Baiga Adivasi

The earliest account of Baiga has come to us in 1867 when Captain Thompson wrote his Seoni Settlement Report. He briefly described them as wildest of the tribes, inhabiting the most in accessible Hills and the remotest forests. Later Forsyth referred them in "Highlands of Central India", but like any other tribes, no authentic history of Baiga is available. They are found mainly Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa States.

They are found in Garhwa district of Jharkhand and the districts of Mandla, Balaghat and Bilaspur of Chattishgarh. They represent one of the primitive tribal groups (PTGs) in Chattishgarh. The word Baiga has several meaning. Apart from using for an ethnic adivasi groups, it is also used to signify a medicine man Guni or Ojha. This is also true that most Baiga are good medicine men. Sometimes, they are mistaken as Gond living in same geographical area, but this Kolerian tribe is quite different from their Dravidian brethren.

Just like Rajgond, the Binjhwar Baiga are Zamindars and they trace their princely ancestry from royalty. They say that they had connections with Ratanpur. Another small group is known as Bharia Baiga in Mandla. Bharia Baiga are traditional specialists like Hindu priest.

They perform puja of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. They have such a good social reputation that Gond agrees to any decision made by these Baiga regarding land disputes in Mandla District.

Accordding to Smith & Hiralal (1915), Baiga are the offshoots of Bhuiyans of Chotanagpur who were late called Baiga in Chhatishgarh. It is possible that a small group of Bhuiyans migrated to Chhatishgarh but, other tribals drove them away to remote hills of Mandla Balaghat, Even today Baiga chak of Mandla is a heavily forested area. The Baiga are leading a semi-primitive life in these areas. They have incorporated many words on Chhatisgarhi language in their dialect. Baiga have seven main branches - Binjhwar, Bharotia, Narotia, (or Nahar), Rani Maina, Kath Maina, Kodman or Kindy and Gond-maina. This shows the variety of traditions adopted among the Baiga on local levels; for example, Binjhwar, Baiga, has adopted much of Hindu culture and they do not eat beef. The first three sections Binjhwar, Narotia, and Bharotia usually inter-marry and can dine together. One may find some changes in local traditions among these three too. The Balagat Baigas are quite open, as they have been highly influenced by Gonds of the area. Earlier the Gond and Baiga could inter-marry. But the first three do not marry even with other groups of Baiga, hence no questions of marry in Gonds.

The physical build of the Baiga shows a stocky and well build dark skinned body. They usually have long hairs and even males do have ponytails. They belong to proto-austroloid stock.

Economy

The Baiga economy can well he described as follows.

They usually do:

(1)    Agriculture

(2)   Work as medicine-man in the village-collect herbs; prepare medicines and do magico-religious performance as sorcery.

(3)    Prepare bamboo mat and baskets.

(4)    To collect honey and 'Harre' from forest & sell them.

(5)    Work as labourer.

(6)    Even today they collect wild roots, hunt and fishing.

         Usually the major part of Baiga earning goes to food & clothing. But the poor tribals can not save anything. Hence they go for loans at the time of marriage or death. The provider may be Mahajan or their rich relatives.

The vegetarians do eat only grains and wild roots, but other relish pigs's meat. Hence they sacrifice pig during festivals. They eat whenever they get something through hunting and fishing. The first food of the day for Baiga is called 'BASI', the day lunch as 'PEJ', and dinner as 'BIYARI'. As the word clarifies, usually the first food is leftover from the night. The 'PEJ' consists an amalgamation of kodo and makka with salt; and in dinner only they have rice pulse or rice-vegetable. The basic cereals used Rejwar, Bazra, Makka, and Rai etc., which they produce themselves. The guestes are usually treated with rice-gruel, rice-beer and Biri for smoking. Baiga did not use plough as they have a belief that mother earth will get hurt and felt pain what they do is known as BEWAR cultivation.

Social Life

In Baiga community family is use to be small. Kinship structures are quite strong. They follow strict marriage rules, such as incest taboo, no marriage with outsiders are permitted, and monogamy is the general rule.

As the Baiga society is simple and so they are social. Interestingly, they have six accepted forms of marriage or choice of acquiring mates. They are:

1.      Lamsena

2.      Pathul

3       Thawa

4        Chor

5        Mangni

6        Ugharia

The bride price is the normal custom, depending on the economic status of the families. Traditionally, it was only Dhoti and sari, now it is money.

