| 1. INTRODUCTION |
| I |
| No aboriginal people of India have attained
greater prominence on the political scene of past centuries
than the large group of tribes known by the generic name
Gond. Geographically also no other tribe is so widely
spread out as the Gonds extending from the Godavari in
the South to the Vindhyas in the North. As observed by
Haimendorf (1979 : p.1) the Gonds are neither racially,
nor culturally nor linguistically a homogenous population.
It would be more correct, he says, to describe them as
various groups of Gonds or ‘Gondi speaking populations’
for, each has acquired its own speech and mode of life.
the majority of Gonds are found today in the State of
Madhya Pradesh. According to 1971 Census, heir population
in that state only is about 3,888,451. their population
in other states is as follows: Maharashtra 3,82,751 Andhra
Pradesh 4,54,118 Orissa 5,58,435 Bihar 48,869. In ujarat
and West Bengal, their population is less than 500. Total
population of Gond is 5,285,577 and this constitutes 13.90%
of the total tribal population of India. |
| HIST0RICAL BACKGROUND |
| What
had distinguished the Gonds was not merely their vast
numbers, by far the largest tribal group, but also because
of the political power they wielded over a kingdom through
which they continued to rule before they sccumbed to the
Moghal and later Maratha military assaults. |
| “The
Musilm weiters have described the Gond territories as
Gondwana with the Maharaja exercising control over a
number of petty chiefs and administering areas covering
the Satpura plateau to the Narmada valley the South
which now comprises the districs of Jabalpur, Mandla,
Seoni, Balaghat, Betul, Chindwara, etc. Around 1564
A.D. a Moghal general under Asaf Khan laid it low and
Queen-Regent Durgavathi was slain in the battle. As
the Moghal region declined in these far-flung regions
the defacto political power seems to have reverted to
the Gond Rajas with a nominal recognition of the old
sovereignty. The real end of the Gondwanas came as late
as 1780 A.D. when the Marathas took over. But coming
back to the Moghal period, some other states also arose
there known as Deogarh, once a tributory of Gondwana
and Chanda, which covered the territories in the Southern
region comprising part of the present Andhra Pradesh.
The first Chanda Raja had his strongfold in Manikgarh
Fort. When Moghals got established in the Deccan, they
finally brought all these Gond kingdoms under their
suba of Berar during Aurangzeb’s time. The Ain-i-Akbari
of Abul Fazal describes the Gond territory. But judging
from ballad records, one concludes that the Gonds were
perpetually in rebellion against the Moghals. However,
controversial the dates or achievements of the Gond
rule, the fact is that Gond kings did rule for centuries”
(Chattopadhyaya, 1978: 241-242). The history of Gondwana
much more elaborately discussed by Haimendorf(1979:5-10).
|
| Trench
(1921:1-10) gives the following legend regarding the origin
of Gonds. |
| In
the midst of water in the ocean the singamali birds,
male and female, lived, and there upon the water they
spread their nest and there they laid two eggs. From
those eggs a boy and a girl were born. The children
with the help of God began to live there upon water.
One day they both said to the ocean mother to leave
them outside the waters. Ocean mother in a trice sent
a wave, and the children, nest and all were borne outside
and fell there. Then they wandered in the forest and
day-by-day they grew stronger. The brother and sister
named Addirawana-pariol and Sukma-devi-velar were living
in a house with the cross-bars of “jay’s”
feathers and rafters of peacock’s feathers. In
meantime both became of marriageable age. In the washing
place the green herb called ‘Pokra’ had
sprung up. The girl’s soul was yearning to eat
the herb. But her brother was prohibiting her from eating
it. One day she evaded his notice, picked the salad,
boiled it and ate it. From that day she conceived and
became pregnant. whereupon a hundred more gods than
a hundred, thirtysix threshingfloors or jugat gods,
eighteen of Kos gods, fourteen aphang of Gondi gods
became incarnate within her womb. Later the population
of Gonds spread from the Gondi gods.
|
|
|
