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ABUJHMARIA GRAMMAR
G.V.Natarajan
      Halbas: The Halbas are scattered in small patches over most of North and Central Bastar. They are more in number in Jagdalpur and Narainpur tahsils. Their speech Halbi is a lingua-franca in Bastar for inter-communication between various tribal and non-tribal people. The one point in which they most resemble their Muria and Maria neighbours is their worship of log-gods exactly similar in form to the tribal gods of the Abujhmar hills and else-where, consisting of parallel pairs of oiled and polished logs joined by cross-pieces and adorned with bunches of peacock feathers.

      We now come to the remaining bulk of the Gondi speaking people of Bastar, recorded in the Census as Gonds, Koyas, Murias and Marias.

 

      Murias: The terms Muria and Maria are not Gondi words. It has been suggested that Muria is formed from the word Mur meaning root, the term meaning ‘aboriginal’ and that Maria means merely ‘man of the woods’ (Grierson, 1938 :42) .

    The Murias of Bastar fall into three main groups, the Jagdalpur Murias of Jagdalpur tahsil and the South of Kondagaon tahsil; the Jhoria Murias of the foot-hills of the Abujhmar mountains in the south-west Kondagaon and in Antagarh tahsils; and the Ghotul Ghot6ul of north Antagarh and most of Kondagaon.


     The Jagdalpur group is detribalized by the contact with Halbi speakers both in Bastar and Oriya speakers in Jeypore of Orissa.

      The Jhoria group are probably the Hill Marias or Abujhmarias who are settled in the plains.

      The Ghotul Murias have definite traditions of immigration from Raipur and the North.

   It has been mentioned earlier that Gonds refer to themselves as Koitor. Muria is a term coined by non-Koitor, for these Koitor who are somewhat less un-Hinduized than the primitive Marias and is used by any section of Marias as soon as it wishes to claim social advancement. As observed by Grigson (1938:49) the Bastar officials apply it not to the three sections of Murias mentioned above but also to the Koyas and some of he Dorla Koyas of the South, and to the more advanced Bison-horn Marias of Dantewara and Bijapur tahsils of Bastar district.

      Marias:The so-called Marias of Bastar fall naturally into two main divisions distinguished by many details of culture and tradition, the Hill Maria of the Abujhmar mountains and the Bison-horn Marias living to the South of the Indravati river. The latter are distinguished from other aboriginals of Bastar by the splendid head-dress they use for their marriage dances. The Bison-horn Marias are also known as Dand8ami Marias, Khalpai Marias, Singh Marias and Tallagu Marias. The present study deals with the description of the language of the Hill Marias.

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