Buna
This article is an extract from
THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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Buna
Banua, Buno, the vague popular designation of a number of castes and tribes in Central and Eastern Bengal, who are believed to have immigrated into that part of the country from Western and Northern Bengal and from Chota Nagpur. The term does not lend itself to precise definition, but, I believe, the following to be a fairly accurato list of the castes which it ordinarily includes:-(l) Bhuiya, (2) Bhumij, (3) Bagdi, (4) Bauri, (5) Ghasi,(6) Kharwar, (7) Kora, (8) Munda, (9) Oraon, (10) Rajbansi, (ll) Rajwar, (12) Santal. Of these all but the Rajbansi are natives of vVestern Bengal or Chota Nagpur, where the undu¬lating nature of the oountry and the system of terracing for rice render the area available for cold weather crops, such as wheat, millets, and the like, excecdingly small.
The result is that from the end of November to about the middle of April the classes who live by field labour have practically nothing to do, and wander eastwards in large number in search of work. . Many if not most of them are employed in gathering in the rice harvest Of Central and Eastcrn Bengal; some clear the chars of the Megna and Brahmaputra, or sow indigo for tho planters of Rajshahye, while others find employment nearer home unuer the munioipalities of Calcutta and its suburbs. Towards the middle of March this stream of labour again seLs wc. tward, and long lines of men may be met returning to plough their own field ' with thc first showers of April.
Some, howevor, stay behind and settle in a more or less nomadio fashion in the ilistricts east of the Hughli. To these scattered colonists, whose freedom from scruples in the matter of food cuts them off from their more orthodox neighbours, who repel the Hindu by eating fowls, and the Mahomedan by their partiality for pork, the natives of Central and Eastern Bengal have given the name of Buna. The etymology of the word is obscllro, but I suspect it to be a corrupted form of ban or jungle, having reference either to the faot that the castes and tribes in question hail from the jungles of Western Bengal, or to the aptitude that they show for clearing and bringing under cultivation waste lands covered with jungle. In either case it is closely analogous to the word" jungly," which is used by persons concerned with emigration to the tea districts as a general designation for all coolies who come from Chota Nagpur.
Tho aggregate denoted by the word Buna has some points of resemblance to a caste in the popular sense of the word. Its mem-bers bear a common descriptive name, perform very similar func-tions, and, I believe, eat certain kinds of food and smoke tobacco together. They do not, however, intermarry, and the various castes and tribes grouped together in Eastern Bengal under the name of Buna regard themselves in their own country as perfectly distinct. It is of course difficult to define precisely the extent of the "approche¬rnent that has taken place between them in their new homes; but it is at least conceivable that the bonds which now unite them may hereafter be drawn closer, and that the different members of the Buna group may in course of time intermarry without regard to the caste to which they originally belonged. Should this be the case, it will serve to illustrate a process which I believe very rarely occurs-the formation of a caste by the re-integration of units aheady differen¬tiated from a common stock.
It is tolerably certain that most of the castes included among the Bunas are offshoots from the great aboriginal raeo whom the Aryans found in possession of the plains of India. 1'hey have, however, long ago parted into separate marriage groups, and it will be curious to see whether their compara¬tivo isolation as settlers in Central and Eastern Bengal causes them to re-unite. The only analogous instance that I know of is that of the Chattarkhai caste in Orissa.
The following statement shows the number and distribution of the Buna group in 1872 and 1881. The statistics are not very valuable, as many .Bunas would probably have described themselves by the name of their own casto instead of by the less definite generic term Buna.
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Buna
(From People of India/ National Series Volume VIII. Readers who wish to share additional information/ photographs may please send them as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.)
Surnames: Dasa, Samala [Orissa] Exogamous units/clans (gotra): Hati (elephant), Naga [Orissa]
