Birhor people
Encyclopedia
Birhor people are a tribal
/Adivasi
forest people, traditionally nomad
ic, living primarily in the India
n state
of Jharkhand
. They speak the Birhor language, which belongs to the Munda group of languages
of the Austroasiatic language family.
racial stock. They claim they have descended from the Sun and believe that the Kharwars, who also trace their descent from the Sun, are their brothers. Ethnologically, they are akin to the Santals, Mundas
, and Ho
s.
, Ranchi
and Singhbhum districts before these were broken down into numerous smaller units, in Jharkhand
. Some of them are also found in Orissa
, Chhattisgarh
and West Bengal
. They are one of the smaller of the thirty scheduled tribes inhabiting Jharkhand.
of the Austroasiatic language family. Their language has similarities with Santali
, Mundari
and Ho
languages. Birhors have a positive language attitude. They freely use the languages prevalent in the areas they move around and use Sadri
, Santali, Ho, Mundari, Hindi
and Oriya
. Literacy
rate in the first language was as low as 0.02 percent in 1971, but around 10 per cent were literate in Hindi.
is making significant inroads into their society.
, particularly for monkeys. They also trap rabbits and titirs (a small bird), and collect and sell honey. They make ropes out of the fibres of a particular species of vine, which they sell in the markets of the nearby agricultural people. Partly forced by circumstances, partly encouraged by government officials, some of them have settled into stable agriculture, but others continue their nomadic life, but even when they settle down in a village, their tendency is to lead a nomadic life. According to the socio-economic standing the Birhors are classified into two groups. While the wandering Birhors are called Uthlus, the settled Birhors are called Janghis.
and Magh
. As a result of contact with Hindu neighbours some Hindu deities such as Debimai
, Kali
mai, and Mahadev
have found a place in their pantheon.
Birhors follow the rules of tribal and clan endogamy. A Birhor boy is supposed to get married with a Birhor girl, but the clan of the boy and the girl should not be same. Tandas or bands have families of different clans but they follow the rule of tanda exogamy. At the time of marriage, the blood relationship is explored. The marriage between a boy and a girl is possible only when they are not related up to three generations from the father’s and the mother’s side.
Birhors follow the practice of bride price. When the child attains the marriageable age, it is responsibility of the father to get his son or daughter married. As per traditional custom the father of the boy approaches the father of the girl. When the latter agrees, the father of the boy settles the bride price with father of the girl and the marriage is fixed.
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...
/Adivasi
Adivasi
Adivasi is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups claimed to be the aboriginal population of India. They comprise a substantial indigenous minority of the population of India...
forest people, traditionally nomad
Nomad
Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...
ic, living primarily in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n state
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...
of Jharkhand
Jharkhand
Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east...
. They speak the Birhor language, which belongs to the Munda group of languages
Munda languages
-Anderson :Gregory Anderson's 1999 proposal is as follows. Individual languages are highlighted in italics.*North Munda **Korku**Kherwarian***Santhali***Mundari*South Munda **Kharia–Juang***Juang***Kharia...
of the Austroasiatic language family.
Ethnology
The Birhors are of short stature, long head, wavy hair and broad nose. They belong to the Proto-AustraloidProto-Australoid
The Proto-Australoids are a hypothesized group of ancient hunter-gather people descended from the first major wave of modern humans to leave sub-Saharan Africa ~100,000 years ago...
racial stock. They claim they have descended from the Sun and believe that the Kharwars, who also trace their descent from the Sun, are their brothers. Ethnologically, they are akin to the Santals, Mundas
Munda people
The Munda are tribal people of the Chota Nagpur Plateau region.They are found across Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Assam states of India, and into parts of Bangladesh...
, and Ho
Ho people
The Ho people are a tribe of people belonging to the Indian state of Jharkhand.They are the fourth most numerous scheduled tribe Jharkhand after Santals, Oraons, and Mundas, and constitute around 10.5 percent of the total population in the state, numbering 7,087,068 in the 2001 census...
s.
Location
Birhors are found mainly in the area covered by the old HazaribaghHazaribagh District
Hazaribagh district is one of the twenty-four districts of Jharkhand state, India, and Hazaribagh town is the district headquarters. It is currently a part of the Red Corridor.-Etymology:The district is named after its headquarters, the town of Hazaribagh...
, Ranchi
Ranchi District
Ranchi district is one of the twenty-four districts of Jharkhand state in eastern India. Ranchi city, the capital of Jharkhand state is the district headquarters.As of 2011 it is the most populous district of Jharkhand .-Origin of name:...
and Singhbhum districts before these were broken down into numerous smaller units, in Jharkhand
Jharkhand
Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east...
. Some of them are also found in Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
, Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh is a state in Central India, formed when the 16 Chhattisgarhi-speaking South-Eastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained separate statehood on 1 November 2000....
and West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
. They are one of the smaller of the thirty scheduled tribes inhabiting Jharkhand.
