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Gōṇḍī Kōītōr | |
|---|---|
 Gondi women inUmaria district, India | |
| Total population | |
| c. 13 million[1][2] (2011, census) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 India | |
| Madhya Pradesh | 5,093,124[2] |
| Chhattisgarh | 4,298,404[2] |
| Maharashtra | 1,618,090[2] |
| Odisha | 888,581[2] |
| Uttar Pradesh | 569,035[2] |
| Andhra Pradesh andTelangana | 304,537[2] |
| Bihar | 256,738[2] |
| Karnataka | 158,243[2] |
| Jharkhand | 53,676[2] |
| West Bengal | 13,535[2] |
| Gujarat | 2,965[2] |
 Nepal | 12,267[3] |
| Languages | |
| Gondi • Regional languages | |
| Religion | |
| Koyapunem withsignificant influence fromHinduism[4][5] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
TheGondi (Gōṇḍī) orGond people, who refer to themselves as "Kōītōr" (Kōī, Kōītōr), are anethnolinguistic group in India.[6][7] Their native language,Gondi, belongs to theDravidian family. They are spread over the states ofMadhya Pradesh,Maharashtra,[8]Chhattisgarh,Uttar Pradesh,Telangana,Andhra Pradesh,Bihar, andOdisha. They are listed as aScheduled Tribe for the purpose of India'ssystem of reservation.[9]
The Gond have formed many kingdoms of historical significance.Gondwana was the ruling kingdom in theGondwana region of India. This includes the eastern part of theVidarbha of Maharashtra. TheGarha Kingdom includes the parts of Madhya Pradesh immediately to the north of it and parts of western Chhattisgarh. The wider region extends beyond these, also including parts of northern Telangana, western Odisha, and southern Uttar Pradesh.
Gondi is claimed to be related to theTelugu language. The2011 Census of India recorded about 2.4 million speakers of Gondi as a macrolanguage and 2.91 million speakers of languages within the Gondi subgroup, including languages such as Maria (also known as Maadiya Gond).[10][11][12] Many Gonds also speak regionally dominant languages such asHindi,Marathi,Odia, and Telugu.
According to the 1971 census, the Gondi population was 5,653,422. By 1991, this had increased to 7,300,998,[13][page needed] and by 2001, the figure was 8,501,549. For the past few decades, the group has been witness to theNaxalite–Maoist insurgency.[14] Gondi people, at the behest of the Chhattisgarh government, formed theSalwa Judum, an armed militant group, to fight the Naxalite insurgency. This was disbanded by order of the Supreme Court of India on 5 July 2011, however.[15]
The origin of the name Gond, used by outsiders, is still uncertain. Some believe the word to derive from the Dravidiankond, meaning hill, similar to theKhonds of Odisha.[16]
Another theory, according to Vol. 3 of theWorldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life, is that the name was given to them by theMughal dynasty of the 16th–18th centuries. It was the Mughals who first used the term "Gond", meaning "hill people", to refer to the group.[17]
The Gonds call themselves Koitur (Kōītōr) or Koi (Kōī), which also has no definitive origin.[citation needed]
The origins of the Gonds is unclear. Some researchers have claimed that the Gonds were a collection of disparate tribes that adopted a proto-Gondi language as a mother tongue from a class of rulers, originally speaking various pre-Dravidian languages.[18] While there is an affinity between Gonds andMunda peoples, researchers point to a more complex event involving language shift through a Dravidian linguistic expansion, rather than a recent event of Gondi replacing a North Munda language, hence supporting distinct origins for these two groups.[19][20]
R. V. Russell believed the Gonds came intoGondwana from thesouth: up the Godavari intoVidarbha, from there up theIndravati intoBastar, and up the Wardha and Wainganga into theSatpura Range.[21]
The first historical reference to the Gonds appears inMuslim writings from the 14th century. Scholars believe the Gonds ruledGondwana, a region extending from present-day eastern Madhya Pradesh to western Odisha, and from northern Andhra Pradesh to the southeastern corner of Uttar Pradesh, between the 13th and 19th centuries CE.[8]
