaining on the fields. In March they were taken to higher hills and from then on the herds moved upwards until in June they reached the highest camps at altitudes above 8000-9000 feet. There they stayed throughout the monsoon months, and in October they began to come down to lower camps, until in December they reached again the vicinity of the village. The owners of the sheep provided jointly the food for the herdsmen, and wealthy people gave annually one sheep to the herdsmen. The milk of the sheep was a perk of the herdsmen, which they could use in whatever way they chose, for the owners had no claim on it. The sheep were shorn in March and in October, and the wool belonged to the owners. Sheep were slaughtered for meat, usually one ram for each household, and in October and November some villagers also sold sheep to people of the lowlands. The wool of Gurung sheep is coarse, and can be used only for weaving blankets and heavy men's coats. Fine wool used to be imported from Tibet, and in the past Gurungs sometimes also bought sheep from Tibet and crossed them with their own sheep, for the Tibetan sheep bred in the cold and dry climate of the country north of the Himalayas did not thrive in the Gurung country with its considerable rainfall. Though in the 1950s sheep breeding constituted still a vital element of Gurung economy even in eastern Nepal, it was already on the decline, and by 1969 there were Gurung villages which had no more sheep. Thus Alan Macfarlane 1 reports that in the village of Thak "no one had any sheep and there were only a few households with cows. The importance of the sheep lingered only in ritual, especially in the funeral when two 1

Cf. A. Macfarlane, Resources and Population. Cambridge 1976, p. 27.

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sheep are needed to accompany the dead person's soul to the village of the dead." Once the sheep were gone Gurungs no longer wove blankets as they used to do, nor did they make their own clothes. On the basis of information culled from Gurung epics and historical sauces of the early 19th century Macfarlane came to the conclusion that "for many centuries (up to three or four years ago) the Gurungs consisted of small bands of wandering shepherds and hoe cultivators, who circled the Himalayan foothills, moving from site to site every few generations.'' He quotes Francis Buchanan who in 1819 described the Gurungs as "a numerous tribe, whose wealth chiefly consisted of sheep''. Thirty years later Hodgson mentioned herds of 1 or 2,000 sheep, and wrote also about the Gurungs' trade in Tibetan salt which they transported on the backs of sheep, a means of carriage still used by the Bhotias of western Nepal and particularly of Humla. There can be little doubt that the Gurung economy and life-style have considerably changed within the last two or three generations. The phenomenon which contributed most to this change is military service in the British and later the Indian army. The British Army in India began to recruit Gurungs into the Gurkha regiments in the 19th century, and ever since the earnings of those serving in the army have played an important role in the budgets of many families. The wealthiest households in a village are usually those whose members draw salaries or retirement pensions, and they are also the ones able to afford to send their sons and brothers off to military service, which results ultimately in further enhancements of the family fortunes. Family life has to be adjusted to fit in with military service, and many young wives may be alone for years while their husbands arc serving in India or overseas. Young men usually enlist between the ages of 18 and 20, and sign a three-years contract which is renewable after a leave of six months. They can leave the British or Indian army after their contract expires, but do not earn a pension until they have served for 15 years. A steady cash income, however small, is an invaluable asset to a subsistence cultivator, and consequently many Gurungs spend much of their active life in the army. In some villages more then 50 per cent of men between the ages of 19 and 45 serve in one of the British or Indian Gurkha regiments. The result is an unbalanced sex-ratio among the villagers, and many communities consist mainly of women, children and old men. A feature of the Gurungs' life which has so far remained relatively stable is their social organization. Gurung society is divided into two strata of unequal rank, known as the Char Jat ("four clans") and the Solajat ("sixteen clans"). Each of these two strata is endogamous, while the component clans are ex-

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ogamous. Both strata and clans are patrilineal. There is very little mobility within this hierarchical system. The people of Char J at are socially superior to the Sola Jat people. Within the Char Jat stratum there is a further four-fold rank order based on traditional roles. Ghale, the highest ranking clan, claims to have been the clan of the ancient Gurung kings, said to have reigned over the original Gurung kingdom centered in the Lamjung district. Next in rank is the Ghodane clan from which the ministers of the king were supposedly chosen. Somewhat lower in rank is the priestly Lama clan, believed to be descended from Buddhist lamas who settled among the Gurungs in Lamjung. Ranking below the Lama clan is the Lamichane clan, which furnishes many of the village chiefs who act as collectors of land revenue and claim to have been entrusted with this function by the Nepali raja of Lamjung. The lower stratum of Gurung society, though referred to as Sola J at, consists in fact of far more than sixteen clans, about 36 and more having been counted by various observers. There are no discernible status differences between the individual Sola J at clans, but some clans have ritual functions and perform certain rites at the funderals of men of Char J at status. It is believed that men of Klihbri clan used to be the priests of the Ghale people only, but now they act as priests for all Gurungs. Although ideally the Char J at clans should only inter-marry with other Char Jat clans, marriages between Char Jat and Solajat people do occasionally occur, and in the event of a Ghale man marrying a Solajat girl the couple's children are considered Ghale but not of equal status. Nevertheless 'pure' Ghale interdine with them, and after two generations the descendants of such a couple may attain the status of 'pure' Ghale if they themselves married only within the Char Jat class. Gurungs of all clans occasionally intermarry with the Tibetanized Gurungs of the Manang region, but if a Gurung marries a Bhotia girl, her children may be accepted as Gurungs provided their father's kinsmen agree to grant them Gurung status. The question of the relative superiority or inferiority of Char J at and Sola J at clans tends to be the cause of tensions within Gurung society, and there exist several legends explaining and supposedly legitimizing the ranking system within the tribe. According to some theories the status differences between Char J at and Sola J at arose only under the influence of the hierarchical system among the Hindu rulers who extended their domination over the Gurung country. But whatever the origin of the division within Gurung society may be it is not expressed in a social situation which discriminates against people of Sola J at class in practical matters or invests the members of Char J at clans with tangible political or economic privileges.

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There are no apparent differences in social practices or the marriage system between the two strata. In both marriage between cross-cousins is the preferred type of union, but nowadays little pressure is exerted on young people to conform to the traditional pattern, and boys and girls are given every opportunity to make their own choice. All cross-cousins are possible marriage partners, but the father's sister's daughter is a man's favoured bride. Marriages of parallel cousins, on the other hand, are strictly forbidden. A wedding takes place in the house of the groom's parents and is devoid of any religious ceremony or significance. The newly married wife remains there only for two or three days and then returns to her parents' house where she may stay for as long as four or five years. During this period both she and her husband go to and fro visiting each other and spending a night or two together in either of the two houses. But once a child is born, the couple go to live in the husband's house. It is only then that the young wife is presented with a dowry by her parents. The dowry consists of copper and brass cauldrons, sheep and cattle, clothes and ornaments. Nearly 50 per cent of all Gurung girls marry between the ages of 19 and 22. Few men marry before the age of22, and for those enlisting in foreign armies it is not unusual to delay marriage another 10 years or so. Unlike the women of the higher Hindu castes of Nepal, Gurung girls are free to joke and flirt with the young men of their village and also with visitors from other villages. The gay and sociable disposition of the young people finds full scope in an institution peculiar to the tribe. This is a kind of youth club, known as the rodi. It is not based on a permanent dormitory such as that frequented by the young people of some Indian tribes, but is a meeting place for one particular group of girls or boys situated in the house of an elderly woman or man. Those adolescents who join a rodi remain together until they are 17 or 18. In the evening the girls bring their rugs and blankets and sleep in their dormitory; the boys usually spend their evenings in the girls' rodi, where they sing and joke together. Then after a few hours they return to their own rodi for the night. In contrast to the youth-dormitories of tribal India, the rodi is not a venue for sexual intimacy, but merely a place for social gatherings. The most senior member of a rodi acts as leader and organizes the common tasks of the group of boys and girls. The members usually work together in the fields, assisting their respective parents. Sometimes one rodi invites another from a different village, and the boys may make a long trip to visit the girls of a distant settlement. There they are entertained for two or three days with meat and other choice food. During the day they help their hosts with the work on their fields and in the evening enjoy the feast and the company of the girls who take pride in providing as much food

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and drink as they can afford. At the end of their visit the boys repay this hospitality with presents. Another important function of the rodi is its role as a basis for cooperative agricultural labour gangs called nogar. A nogar-which shares certain features with the patang of the Apa Tanis-is a temporary association, organized to perform most agricultural tasks. Membership numbers form ten to twenty or more boys and girls, occasionally joined by some slightly older people. The members of a nogar work successively in the fields of each member's family, and in this way accomplish a task within a fraction of the time a single household would require for its completion. The rodi is important also in several religious activities. Gurungs going on long pilgrimages to shrines, fairs and festivals are often sponsored and assisted by the members of one particular rodi. In the same way rodi girls wanting to trek to one of the sacred 'milk lakes' in the high mountains often invite some young men of their village to join them on the pilgrimage, and they provide the food for the whole journey. In Gurung villages which have come under strong Hindu influence the institution of the rodi has declined, because the opportunities it provides to young people of both sexes to meet regularly in an unrestrained atmosphere run counter to the moral values of high caste Hindu society. But the rodi still flourishes in many Gurung villages which are remote from any of the centres of Hindu populations. Gurungs have been exposed to the influence of both Buddhism and Hinduism for several centuries, and men serving in the Indian and the Nepalese army have become familiar with many aspects of the Hindu way of life. The composite character of Gurung religion is reflected in the diversity of ritual practitioners. There are three categories of priests, each following different practices. The most prestigious among them is the lama. By training and doctrine he conforms to the pattern of Tibetan Buddhism, and some Gurung lamas have studied in Tibet or in such Bhotia villages as N ar close to the Tibetan border. Yet the majority, though literate in Tibetan, are not very learned and the number of liturgical books they possess and recite during ritual performances is limited. A wealthy lama may build a small annexe to his house and furnish it in the style of a Tibetan chapel with images and painted scrolls (thanka). Yet no Gurung lama devotes himself exclusively to his priestly functions. He is a householder, usually with a wife and children, and he spends most of his time farming his land. Occasionally several lamas gather in a chapel and perform one of the major Buddhist rites. But such occasions are few, and there is no monastic tradition as there is among most of the Tibetan speaking people of Nepal.

