Birhor
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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Birhor
Small Dravidian tribe of Chota Nagpur who live in the jungle in tiny huts made of branohes of trees and leaves, and eke out a miserable living by snaring hares and monkeys and ooll~cting jungle produo~s, espeoially ~he bark of the dob oreepe; (Banhtnta scandens) , from wblOh a ooarse bnd of rope is made. They claim to be of the same race as the Kharwars, and to come from
Origin
Khairagarh in the Kaimur hills, but this legend, like ~imilar stories . . told by the Santals and Oraons, can hardly bo
Ongm. deemed to possess any historical value, and probably refers to a migration of comparatively recent date. A list of the Birhor septs is given in Appendix I. Two at least are totemistic; the others appear to be local or territorial. One of them, IIemrom, is found also among the Santtlls, but with them it means a horse, while the :Birhors say it is a kind of fish.
Marriage
Primitive as the habits of the Birhors are, they seem to have been to some extent affected by the influence of Marriage. Hindu ideas. Marriage is a case in point. l'he free courtship in vogue among the compact Dravidian tribes has fallen into disuse, and parents arrange the marriage of their daughters at an early age. Three rupees is the standard bride-price. l'he tribe does not employ Brahmans, nor have they any special priests of their own. The marriage ceremony is therefore very sim¬ple, its essential and binding portion consisting in the process of drawing blood from the little fingers of the bride and bridegroom and smearing it on each of them. l'he bride stays two days in her hus¬band's hut, and then goes back to her father's until she is grown up.
Religion
The Birhor religion is, as might be expected, a mixture of Animism and Hinduism. If questioned on the Religion. subject, the Birhors themselves will endeavour in theil' replies to give prominence to the Hindu elements, and to make themselves out more orthodox than they are, and with singular ingenuity they seek to harmonize the two systems by assigning to Devi the chief place in their Pantheon, and making out the animistic godlings, to borrow Mr. Ibbetson's expressive word, to be her daughters and granddaughters. l'hus, according to Oolonel Dalton, an oblong piece of wood, painted red, stands for Maha Maya, Devi's daughter; a small piece of white stone daubed with vermilion for her grn.nddaughter, Buria Mai, and an arrow head for Dudha Mai, Buria's daughter. A trident, painted red, represents Hanuman, who carries out Devi's orders. The minor gods, whose animistic character has not as yet been disgui ed by any veneer of Hinduism, are Biru Bhut, worshipped in the form of a raised semi-globe of earth, and Darba,
a Mundari-Oraon deity, represented by a piece of split bamboo some three feet high, stuck slantwise in the ground. The latter is also known as the sipabi or sentry, a term not unoommonly applied t.o minor gods of this type, and is supposed to be the immediate guardian of the place. A small round pieoe of wood about a foot long, with the upper part painted red, is oalled Banhi, goddess of the jungles. Another similar emblem stands for Sugu, a big hill in the south of the Hazaribagh district. Sets of these symbols are placed on either side of their huts to soare off evil spirits, snakes, tigers, and misfortune generally. When a Birhor dies, his body is burned and the remnant thrown, as Birhors say, iuto the Ganges, but really into any stream that may happen to be handy. For ter;. days the relatives show their grief by not shaving. On the eleventh they shave and have a feast. Birhors have been accused of eating their dead relations, but the evidence on this point is not convincing, and Colonel Dalton says he has no faith in the story.