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The first kingdom of the Gonds was that ofChanda, founded in 1200, although some genealogies trace its founders to the 9th century CE. The Gonds of Chanda originated fromSirpur in what is now northernTelangana and were said to have overthrown the previous rulers of the country, called the Mana dynasty. Another theory states that after the downfall of theKakatiyas in 1318, the Gonds of Sirpur had the opportunity to throw off outside domination and built their own kingdom. The kingdom of Chanda developed extensive irrigation and the first defined revenue system of the Gond kingdoms. It also began to build forts, which later became highly sophisticated. Khandakhya Ballal Shah founded the town ofChandrapur and shifted the capital there from Sirpur. TheAin-i-Akbari records the kingdom as being fully independent, and it even conquered some territory from nearby sultanates. However, during Akbar's rule, Babji Shah began paying tribute after theMughals incorporated territory to their south into theBerar Subah.[8]
The kingdom ofGarha was founded in the 14th century by Jadurai, who deposed the previousKalachuri rulers. Garha-Mandla is known for queenRani Durgavati, who fought against Mughal emperorAkbar (d. 1564). Mandla was then ruled by her son Bir Narayan, who similarly fought until he died. Afterward, his kingdom was offered to Chanda Shah by the victorious Mughals. During Shah Jahan's reign, his successor Hirde Shah was attacked by the Bundelas and shifted the capital to Mandla. His successors fought against themselves and invited the aid ofAurangzeb and the Marathas to their cause.[8]
Deogarh was founded in the early 13th century. It is said[by whom?] that its founder, Jatba, slew the previous Gauli rulers during a temple festival. In theAin-i-Akbari, Deogarh was said to have 2,000 cavalry, 50,000 footmen, and 100 elephants and was ruled by a monarch named Jatba. Jatba built outposts in the Berar plains, including a fort near modernNagpur. It was his grandsonBakr Shah who, in order to enlist Aurangzeb's help, converted to Islam and becameBakht Buland Shah. Shah founded the city of Nagpur and brought a revival of the fortunes of theDeogarh kingdom. During his reign, the kingdom covered the southeastern Satpura range from Betul to Rajnandgaon in the east, and parts of the northern Berar plains. Under his sonChand Sultan, Nagpur gained even more importance.[8]
These kingdoms were briefly conquered by the Mughals, but eventually, the Gond rajas were restored and were simply under Mughalsuzerainty.[18] In the 1740s, theMarathas began to attack the Gondrajas, causing both rajas and subjects to flee from the plains to the forests and hills.Raghoji Bhonsle forced the Gond rajas ofGarha-Mandla to pay tribute to him.Marathicaste groups quickly replaced the displaced original population. Maratha occupation of the Gond rajas' territory continued until theThird Anglo-Maratha War, when the British took control over the remaining Gondzamindaris and took over revenue collection. The British, who regarded the Gonds as "plunderers" and "thieves" before their takeover, began to view the Gonds as "timid" and "meek" by the mid-19th century.[22] The remaining Gond zamindaris were absorbed into the Indian union upon independence.[23]
During colonial rule, the Gonds were marginalised by colonial forest management practices. TheBastar rebellion of 1910, better known in the tribal belt as thebhumkal, was a partly successful armed struggle against colonial forest policy that denied the Madia and Muria Gonds of Bastar, along with other tribes in the region, access to the forest for their livelihoods. In the early 1920s,Komaram Bheem, a Gond leader from Adilabad in Hyderabad state, rebelled against the Nizam and sought a separate Gond raj. It was he who coined the well-known sloganjal, jangal, jameen ("water, forest, land") that has symbolised Adivasi movements since independence.[24]
In 1916, Gondi intellectuals from various parts of Gondwana formed the Gond Mahasabha to protect Gondi culture from increasing outside influence. The organisation held meetings in 1931 and 1934 to discuss ways to preserve Gond culture from manipulation by outsiders, social norms the Gonds should have, and solidarity between the Gonds of different parts of Gondwana. Starting in the 1940s, various Gond leaders agitated for a separate state that would encompass the erstwhile territory of Gondwana, especially tribal areas of eastern Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Vidharbha, and Adilabad.[25] The demand reached its peak in the early 1950s, whenHeera Singh founded theBharatiya Gondwana Sangh to agitate for statehood. Singh held many meetings throughout Gondwana and could mobilise 100,000 people between 1962 and 1963, but his movement had died down by the late 1960s and was never taken seriously by the Indian authorities. Other methods of agitation, including petitions and demands by various Gond organisations, were ignored by the state. In the 1990s, Heera Singh Markam and Kausalya Porte founded theGondwana Ganatantra Party to fight for statehood.[24]