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Far more numerous than the lamas, and more deeply involved in village and domestic ritual, are priests known as klihbri, who belong to the Sola Jat clan of the same name. They possess no sacred literature and learn all prayers and rituals by heart. This is a laborious process taking several years, mainly because the klihbri's ritual language is no longer understood by the practitioners of the present generation. This ritual language may be derived from an ancient tongue spoken by a group of immigrants who introduced an ideology and ritual which persists among Gurungs even though the language has become obsolete. Officiating at funerals and ancestor worship is among the tasks of the klihbri. His ritual dress resembles that worn by lamas at certain rites, and drums and large brass cymbals arc among the musical instruments played at rituals. In addition to lamas and klihbri there are religious practitioners comparable to the shamans who operate within many tribal and Hindu communities· of Nepal. These shamans are believed to be capable of establishing contact with spirits and local deities, and their aid is sought by men and women suffering from illness or other misfortune. Gurung religion is largely concerned with the relationship between the living and the dead. The spirits of dead men are believed to take an interest in their surviving kinsmen, and their power can work for good or for evil. The dead are either cremated or buried, and the deceased's son observes mourning for six months or even a year. During this period he neither eats meat nor drinks any liquor. A year or more after the death, a final and expensive funeral rite is performed. An effigy representing the deceased is draped with a white cloth and ornaments. A klihhri addresses the spirit of the deceased and sends it off to a final resting-place in the north which is comparable to the 'heaven' of Hinduism. Once the spirit is admitted to this heaven, the surviving relatives need no longer worry about it. However, during the long interval between death and the final ceremony, the spirit may give trouble to the members of the family. To avoid this, the kinsmen construct a small shrine on a hill and offer food to the spirit. When the final ceremony has been performed this shrine is pulled down and the offerings of food are discontinued. Many aspects of Gurung traditions and life-style appear to be somewhat contradictory. Thus the picture reflected by epics and legends, which suggest a society of semi-nomadic shepherds is inconsistent with the tradition of Gurung kings and ministers, and the alleged shifting cultivation of early days cannot be reconciled with the present well developed agriculture, the general use of ploughs, the terracing and irrigation of fields, and the complex system of double cropping with the same fields being alternately used for the growing of wheat and wet rice.

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The picture of a semi-nomadic life-style is even more irreconcilable with the solidity of present-day villages and houses, the massive stone structures, flights of stone steps and various megalithic features. Macfarlane's idea that the Gurungs ''are undoubtedly an amalgam of several different peoples who migrated into this area during the last thousand years" (op. cit., p. 12) may explain the heterogeneity ofGurung civilization, and further research in neighbouring regions, such as Manang and Thak Khola, where Gurungs live in symbiosis with Bhotia populations, may ultimately resolve the problem of their origin. Modern education, accessible mainly to the sons of men who have profited from the advantages of a successful military career, has enabled some Gurungs to attain prominent political positions in the central government of Nepal. Such an attainment is still rare, but it heralds a fundamental change in the structure of Nepalese society: minority groups and interests are gradually asserting themselves and the high Hindu castes' monopoly of political power is gradually being eroded. BIBLIOGRAPHY Santa ls

Archer, W. G., The Santai rebellion, Man in India, Vol. 25, 1945, pp. 223-39. - - , The Hill of Flutes, London 1974. Campbell, A., The Traditional Migration of the Santai tribes. The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 23, 1894, pp. 103-4. Culshaw, W. J., Tribal Heritage: a study of the Santals. London 1949. Dutta, Kali Kinkar, The Santa[ Insurrection, Calcutta 1940. Kochar, V. K., Socio-Cultural Denominators of Domestic Life in a Santai Village, The Eastern Anthropologist, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1963, pp. 167-180. Kochar, Vijay, Social Organization among the Santa!, Calcutta 1970. Man, E.G., Sonthalia and the Sonthals, Calcutta/London 1867. Orans, Martin, The Santals: a Tribe in Search of a Great Tradition. Detroit 1965. Khasis

Barkataki, S., The Khasis. Gauhati 1977. Barua, B. K., A Cultural History of Assam, Vol. I, Gauhati 1969. Candie, Keith, Notes on Khasi Law, Aberdeen 1934. Chattapadhyay, Khasi Kinship and Social Organization, University of Calcutta Anthropological Papers, New Series, No. 6, 1941. Ehrenfels, U. R., Mother Right in India, Osmania University series, Hyderabad 1941. Gurdon, P. R. T., The Khasis, London 1914. Mathur, P. R. G., The Khasi of Meghalaya: Study in Tribalism and Religion, New Delhi 1979. Nakane, Chie, Garo and Khasi. Paris/The Hague 1967. Roy, David, The Megalithic Culture of the Khasis, Anthropos, Vol 58, 1963, pp. 520-556. Swat Pathans

Ahmad, M., Social Orginization in Yusufzai Swat, Lahore 1962. Ahmed, A., Millennium and Charisma among Pathans, London 1976.

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- - , Pukhtun Economy and Society, London 1980. Barth, Fredrik, Political Leadership among Swat Pathans, London 1959. - - , The system of social stratification in Swat, North Pakistan, In E. R. Leach (ed.) Aspects of Caste, Cambridge 1959. - - , Pathan Identity and its Maintenance, In F. Barth (ed.) Ethnic Groups and Boundaries,

London 1969. C aroe, 0. , The Pathans, London 1965. Khan, G., The Pathans, a Sketch, Peshawar 1958. Lindholm, Charles, the structure of violence among the Swat Pukhtun, Ethnology, Vol. 20, 1981, pp. 147-156. - - , Generosity and jealousy. The Swat Pukhtun of Northern Pakistan, New York 1982. Gurungs

Andors, Ellen, The Rodighar and its role in Gurung society, Contributions to Nepalese studies, Tribhuvan University, Vol 1, 10-24, 1974. Bista, D. B., People of Nepal, Kathmandu 1967. Buchanan, F., An account of the Kingdom of Nepal, Edinburgh 1819. Macfarlane, Alan, Resources and Population. "A study of the Gurungs of Nepal, Cambridge 1976. Messerschmidt, D. A., The Gurungs ef Nepal. Conflict and Change in a Village Society. Warminster 1976. - - , Dhikur. Rotating credit association in Nepal. In James Fisher (ed.) Himalayan Anthropology: The Indo-Tibetan Interface The Hague/Paris 1978. Messerschmidt, D. A. and Nareshwar Jang Gurung, Parallel Trade and Innovation in Central Nepal: The cases of the Gurung and Thakali Subbas compared. In C. van Fi.irer-Haimendorf (ed.) Contributions to the anthropology of Nepal, Warminster 1974. Pignede, Bernard, Les Gurungs: une Population Himalayenne du Nepal, Paris 1966.

CHAPTER FIVE

TRADING AND HERDING SOCIETIES

TttAKALIS

The Thakalis of Nepal are a population of Mongoloid racial stock, speaking a Tibeto-Burman language which is related to Tamang and Gurung. They are concentrated in the part of the Kali Gandaki valley which is hemmed in by the Annapurna range and the eastern slopes of Dhaulagiri. The Thakalis are basically a trading community, and for long periods they enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the salt trade following the Kali Gandaki route. Concentrated in thirteen villages situated on both sides of the river, the Thakalis used to operate a mixed economy based on trade, agriculture and animal husbandry, including the breeding of yak, but in recent times there have been considerable changes caused by the disruption of the trade with Tibet subsequent to the Chinese occupation of that country. The main trading centre was Tukche, a settlement of nearly hundred houses built on a level site close to the banks of the Kali Gandaki. It served as an entrepot where wealthy Thakali traders stored in great palatial houses the salt and wool imported from Tibet as well as large quantities of grain grown in the middle ranges of Nepal, and carried to Tukche by the growers who bartered it for salt at a rate extremely favourable to the Thakali merchants. The latter subsequently sold the grain in Tibet, usually in exchange for salt and wool, and derived large profits from this chain of transactions. Until the early 1960s the prominent merchant families of Tukche dominated the whole region, not only the thirteen Thakali villages of Thaksatsae ("Thak of the seven hundred houses"), but also the areas lying to the north of Tukche known respectively as Panchgaon and Baragaon. A council of thirteen village headmen claimed control over the social affairs of Thaksatsae, but within this council the principal families of Tukche exercised almost unlimited authority. Yet, the power of the Thakali merchants had even then passed its zenith, for the transHimalayan trade was beginning to suffer from the impact of Chinese rule over Tibet. Moreover several of the prominent Thakali merchants had already extended their operations outside Thak Khola, and some had established themselves in Kathmandu, Pokhara and certain localities in the Nepalese lowlands. While previously Thakalis used to spend only some of the winter months in regions of lower altitude, those with com-

