Language:

Verrier Elwin, in his seminal work on the Baigas, published in 1939, writes that “it has often been remarked as a notable fact that the very tribes that are usually regarded as the true autochthones of the country, such as the Kamar and Baiga, have lost all traces of the older Austro-Asiatic languages and have entirely assimilated the speech of the Aryan invaders of their land. This very fact is, of course, some evidence of the antiquity of the Baiga, who probably lost their tongue even when they were still inhabitants of the Chhattisgarh plain and took the new Chhattisgarhi speech with them up into the wild hill retreats whither they fled before the approach of civilisation. Today, the Baiga speak the language of their neighbours. In Bilaspur and along the Maikal Hills, they talk ordinary Chhattisgarhi; in Mandla and Jubbulpore, they talk Eastern Hindi with Awadhi modifications and a few words borrowed from Gondi; in Balaghat, they talk Marathi, Hindi, and Gondi — or a mixture of all three — and the mysterious language called Baigani.” Baigani is now recognised as a corrupt form of Chhattisgarhi, but it was once supposed to be a real language with many speakers. Sir B. Robertson, the author of the Central Provinces section of the Report, already casts doubt on the validity of the classification and quotes the opinion of the Tehsildar of Rarngarh, who had so much to do with the settlement of the Baiga Chak, as saying ‘that he had found the language the Baigas speak was not a separate language, but a corruption of Hindi. Baigani, as Grierson shows, ‘is a corrupt form of Chhattisgarhi, but freely mixed up with words and idioms taken from other languages, including on the one hand Gondi, and the other Bundeli. From Gondi, it borrows a portion of its vocabulary, and from Bundeli, the most noticeable idiom borrowed is the occasional use of the Agent case with me before a transitive verb in the past tense.’

Tribal Divisions and Social Organisations:

The primary allegiance of every Baiga, whatever his sub-caste may be, is to the Baiga tribe itself. The tribe is strictly endogamous, although, as we shall see, women of other tribes who marry Baiga may be admitted after the appropriate rites have been performed. But further, the tribe itself is divided into several endogamous jat. Colonel Ward was the first to give a fist of these jats; the three ‘sects or castes of the Bygas, he says, ‘are the Binjwar or Binchwar, Mondya, Bheronthya.’ Colonel Bloomfield, who wrote about Balaghat, knew only three — the Narotia, Bharotia, and Binjhwar. Russell gives seven names — Binjhwar, Bharotia, Narotia or Nahar, Raibhaina, Kathbhaina, Kondwan or Kundi, and Gondwana. In his book, Verrier Elwin adds the Kurka Baiga, the Sawat Baiga and the Duhd-bhaina to the list. The main difference between these is the distribution. In the main, each jat occupies a separate block of country and inevitably takes some colour from its neighbours, the geographical situation, and the administration's attitude. Thus, the Binjhwar of the comparatively civilized country near Lamta, Nainpur or Jubbulpore, are somewhat Hinduized. The Bharotia in the wilds of the Supgar Range retain most of their tribal customs; the Muria of Niwas, who live in predominantly Gond villages, resemble the Gond in dress and outlook. To find Baiga life in its whole and unchecked development, we must go to Pandaria or Kawardha, where the villagers are still allowed to practise bewar without too much restriction. Each jat naturally considers itself to be the highest. Colonel Bloomfield's observations on the Baiga are always interesting Writing of the Binjhwar, Bharotia and Narotia, he says, ‘These are different tribes in every way. They neither intermarry nor intermix, and are seldom, if ever, found living together in one village.’ The women of one jat are barred from eating with members of any other jats. There are also rules of intermarriage. Verrier Elwin claims that, in general, men will marry the virgin girls of any other jat with the idea that the girl thus becomes a member of her husband’s jat and severs all connection with her own. She ought not even to visit her mother’s house after marriage. Girls who have already been married are not accepted. However, this custom is not observed in every case. The jat are again subdivided into a very large number of exogamous garh and goti. The garh, the more important of the two, are based on residence. The idea is that every Baiga originally belonged to a particular hill or jungle and that he must marry his daughters to men belonging to a different hill or jungle, a sound and logical basis for exogamy. These garh derive from Nanga Baigin herself. She gave her twelve sons the names of the first twelve garh — Binjhwar, Sawat, Chituria, Damgharia, Ghangaria, Dawaria, Pachgaiha, Salgaia, Ku maria, Massania, Chanania, Chandgaria. Binjhwar and Sawat are given to both jat and garh but rarely to the latter. From these twelve came the great multitude of garh that exist today. These garh are territorial. The division of the tribe into garh is based on a sound psychological principle that the most successful marriages occur between strangers or at least between people who have not been brought up together. The prohibition of marriage within the garh means that a man must take a girl from another village. The goti, however, are merely artificial; they were borrowed from the Gond and are less seriously regarded. The goti have a sociological basis, but the garh has a psychological basis. And so, we find throughout the Baiga country the rule that where two lovers have a different goti and the same garh, they can marry or have intercourse only with incredible difficulty. But where they have the same goti and different garh, they can marry with case.