The Gond rajas usedSingh orShah as titles, influenced by theRajputs and Mughals.[26] The Gond are also known as theRaj Gond. The term was widely used in the 1950s but has now become almost obsolete, probably because of the political eclipse of the Gond rajas.[13][page needed]
Gond society is divided into several exogamous patrilineal units known assagas. The number depends on the region, with Gonds in the hills of Madhya Pradesh and the northern Nagpur plain having only two and those in the southern Nagpur plain and Adilabad having four. In Adilabad, theseSagas are calledYerwen,Sarwen,Siwen, andNalwen, and their names refer to the number of ancestors for thatsaga.[a] In Adilabad, there is a fifthsaga,Sarpe saga, which for marriage purposes is linked withSarwen, although their origin myths are different. According to Gond mythology, allsagas once lived in a single village but soon moved out and established individual villages. The names of these ancestral villages are preserved in culture and sometimes identified with present-day locations. The number of ancestors for eachsaga is its symbol, and on many ceremonial and ritual occasions, the number of involved animals, people, actions, or objects corresponds to thatsaga's number.[27]
Thesaga exists mostly in the sphere of ritual and has no real political or organizational significance. The most visible sign ofsaga consciousness is in the worship ofPersa Pen, although this occurs mainly at the clan level. All worshippers of the samePersa pen see themselves asagnatically related, and so any intermarriage or sexual relations between them is forbidden. Gonds use the termsoira to refer tosagas whose members they can marry.[27]
Eachsaga is regarded as performing actions essential to society as a whole. During ceremonies and ritual events, thesaga becomes important for determining roles in the proceedings. For instance, in the worship of a clan'sPersa pen, the clan priest is involved in sacrifice while two members of asoira saga to the celebrating clan dress the idol and cook the sacrificial food. During certain parts of Gond festivals, participants divide intosaga orsoira. For serving the sacrificial meal atPersa Pen, members of eachsaga sit separately and are served in order of which their ancestors emerged from the cave in their origin story. However, allsagas have equal status in Gond society. Members of eachsaga work cooperatively on issues affecting their relationship with othersagas, such as negotiations about bride price in marriage. In addition, for ritual purposes, any person can be replaced by someone of the same age, generation, andsaga. As an example, in a marriage where, for instance, the bride's parents are not present, a couple from the samesaga as the bride can stand in for the bride's parents in the ritual. This applies also to the relations between Gonds and Pardhans: if a Pardhan of the same clan is not found, then a Pardhan belonging to a different clan in the samesaga can be brought in as a suitable replacement.[27]
Subdivided within thesaga is thepari, or clan, the main unit of organisation of Gond society. In eachsaga, the number of clans is determined by the number of ancestors of thatsaga. The clans of asaga are arranged by precedence based on when they emerged from the cave in the Gond creation story. This precedence regulates behaviour during some rituals. For instance, during the First Fruit festival, all members of asaga eat with the seniormost member of the seniormostpari of thesaga represented in the village. Group relations between senior and juniorpari are based on relations between older and younger brothers. For instance, members of a seniorpari cannot marry a widow from a juniorpari, since it is seen as analogous to the marriage between an elder brother and a younger brother's wife. Clans generally have names relating to specific plants. Some commonpari include Tekam, Uikey, Markam, Dhurwe, and Atram.[27]