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mercial establishments in such towns as Pokhara and Bhairawa gravitated more and more towards the middle ranges and lowlands and returned only for limited periods to Thak Khola. Yet the social fabric of the Thakali community of Tukche and the neighbouring villages was still unimpaired, and it is this system ofpatrilineal clans and lineages which is described in the following paragraphs. The internal structure of Thakali society is of great simplicity and of a symmetry not often encountered in societies of so high a degree of material advancement. All Thakalis whether resident in Thaksatsae or settled in such distant places as Galkot, Baglung or Pokhara are members of a single endogamous unit. Although recent social and religious reforms, inspired by Hindu ideas of caste status and advocated by a comparatively small pressure group, could well have resulted in fission, Thakali society has remained united, and there is no trend towards the emergence of endogamous divisions comparable to Indian sub-castes. Another factor which in a different social atmosphere might have caused a split in Thakali society, and the subsequent development of two endogamous groups of unequal status, is the sentiment of superiority harboured by the people of Tukche and other villages in upper Thak Khola vis-a-vis the inhabitants of the six villages in the lower part of Thaksatsae. The latter villages are denied active participation in the important festival of Showelawa, which serves as an initiation rite for boys and once a year draws together the people of the seven villages of upper Thaksatsae. Yet, no one has ever suggested that inter-marriage between the upper and the lower regions of Thaksatsae should be discouraged. Though the percentage of marriages between persons of the two areas is low, there is no indication that the somewhat arrogant attitude of the people in the seven upper villages is a threat to the character ofThakali society as an endogamous unit. The fundamental equality of the Thakalis in both parts of Thaksatsae derives from the fact that members of the same clans are found in all the thirteen villages, and an insistence on status distinctions with reference to locality would strike at the root of clan-solidarity. The division of the Thakalis into four exogamous sections of equal rank is anchored in their mythology and traditional history, and underlies their system of marriage regulation as well as the organization of a twelve-yearly festival which gives ritual expression to the unity of the entire tribe. The four clans which evince the classical feature of patrilineal descent groups are traced to the very beginning of the Thakalis' legendary history. The ancestors of the four clans are also held to be the ancestors of the entire Thakali tribe, and the origin of the four clans is thus closely linked with the legendary origin of the Thakalis as a separate ethnic unit.

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The original names of the four clans are Choki, Salki. Dimjen and Burki, but some 50 years ago the Thakalis substituted for those names the now current names of Gouchan, Tulachan, Sherchan and Bhattachan. This adoption of names with a Thakuri flavour-'Chan' being one of the well-known Thakuri clans-was part of a movement to justify a claim to higher status in the caste-hierarchy of Nepal. The new names are universally used in writing and in conversation with outsiders, whereas in speaking among themselves most Thakalis use the traditional terms. The clan is an exogamous patrilineal descent group, and its main role in present-day Thakali society is the regulation of marriage. Clanmembership determines a person's marriage to the extent of excluding about one quarter of all Thakalis from the ranks of potential marriage partners, and within the memory of the present generation no breaches of this restriction have occurred. Even illicit sexual relations between clanmembers are abhorred as equal to brother-sister incest. There is no Thakali parallel to the Gurung legend of a brother and sister who fled to the high mountains to indulge in their unlawful love and came to a tragic end. Another function of the clan is the periodic propitiation of the clandeity, whose favour benefits not only the clan responsible for the maintenance of his shrine, but concerns the whole of Thakali society. Once in twelve years the clan-members gather for the worship of their deity. It is significant that the four clans celebrate this great sacrificial rite at the same time and in a manner which unites Thakali men and women in an act of common worship. The four clan-deities appear then not only as the divine protectors of their specific clans, but as tribal gods receiving homage from the entire Thakali community. The cult of each individual god is maintained by the clan-priest (pare), whose services are also at the disposal of clan-members wishing to gain the god's favour in connection with any personal problem. This clan-priest is also the guardian of a sacred book containing the clan's legendary history as well as an account of the institution of the cult of the clan-deities. At the great clan-festival each clan-priest recites his book in solemn fashion, and these recitations serve to emphasize the unity of the Thakali community. For the accounts of the four clan-ancestors coincide in their references to tht' four clanancestors' migration from the Jumla region to Thak Khola and to their occupation of Thaksatsae. The clan is a ritual rather than a political unit and this fact is demonstrated by the character of the two clan-officials. The clan-priest, whose office is hereditary, has a purely religious function, and the one other clan-dignitary, known by the Tibetan term gamba, acts only during the twelve-yearly festival and then in a ceremonial role involving neither power nor authority.

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Membership of a Thakali clan is acquired by birth or-in the case of women-by marriage. A man cannot change or lose the membership of his natal clan by any imaginable means, but a woman passes on marriage from her father's clan into that of her husband, and should she conclude a second or third marriage into that of her current husband. There are not many occasions when clan-membership finds visible expression, but one of them is the twelve-yearly worship of the clan-deities, and at that time unmarried girls including nuns, as well as divorced women worship the deity of their natal clan, while married women and widows worship their husband's clan-god. Thus only men are considered permanent clan-members. Women are expected to leave their natal clan on marriage but cannot be counted as permanent members of their husband's clan, for a divorce or a second marriage may bring about another change in their clan-membership.

Lineages The Thakali clans are too large and nowadays too widely dispersed to allow the practical co-operation of their members except on the rare occasion of the twelve-yearly clan-festival when at least in principle all clanmembers assemble in one place and join in an act of worship. They are groups of co-operation in respect of that one festival while at all other times they evince the less tangible cohesion of groups of recognition. In other words, all members of a Thakali clan recognize each other as agnatic kin and are hence debarred from inter-marriage, but do not, on the strength of that sentiment alone, co-operate in any enterprise other than the cult of the clan-god. Yet each of the four clans forms a framework for descent groups of lesser span and a more compact composition. These descent groups are the named lineages (gyuba) which consist of anything between 10-50 households and are usually associated with a specific locality or historical personality. Their number is in principle unlimited but although new lineages may result any day from a process of fission there is no evidence for the emergence of even one new lineage within the memory of the present generation. The lineage is a group of agnatic kin for whose regular co-operation there is customary provision. While all members of a clan recognize each other as the descendants of one legendary ancestor opportunities for faceto-face contacts are too few to foster any strong feeling of cohesion or solidarity. Members of a lineage, on the other hand, are expected to feast together at least once a year, to observe death-pollution for each other, to ensure by obligatory visits that a bride introduces her husband to the members of her natal lineage, and to deposit a bone-fragment of every

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deceased member in a common stone-shrine (khimz). Lineage members usually cannot trace their descent through all stages back to a common ancestor, but in a society in which until recently writing was used solely for religious purposes, the absence of genealogies of great depth is not surprising, and the lineage members are content with the knowledge that they are close kinsmen without being disturbed by their inability to trace the exact links between all the families constituting the lineage. The most tangible symbol of a lineage is the khimi, an ancestral shrine in which a small piece of the bone of every deceased member is deposited. The khimi of most lineages are situated in the hills above the villages of Ko bang and Nabrikot, and this bears out the tradition that the first Thakali settlements were situated in that area. The adherence to the ancestral khimi is observed by all Thakalis except those who have broken all ties with their community or have married non-Thakalis. However far away from Thak Khola a Thakali may live and die, his heirs will save a small fragment of bone from the ashes of the pyre on which the body was cremated and bring it sooner or later to the khimi of their lineage. While the khimi is the visible symbol of the unty of all living and dead members of a lineage, the practical solidarity of the living members is cemented by an annual feast known as dzho. The expenditure is met from a common fund (guthz) and annually two members of the lineage resident in the same village are appointed to arrange for the preparation of food and the accommodation of the assembled lineage members in their houses. These managers, known as kundal, and all members of the lineage act in this role in rotation, a man's turn coming usually only once or twice in his life. The feast is presided over by the gamba, who is the seniormost member of the lineage in terms of generations and not of birth order. Early in the morning of the day of the feast one of the kundal takes food offerings to the khimi shrine and worships the ancestors. Only after this act of piety has been performed, may the feasting begin. The overt purpose of the feast is to provide the whole kin-group with an opportunity to come together in an atmosphere of informality and conviviality. In this atmosphere wives recently married into the lineage have a chance of getting to know each other and their new affines, and those living perhaps in villages outside Thaksatsae and hence attending the dzho only once in several years can renew contacts which may have grown tenuous with distance and time. The duration of the gathering depends on the funds available, and if supplies last the kinsmen may stay together for three or four days. Another manifestation of the lineage as a corporate unit is the custom that a newly married couple should visit the houses of all the members of the bride's natal lineage, and offer in each of them a gift of liquor and

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fried bread. The couple begins this round of visits at the house of the bride's parents immediately after the wedding celebrations in the groom's house. By accepting the gifts and giving the couple their blessing the lineage members sanction so to say the departure of the bride. The death of a lineage member receives also ritual recognition. While the members of the deceased's own household observe 13 days mourning, the other people of the lineage observe only one day's death pollution. The descendants of one grandfather co-operate in most cases in the cult of their ancestors and recognize one of their houses as the ancestral house ( ma-dhim) in which most rituals connected with the worship of the ancestors are performed. They form thus a corporate group which may be called an extended family. In Tukche the houses of the members of several such extended families stood in close proximity and this favoured the maintenance of continuous personal contacts. There is no tradition of a joint-family in the terms of Hindu customary law, and most brothers divide their property, anc! particularly agricultural land, without separating formally. After such a division they retain joint rights to property in the sense of being co-heirs to the assets left by any member of the extended family who died without male issue. If there is an unmarried daughter whose father wants to designate her as heir to his immovable property he has to obtain the consent of the other members of the extended family, for the rights of collateral agnates outweigh those of a daughter unless her position is made secure by a will endorsed by her father's closest agnates. While the facets of social structure based on agnatic ties are the most permanent and least controversial, the social unit most prominent and effective in all matters of daily life is the nuclear family which forms the core of the average household. In contradistinction to many other ethnic groups of Nepal, the Thakalis consider the ideal household to be one consisting of husband and wife, their unmarried children and one or two servants. The addition of residential servants, who are usually nonThakalis, is thought normal and desirable particularly among the traders of Tukche, who seldom demean themselves by engaging in agricultural work. The cohesion of a Thakali family finds expression in the numerous acts of domestic worship, and a shaman may be required to establish contact with supernatural powers by the chanting of invocations unknown to laymen. Central to nearly all domestic rites is the worship of the ancestors and deceased members of the lineage. Their support and benevolence is thought essential for the prosperity and well-being of a household, and Thakalis go to great length to secure their ancestors' at-