They are exogamous but not totemic. They represent the original division of the jat and were adequate for their purpose. However, the organisation of the Baiga seems to have been confused by contact with the Gond. The Gond have no territorial exogamous divisions but several very strict, highly developed, totemic exogamous gotra. Elwin writes that the Baiga, seeing their Gond neighbours fully equipped with gotra, seem to have felt that to obtain real tribal respectability, they should have them, too.

Verrier Elwin writes that the kinship system of the Baiga is of the usual classificatory type. However, since they speak a dialect of Hindi and consequently use some of the customary Hindi words for their relations, this is not immediately apparent. The Baiga’s attitude, however, is entirely ‘classificatory’; he regards everyone his father would regard as a brother as his father, all the women his father might marry are his mothers, and so on. Baiga social custom has influenced their terminology. Thus, the same kinship term, mama, is used for the father’s sister’s husband and the mother’s brother; where there is a cross-cousin marriage, these relationships are combined in the same person. The father-in-law is also called Mama. The father’s sister, mother’s brother’s wife and mother-in-law are also, as we would expect, described by the same term, mami. The stepfather, the father’s younger brother and the mother’s younger sister’s husband are all called kaki. This is probably due to the facts (i) that when a man marries the widow of his elder brother, he is both step-father and uncle to his brother’s children, and (ii) that when a man marries a younger sister of his elder brother’s wife, his brother’s children must accept him as at once their father’s younger brother and their mother’s younger sister’s husband. The Baiga do not observe a stringent code of avoidances. For example, there is no taboo surrounding the persons of the father or mother-in-law. However, a few relationships are strictly regulated, though a breach of the rules does not involve a severe penalty than a coconut or a bottle of liquor. The most important rule of avoidance separates a girl from her husband’s elder brother. He is her jeth. She must not look directly at him or speak to him. She should cover her face in his presence. She must not be alone in the same room, give him food, or wash his pots. She should not remain in his company even when other people are present. There are few special rules of conduct before parents or parents-in-law. A man does not joke or make love to his wife in their presence, and he ought not to tell a dirty story or use excessive abuse, at least before his mother-in-law. It is considered harmful for a man to see the breasts of his mother-in-law. The Baiga do not stand or show any special respect to their parents. If a man is smoking by the fire and his father-in-law is there, he should offer him the first puff at his pipe. If the mother-in-law comes to fetch her daughter home for any reason, the son should go to her and formally offer her hospitality for the night. Elwin further writes that the background of the incest situation among the modern Baiga is the gradually weakening hold of the laws of exogamy upon them. This is not to say that the Baiga regards clan-incest and kin-incest as identical. They are similar but vary significantly in degree.

Religion:

Before 1921, the Census of India classified the religion of the Baiga and allied primitive tribes as ‘animistic', but in that year, the Census Commissioner, J. T. Marten, changed this designation to ‘Tribal Religion' as being more accurate. Elwin writes that the Baiga pantheon is exceedingly varied and elastic. It differs from village to village. There is no exclusiveness about it. The Baiga naturally worships everything he can to be on the safe side. When the new Satpura Railway first made its way into the hills, a Baiga was found offering coconuts and chickens to the engine. It may be said that the pantheon of any one Baiga Dewar will be coterminous with his theological studies. For Baiga, theology is directed not to knowing more about God but to knowing about more gods. Another point that must be remembered is that the Baiga have lost their language and can thus only describe their deities by Sanskrit or Hindi words. Tliis gives their pantheon a spurious air of civilised theology and Hindu respectability. Hindus worship Bhagavan, but he is a very different being from the Bhagavan of the Baiga legends. The Baiga Mahadeo, deceitful and cowardly, bears no resemblance to the mighty being of Hindu theosophy. Dharti Mata is not unknown to popular Hinduism; she has suffered a heavy change into the fierce, destructive Durga. This has happened throughout the aboriginal districts: old shrines to Dharti Mata or Thakurani in Chanda, Bastar and Mandhata have been transformed into temples of Kali.