Each clan is divided into several parallel lineages, calledkita. Each of thesekita has a specific ritual function within Gond society: for instance, thekatora kita is the onlykita that presides over the worship ofPersa Pen.Kita in some clans use Maratha titles like Deshmukh, bestowed on certain Gond chiefs. Thekita functions only in the ritual sphere. Sometimes, the clans are also divided intokhandan, or subclans, which are generally organic in nature. Eachkhandan is like a mini-clan, in that it has its own set of ritual objects for worship ofPersa Pen and is formed when a group in apari including akatora decide to set up a new centre for worship ofPersa Pen. Eventually, this group becomes solidified into akhandan.[27]
Many astronomical ideas were known to ancient Gonds,[28] who had their own local terms for the Sun, Moon, Milky Way, and constellations. Most of these ideas served as the basis for their timekeeping and calendrical activities.[b]
TheGondi language is spoken by almost 3 million people, mainly in the southern area of the Gond range. This area encompasses the southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra, northern Telganana, and southern Chhattisgarh (mainly in the Bastar division). The language is related to Telugu. In the early 20th century, it was spoken by 1.5 million people, nearly all of whom were bilingual.[21] At present, the language is only spoken by one fifth of Gonds and is dying out, even in its traditional linguistic range.[citation needed]
In Chhattisgarh, women perform thesua dance, which was named after the word for "parrot". It is performed afterDiwali to honourShiva andParvati, representing the belief that the parrot will bring their sadness to their lovers.[citation needed]
Diwali is a major festival forAdilabad's Gond tribes, which they celebrate with the traditionalGussadi dance, donning peacock-feathered turbans, saffron attire, and joining in festive groups.[30]
The Gondi people have their ownversion of theRamayana, known as theGond Ramayani, derived from oral folk legends. It consists of seven stories with Lakshmana as the protagonist, set after the main events of the Ramayana, where he finds a bride.[31]
According to the2011 census, there were 1,026,344 followers of the "Gondi" religion in India, with the majority residing inMadhya Pradesh (584,884), followed byChhattisgarh (368,438),Maharashtra (66,857),Uttar Pradesh (3,419), andJharkhand (2,419).[32] The majority of Gond people still follow their own traditions ofnature worship, but like many other tribes in India, their religion has been influenced byBrahminical Hinduism.[33][34][5][35]
Many Gond people practice their own indigenous religion,Koyapunem, while some followSarnaism.[36][better source needed]Pola, Phag, andDassera are some of their major festivals.[34] A small number of Gonds are Christian orMuslim.[citation needed]
In medieval times, the Gondi kingdoms worshippedVishnu as their patron deity.[37]
The Gonds worship ancestral deities known asAngadevs, which Brahminical Hindus claim are a representation of the goddessMahakali. There were seven groups of Angadevs, rescued by Pari Kupar Lingo from the Kachchargardh caves. In one version, there were twenty-eight Angadevs, and in another version, there were thirty-three.[38]
In the second version, the Angadevs, or Saga Deva, were the children of the goddess Mata Kali Kankali after she ate a flower given to her by a sage. They were raised in Raitad Jungo's ashram, and while they were playing, they met the gods Shambu and Gaura. Gaura offered them food, but because they were annoyed by the children's mischief, Shambu and Gaura imprisoned them in the Kachchargardh caves. For twelve years, the children relied on a pond and a mythical bird who provided them food to survive. Kali Kankali pleaded to Shambu to release her children, but he rejected her pleas. Raitad Jungo then asked Pari Kupar Lingo to help him free the children, and Pari Kupar Lingo approached the bard Hirasuka Patalir. Patalir played music on hiskingri, and the children were filled with strength to push the boulder blocking the caves from the outside world. Patalir was then crushed by the boulder. Ever since, the Kachchargardh caves became a site ofpilgrimage, and Kali Kankali became one of thedharmagurus of the Gondi people.[39]
A typical Gond reaction to death has been described as one of anger, because they believe death is caused by demons.[40] Gonds usually bury their dead, together with their worldly possessions, but due to partialHinduization, their kings were occasionally cremated, as perVedic practices. Hinduization has led to cremation becoming more common.