Population
Birhors number around 10,000. According to some sources, their numbers could be lesser than this.Language
They speak the Birhor language, which belongs to the Munda group of languagesMunda languages
-Anderson :Gregory Anderson's 1999 proposal is as follows. Individual languages are highlighted in italics.*North Munda **Korku**Kherwarian***Santhali***Mundari*South Munda **Kharia–Juang***Juang***Kharia...
of the Austroasiatic language family. Their language has similarities with Santali
Santali language
Santhali is a language in the Santhali subfamily of Austro-Asiatic, related to Ho and Mundari. It is spoken by about six million people in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan . Most of its speakers live in India, in the states of Jharkhand, Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Tripura, and West Bengal. It has...
, Mundari
Mundari language
The Mundari are a small ethnic group of South Sudan and one of the Nilotic peoples.The group is composed of cattle-herders and agriculturalists and are part of Karo people which also includes Bari, Pojulu, Kakwa, Kuku and Nyangwara...
and Ho
Ho language
Ho is a Munda language of the Austroasiatic language family spoken primarily in India by about 3,803,126 people. It is written with the Devanagari and the Varang Kshiti scripts. It is spoken by the Ho people. 0.103% of India's Population speaks this language as per the 2001 census.The Script was...
languages. Birhors have a positive language attitude. They freely use the languages prevalent in the areas they move around and use Sadri
Sadri language
Sadri is a branch of Prakrit language and is regarded as a sister language of Oriya, Bengali and Angika. It is spoken in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Orissa and the north of West Bengal, and in Bangladesh....
, Santali, Ho, Mundari, Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
and Oriya
Oriya language
Oriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...
. Literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
rate in the first language was as low as 0.02 percent in 1971, but around 10 per cent were literate in Hindi.
Religion
They follow Hinduism and traditional beliefs.Pentecostal ChristianityPentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
is making significant inroads into their society.
Socio-economic scenario
The “primitive subsistence economy” of the Birhors has been based on nomadic gathering and huntingHunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
, particularly for monkeys. They also trap rabbits and titirs (a small bird), and collect and sell honey. They make ropes out of the fibres of a particular species of vine, which they sell in the markets of the nearby agricultural people. Partly forced by circumstances, partly encouraged by government officials, some of them have settled into stable agriculture, but others continue their nomadic life, but even when they settle down in a village, their tendency is to lead a nomadic life. According to the socio-economic standing the Birhors are classified into two groups. While the wandering Birhors are called Uthlus, the settled Birhors are called Janghis.
Traditional religious beliefs
The traditional magico-religious beliefs of Birhors are akin to those of the Hos. Mundari deities such as Sing Bonga (Sun God) and Hapram (ancestral spirits) rank high in esteem. Though the Hapram are believed to live in the supernatural world along with the Bonga, the Birhors make a distinction between these two categories of supernatural spirits. Hapram are placed just below the Bonga. The Birhors think that the entire universe has been created and presided over by Sing Bonga and his wife Chandu Bonga. They are worshipped in the months of PousPous
The pous was a unit of length used through much of the Iron Age in Europe and the Ancient Near East.A pous is a Greek foot. One stadion is always 600 podes,...
and Magh
Magh
Magh may refer to:* Magi* Magh people, the Arakanese nationalities known in Bengal as Maghs* Maagha, a month in Hindu calendar* Magh * Magh * Magh * Magha , author of Shishupala Vadha...
. As a result of contact with Hindu neighbours some Hindu deities such as Debimai
Durga
For the 1985 Hindi Film of Rajesh Khanna see DurgaaIn Hinduism, Durga ; ; meaning "the inaccessible" or "the invincible"; , durga) or Maa Durga "one who can redeem in situations of utmost distress" is a form of Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having eighteen arms, riding a lion...
, Kali
Kali
' , also known as ' , is the Hindu goddess associated with power, shakti. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Kali means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kāla - the eternal time, Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" . Hence, Kāli is...
mai, and Mahadev
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
have found a place in their pantheon.
Settlement
The temporary Birhor settlements are known as tandas or bands. These consist of at least half a dozen huts of conical shape, erected with leaves and branches. The household possessions traditionally consisted of earthen utensils, some digging implements, implements for hunting and trapping, rope making implements, baskets and so on. In recent times aluminium and steel have found their way into Birhor huts.Family and marriage
The family is the smallest unit of Birhor society. Traditional inheritance follows the male line. The husband-wife relationship is very cordial. They dress in a manner similar to their settled neighbours, using mostly traditional Indian dress with some western influence. Women are fond of ornaments. They are divided into a number of totemic clans named after plants, birds, animals, rivers, etc.Birhors follow the rules of tribal and clan endogamy. A Birhor boy is supposed to get married with a Birhor girl, but the clan of the boy and the girl should not be same. Tandas or bands have families of different clans but they follow the rule of tanda exogamy. At the time of marriage, the blood relationship is explored. The marriage between a boy and a girl is possible only when they are not related up to three generations from the father’s and the mother’s side.
Birhors follow the practice of bride price. When the child attains the marriageable age, it is responsibility of the father to get his son or daughter married. As per traditional custom the father of the boy approaches the father of the girl. When the latter agrees, the father of the boy settles the bride price with father of the girl and the marriage is fixed.