While writing about the deities, Elwin writes that the Baiga perhaps shows a certain respect for the deity whom he now calls by the Hindi word ‘Bhagavan.’ Bhagavan is the Creator, and it is to him that many aspects of the tribe's social and economic life trace their origin. He instituted bewar. He settled the Baiga in the jungle. He gave them seed. He established the rules of exogamy. He provided the tribe with the taboos that would maintain its integrity and prestige. He did indeed murder Nanga Baiga in a particularly cowardly fashion and afterwards tricked his sons out of most of their magical inheritance. Yet today, he is regarded as benevolent and harmless. His functions are mainly concerned with life and death. He sends his chaprasi to call men when their term of life is ended. Every jiv goes to him. He lives ‘far away’, but somewhere on the earth that he has created for his pleasure, in a grand palace on an island guarded by two rivers of fire. There, he cares for the souls who come to him, punishing the worst of them and sending the rest back to earth to be born again. All birth and death are in his hands. Apart from this, he does not interfere seriously with the affairs of men. He is not invoked in mantra, and there are no places associated with his name, not even a stick or stone to do him honour.

Whereas the prevalence of the deity of Bara Deo or Budha Deo is an interesting example of the effect of an administrative measure upon theology. Bara Deo has always been regarded as the chief deity of the Baiga and Gond. Modern Baigas, who have taken to the plough, have a different opinion of this ancient god. Bara Deo’s temple was the bewar, and his saj stump shrine was carefully preserved. But with the passing of bewar, Bara Deo lost his temple and his power. After being for many centuries, the chief of the deities of the open air, he has in many villages sunk to the position of a mere household god, sharing Narayan Deo’s kicks on the threshold or living with Dulha Deo behind the hearth. Elwin writes about another god named Thakur Deo. He says that Thakur Deo is the lord of the village and its headman. He is a jovial old god with a white beard nine hands long, fond of a bawdy joke, and wholly benevolent. The Baiga have given him a fantastic genealogy. Marra Deo and Marra Luati were born, one from the earth left on the edges of a grave and the other from the wood left over from a funeral pyre. These two went to live in Deo Muni Pahar, and they had two children, Bijeye and Ijeye. Bijeye’s wife was called Jalmotin Kanya, and their son was Brahma. Brahma’s wife was Sri Bhadavan, and their son was Thakur Deo. Thakur Deo’s wife is Dharti Mata, who is sometimes called Thakurani. The Bhaina, however, say his consort is Nakti Devi, goddess of the fields. In Hindu hands, he becomes Bhairon, the terrible consort of Kali. But where the old fertility beliefs are strong, he is transformed instead into Kama, the god of love, and Dharti Mata into his mistress, Rati. No such romance has gathered about the original figure of Thakur Deo, but he is greatly liked and honoured. He is such a thorough Baiga, so good-humoured, always ready to do a man a good turn, always on the right side. Thakur Deo is the oldest and the most honoured of the gods. The Baigas worship him with fire and sarai gum. Then he rides on a man, and we tell him all our sorrows, and he explains things to us, such as who are evil, why they suffer, what ghost or witch is troubling us, and what we ought to do. After giving all his advice, he leaves the man and goes away.

Ward, in his discussion on the Baigas, describes how, in Ramgurh, this deity is held in great reverence, but there, he is supposed to occupy more than one shape. One village, Jata, in the Shahpore talooqua, is said to be highly favoured as one of the residences of their deity. I was shown a few links to a roughly forged chain, which the superstition of the people was gifted with the power of voluntary motion. This chain looked very old, and no one could tell me how long it had been at Jata. It is occasionally found hanging in a ber tree, sometimes on a stone under the tree, from which it was said to have descended four days before. Each of these movements is made the occasion of some petty sacrifices, of which the attendant Baiga priest reaps the benefit.