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tention and assistance. Not every house possesses an ancestor shrine, but every householder is free to perform a rite of ancestor worship in the madhim, the ancestral house of his extended family, in which the ritual objects essential for the cult are kept. These consist of two lha-ke-sang, small brass jugs representing the ancestors, a brass and copper measure to be filled with barley, and a vessel filled with salt. While ordinarily the interior room of such a house may be used as a store for provisions, trade-goods and domestic utensils, such as brass vessels of many shapes and sizes, on the occasion of the worship of ancestors it turns into a sanctuary for the performance of sacrifices and sacred rites. The most important of these is the Lha-chesi, referred to as Kul-devata puja, in conversation with non-Thakalis. This latter term suggests that the rite serves the cult of a clan deity, but the Thakali term Lha-chesi means literally ''god-worship'', although it is thought of as an act of homage directed towards the ancestors of the lineage as well as departed affines and even dead friends and neighbours. The performance of a full-scale Lha-chesi is an expensive affair and until recent years the most prominent trading families of Tukche spent thousands of rupees on extravagant celebrations of the Lha-chesi rite. Certain simplifications have since been introduced, and people of modest means can perform the rites with a minimum complement of participants, thereby avoiding the expense of feeding large numbers of agnatic kinsmen and affines. Essential for the performance of a Lha-chesi is the participation of a shaman, one agnatic kinsman and one man standing to the householder in the relationship of son-in-law. Normally, however, the householder invites his agnatic kinsmen living in the neighbourhood and their wives, as well as his sisters and daughters together with their husbands. The latter referred to as the 'sons-in-law' do most of the work and appear thus as playing a more prominent role than the agnates. The social structure and its ritual expression described above persists in its traditional form mainly in the agricultural village whereas Tukehe, once the main centre of trade and politically leading village ofThaksatsae has suffered a dramatic decline. The Chinese occupation of Tibet and the resultant reduction of the trans-Himalayan trade has destroyed the basis of its economy, and led to the exodus of the majority of the wealthier inhabitants. Whereas in 1962 the population of Tukche was 495 by 1976 it had shrunk to 223, and even this figure was deceptive because so many so-called residents spent only brief periods in Tukche, and had their main business in Pokhara or one of the towns of the lowlands. The population of Tukche consisted then mainly of non-Thakalis, the off-spring of bondservants and dependants of the former great trading families. In April

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1976 there were only 33 true Thakalis staying in Tukche, and it is not surprising that the rapid decline in the population has led to a disintegration of the old social structure. In the agricultural villages south of Tukche very different conditions prevail, for there trade never played as important a role as in Tukche. Hence, social life and the performance of religious rites continue there in traditional style, and the majority of the population consists still of true Thakali families. These farming communities, who depended for their subsistence on agriculture and spent most of their energy on the tillage of the land could never have created the wealth on which the highly civilized style of living of the great merchant families of Tukche was based, but on the other hand they were much less vulnerable to the impact of political events beyond the borders of Nepal and the decline of the trade with Tibet left the greater part of their economy unimpaired. Similarly the villages of Panchgaon in the northern part ofThak Khola have stood up to the economic changes or recent years much better than Tukche and other trading villages of Thaksatsae. The inhabitants of the latter have always considered themselves superior to the people of Panchgaon, even though the difference in the dialects and social customs of the two groups is so slight that outsiders are inclined to regard both as 'Thakalis'. The people of Panchgaon are not greatly concerned about their neighbours' claim to a higher status. Their villages are selfcontained units, practising village-endogamy, and intermarriage with other groups is therefore not an object of social aspirations. The trade they engage in has always been on a smaller scale than that of the people of Thaksatsae. Many families move every winter to the lower-lying regions where they engage in petty trade, the keeping of wayside inns and liquor stalls, and the transport of goods on pack animals. Marpha, the largest of the villages of Panchgaon, has always been active in the transport business, and in the past provided much of the carriage for Thakali merchants. In 1962 there were 220 horses, 32 mules and 89 dzo (yak-cow hybrids) in Marpha, and in 1976 there were 350 mules, 60 horses and 35 dzo in the possession of Marphalis. The drop in the number of dzo was probably due to the change-over from trade routes in the highaltitude regions, such as Mustang, to routes in the lower country unsuitable to yak-cow hybrids. The status differences between the people of Panchgaon and Thaksatsae did not manifest themselves in ordinary social intercourse. There was no ban on interdining, and Thakalis of Thaksatsae did not hesitate to eat in the houses of Marpha villagers. But the distinction between the two groups became evident in their economic relations. Numerous men and women of Panchgaon have at one time or other served in the houses of

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the Thakalis of Tukche, whereas no Thakali ever accepted service in the house of a man of Panchgaon. To do so would have lowered his status in the eyes of his own community, whereas conversely a person of Marpha did not necessarily lose status by accepting employment in Tukche. With the decline of Tukche and the rising prosperity of Marpha the drift of young women from Panchgaon into domestic service in Thakali houses has now ceased, and the time may be near when the younger generation of Panchgaon claims equality with the people of Thaksatsae. Until the beginning of the 20th century the Thakalis were firmly rooted in Buddhist tradition and practice. Apart from the performance of certain rites stemming from an older tribal religion, and involving such unBuddhist traits as animal sacrifices, they practised Tibetan Buddhism side by side with their traditional worship of ancestors and local deities. From the 17th century onwards and possibly earlier Buddhist temples (gompa) staffed by monks and nuns had been established in most Thakali villages. It was then customary that out of every three sons or daughters one should receive the training of a monk or nun, and those members of religious orders who could afford the cost of travel went for study to Tibetan monasteries. Many communal ceremonies and festivals were of purely Buddhist character, and private rites too, and particularly the complicated sequence of the mortuary rites, followed orthodox Buddhist practice, the lamas using the texts and ritual paraphernalia current among Tibetan Buddhists. At that time there can have been little difference in the cultural atmosphere of the villages of Thaksatsae and those of Panchgaon. Both contained lamas and nuns adhering to the same sects and the lay folk of both areas showed zeal in adorning their villages with such ritual structures as mani-walls and chorten. Increasing contact with high-caste Hindus made the Thakali merchants realize that their adherence to Tibetan Buddhism and many Tibetan habits, such as the eating of yak-meat (equated by Hindus with beef) led to their classification as a 'Bhotia' community and placed them automatically outside Hindu society. Anxious to raise their social status among the people of Pokhara, Kathmandu and other centres of Nepalese culture they tried to change their image by abandoning customs and habits which they shared with Bhotia populations. First they dropped such outward features of the Tibetan life-style as dress and certain items of diet, and ultimately gave up some of the Buddhist rituals traditionally performed by lamas. The inhabitants of Panchgaon had no aspirations to raise their status in the eyes of high caste Hindus, and hence they did not play down associations with Tibetan Buddhism. In Marpha a large gompa built on a

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rocky spur dominating the village is kept in good repair, and contains a very respectable collection of Tibetan scriptures. When the gompa was built in its present impressive shape on the site of an earlier smaller shrine, a reincarnate lama persuaded the villagers to create a fund in support of the gompa services and this fund is being administered by a layman selected by the lamas in charge of the gompa. Some fifty fields belong to the gompa fund, and the rent obtained from them yields approximately Rs 4000 per year. A further substantial sum is annually collected for the performance of a festival (dokhyap) involving rituals and sacred dances extending over several days. While funds for religious performances are more than adequate, the number of religious practitioners has shrunk. The old custom according to which every middle son should become a monk and the second of three sisters a nun is no longer observed, and in 1976 there were only five monks and three nuns attached to the Marpha gompa. Yet, the Buddhist faith is firmly rooted in the community, and there are chapels in private houses whose owners faithfully perform morning and evening the prescribed daily acts of worship. The resilience of Marpha as a Buddhist centre is demonstrated also by the fact that in recent years several young Gurungs have come to Marpha to study with the lamas of the gompa. Marphalis who have settled in Pokhara and other places in the middle ranges make conscious efforts to retain their Buddhist heritage even though they live largely among Hindus. In Kheireni village Marphalis have established a library of Tibetan sacred books housed in a building furnished as a small gompa, and from this any Marphali can borrow scriptures for domestic ritual performances. Thus Buddhism has not only survived in Thak Khola but it is spreading to the middle ranges and in recent years several lamas of Thak Khola have gone to villages north of Pokhara to minister to Gurung devotees. BHOTIAS

Bhotias are a group of Mongoloid people scattered over an area extending from the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh in the west over the whole range of the Nepal-Tibetan borderlands and Sikkim as far east as Bhutan and the northernmost regions of Arunachal Pradesh. The term Bhotia is derived from the name 'Bhot', by which Indians and Nepalese refer to Tibet. Though not all Bhotias claim affinity to Tibetans they all speak Tibeto-Burman languages and most of them are Buddhists adhering to Lamaism, the body of beliefs and ritual practices developed in Tibet. The total number of Bhotias outside Tibet is close to half a million, but because Bhotias are known under different local names in the various administrative units detailed census-figures are not available.

