Dharua

Abstract

Odisha is well known for its colourful tribes. The Dharua is a little known tribe of the State, mainly concentrated in Malkangiri, Koraput and Nawrangpur districts and sparsely distributed in Bolangir, Sambalpur, Kalahandi, Nuapara, Mayurbhanj, Baragarh and Balasore districts. It is a Gondid tribe and is also known as Naik Gond or Dhur Gond and locally as Durua. Ethnologically, the Dharua has been assumed to have been derived from dhara, meaning to catch, as theirtraditional occupation is to catch reptiles, birds and wild games from the forest. According to their annals they were military retainers of the former feudal chief of Bamanghati and after their defeat in Tentaposi war they fled to Singhbhum. They claim Bastar as their original home land. The Dharua is divided into two groups such as bara and chot on the basis of the purity of descent. They are a Dravidian speaking tribe whose mother tongue is Parji. They are bilingual as they speak the local lingua-franca Desia (Odia) and Telugu for intergroup communication. As per 2011census their population in Odisha is 18,151 and level of literacy, 31.39%. Cultivation is the mainstay of their subsistence economy, supplemented by allied pursuits such as wage earning,forest collection, animal husbandry, small business, khali stitching, rope making, snake charming, etc. They arenon-vegetarians and relish pork but abstain from taking beef. They follow the rule of patrilocal residence after marriage and patrilineal rule of descent. The Dharua profess their autonomous tribal religion of animism with admixture of Hinduism. They arepolytheists and their pantheon includes a number of tribal deities and Hindu deities i.e., Jagannath, Laxmi, Mahadev, Kali, Durga, Sitala and Manasa etc. They have their own highly organized traditional community council headed by the Sardar. It adjudicates cases pertaining to their customary affairs and delivers its final verdict.This illustrative book on the colourful tribe Dharua will be helpful to researchers, academicians, students and general public.