Baiga, Central Provinces
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Baiga
A primitive Dravidian tribe in the Central Provinces, with 25,000 members in 1901, residing principally in Mandla and the adjoin- ing Districts. The Binjhals or Binjhwars, who number 71,000, and are found chiefly in Sambalpur, were originally a subdivision of the Baigas, but have now become Hinduized, and are practically a separate caste. In Mandla and Balaghat the Binjhals are shown as a sub-caste of Baigas. They include several of the Sambalpur zamlnda?s. The Bhumias ('guardians of the earth') are the same tribe as the Baigas, while the Bhainas of Bilaspur are probably another offshoot, Raibhaina being shown as a sub-caste of Baiga in Balaghat.
The Baigas have several endogamous divisions, some of which will not eat with each other. The Gondwainas who eat beef and monkeys are the lowest sub-caste. Each sub-caste is divided into a number of exogamous septs, the names of which are identical in many cases with those of the Gonds. The septs are further divided, as among the Gonds, into groups worshipping different numbers of gods, and the marriage of persons worshipping the same number of gods is prohibited, although they may belong to different septs. This organization is probably taken from that of the Gonds, adopted in accordance with the usual principle of imitation at the time when the Gonds were a ruling race. Gond girls marrying Baigas are admitted into the caste.
Marriage is adult, and a price varying from Rs. 5 to Rs. 20 is usually paid for the bride. Unchastity before marriage is said to be a rare occurrence. The ceremony presents no special features, except that it is considered essential that the bride's father should go out to meet the bridegroom's party riding on an elephant. As a real elephant is not within the means of a Baiga, two wooden bedsteads are lashed together and covered with blankets, with a black cloth trunk in front, and this 1 The greater part of this article is taken from a monograph furnished by the Rev. J. Lampard, missionary, Baihar. arrangement passes muster for an elephant. A widow is expected to marry her husband's younger brother, and if she marries anybody else without his consent, he must be compensated by a payment of Rs. 5.
Divorce is effected by the husband and wife jointly breaking a straw. The dead are usually buried, old persons alone being burnt as a special honour, and to save them from the risk of being devoured by wild animals. The bodies are laid naked in the grave with their heads pointing to the south. In the grave of a man of importance two or three rupees and some tobacco are placed. Over the grave a platform is made on which a stone is erected. This is called the bhairi of the deceased, and is worshipped by his relations in time of trouble.
Their religion presents no special features ; but a Baiga is frequently the priest in a Gond village, probably because as an earlier resident of the country he is considered to have a more intimate knowledge of the local deities and is therefore called in to lay spirits. Even a Brahman has been known to consult a Baiga priest and ask what forest gods he should worship, and what other steps he should take to keep well and escape calamity. The knowledge which the Baigas possess of the medi- cinal properties of jungle roots and herbs enables them to sustain their reputation among the other tribes as medicine men.
The Baigas are the wildest of all the forest tribes, and formerly practised only shifting cultivation, by burning down patches of jungle and sowing seed on the ground fertilized by the ashes after the breaking of the rains. Now that this practice has been prohibited in Govern- ment forests, attempts have been made to train them to regular culti- vation, but with indifferent success in Balaghat. One explanation of their refusal to cultivate is that they consider it a sin to lacerate the breast of their mother earth with a plough-share. They also say that God caused the jungle to produce everything necessary for the sustenance of man and made the Baigas kings of the forest, giving them wisdom to discover the things provided for them. To Gonds and others who had not this wisdom the inferior occupation of tilling the land was left.
Men never become farm-servants, but during the cultivating season they work for hire at uprooting the rice seedlings for transplantation ; they do no other agricultural labour for others. Women do the actual transplan- tation of rice, and work as harvesters. The men make bamboo mats and baskets, which they sell in the weekly village markets ; they also collect and sell honey and other forest products, and are most expert at all work that can be done with an axe, making excellent wood-cutters. But they show no aptitude in acquiring the use of any other implement and dislike continuous labour, preferring to do a few days' work and then rest in their homes for a like period before beginning again.
They hunt all kinds of wild animals with spears, poisoned arrows, and axes, with a single blow of which they will often kill a leopard or other large animal. Their active and wiry frames, great powers of endurance, sharp eyes and ears, and supple limbs make them expert trackers of wild animals. They are also very clever at setting traps and snares, and catch fish by damming streams in the hot season, and, it is said, throwing into the pool thus formed some leaf or root which causes the fish to become partially stupefied and enables them to be caught easily with the hand. They never live in a village with other castes, but have their huts some distance away in the jungle. While nominally belonging to the village near which they dwell, so separate and distinct are they from the rest of the people that in the famine of 1897 cases were found of Baigas starving in hamlets only a few hunared yards from the village proper in which ample relief was being given. In character they are simple, honest, and truthful, and when their fear of a stranger has been dissipated are most companionable folk. The Baigas have no separate language of their own, but speak a broken Hindi.