Elwin also talks about the Dharti Mata, or Mother Earth, the mother of the Baiga, who is loved as well as worshipped, for to her alone among the deities is given the capacity for love, and the Baiga believe that she loves them, her children. They were born from her womb, and so long as they do not insult her by lacerating her breast with the plough, she tells them all her secrets. To her, the month of Jeth is sacred, for just before the rains, she lies ready to be impregnated. She is worshipped at the Bidri ceremony, remembered at the Bida, and invoked in many mantras. A Baiga will not drink liquor without dropping a few drops on the ground in her honour. If the Dewar considers that her cult is decreasing, he may order a special offering of black pigs, chickens, and goats once in three years. The Baiga often identify Dharti Mata with Annadai or Kutkidai, the goddess of food, and worship her with love and gratitude. For she is the ancient mother of the world and is adored by every tribe, not only in India but all over the face of the earth. The widespread cult of Gansam Deo also has had its influence on the Baiga, and in some villages, they erect a pole and build a platform in his honour, for he is powerful enough to drive away tigers. In addition to the great gods of the tribe, every family honours several household gods. Chief among these is the aji-dadi, the ancestors who live behind the hearth. Also located behind the hearth is dulha deo, the deified ghost of a young Gond bridegroom who was killed by a tiger on his way to the bride’s house. He guards and blesses the sagai (engagement) and the marriage bed. In some houses, Bara Deo lives with him and shares his worship. The essence of Baiga religion is to mobilise these forces of neutrality or benevolence against the forces of evil. Baiga religion is not a dogma; it is a war. The Dewar or gunia is not so much a priest as a warrior. He is a noble and heroic figure, fighting a desperate battle against the unseen powers of disaster and disease. His allies are the great guru and the more benevolent deities; these he must keep friendly by worship and reverence. His enemies must be either defeated outright by the power of his allies or propitiated by himself. Here is a new reading of his religion — a great battle that divides the supernatural world and calls out the noblest of mankind to give themselves to the heroic task of saving their fellows from the invisible and unknown.

The Baiga celebrations are an essential prism to the Baiga culture and religion. They often have a quite different idea of the festival and sometimes no idea at all, but they do not like being left out. Thus, the Baiga observe the Holi and Dasahra festivals of the Hindus, but they know nothing of Kamadeva’s attempt to rouse Shiva’s desire for Parvati; they have no idea of propitiating Holika. The Dasahra gains its importance by being the occasion for the Baiga Bida ceremony; none of the Hindu rites or theories are associated with it. It is the same at Diwali. It would be more accurate to say that the Baiga do not observe Dasahra or Diwali but that they observe festivals at these times. 

The first festival of the year is in January. This is the children’s feast of Cherta or Kichrahi. The Baiga probably took it from the Gond. Boys dress up as sadhus or put on masks and go around the village begging, with the song, Cherta! cherta! Mai, murgi, marta! Kothike dhan herta. They go down the riverside when they have enough, and the girls cook. They make one of the boys represent a crow; when all the others are served, he gets tiny. He must eat first, and while he is eating, a girl throws a blazing brand from the fire at him, and he jumps up and runs away. Then, the others can begin their meal. Parents observe this day as a fast. In March, the Baiga keeps Phag, as you would expect. They could hardly be expected to pass by so admirable an excuse for getting drunk. But the feast is no more to them than that. ‘It is not for the gods,” they say, “it is for men.” The Bidri ceremony occurs in June, and the Hareli is observed at the beginning of August, in the early part of the rains. The Bhumia believe it to be the festival of Annadai, Kutki Dai, goddess of the crops. The Pola, two months later, is a sort of sequel to the Hareli. The Bhumia and Bharotia simply put branches of the bhilwa or bhoir trees above their doorways and have a feast. The Narotia and any others who make stilts take them down to the nearest stream, pile them up and burn them. They believe that they are blowing away all the diseases of the village as the wind carries off the smoke. They also decorate their houses with branches of the bhilwa or with bamboo leaves.

