Essay on the Tribal Religions of Bihar.
The Birhors (Roy 1925, 198) are a nomadic hunting and gathering tribe. They are numerically a small population located chiefly in the Chotanagpur plateau (south Bihar) and sporadically found in Orissa, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. They move about in small groups snaring monkeys, tracking hare, deer or other games, and collecting rope-fibres, honey and bees wax.
During the rainy season they camping tiny leaf huts called Kumba, and make wooden vessels and plait ropes, weaving them into hunting nets.
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Their habitat, called tanda, is located in open spaces on the wooded hill tops and slopes, or the edges of the jungles. By the sides of most Birhors settlements is a ‘sacred grove’ called the Jayar or Jilu-Jayar, marked by one or more trees and a few blocks of stones. This is the seat of the Sendra-bongas, the spirits presiding the hunt. Birhors literally means the “Jungle (bir) fold (hor)”.
Divisions of Birhor:
There are two main divisions of Birhor:
(i) Uthalus of Bhulies, the wanderers, and
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(ii) Jaghis or Thanias, the settlers.
(a) The Uthalus:
The Uthalus move about from jungle to jungle in small groups. They have their families and scanty belongings with themselves. Their deities are represented by lumps of clay, pieces of stones and wooden pegs. These are carried in baskets by one or two young bachelors who lead the party.
(b) The Jaghis:
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The jaghis settle down for a comparatively long period on the outskirts of the jungle yet they rarely stop at one place for a long time.
(1) Ritual Way of Life:
In every Birhor tanda there is a headman called the Naya. He is primarily the priest of the group, supernaturally selected. When a Naya dies away his successor is chosen of the spirits. The process adopted is as under: A Mathi, spirit-doctor is called on this occasion. He swings his head from side to side and reaches a state of ecstasy. He asks the spirits. “Whom will you have for you Naya?”
In answer the spirits, through the mouth of the Mathi, make the indication as such: “We want the man who is of such and such appearance, and has so many children, we shall obey him”.
The new Naya selected in the above way, first takes a bath in some stream and then takes to the jilu-jayar. There he offers rice to the spirits. After the brief Ritual, the men of the tanda go out for a hunt to test the correctness of the selection. In case, the hunt proves successful, the people make rejoicing; on the other hand, if the hunt fails, the Naya is called upon to give explanation.
The Mathi again gets possessed and finds out what spirit has caused failure. On his declaration, the name of the spirit and the sacrifices required do by it, the Naya proceeds to propitiate the unfriendly spirit. In this way, he puts himself right with man and spirit.
Naya:
The duty of the Naya is to offer the sacrifice. He appoints a man as the Kotwar or Diguar. The latter attends at the sacrifices and makes all the necessary arrangements for them. He is the person believed to have the power of second’s sight. He observes certain strict rules as to diet and worship. The function of the Mathi is as under:
(1) To find out the unfriendly spirits causing sickness and other misfortunes of the community, and
(ii) To find out the required sacrifices to propitiate them. On a new birth in the tands, certain hills which may not stand pollution are avoided by the hunting party of the tanda until the purification ceremony has been performed on the seventh day of the birth. The Mathi is entrusted with the task of discovering and declaring the hills which could resent such contact. Any case of misfortune that befalls the community, is attributed to the infringement of some taboo by some member of the community and the consequent wrath of some spirit.
(2) Ritual Elements:
The structure of Birhor Rituals is formed by various components or elements. These are inextricably related with one another, these are as under:
(i) Purpose:
Main purpose are: To Protect from evil; luck in health; progeny and food; to ensure success in the hunt; for the good of the family; To avert any mischief of the spirit; To cause death and sickness to an enemy, To protect the tanda; To train a spirit-doctor; To stop storms and lightening; rain-marking; To recover a lost dog; To drive away bugs and mosquitoes; To attract a beloved person; To purify from birth and death pollution; for the good of the departed soul; and Performances connected with the lifecycle and with calendrical festivals.
(ii) Performer:
The Naya priest, the Kotwar or Diguar Ritual assistant; the Mathi diviner: the headman of the clan and woman.
(iii) Preparation:
To Bathe; smearing oil on head or limbs; To observe fast; not eat salt; clean the Ritual space with mud, cowdung and water; and purify by fire etc.
(iv) Performance and process:
(a) Ritual time:
Jan.-Feb., July, Sept.-Oct.-Now.; Friday, Monday, junctures of time such as morning, noon, evening.
(b) Ritual space:
Upland, hill, forest, field; family hut, spirit-hut; square; east-facing.