Generally, divorce is not welcomed among Baiga, but these types of incidence do take place in the society. The barrenness or extramarital relationships by women are the usual cause of breaking of marriage.

The kinship system of the Baiga is of the usual classificatory type. So there are uncles and aunts in the society. This determines joking and avoidance relationship. The old people joke with grand children. The Devar - Bhabhi & Jija - Sali get major attention of joke. Similarly, Jeth avoidance is the common practice. As they do not possess much properly, the rules of inheritance does not carry much weight.

The role of women in Baiga society is quite extensive and intense, Women follow rule of absence in burial customs, hunting, ploughing and killing pigs. Women may clear and fire the wood, but they must not take part in sowing, because they treat earth as woman.

They do not eat harvested grain or seasonal fruits before proper ritual. Their houses have only one door, either towards East or towards a river.

Political Organisation

Mukaddam leads the traditional council of Baiga. He get's supports from religions heads and social leaders. He also has assistants called Sayana and sikhe.    

Usually the cases deal by the council are quarrel between two people, brother and neighbours, regarding property, rights, sexual crime, marriage decisions, conflict between couples, divorce, killing of a cattle, breaking social taboos etc.

The traditional council also decides dates of performance of religions affairs. Now -a- days, a visit of government officer is also supervised by the council.

Religious Life

Interestingly, the Baiga perform religions ceremonies of other tribes and even of Hindus. As Baiga have lost their language, they use Hindi words to describe their deity for example Mahadeo, Dharati Mata, Kali, and eve Bhagawan. Some more names used to designate Baiga pantheon are Bara Deo, Thakur Deo, Bhimsen, Gansam Deo etc. Similarly they celebrate Holi, Dashara and Diwali. The Dashara gains its importance by being the occasion for the Baiga Bida ceremony; none of the Hindu rites or theories is associated with it. It would be more accurate to say that the Baiga do not celebrate Dashara or Diwali, but they celebrate just a festival at these times. They also celebrate Karma, Sarhul, etc. 

The Baiga believe that local household deities protect or guard village or villagers. They also believe in forest and hill deities and different spirits. They regard themselves of powerful magico - religious specialists, as magic is most vital and potent reality of their life. They can ward off demons of diseases. The magic covers every aspect of life - soil or women fertility, love and hate, health and diseases, witchcraft and sorcery.

Folk – Tradition

Every tribal society is rich in their dance and music. Baiga do have songs for all occasion - joyful or sad. Their songs may not be very artistic, but are emotional and sentimental. They sing on important festive occasions like Sarhul, Karma, Marriage celebration, bridal party, etc. They also have love songs, which describe the joy, love and intimacy between men and women. Girls also sing about marriage and type of groom that they would like to wed.

The Baiga dance whenever the season of their love invite, give them a bright moon and little liquor. They are better dancers than their neighbouring caste or tribe. The major dance is Karma dance, but there are also Jharpat dance or Bilma dance or Dessera dance.

The Baiga traditions are full of proverbs, tales and riddles. The women decorate their bodies with tattoo marks. Long strips of parallel lines are made on the face, especially on the fore head. Apart from depiction of moon, triangles, crosses, dots etc; Dots or small lines are also made on the cheek or chin, below the neck, above the breast and on the back.

One of the major folk traditions still followed among the Baiga is the tradition of folk medicine. The Baiga are expert medicine men. Various parts of plants are used as herbal medicines. They first treat all health problems through their own medicines, any ailment like body pain, caugh, cold, stomach pain, headache, fever, cut or small accident etc. are self treated by Baiga. There is long list of fungi, higher or lower plants, roots, shoots, bark, tubers, flowers, fruits, etc - all of them can form the bases of medicine. 

Development Activities 

All forms of welfare measures, both centrally sponsored and centrally aided programmes can be seen among Baiga community. The fields of education, economic upliftment, animal husbandry, poultry, health and housing have been bought at the doors of Baiga. But the recipients are not responding well. It is because their initial base is in deep poverty. They continue to struggle for there subsistence. Therefore, the approach for the upliftment of Baiga should be tribe specific. For example, their expertise is on herbal medicines which can be supported by opening herb area. They could be given some special training to produce herbs, government or NGO can find market for them. Horticulture and floriculture, which does not need ploughing, can have their attention.

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