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.
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| We now
come to the remaining bulk of the Gondi speaking people of
Bastar, recorded in the Census as Gonds, Koyas, Murias and
Marias.
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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) .
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| 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.
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The Jagdalpur group
is detribalized by the contact with Halbi speakers both
in Bastar and Oriya speakers in Jeypore of Orissa.
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The Jhoria
group are probably the Hill Marias or Abujhmarias who
are settled in the plains.
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The Ghotul
Murias have definite traditions of immigration from Raipur
and the North.
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| 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.
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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, Khalpa  i
Marias, Singh Marias and Tallagu 
Marias. The present study deals with the description of the
language of the Hill Marias.
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