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The settlement pattern of most Bhotias is characterized by a seasonal nomadism which involves periodic shifts between a main village with substantial houses and a series of subsidiary settlements where houses are smaller or people camp in tents or other temporary shelters. The houses in the main village, solidly built of stone and timber, may either stand singly or in small clusters, or they may form compact nucleated settlements. In most of the Bhatia areas of western Nepal houses are built wall to wall in such a way that their flat roofs form a large terrace on which one can move from house to house without having to climb down to the ground. In some settlements such a line of houses stands by itself clearly separated from other rows of houses, but there are also villages where the principle of clustering is taken a step further and houses cling to a hill-slope with each house touching the one below and the one above. Seen from a distance such a compact settlement resembles a large fortress, but a maze of narrow lanes gives access to the individual blocks of houses. Whatever the outlay of a village may be the structure of the houses follows usually a similar pattern. In the Bhatia villages of Nepal the ground floor of a house invariably serves as a cattle-shed and may be divided into two or three compartments at least one of which will be used as a store. On the first floor which is reached by a wooden stair or a notched ladder there is the main living room containing usually a hearth and a window bench. In the houses of the wealthy the floor may consist of smooth wooden boards and wooden shelves built against the walls bear various house hold utensils including brass or copper vessels. An important feature of every house throughout the arid regions is the flat roof, often enclosed on two sides by covered galleries. The roof is used as a general work-space for threshing crops, spreading out grain, drying clothes, weaving and doing sundry household chores. A system of alternative settlements at different altitudes serves the needs of agriculture and animal husbandry, which demand the utilization of the resources of all parts of the environment. In the harsh climate prevailing in a habitat ranging between altitudes of 8,000 to 14,000 feet agricultural work has to be spread over different levels, and this involves a seasonal mobility far greater than that required for cultivators in lowerlying regions. For in an environment lacking large compact areas of arable land, the members of a farming community have to utilize a large number of scattered plots in order to extract the maximum yield from a basically unpromising land. On fields in lower localities such winter crops as barley and wheat can be grown, while at higher elevations buckwheat, potatoes and oil-seeds grow as summer crops. The soil of the fields may be either dug up with hoes or turned over

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with a wooden plough drawn by yak or dzo, cross-breeds between yak and cow. The ploughing and the care and herding of live-stock is the responsibility of men, but many other agricultural tasks are performed by women. When the ploughing of a field has been completed women smooth the surface by breaking up the larger clods, and where there is water for irrigation the field is divided into long strips and each surrounded by a low dam. Water from an irrigation channel is then led into one of these divisions after the other. Women help distribute the water by opening and closing channels and ducts, and most of the weeding is also done by women. The animal most intimately linked with the Bhatia way of life is the yak, which thrives best in high altitudes and can be left out of doors even during the severe Himalayan winter. Yak are indispensable as a source of dairy produce and meat, as pack animals in seasonal moves and on trading expedition, and last but not least for ploughing. Their thick hair is woven into mats, blankets and tent cloth, and is used also for the manufacture of ropes. The butter made of yak milk is an important item of Bhatia diet and has also many other uses. It is an essential ingredient of the salted Tibetan tea, and is mixed with tsampa, the flour made of roasted barley. The dough thus prepared is moulded into votive cakes (torma) widely used in Buddhist ritual. It is also burnt as the fuel of altar lamps which are lit in the course of daily worship both in village temples and in private chapels. Yak are often crossed with ordinary cattle and the resulting hybrids (dzo) are used for carrying loads as well as for traction. Unlike yak, which do not survive for any length of time at altitudes below 8,000 feet, the use of cross-breeds is less restricted and many Bhotias breed them for sale both to Tibet and to farmers in villages at heights between 6000 and 9000 feet. Yak-herding involves periodic moves from pasture to pasture as well as the making and storage of hay to be used as fodder during the winter. Pastures are usually owned in common by a whole village, but their use is strictly controlled by systems which vary from region to region. In Dolpo, an area 13,000 to 15,000 feet high north of Dhaulagiri, the pastures are evaluated according to a scale ranging from 'good' to 'bad'. Before the herdsmen take their animals to the high pastures the routes from pasture to pasture which the various herds are to take are determined by the throwing of dice, and the combinations of good and bad pastures on a route are arranged so as to ensure a fair deal for all the cattle owners. There is a distinction between villagers who own a tent and those who do not. The former move with their yak, sheep and goats from pasture to pasture, whereas the latter graze their sheep and goats in the hills near the villages and entrust the few yak they own to herdsmen possessing tents.

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The villagers of Nar, a place between Manang and the Tibetan border, have another arrangement for the utilization of their common grazing land. There the pastures are dispersed over a territory of roughly 200 square miles, which support herds of about 2000 yak. The animals are divided into herds and families owning only a few yak combine these with one of the larger herds. The best grazing is in Namya, a sheltered valley less arid than the immediate vicinity of N ar. The rich pastures in that valley and those nearer to N ar are used in turn in such a manner that those herds which for some months benefited from the best pastures are subsequently driven to Nar and distributed among the poorer pastures, while those herds which had for the same time been on these less desirable grazing lands are moved to Namya. For one month during the monsoon when grazing is amplest all the yak herds are kept in the Namya area in order to give the pastures near N ar time to recover from the effects of overgrazing. Arrangements for an equitable distribution of common assets have to be controlled by authorities acceptable to all the villagers. Most Bhotia villages have councils consisting of a small number of household heads who hold office in rotation,-either for a single year at a time or for periods of between three to five years. In N ar village there is a council of seven men who regulate the use of pastures and forest, collect taxes, organize festivals and communal rituals, and try to settle any dispute which might disrupt the harmony of village life. They are empowered to impose fines for breaches of customary rules, such as the ban on the cutting down of trees for use as firewood. As membership of the village council is held in rotation and every villager knows that his turn will come to exert authority, the decisions of the village councillors are usually accepted without resentment by those who are being disciplined. Bhotia society is generally egalitarian though in some areas, such as Mustang, there is a distinction between a privileged class and families of lower status. In the village of Nar, however, there are no status differences. The society is divided into five exogamous, patrilineal clans (gyuba) and each of these is represented on the council. Although the ancestors of two of the clans are believed to have come to N ar later than the original founders of the village all clans have the same rights and duties. The members of a clan are dispersed over the village and their individual land holdings are also scattered. But each of the clans owns some communal land known as chiising, and this is cultivated by the clan-members in rotation. Its yield is used to meet the expenses of clan-rites and feasts, and for the maintenance of any gompa originally built by members of the clan. Chiising land was established by wealthy people leaving some of their land to their clan or the clan-gompa.

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Marriages or other sexual relations between members of the same clan are strictly forbidden, but in contrast to many other Bhotia communities the people of N ar permit and even encourage the marriage of crosscousins on the plea that they strengthen the bond between families already linked by affinal ties. Most marriages are arranged by the parents of the young people, but elopements also occur and these are usually legitimized. Formal betrothals often precede the wedding by a long time and even some years, but during that time when bride and groom live in their respective parental houses, they often visit each other and may sleep together. Nar society is altogether permissive in so far as sexual morals are concerned and most young people have love affairs long before they consider marriage. Illegitimate children do not suffer from any discrimination except for the fact that they have no automatic right to inherit the father's property. While ·most Bhotia groups practise polyandry and the people of Nar are well aware of this form of marriage occurring in Mustang and other neighbouring regions, there are no polyandrous marriages in their community and polygynous unions are rare though permissible according to local custom. Families without sons usually arrange the marriage of a daughter to a young man who will enter their house, and ultimately manage the property for his wife and their children. The latter succeed to their father's clan-membership but inherit the mother's property. If there are two sons in a family they separate when the father dies and a new house is built for the elder son, while the younger son stays with the mother if she has survived her husband. Land and cattle are divided equally. All cultivated land is private property which can be sold at will on the condition that a man wanting to sell a field has to offer it to his paternal kinsmen before selling it to any person outside his clan. If a villager wants to use public land for conversion into terraced and irrigated fields he has to obtain the permission of the village council, and this is rarely refused. Once he has made the land cultivable he can sell it, irrespective of the length of time he had been cultivating it. In the dry climate of N ar only land which can be irrigated is cultivable, and hence there is a limit to the land which can be brought newly under cultivation, and agricultural use hardly ever encroaches on grazing land. The distribution of water for irrigation is a potential source of disputes, and to prevent dissension three field-watchers control the distribution of water for irrigation. They are appointed in rotation for a term of office of one year, and they are guided by a book in which the water rights of the individual land-owners are recorded. There exists also a list which shows how much land every villager possesses.

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The use of written records is fairly common in Nar, for many villagers have received basic training as lamas and can read and write Tibetan. Apart from the head-lama and several lamas appointed to the various offices in the village-temple, there were in 1981 forty-two men knows as ngawa or lay-lama who regularly participated in gompa-rituals and were able to read and recite the sacred texts of the N yingmapa liturgy. They as well as the head-lama, were not celibate monks but led the life of ordinary householders and farmers. The villagers of Nar used to engage in a limited trade with Mustang. They took implements made of wood and bamboo to Mustang where they bartered them for Tibetan salt and wool. They transported the salt on the backs of sheep, and sometimes they took it as far south as Lamjung where they sold it in Gurung villages. This trade ended in the 1960s when the flow of Tibetan salt to Mustang dclined to a trickle. In the Humla region in the extreme northwest of Nepal, however, the traditional trade in salt, wool and grain has survived even though its volume and profitability is no longer what they were in the past. The Bhotias of Humla have carried on this trade ever since the 12th and 13th centuries, when the kings of the Malla dynasty based on Dullu had extended their domain into the part of western Tibet which included the ancient trading centre of Taklakot. To the north of this lie the great salt lakes which served as the source of all salt consumed in the Himalayan countries and parts of northern India. The traditional trading system of the Bhotias of Humla was based on the fact that in Tibet grain is much more valuable than salt, while conversely in the middle ranges of Nepal salt used to fetch a much higher price than an equivalent quantity of grain. At the time when communications between India and the Nepalese lowlands were poor, and a belt of malaria-infested jungles separated the lowlands from the middle ranges, hardly any Indian salt penetrated into Nepal and the entire need was met by imports from Tibet. People living in the high valleys close to the border were best placed to handle the trade by which Tibetan salt became available to the inhabitants of the middle ranges and at one time even of the lowlands. Used to high altitudes and a cold climate, and equipped with warm clothes and boots, they could negotiate snow-covered passes and withstand the severe weather conditions encountered in Tibet. Most of them were Bhotias and spoke a Tibetan dialect as their mother tongue while at the same time they knew enough Nepali for purposes of trade. They also possessed pack animals suitable for use on difficult treks across the Himalayan passes. For the journey from their villages to Tibet they used yak as well as sheep and goats, but the transport from Humla to the Hindu villages of the middle ranges was entirely by carrier-sheep and goats.

