NANDURBAR: Tribal Nandurbar

The marathi term Adivasi is derived from the English word ‘Abrijiniz’ and
they are also called the ‘Vanvasis’. We also come to know about these
Adivasi Tribes through our Indian holy memorable books as the Rama-yana and the
Mahabharat. It is said that various Adivasi Tribes used to reside in India
before the arrival of ‘Aaryans’ and even today a number of tribes are
residing through the forests and the hilly regions and they are the ‘original-residents’
of this country. The Aadivasis possess their own history as well as culture.
Akkalkowa, Akrani, Navapur, Talukas in Nandurbar districts are well known hilly
habitats of scheduled tribes and therefore is known as Aadivasi-district.

The Bhils formerly lived in hive-like huts cresting the tops of isolated
hills to be crept into for a few weeks and then left. Most of them still live in
thatched huts, but leave them at once if disease breaks out or if the hamlet is
found to be inauspicious, unlucky or haun-ted.  Such of them as have set-tled
down on the plains have stoned buildings, having walls of unburnt bricks and a
roof of mud with a small verandah infront and divided inside into two or three
rooms.  Each hou-sehold has some metal and a good many earthen vessels, a
stone slab with a roller, a hand mill and a large knife for cutting vegetables,
a charpoy or two with a bedding, a blanket and a quilt made of pieces of
clo-thes stitched together. 

Their possessions are a cow or a buffalo, a few fowls, a small fishing net, a
bow and a good stock of arrows and sometimes a sword. Bhills living in the hills
have scarcely any clothing except a piece of loincloth and their women wear
coarse tattered saris. The peasant Bhil wears a turban, a waistcloth and a coat
and their women have ‘sadi’ with or without a bodice.

The more civilized Bhils of the plains have complete birth, marriage and
death ceremonies not differing much in detail from those practiced by higher
class Hindus.

A marriage proposal has to be made by the bridegroom’s side through some
interme-diary. If the father of the girl agrees the girl is brought out and
seated among the guests from the bridegroom’s side and a packet of sweetmeat
is given to her. This done, they dine together and with the help of an
astrologer a betrothal day is fixed. On the betrothal day, an astrologer, the
boy, his father and other relations take a ‘side’, a bodice piece and go to
the girl’s house. A final announce-ment is made in the presence of ‘pancas’.
The present are given to the girl. The girl’s father entertains the guests.
There is no fixed interval bet-ween betrothal and marriage. It may be a month or
years. When in a position to meet marriage expenses, the boy’s father sends
word to the girl’s father that he would shortly bring dowry or ‘dahej’
called ‘ghun’ in Bhill language. The dowry is settled in a meeting of all
and placed in a plate. An unmarried girl of the bride’s family puts red power
on it and on the brows of the bride and the groom. The bride is asked to sit on
the boy’s father’s lap and he gives the ‘ghun’ to her. After a feast,
the evening is spent in dance and music. Next day, the boys’ father fixes the
marriage day in consultation with a family priest. What follows is very much
akin to what obtains among other Hindus castes.

Bhils have so far allowed and practiced polygamy but now-adays, there are
only monoga-mous marriages. Widow marr-iage is also customarily allo-wed. When a
man wishes to marry a widow, he sends same friends to urge his suit with the
women or her parents and relatives. If he proposal is accepted, the suitor takes
to the women’s house a ‘sadi’ and a piece of bodice cloth, a head necklace
and some boiled gram and sugar. The match is then settled. The man takes with
him a few friends and materials for a feast and they share the food with a party
of the women’s relations. The women dresses herself in the clothes brought to
her and after the guest start for some distant place, before day break and spend
the whole day in the filed, in some lonely place where friends send them food.
These widow marriages are often preceded by an elope-ment, which after the
payment of a fee to the head of the community, are condoned by the parents and
relations.

A married women can get a divorce and remarry the man of her choice provided
the proposed husband is ready to pay to the first the money which he had spent
at the time of the first marriage of the women. This divorce system is called
‘jhgda’. No particular disgrace seems to the women who had divorced more
than one husband.

When a Bhil is about to die, his relative distributes money among the poor in
his name. After death his boy is laid on a blanket or on a piece of cloth spread
over a blanket. An earthen pot full of cold water is placed near the door of the
house and the body is brought out, held in a sitting position outside the door
and water is poured on it. Old clothes are taken off and a new piece of cloth is
tied round loins. The body on bier and covered with a new sheet of white cloth.

The face is left bare and the head is covered with a turban. ‘Gulal’ is
sprinkled over the some bread and cooked rice are tied together in a piece of
cloth and laid on the bier. The dead body is neatly tied and taken to the burial
place over the shoulders of four nearest relatives. In front of them the sons of
the deceased walk, one of the chief mourners carrying fire in an earthen jar and
of the others carrying an earthen jug full of water.

