If any particular feature
is to be singled out as the distinguishing mark of the
Abujhmarias it is their gō ul.
Gōul
is the village dormitory-cum-fraternity-sorority where
the unmarried young of the village gather each night to
sing, dance, tell stories, play games, discuss matters
that concern themselves and sleep. This dormitory system
is also prevalent among the Muria Gonds of Narainpur where
every girl must attend the boys’ dormitory every
night and has her own ‘boy friend’ to serve
since these gōul
unions must be between couples who could legitimately
marry under the rules of clan exogamy. But in the Abujhmaria
villages all the boys and girls belong to one and the
same clan and therefore are brothers and sisters. This
is why in Abujhmar we have boys’ dormitory only.
Though girls are not allowed to sleep here they usually
visit the gōul
for dancing and singing with the boys.
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Although
entertainment appears to be the order of the day in the
gōul,
the institution does not exist for the sake of entertainment
alone . Its major functions appears to br religious and
educative . There is no religious or marriage festivals
that is not associated by singing and dancing accompanied
by the drum beating by the members of the gōul.
Truning to eductional functions of the gōul,
one aspect of it is teaching about the history and religion
of the society carried out through the constant repetition
of certain themes in songs and stories. The other aspect
of it is the prepartion of the young for the adulthood.
Verrier Elwin (1947: 271) from a survey of the gōul
system prevailing in various countries and in various
tribes of India shows that “there is nothing unusual or
bizaare about the gōul
and it represents a genuine attempt of the human sprit
at a certain stage of development to solve some of the
psychological and social problems that even the most ‘advanced’
nations have not adjusted to their satification"
This dormitory system seems to be totally absent among
the Bison-horn Marias, Koyas, Dorlas and Raj Gonds.
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The Abujhmaria are as omnivorous as all other
Gonds and it is difficult to discover what they will not
eat if they can get it. The whole life is primarily directed
towards cultivation, food-gathering, hunting and trapping.
The system of cultivation they practice is called shifting
cultivation or ‘penda’. For this the forest
growth on hill slopes is felled and burnt. Then the seeds
are broadcasted in the ashes after the rains have broken.
In some areas flat land cultivation is also practiced.
For flat land cultivation, theplants and trees are cut
and brought to an unembanked field where they are spread
out to and then fired just before the rain break. Then
seeds are broadcasted in the fields. This flat land cultivation
is called ‘dippa’ or ‘purka’ cultivation.
The crops grown in these fields are hill millet, kosra,
kutki and bajra. They also sow arhar and sem. For Abujhmarias
it is taboo to have sexual intercourse as and when the
ears form on the growing crops. During this time men sleep
in the watching huts erected on the fields and women at
home . It is also taboo to eat any of the new crops untill
the appropriate new-eating festival has been celebrated.
There are several festivals connected with the harvest.
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Half
of their food supplies are drawn form the innumerable
edible products of the vast forests. tendu fruits (Diospyros
Melanoxylon) and achar (Buchanania latifolia) are two
of the main sources of food supply. They collect tamarind
and jamun fruits (Eugenia jambolana). They collect also
mangoes, store whole fruit, dried pulp and kernel, whole
or crushed. Women gather various leaves, flowers and seeds
as vegetables.
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green shoots, pith and of bamboo, the fruit of ber are
liked very much. In the early rains khudrati or bora fungus
and the mushroom is much sought after. Elephant creeper
leaves ‘siari’, is collected for making leaf-plates and
cups. Early in the monsoon when white ants emerge in flying
swarms they collect them after they have shed their wings
or pull the wings off and eat them raw. Pork and beef
are major items in the dietary of the hill Marias. They
do not milk cattle. bullocks and cow sacrifice is almost
an essential part of funeral ceremonies and all present
eat the meat. Dead cattle are divided up and eaten. They
also eat the remains of a cattle killed by tiger. Practically
there are no buffaloes in Abujhmar hills. |
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