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As long as Nepalese could freely trade with individual Tibetans and the people in the grain producing areas of western Nepal depended entirely on the supply of Tibetan salt, the Bhotias of Humla were assured of very good profits and a relatively high standard of living. For in Tibet they could exchange the grain their animals carried across the passes for several times its volume in salt, and they could barter unlimited quantities of wool as well as any number of live animals, such as sheep and yak. But the coming of the Chinese and the rigid control they imposed on the border trade deprived the Nepalese of the possibility of doing business with individual trading partners. They still take grain to Tibet but must sell it at government trade depots at fixed prices and purchase salt at a rate determined by the Chinese. Thus there is no longer any bargaining; the quantity of wool available to Nepalese is limited and so is the export of livestock. Even more serious is the drop in the value of salt in the middle ranges of Nepal, for with the improvement of communications with India cheap sea salt is now available in the southern regions of Nepal and is undercutting the Tibetan salt brought by the Bhotias of Humla. The cycle of trade, however, has remained more or less the same, even if the profits gained by the people of Humla have diminished. Those Bhotias who own flocks of carrier-sheep and goats undertake the first trading journey to Taklakot immediately after the harvest of the winter crops at the end of June. They carry partly rice, bartered during the winter in the middle ranges, and partly barley grown in their own fields. In Taklakot they exchange grain for salt. In recent times the rates were about one to two-and-half barley to salt and one to five for rice to salt. On the way to Taklakot the sheep and goats are kept for some time on the rich pastures just below the border pass. Such trips may be repeated in July and August, until the traders have accumulated a sufficient store of salt for their trading expeditions to the middle ranges. After the end of the monsoon and the harvest of the summer crops, the traders set out with carrier-sheep and goats carrying salt, and move first along the valley of the Humla Karnali and then across one of the passes leading south to such rice growing areas in the middle ranges as Bajang and Acham. There they exchange salt for rice. The usual rate is now one to one, or at the most five measures of rice for four measures of salt. This is a very unfavourable rate compared to that prevailing thirty years ago when the Humla people could get seven to eight measures of rice for one measure of Tibetan salt. Whatever rice they now obtain is brought back to Humla, and in November the traders set out for a much longer journey. This time they take all their sheep and goats with them, even ewes and lambs which are not used for the carrying ofloads. Again they barter salt for rice and sometimes other grain grown in valleys of the middle ranges.

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Such grain is used partly for their own consumption during the journey and partly stored with trading friends in places such as Acham. They then move slowly farther south, letting the animals graze wherever there are pastures, and finally they take their carrier-sheep to Nepalganj near the Indian border. There they buy Indian salt, usually for cash which they obtain by selling woolen blankets or disposing some animals for slaughter. This Indian salt is taken to the middle ranges and there bartered for rice. The reason why the Hindu villagers of Acham and Bajang do not fetch Indian salt themselves is their lack of transport. They own neither carrier sheep nor any other suitable pack animals. The Humla Bhotias spend the whole winter on these migrations, for in their own villages there is at that time of year no grazing for their flocks, and the needs of animal husbandry thus coincide with those of the grain/salt trade. By the time the herdsmen are ready to return to Humla in April or early May, they have accumulated a store of rice and other grain which they now carry on their sheep and goats to their home villages. A similar trading system existed among the Bhotias in the Indian district of Almora until the Inda-Tibetan border was closed in the aftermath of the conflict between India and China in 1962. In the past the prosperity of the Bhotia traders was the envy of Hindu hillmen. Thanks to the profit from their trading activities they enjoyed a standard of living far superior to that of local Brahmans and other high-caste Hindus, and this wealth was reflected in their possessions, food and dress. They had substantial houses, and a plentiful supply of woolen carpets and blankets spun and woven by the members of the family. They owned appreciable holdings of land and raised horses, cattle, sheep and goats. In their colourfol, home-made woollen clothes Bhatia men and women were much better dressed than any of their neighbours. They were nevertheless considered to be of lower social and ritual status than the local Hindu castes because their customs, and in particular the eating of beef, did not conform to Hindu ideas of purity. The organization of the villages was based on the assumption that for most practical purposes all householders are equal. Civic tasks were taken up in rotation, and authority was diffused among the members of the community. The great mobility of the men, on the move for much of the year, gave great independence to the individual, and in the absence of the men the women had to act on their own and carry the responsibility for the running of households and farms. As a result there was a high degree of equality between the sexes, and one which was also reflected in permissiveness in sexual matters. Polyandry is widespread among Bhotias as it is among Tibetans.

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Bhotia communities professing of Buddhism spend considerable amounts on the maintenance of temples and the support of lamas. The wish to acquire religious merit by dispensing charity and commissioning ritual performances is a powerful force, and there is a general belief in reincarnation. The survival Buddhism, threatened in its homeland by Chinese Communist ideology, today depends largely on the piety and initiative of the Buddhists among the Bhotias of the Himalayan countries beyond the borders of Tibet. SHERPAS

The Sherpas, a population of Mongoloid race speaking a Tibetan dialect, inhabit a mountainous region in Eastern Nepal. The name Sherpa is believed to be derived from the Tibetan shar-pa, which means 'easterner', but it is not clear in what manner this term came to be associated with the particular group now known as Sherpa. Whatever the origin of the name may be it has come to stay, and the members of the group, numbering some 15,000, have a sense of distinct identity which sets them apart from other high altitude dwellers of Tibetan stock. The main concentration of the Sherpas is in the three regions of Khumbu, Pharak and Solu. In Khumbu, which lies at the foot of Mount Everest, villages are situated at altitudes between 12,000 and 13,500 feet, and summer settlements and grazing grounds extend up to 16,000 feet. Pharak is a narrow strip of country lying to both sides of the Dudh Kosi, and in this area the villages lie on the banks of the river, as well as on broad ledges high above the river-level. In Solu, which lies southwest of Pharak, there are no deep gorges as there are in Khumbu and Pharak, and gentle hill-slopes offer better prospects for large-scale cultivation. Other groups of Sherpas are found to the west ofSolu, and particularly in Yelmu, a region only three days' walk north-east of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. In the high valleys ofKhumbu, remote from the influence of the people inhabiting the middle ranges of Nepal, Sherpa society and culture have developed on their own lines. Here the settlement pattern has been shaped by a climate and an environment which precludes the possibility of combining mixed farming with a sedentary way of life. No single locality possesses there resources which alone would enable its inhabitants to maintain themselves and their livestock throughout the year. In order to secure a constant supply of fodder for his animals, the yakowner must move with his herd from pasture to pasture, and the Sherpa owning no cattle must supplement his income from the tillage of the soil by trading enterprises or in present days by earnings from tourism.

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It is the herdmen's habitations at different levels of altitude which lend the settlement pattern of Khum bu its distinctive character. This pattern in composed of several types of settlements. There are the main villages where people have their principal houses and most of their household goods, where there are village temples (gompa) and where communal rites are performed. Besides the main villages there are subsidiary settlements, situated at different levels of altitude where the houses are smaller and less well furnished and where people stay only at specific times of the year. Those known as gunsa lie on sheltered ledges or on narrow strips of level land along the river banks. Protected from icy winds by mountains rising steeply from gorge-like valleys, they enjoy a milder climate than the main villages, and it is for this reasons that many families move there for the coldest part of the winter. Gunsa settlements provide additional opportunities for potato cultivation, planting and harvesting being earlier than in the main villages, but also convenient grazing for cattle. Subsidiary settlements of another category, known as yersa, are situated in the vicinity of high pastures, many of them above the treeline. They comprise small dwelling houses and walled-in meadows, and in all except the very highest there are also a few potato plots which are planted and harvested later than those in the main village. The grass growing on the walled-in meadows is cut and dried, and the hay stored for use as fodder in the autumn and spring when the surrounding terrain is covered in snow. Despite great variations in local topography, the lay-out of the main villages follows a preferred pattern. The houses stand in between fields enclosed by stone walls. Though two or three houses may stand in line they never face each other and it is usual for all houses of a village to face in the same direction. The architectural style is of great uniformity. All dwelling houses are built to one plan with stone walls, plastered and whitewashed on the outside. Gabled roofs, supported on a framework of stout wooden beams, are tiled with broad wooden slats and these are weighed down with large stones. Sherpa carpenters do not use nails, but are nevertheless capable of constructing durable roofs, wooden plank floors and panelling for the interior of rooms. Most Sherpa houses are double-storied with a large living room on the first floor. Here food is cooked on an open hearth, guests are entertained, business is transacted, hired craftsmen such as tailors and shoemakers work, and the women and young girls gather for spinning parties. On festive occasions the living-room becomes a dance hall, and the floor boards vibrate under the rhythmic steps of dozens of dancers. One corner of the room contains the wooden bedstead of the house-owners, but other members of the family as well as guests sleep on the floor.