Halfway the grave, the bier is lowered and some of the cooked food is laid
near a bush. The bearers change places and without any further halt, the body is
carried to the burial ground. The bier is lowered and all the mourners help in
digging a grave long enough for the body and to prevent its being opened by wild
animals five or six feet deep. The body is laid in the grave, the head to the
south and arms stretched along either side. Cooked rice and bred are placed in
the mouth and the body is sprinkled with water. The whole party sit around the
grave so far off that they cannot see the body and the chief mourner throws a
handful of earth on the corpse and then all joining cover with earth.

A small trench is cut round the grave and water is poured in it. The bier is
broken into piece and burnt. The funeral party then goes to the nearest water
place, bathes and accompanies the chief mourner to his house. In front of his
house a fire is lit and into it some women’s hair is burnt and each of the
mourners take some neem leaves, throws them on the fire and passing his open
palms through the smoke rubs them over his face.

The mourners are now pure and return to their homes. On the third day, one of
the women of the mourning household rubs the shoulders of the bier-bearers with
oil, milk and cow dung and washes them with neem twigs steeped in cow’s urine.
Then the four men bathe and are treated to a diner. On the eleventh day the
chief mourner goes to a river and gets his beard, head and faced shaved.

After taking a bath he makes a dough cow, sprinkles red powder on it and
setting it in a banana leaf, bows to it and throws it into water. After one more
bath he goes home. Either on the twelfth or the forty-fifth day a kumbhar
(potter) is called and seven step hemp ladder called ‘codhvan’ is set
against the wall of the house, the belief being that the soul of a dead person
may climb by the ladder to heaven. The priest sits at the foot of the ladder and
chants some verses from the puranas and the string by which the ladder is
fastened to the ground is burnt, the ladder is pulled down and thrown away.

The spot where the ladder was tied is then spread over with flour and a small
plate with a piece of bread and cooked rice is laid over it. In the plate placed
is small water pot and its side a lighted lamp covered by an empty bamboo basket
with cloth drawn over.

On this day a big feast is given to relatives and friends, but before
beginning it, five mouthfuls are burnt near the basket. The burial rites for a
woman are the same as those of a man. In the case of a child, its father carries
the body in his arms and buries it. A feast celebrates the seventh day. In rare
cease Bhils are also known to burn their dead bodies.

Bhils from place to place, differ in their religious beliefs and practices.
Some of the wil-dest tribes worship only the tiger god or ‘Vaghdev’. Most
are devotees of the ‘Mata’ and ‘Mahadev’. Others worship local deities
like Khandoba, Kanhoba, Bahiroba and Sitala-mata, the small-pox goddess. Almost
all worship the spirits of their ancestors and believe in sorcery, witchcraft
and omens.

The adivasis of Navapur Taluka have been residing through the hilly regions
(gene-ration to generation). The social life of the ‘Tribal-Society’ are
also unique as each sche-dule community has its own separate language and
speech, tribal community has its own separate village-panchayat through which
the whole tribal community is ruled and con-trolled, Tradition’ is given main
importance in the tribal com-munity and this traditional tendency is passed from
generation to generation thr-ough the medium of poetry, dances, songs and
sports, Religions have much impor-tance in the tribal communities,

The schedule tribes community has due belief in magical tricks, spells,
nature gods and evil spirits and these things are the part and parcel of their
religions life, It is a tradition in tribal community to have a ‘Guru’ or a
‘Bhagat’ to perform any religious rite , medical treatment, each tribe
resides in a particular area & hence their languages is differ from each
other, Schedule Tribe commu-nity is consisted of different families or races
such as ‘Valvi’, ‘Padvi’, ‘Vasave’, ‘Gavit’ , ‘Mavachi’, ‘Naik’
etc.

Family is supposed to be a ‘Centrac-Profit’ of the social institution and
so it has got an important place in the commu-nity ‘Family Means’ a ‘Group
of members’ formed through the foundations of the relatives or which is based
on ‘Marriage Factor.’ The Navapur ‘Taluka Family’ is known as the ‘Pater-nal
Family System’ in which the property & the earning of the family is in ‘Joint
Form’. After his father’s death the eldest son of the family is supposed to
be the ‘heir’ of the property. The younger brother lives with his elder
brother till gets married and after his marriage, the elder brother hands him
over the land, money and other articles of the joint property and allows him to
settle his own new home.

Though the two brother live separately, they share their joys and sorrows
together. The Adivasi family is ‘self contained ‘ and ‘shatly satisfied’
women sons and daughters in the family are free to live their own life old
persons in the family are given proper respect and also treated most
respectfully. Though the old people can’t do hard work their orders are
obeyed.

All the brothers in the family have fantastic love for each other and the
parents have an artificial or natural love for their kids. ‘Adivasi family’
possesses the tradition of ‘multi-wives’. The widow in the family has also
an important and respective place in the family and she was got the right of
remarriage. There are no restrictions to get marry with the same family members.

Nandurbar now

Nandurbar is a small village and has little IT growth as there are few IT
dealers based here. Nandurbar predominantly being a tribal area development is
happening slowly.

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