| This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Gondi people" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The native Gond religion, Koyapunem (meaning "the way of nature"), was founded by Pari Kupar Lingo. It is also known as Gondi Punem, or "the way of the Gondi people".[41]
In Gond folk tradition, adherents worship a high god known asBaradeo, whose alternate names areBhagavan,Kupar Lingo,Badadeo, andPersa Pen. Baradeo oversees activities of lesser gods such as clan and village deities as well as ancestors.[34] Baradeo is respected but he does not receive fervent devotion, which is shown only to clan and village deities, ancestors, and totems. These village deities includeAki Pen, the village guardian and theanwal, the village mother goddess, a similar paradigm to folk traditions of other Dravidian peoples. Before any festival occurs, these two deities are worshipped. Each clan has their ownpersa pen, meaning "great god". This god is benign at heart but can display violent tendencies. However, these tendencies are reduced when apardhan, a bard, plays a fiddle.[citation needed]
Three people are important in Gond religious ceremonies: thebaiga (village priest), thebhumka (clan priest), and thekaser-gaita (leader of the village).[citation needed]
As Kupar Lingo, the high god of the Gonds is depicted as a clean-shaven young prince wearing a trident-shaped crown, themunshul, which represents the head, heart, and body. There are many shrines to Kupar Lingo in Gondwana, and he is revered as an ancestral hero.[42]
Per Gond religious beliefs, their ancestor Rupolang Pahandi Pari Kupar Lingo was born as the son of the chief Pulsheev, during the reign of Sambhu-Gaura, several thousand years ago. Kupar Lingo became the ruler of the Koya race and established the Gondi Punem, a code of conduct and philosophy that the Gondi practice. He gathered thirty-three disciples to teach the Gondi Punem to the distant lands of thekoyamooree.[citation needed]
A principle in the Gond religion ismunjok, which is non-violence, cooperation, and self-defense. Another part of Gond belief issalla andgangra, which represent action and reaction, superficially similar to the concept ofkarma in Hinduism. To prevent people from destroying themselves in conflict and discord, they are supposed to live underPhratrial society. Among the beliefs related to Phratrial society are the need to defend the community from enemies, working together and being in harmony with nature, and being allowed to eat animals (but not those representing a totem).[citation needed]
Like village deity worship in South India, Gonds believe their clan and village deities have the capability of possession. A person possessed by the spirit ceases to have any responsibility for their actions. Gonds also believe disease is caused by spirit possession.[43]
Many Gonds worshipRavana, whom they consider to be the tenthdharmaguru of their people, theancestor-king of one of their four lineages and the eightiethlingo (great teacher). OnDussehra, Gondi inhabitants of Paraswadi in Gadchiroli district carry an image of Ravana riding an elephant in a procession to worship him and "protest" the burning of his effigies.[c][44][45]
Gonds venerate plants and animals, especially thesaja tree. In some places, death is associated with asaja (Terminalia elliptica) tree. Stones representing souls of the dead, orhanals, are kept in ahanalkot at the foot of asaja tree. When there is no specific shrine for the village mother goddess, thesaja tree is her abode. In addition, thePenkara, or holy circle of the clan, is under this tree. Gonds in Seoni believe Baradeo lives in asaja tree. TheMahua plant, whose flowers produce a liquor considered purifying, is also revered. In many Gond weddings, the bride and groom circle a post made out of a Mahua tree during the ceremony, and the Gonds of Adilabad perform the first ceremonies of the year when Mahua flowers bloom.[43]
Gonds also believe in rain gods. One early British anthropologist noted how during the pre-monsoon hunting ceremony, the amount of blood spilled by the animals was indicative of the amount of rain to follow.[43]
The gods are known aspen in the singular andpennoo in the plural. Other gods worshipped by the Gonds include:
Gondi people are designated as aScheduled Tribe in Andhra Pradesh, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Odisha, and West Bengal.[46]
TheGovernment of Uttar Pradesh had classified them as aScheduled Caste, but by 2007, they were one of several groups that was redesignated as Scheduled Tribes.[47] As of 2017, that tribal designation applies only to certain districts, not the entire state.[48] The2011 Census of India for Uttar Pradesh showed the Gond population at 21,992.[49]
Gondi people have been portrayed in the 2017Amit V. Masurkar filmNewton and inS.S. Rajamouli's 2022 blockbusterRRR, in whichN. T. Rama Rao Jr. plays a fictionalised version of the Gond tribal leaderKomaram Bheem.
Some people have speculated that the plot of the 2021 filmSkater Girl is based on the life of Gond skateboarderAsha Gond.[50] The film's writer and director,Manjari Makijany, has denied this, however.[51]
With the exception of those who adoptedIslam, or Christianity as their religion, and these are very few, the Gonds currently belong to the Hindu society.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)सरकार के पतन के बादगोंड आदिवासी राजानरेशचंद्र सिंह 13 से 25 मार्च 1969 तक मुख्यमंत्री रहे[After the fall of the government,Gond tribal kingNareshchandra Singh was the Chief Minister from 13 to 25 March 1969]
This article includes material from the 1995public domainLibrary of Congress Country Study on India.
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