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In many of the larger houses there is also a private place of worship, a square room containing an altar with carved wooden or plaster figures representing the saints and divinities of the Buddhist pantheon, and the panelled walls are decorated with religious frescoes or free-hanging painted scrolls. On one side there are usually some shelves with a small collection of hand-printed liturgical books. Public religious buildings are found in all main villages. Temples (gompa) or structures containing prayer wheels, either alone or in groups, occupy usually a central position. The roofs of such buildings are invariably surmounted by gilded spires. Some of the main villages also boast a free standing village-gateway (kanz), with religious frescoes in vivid colours on the inside. A Sherpa village consists not only of homesteads and individually owned walled-in fields and meadows, but also of pasture and forest-land held jointly by the community. The members of a village community have also the right to graze their cattle on pastures far removed from the main village-lands, but this right is not exclusive; members of several villages share the use of the same pastures and cultivate potato plots in the same subsidiary settlements. Ownership of property in gunsa and yersa settlements is an indispensable concomitant of yak breeding. Without such dispersed holdings it is not possible to maintain even a moderately sized herd, and all yakowners spend a large part of the year moving with their herds from one subsidiary settlement to another. During six months of the year the soil of Khumbu is frozen and all agricultural operations are at a standstill. While the Sherpas of Pharak and Solu cultivate winter wheat and barley, and sow in early summer buckwheat, maize and potatoes, the inhabitants ofKhumbu must be content with the produce of one agricultural season. The choice of crops that can be cultivated at an altitude of 13,000 to 14,000 feet is limited. In most of Khumbu only buckwheat, potatoes, white radishes and a spinach-like vegetable are grown, but in the high valley ofDingboche, where there are possibilities of irrigation, the Sherpas have succeeded in raising a type of bearded, short stemmed barley. The traditional Sherpa method of ploughing required no draught animals. The wooden plough, with its narrow iron-tipped share, was drawn by four men; one man held the plough, and a woman walking behind sowed the seed. Nowadays most men have taken to ploughing with yak or dzo (yak/cow cross-breeds). The greater part of the land of Khumbu is used for the growing of potatoes and this does not require ploughing, but some weeks before the potatoes are to be planted groups of women, working with long-handled hoes, dig up the potato fields.

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The potato harvest begins in the middle of August, first in low-lying gunsa settlements and then in the main villages. Though potatoes are now the staple food of the Khumbu Sherpas their introduction dates only from the second half of the 19th century, when potatoes grown in the gardens of British planters and officials in Darjeeling spread through the eastern Himalayas. The two oldest food crops of Khumbu are undoubtedly buckwheat and barley, and the arrival of the potato can be linked with an increase in agricultural production and subsequently with a growth of population. The harvest of the buckwheat starts as soon as the potatoes are out of the ground. Men and women cut the crop with sickles and beat out the grain on threshing floors situated in the fields. The greater part of the agricultural work is done by teams of men and women. Sherpas prefer to work in groups ranging between four and twelve individuals. The members of such groups co-operate either on a reciprocal basis, or they are hired labourers working for wages in cash or kind. Families of modest means rely for their agricultural work mainly on mutual assistance. Growing children are organized in labour gangs known as ngalok. Young boys of a ngalok go out together to collect firewood, and girls begin early to co-operate in weeding and the harvesting of potatoes. Much of this work is done by ngalok of adult but unmarried girls. Unlike the labour-gangs of such tribes as the Apa Tanis of Arunachal Pradesh, the ngalok of the Sherpas are not permanent groups, but are formed temporarily for one agricultural season. While agriculture provides the Sherpas with the bulk of their food supply, the breeding of yak and other cattle allows them to supplement their diet with milk products, and in the past they also engaged in a profitable cattle trade transacted between Solu and Tibet. This trade has now declined because of the political changes in Tibet but Sherpas still produce cross-breeds between yak and ordinary cattle for sale in Solu. In the 19th century and earlier the Sherpas had a virtual monopoly on the trade with the Tibetan province of Tingri. At that time great quantities of raw iron were produced in the small Nepalese mining town of Those, and such iron was carried through Solu and Khumbu to Tingri. But since the construction of a motor-road from the plains of Bengal to Kalimpong and Gangtok Indian iron completely replaced the Nepalese product. Trade in Tibetan salt bartered for Nepalese grain however, continued to benefit Sherpa traders, and many of their fortunes were made by the import of such salt and its resale throughout the lower regions of Nepal. Tibetan wool was also imported in large quantities. In Khumbu few sheep were kept and Sherpa women were largely dependent on Tibetan supplies for the manufacture of textiles for clothing. Most

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families organized an expedition to Tingri every autumn in order to lay in a stock of wool which the women used to spin and weave during the long winter months. Political events in Tibet have greatly affected the Sherpas' trade, and at present there is only an insignificant export of grain and some other agricultural products to Tibet and limited quantities of salt and wool reach Nepal by the route across the N angpa La and through Khumbu. Earnings from tourism have largely replaced those from trade. All Sherpas share the tradition that their ancestors originally immigrated from Tibet but the circumstances and time of this migration are obscure, though according to local oral tradition it may have taken place some 400 years ago. There is fairly general agreement that the forefathers of all Sherpa clans (rhu) arrived in the area at approximately the same time and that ever since the number of these clans has remained constant. There is a widespread notion that the number of clans constituting the Sherpa society of Khumbu, Pharak and Solu is eighteen, but in fact twenty-one clans are found in the various villages of these regions. Some Sherpas explain the discrepancy by pointing out that several clans, though known by different names in different localities, are really identical, and this is borne out by the fact that members of such clans are debarred from inter-marriage. The essential feature of a Sherpa clan is its role as the basic exogamous unit. All Sherpas of the same rhu, irrespective of the distance which may separate their villages, consider themselves as agnatic kin. Hence sexual relations between clan-members are regarded as incest, and are virtually unheard of. While Sherpa clans have no corporate existence in either the economic or the political field, they do appear as distinct units in a limited number of ritual matters. Thus the members of every clan recognize certain mountain-gods as their specific protective deities, and on some occasions clan-members resident in the same village may combine for the worship of such clan-deities. Whereas membership of a Sherpa clan does not involve any definite obligations other than the observance of the rules of exogamy, it is of supreme importance as an indispensable symbol of a person's status within the inner core of the local society. For in Khumbu, Pharak and Solu only members of the twenty-one named Sherpa clans are considered as true Sherpas, and only they have a clear place in the exogamous system. Numerous other inhabitants of the region, closely akin to the Sherpas in language and customs, and largely indistinguishable from them in appearance are known as Khambas, and regarded as socially inferior to the origianal Sherpas.

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Most of these Khambas are relatively recent immigrants from Tibet, but some may have lived in Khumbu for several generations. Strictly speaking Khambas are only those who hail from the Tibetan province of Kham, while those from the nearby frontier-region of Tibet should be described as Pheipa. But the term Pheipa is seldom used, and the practice of referring to anyone who is not a member of a Sherpa clan as 'Khamba' extends illogically even to the descendants of certain Gurungs and Newars who have settled in Khumbu and inter-married with the local population. For all practical purposes these Khambas form part of Sherpa society. They can acquire land and houses, marry into Sherpa families, be elected as village officials, function as lamas, and attain even the highest position in any of the local monasteries. But they cannot acquire membership of Sherpa clans nor do they have comparable exogamous units of their own. A Sherpa village is a territorial as well as a political and ritual unit. Its households constitute a community of closely integrated families, many of whom are linked by ties of kinship and affinity; it is a community capable of concerted action aimed at the preservation of its natural resources, the maintenance of law and order and the performance of ritual activities designed to further the material and spiritual well-being of the community as a whole. The traditional system of village administration was based on the principle that all authority was delegated to officials elected for limited periods and though during their term of office they were guided by policy decisions made by public gatherings, they were not responsible to any superior body for the day to day administration of agreed rules. They were empowered to inflict and collect fines as well as to grant exemption in case of individual hardship. In recent years this system has been superseded by the introduction of elected panchayats under rules laid down by the government and applying equally to all parts of the kingdom. In the past there were in every Sherpa village men known as naua, who were appointed to control the use of village land for purposes of agriculture, silviculture and cattle-breeding. Their function was to hold a balance between the needs of these branches of the Sherpa economy, to husband the communal resources and to prevent damage to the interests of the community by the careless or egoistic behaviour of individuals. Thus there were naua responsible for the control of the movements of the cattle and their co-ordination with the work on the fields which had to be protected against stray cattle. Special officials were appointed whose responsibility it was to prevent wood-cutters from encroaching on protected forest-lands.

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Though not every village possesses a temple (gompa) of its own, every village participates on equal terms in the festivals celebrated in the temple to which it is traditionally affiliated. The officials in charge of these temples are responsible not only for the organization of the religious performances, but also for the administration of temple funds. In this sense they are village-officials and their duties include many secular activities such as arrangements for certain festivals. Inherent in the settlement pattern and the system of seasonal transhumance is the principle of the individual family's independence from the support as well as from any fetters of kinship ties over prolonged periods. From the moment of its establishment as a separate unit a married couple stands by itself, responsible to no one and relying on no one's support. The Sherpa family consisting of husband, wife and their unmarried children, or in some cases of two husbands and one wife, or one husband and two wives, constitutes a social and economic unit of great selfsufficiency. The emphasis laid on the independence of the primary family stems partly from the nature of the marital relationship, which is a freely entered and terminable association between two equal partners, each of whom retains the right over the property he or she has contributed to the association. Though all Sherpas expect to marry and to found in due course a family of their own, there is no urge to precipitate marriage and many young people of both sexes defer even a firm betrothal until they are in their middle twenties. Such a delay in binding themselves to a permanent partner does not imply a corresponding period of sexual continence. Pre-marital love-affairs, even if not a prelude to a permanent union, do not arouse adverse comment, for sexual intercourse between those neither bound by ties of marriage nor by vows of celibacy is not regarded as sinful or socially reprehensible. This attitude of indifference to sexual behaviour when related to the unmarried, is shared by the parents of adolescent daughters who are free to receive the nocturnal visits of young admirers. While in general no 'shame' is attached to sexual matters, and no girl resents a man's invitation to sexual congress, there are only a few women who are considered promiscuous. The average Sherpa girl has probably had one or two lovers before she formally accepts a young man as her betrothed, and though a child born to a girl not yet engaged may be considered an inconvenience, no disgrace attaches to bearing a child outside marriage, nor does a child materially affect a girl's chances of concluding a satisfactory alliance at some future date. The formal arrangements for a marriage may extend over a period of years and at least three ceremonial visits must precede the conclusion of a marriage with full rites. These are made on the initiative of the young