At the end of the rains comes the Nawa feast. This is a sort of Harvest Thanksgiving. First, they take a handful of rice-stalks, remove the beard, and offer this to Thakur Deo. “O Dharti Mai, O Thakur Deo, these are yours! O Nanga Baiga, Nanga Baigin, these are yours!” When they return to their houses, they each tie a little bit of the rice-beard above their doors. The women prepare the new rice. The head of each household fasts, for he himself must do the cooking. In Pandaria he sits down before a pot full of boiling water bubbling on the fire, and throws the new rice into it, handful by handful, calling on the names of gods and ancestors. Elsewhere he takes seven saj or parsa leaves, puts a little of the cooked food on each, and offers it near the hearth to a god or ancestor. “All food eaten that day must be of the new harvest, nothing of last year.” The Dassera or Dasahra falls in October. For the Baiga this is chiefly important for the Bida ceremony which I describe in another chapter. It also initiates a month of, dancing: the men dance the Dassera, a kind of Saila; the women dance the Rina. During this month which sees the end of the rains, villages exchange visits, and they feast whenever possible. A little later comes Diwali. Only the very Hinduized Baiga observe it. Bahadur lights a few little lamps and makes offerings to his cattle. They take Gango and Gangahin — represented by tall poles crowned with peacock feathers — around the village, begging at every house.

Marriage:

O Bhavani, write it, write it in my fate!

A daughter twelve years old, a son of sixteen —

These two will make a perfect pair. - A Birha song from Bhimlat

Among the Baigas, marriage is an essential socio-economic affair. The necessity of paying a ‘bride price' is an incentive to family thrift and a stimulus to youthful labour. There can be no economic progress without creating wants: marriage supplies one of the chiefs' wants in Baiga's life. The boy’s party approaches the girl’s house. Five family friends go ahead and say to the girl’s father, “Today, visitors are coming to your house!” They arc followed by the boy himself, his father and mother, and other relatives, with gifts of chickens, coconut, cloth, bangles and some liquor bottles. “Why have you come?” asks the girl’s father. “I have come to find a gourd in which to put my seed. Have you a gourd here?” If the girl’s father answers “Yes,” the party enters the compound and sits down.

Then, the girl’s father takes a cupful of liquor and carries it into the house. He offers a few drops to Dulha Deo, Bhitraha Deo, Karirat, Bhavani Mata, Narayan Deo, the ancestors living by the hearth, and whatever is holy and numinous in the house, and says, “This boy and this girl belong to you: show us what we are to do!” Meanwhile, the girl watches the scene behind the door or some other secluded place. The father asks her, “Shall I drink or not?” The girl probably knows her prospective husband all too well, and if she likes him, she says, “Yes!” However, if he is a new boy, she may take some time to decide. But her decision is final. When she consents, her father goes out and begins to drink with the boy’s party, his samdhi belonging, if possible, to a different goti and garh. We have seen that the rules of exogamy are not always observed, but their breach is comparatively rare in formal engagements and weddings. This is the standard procedure in Dindori. In Bilaspur, the Bhaina Baiga has a more elaborate approach. The chief actors in the marriage ceremony are the two dosi and the two susain. The dosi are usually old men who stand in the relation of father or uncle to the bride and bridegroom; they perform most religious rites. The suasin are young unmarried girls, sisters, or cousins of the bridal pair. They must remain in constant attendance.

There are several other ways in which a Baiga acquires a mate. Pathul or Intrusion: It is fascinating that the second most preferred form of mate selection among Baiga was intrusion, which is called pathul in their dialect. In this form of mate selection, the bride must play a pivotal role and force the groom to accept her as a bride. She forcefully intrudes in the groom’s house whom she wants to marry. The groom beats her, tortures them differently, sent her out by gripping her hand and hair lock, but again and again, she intrudes and tolerates all the harassment and torture given by the groom and her parents and never leaves the house. Ultimately, the groom's- side becomes helpless to accept her and she marries. Lamsena, or by service, is the third most preferred form of mate selection among the Baiga. Before marriage, the groom must prove through one or two years of service to the bride’s parent that he is compatible and has the stamina and skill to establish a family. He works in various ventures usually practised by the bride’s family. When the bride’s parents were satisfied with his service, they married their girl to him. Uthawa or elopement: In 7% of all marriages of Baiga, mates were acquired through elopement. The brides were eloped by force. Later, they married with the consent of all concerned parties and persons. Chor or theft: In acquiring a mate, the groom and bride quietly run away to a distant village or relative, where they inform the headman. The headman must get married to them and send them back to their home. This is a loving marriage called chor-vivah or marriage by theft. The present investigation found that in 6.3% of marriages, the mates were acquired by this method. Ughariya or re-marriage: Among Baiga, remarriage is permitted. In case of failure or divorce in the first marriage or the spouse's death, they can remarry. Although such cases are rare, only 0.5% of respondents reported re-marriage during the present investigation.

