View source for Baiga, Central Provinces

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This article has been extracted from <br/>

THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908.<br/>

OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.
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[[Category:India|B]]
[[Category:Places|B]]
''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.