(c) Ritual objects:
Rock or stone, bamboo or wooden peg, lump of clay, leaf-cup, flowers, twigs of trees, spirit-box containing a little vermilion in a small container and some aura rice.
(d) Offerings:
Aura rice, rice with blood, salt, turmeric, vermilion; liquor, blood of sacrificial fowl, goat, pig or bullock etc.
(e) Sacrifice:
(i) First, Kutam process in which the pigs are sacrificed by striking them at the neck with the but-end of an axe, and
(ii) Second, Jabai process with two and half strokes of a weapon.
(f) Colour: While fowl, spotted red and white fowl, white goat, red goat, black goat.
(g) Ritual drawing: A figure drawn on the ground with rice-flour for takchanrhi marriage ceremony.
(h) Methods of spirit finding:
The khari-hora process. In this process, the Mathis sits down holding with one hand an axe placed upright on the ground with its butt-end downward. He begins by sprinkling around him rice-grains placed before him on a leaf and goes on muttering invocations to different spirits.
(i) Sound:
For rainmaking ceremony people go up the nearest hill and push down stones of all sizes. The stones produce a rumbling noise.
3. Spirits and Souls:
The Birhor believe that everything above, below, or around him is animated either by spirit or supernatural elements. Most of them are dormant. However, the number of active spirits and energies is great. The most important of these are spirits of their original native hills, forests and streams. Besides, there are the ever-increasing spirits of dead human beings. All of them seek food and nourishment.
The Birhors distinguish between spirits who may have to be propitiated with prayers and sacrifices and impersonal powers of energies which may be controlled, averted or repelled by spells, threats and other such methods.
(A) General Spirits;
(1) One of the general spirits propitiated by the Brihors is Singbonga or the supreme spirit. It is symbolised by the Sun. It is generally an unconcerned spectator or witness. This spirit does not ordinarily cause any harm to man and may occasionally protect him from evil.
(2) Some of the spirits recognized by the Birthors which belong to the Hindu pantheon are Chandi, Kalimai, Devi, Hulman, Mahadeo, etc.
(i) Burhi Mai or the mother spirit:
Kali mai, Devi mai, and other represented by a piece of wood daubed red with vermilion, brings luck in health, progeny and food.
Chandi and other spirits of the chase: A piece of rock or stone under some tree is fixed upon as the seat of the Chandil and his associates.
Bandarbir and Hulmanbir: Bandarbir and Hulmanbir bring success in catching monkeys.
Mahali chaati: Mahali chaati a female spirit, is presiding deity of smaller game like the wild cat and lizard. It grants success in hunting those animalr which are caught in the rainy months.
(B) Clan spirits:
(1) Ora-banga or buru-bonga are the spirits of the different hills. They possess certain powers over Nature such as that of causing and stopping rain and storm.
(2) Larankia bhut, the fighting spirit invoked on fighting expeditions.
(3) Manita or acquired spirits such as Mai or Mehamaya. A vow to manita is made when the epidemic spreads.
(C) Family spirit:
(1) Haprom or ancestor-spirits, the spirits of such deceased persons of a Birhor family as have been conducted to the adding or inner-tabernacle of the hut by the umbul-ader ceremony.
(2) Family manita bhuts or the acquired spirits of a family.
(D) Group-spirit or Sangi bhui:
Jaher Buri, Mai, Kali Mai, Devi, Darha Mahadeo and several other deities are included among the Sangi bhuts.
(E) Individual tutelary or Sakti bhuts:
It is only the math who takes to himself some particular deitysuch as Mahadeo, Mai, Devi and Durga as the Sakti bhut.
4. Religion without Explanation:
It is often said that Birhor Religion is a Religion without metaphysics. The Birhor Religion, has its basis in a haunting sense of the presence of spirit-powers all around the world. The most important problem of life is to deal with these powers ensuring individual and collective well-being. The solution given by the Birhor society as under:
(i) To seek conciliation and communion with the more definite and potent personal spirits, and
(ii) To deal with the more indefinite and impersonal forces by way of control, expulsion or avoidance through appropriate rites, ceremonies, spells and taboos. The tribal faith does not explain the ultimate cause of the nature phenomena and happenings in life.
(i) The Birhor supreme-spirit, Singh-Bonga, is creator of the world, but he does not take any active part in the direction of the universe and in the affairs of human beings.
(ii) The other spirits, friendly and unfriendly, are the potential source of goods luck and bad luck. But no spirit is conceived as God and the creator and ruler of the universe having power to pronounce reward and punishment on human beings.
The Birhor spirits are conditioned by the same appetite and desires as those of the human beings. This gives no phenomenological explanation of the sacred or profane. In other words, there is no theology or body of religions philosophy behind the tribal Religions.