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man's kin, the first to make the proposal, the second to establish good relations between the two kin-groups and the third to perform the rites of marnage. The first formal step in the conclusion of a marriage alliance is a rite known as sodene (i.e. 'asking'). The father of the boy accompanied by some kinsmen pays a ceremonial visit to the girl's house to make the proposal of marriage. They carry with them a wooden flask of beer to be offered to the parents. The girl's parents receive the party and after consulting their daughter accept or refuse the beer, thus signifying their attitude to the match. Betrothal by sodene does not give either girl or boy exclusive sexual rights and a boy whose betrothed has relations with other men has no redress. The relationship created by the sodene proposal is neither inherently permanent or of legal effectiveness. A child born to the girl after the sodene is not considered legitimate. The time that elapses between the sodene and the next rite of the marriage ceremonial, known as dem-chang, is normally a year but may be longer. The performance of a dem-chang necessitates lengthy preparations and involves the parents of both sides in considerable expenditure, for the rites require the provision of food and drink for a large number of relatives. On the appointed day a procession made up of relatives of the boy go to the house of the girl; they arc dressed in their best clothes and carry with them a large barrel of beer, known as dem-chang. Inside the house follows the most vital part of the ceremony: the presentation of white scarves (kata) by members of the groom's party to the parents and relatives of the bride. After accepting kata and beer, the girl's father makes a speech declaring that from then on his daughter will be the bride of the groom. Food and drink provided by the girl's parents are served and after the meal is over there is singing and dancing. Near kinsmen of the girl offer similar hospitality to the whole party and feasting and dancing may last several days. The performance of the dem-chang has an important effect on the legal aspects of the relationship between the prospective spouses, but it makes for little change in their day to day behaviour. Both continue to live in their own houses and remain full members of their parents' economic unit. If they have been accustomed to sleeping together they will continue to do so, but otherwise the dem-chang celebration will not necessarily mark the commencement of sexual relations. But any child born after the demchang is considered legitimate. Several years may elapse before the parents of groom and bride decide to hold the full wedding rites, and this is only done when a couple is able to set up a household of their own. The final wedding-rites known as zendi or gyen-kutop, are celebrated with even greater show of hospitality offered

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by both families, and they terminate the girl's membership of her parental household. At that time she is given a share of the family property in the form of a dowry, which remains her personal property for the rest of her life. The participation of a lama is obligatory at the zendi and he has to bless the groom and the bride who are sitting in front of him. After this has been done the bridal party go in procession to the groom's house where the young couple will henceforth be residing. While monogamy is the most usual form of marriage, the Sherpas also practise polyandry and polygyny. Of these polyandry was until recently the more frequent, and this is in accordance with the Sherpas' traditional belief that polyandrous marriages are a time-honoured and respectable device which prevents the fragmentation of property and fosters the solidarity of brothers. In the case of a polyandrous marriage dem-chang and gyen-kutop, the 'putting on of ornamental marks', must be performed in the name of both brothers, and at the gyen-kutop rite the bride must sit between both grooms so that all three may be anointed with butter at the same time. Younger brothers who have not been included in the ceremonies cannot later claim the rights of a husband. Polygynous marriages are less frequent than polyandrous unions, but a wife's younger sister, who is unmarried, divorced or widowed may join her brother-in-law's household as a younger wife. Many marriages are dissolved by mutual consent, but both husbands and wives show a remarkable tolerance towards their spouses' sexual digressions. Temporary lapses are seldom considered sufficient reason for the break-up of a marriage, and even the lover in an illicit adventure is only fined. Though a husband has the right to claim a fine of a small sum of money, there are many cases of husbands not exercising this right and accepting instead an apology and a bottle of beer as symbolic compensation. The Sherpas place great emphasis on the sanctity of individual property and even children have the right to retain for themselves money or goods which they earn or receive as gifts. Young boys and girls are encouraged to engage in petty trade, and by the time a girl marries she is often an experienced trader with some capital of her own. The rules of inheritance are based on the principle that all sons have equal claims to the joint property of their parents, and all daughters are entitled to dowries of like value. After setting aside sufficient funds to cover the dowries of his daughters, a father will divide his property into a number of shares corresponding to the number of his sons plus one share for himself. As his sons marry they receive their shares, while the father's share is used to maintain himself during his life-time. The house of a Sherpa family falls generally to the portion of the youngest son, for it is he who after mar-

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riage remains in the parents' house and manages both his own and his father's property. If there are only daughters in a family the youngest is usually married to a resident son-in-law (maksu) and this son-in-law is recognized as the formal heir. All Sherpas adhere to the Nyingmapa sect of Mahayana Buddhism and everywhere in Khumbu, Pharak and Solu are to be seen the tangible manifestations of the Buddhist faith. Along the paths sacred texts are carved into rock faces and boulders, stone walls and monuments in the shape ofstupas (chorten) bear stone slabs with engravings of the sacred formula om mani padme hum, brooks are lined with water-driven prayer-mills and high white prayer-flags rise above many roof-tops. Most villages have their own temples, in which the community assembles for the celebration of seasonal feasts and individual lamas perform rites commissioned by pious villagers. Such village lamas are men who have received some instruction in religious practices and writings, but who are married and lead the life of ordinary householders. The main focal points of the religious life, however, are monasteries inhabited by celibate monks. There are several such monasteries in Khumbu and Solu, the most important being Tengboche, Thami and Chiwong. The inspiration for the foundation of these monasteries, none of which is even hundred years old, came clearly from Tibet, and for many years Sherpa monks went for training and further studies to the great Nyingmapa monasteries on the northern side of the Himalayas. These contacts have been interrupted by the destruction of most Tibetan monasteries by the Chinese, but Buddhist tradition among the Sherpas is strong enough to maintain the existing monasteries without further assistance by Tibetan lamas. One of the principles determining the composition of a community of Sherpa monks is the general rule that every member must provide for his own maintenance. Unlike the members of religious institutions in some other societies, a monk in a Sherpa monastery is responsible for his own household, and for this reason a young man entering a monastery is usually given a share of his family's property, and this he invests so that it will yield a steady income of agricultural produce. Monastery funds are utilized only for feeding the monks at certain ceremonial meals to be eaten in the course of festivals and for the provision of tea during the daily temple services. Most monks also derive a small income from fees received for the performance of rites in private houses or at village festivals and from donations of wealthy visitors to the monastery. The abbots of both Tengboche and Thami monasteries are reincarnate lamas, and next in rank to the abbot there are several officials who are appointed according to seniority or on the basis of special ability. One of them is responsible for the maintenance of discipline, while others are in

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charge of the economic affairs of the monastery. There are also monks entrusted with the teaching of young novices, and yet others who devote themselves mainly to study or the practice of such arts as painting and carving. The printing of sacred books from wooden blocks is also one of the occupation of monks. Thus the monasteries are centres of Sherpa cultural life and this role is all the more important since contacts with western tourists has led to an erosion of many traditional values. Ever since the early 1950s Sherpas of Khumbu have been employed by numerous mountaineering expeditions and the earnings from such work has largely enabled them to forgo the income which they used to derive from the trade with Tibet which has now shrunk to relative insignificance. While only limited numbers of Sherpas were involved in mountaineering, most of the population of the Sherpa country has been affected by the impact of the thousands of tourists who are now flooding Khumbu and Pharak, and to a lesser extent the valleys of Solu. There is now employment for Sherpas as guides and camp servants for trekkers, and in the numerous tourist lodges, way-side inns and ships. Tourist guides are required not only for treks in the Sherpa country but also for tours in other regions of Nepal. In this way Sherpas earn a great deal of money, but the price they pay for their new affluence is the disruption of their traditional life-style. Most able-bodied men spend nowadays only two or three months of the year in their villages, and during the rest of the year they are on treks, often in regions far from their homes, or they stay in Kathmandu waiting for jobs in the tourist business. Hence their wives and children are left alone for most of the year. The women have to look after house and fields, care for the cattle, taking the yak to the high pastures, a task which was previously the responsibility of the men. Many Sherpa men have now secondary homes and sometimes also additional wives in Kathmandu. Many aspects of Sherpa culture as it existed even fifteen years ago have changed beyond recognition, and it is difficult to foresee in what direction the life-style of the next generation of Sherpas will develop. BIBLIOGRAPHY Das, J. C. and Raha, Manish K., Divergent Trends of Transformation among Kumaon Bhotia. In Fiirer-Haimendorf, C.v. (ed.), Asian Highland Societies, Delhi 1981. Das, J agadish Chandra, From Trade to Agriculture: A case study of the Bhotia of Pithoragarh. In Singh, K.S. (ed.), Economies of the Tribes and their Transformation, New Delhi 1982. Funke, Friedrich W., Religioses Leben der Sherpa (Kumbu Himal 9), Innsbruck 1969. - - , Die Sherpa und ihre Nachbarvolker im Himalaya, Frankfurt a.M., 1978. Fiirer-Haimendorf, C. von, Caste Concepts and Status Distinctions in Buddhist Communities of Western Nepal, In Fiirer-Haimendorf, C.v. (ed.), Caste and Kin in Nepal, India and Ceylon, Bombay 1966.

TRADING AND HERDING SOCIETIES

The Sherpas