Chuktia Bhunjia Tribe
More about the Tribe :
- Bhunjias, are an ethnic group found in India mainly reside in Sunabeda plateau in Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
- According to the tribe, the term “Bhunjia” means “growing out of land” or “origin from the earth”.
- The Bhunjia have racial and cultural affinity with the Gonds of Orissa.
- There are many myths among the Bhunjia and the Gond, which speak of strong relationship among the Gonds and the Bhunjias.
- On setting in the Sunabeda plateau, the Bhunjias did not have marital relations with any tribal group, but in course of time, when the Gonds came into their area, marital relation was established with them.
Culture :
- Bhunjias are divided into two main sections i.e. Chinda Bhunjia and Chaukhutia Bhunjia.
- The Chaukhutia Bhunjia are confined exclusively to the hills of the Sunabeda plateau in ecologically secluded areas for which they maintain distance from the outsiders.
- But the Chinda Bhunjia generally lives in the plains and have close contact with the tribal and non-tribal communities.
- The religious life of Bhunjia is very simple. They believe in many Gods and Goddesses who are worshipped in different months on different ritual occasions.
- Their major festivals are Dussehra, Chaval Dhona, Naya Khana.
- They practice monogamous marriage.
- Most prevalent methods of marriage are by exchange and elopement among others. They also practice levirate and sororate types of marriage.
- Bride price practice is not prevalent among them.
- Bhunjia speakers belong to the Indo-Aryan language family as they speak Bhunjia, part of the Halbic languages, which is considered a mixture of Odia, Marathi and Chhattisgarhi.
Syllabus : Prelims; Tribes in news