A typical Baiga Village and Household as described by Verrier Elwin:

A typical Baiga village gives an impression of a strong and vital corporate life. An exacting code of reciprocal obligations between kin or a common loyalty to some dictatorial chief does not bind it. Still, it is vitalised by a vivid consciousness of the tribal idea, a devotion to Mother Earth, and an adherence to Baiga law. The village's plan fosters this impression of energy, equality, and corporate loyalty. Unlike the Gond, the Baiga build their villages in a large square or with houses lining a broad street some thirty feet across. The Gonds build their houses in separate enclosures; each home embodies their individualistic, litigious, suspicious, secretive character. The Baiga village expresses the friendly, open-hearted, honest, and communistic nature of the tribe. The Baiga have an eye for a good site. They set their villages in places convenient for bewar, but it is hard to believe that aesthetic considerations are ignored. The ordinary Bhumia village is always remote. The village boundary is usually marked by a strip of cleared land twenty or thirty yards broad, emphasised by piles of stones at critical points. The boundary, mero, as it is called, is the Baiga’s special province. In most villages, the marghat or burying place is just inside the boundary. To the boundary, all the diseases are carried at the Bida ceremony and thrown away. At the mero, nails must be driven to shut the mouths of tigers. The Baiga must reinforce the official boundaries with a magic wall, which he builds against the raids of wild animals and the spread of disease. The Bhumia village is built around a large square. Generally, three sides of this are closed by houses, and the fourth is open to the air but fenced with bamboo or a cactus hedge. Often, small groups of houses are some distance from the main square. Sometimes, the shape of the village is a long rectangle, as in Lamni; sometimes, as in Daharkata, two large squares are joined by a road. Outside the square are the strips of garden land known as the bari, where the people grow tobacco, sweet potatoes or maise. The guda, or pig’s houses, are not in the garden but inside the square, often in front of the houses and built onto them. Sars, or cattle sheds, form part of the line of huts in the square, and it is not always easy to distinguish them from human habitations. There is no house for the gods, though sometimes a tall pole is erected in front of the chief gunia’s house. If there is a madhia or a shrine for Dharti Mata or Thakur Deo, it is generally built at some distance from the village. No bachelors’ dormitories, corporate houses, menstruation huts, or remarkable granaries exist. There are often, however, tall platforms (macha) erected in the middle or at the side of the square for drying and storing maise. Tobacco is spread on the roof and dried there. Other grain is put out on cots in the sun.

The Bhumia or Bharotia house, the typical Baiga house everywhere, is very simple, generally tumbledown, and dilapidated. This is because the Baiga never seems to think it necessary to finish off their walls properly with the coating of mud and whitewash, which makes even the poorest Gond house attractive. The miserable look of a Baiga house is not due to poverty but indifference. In the forest villages, all the simple materials that are needed for a large and imposing building may be taken from the jungle free of charge — a few heavy wood pillars, some poles, split bamboo, some lengths of bark, a quantity of thatching grass, mud, cow-dung, and white earth — the majority of Baiga can obtain these things without payment. The chief differences between a Baiga and a Gond house are as follows: the Baiga house is generally part of a row of buildings and is separated from its neighbours by a narrow passage two or three feet wide. The Gond house stands in its compound, separate from others. The Gond make substantial mud walls and plaster them with cow dung and white earth. The Baigi dd does not use whitewash, sometimes does not even use cow-dung, and often plasters only the inside of their walls or leaves them altogether bare. A typical Baiga house is built around a single central pillar, the bartender-than, with a forked top. Resting on this is a long pole, the rooftree, or churla, which is supported at either end by the dadawaria thunhi. These three central pillars are seven or eight feet high. The side walls, which are four or five feet high, are supported by dabi thunhi small stout poles three or four feet apart, with forked tops on which rest the patoti poles. From the churla to the patoti poles are laid several malga or karoti poles, about one foot apart, to carry the roof or thath. The house is generally divided into two rooms by a row of kothi or khursa, round bamboo grain bins plastered with mud on their chachara stand. Sometimes, the bins are not more than waist-high; sometimes, they reach the roof. The poorer Baiga, who have no grain to put in a bin if there is one, divide their houses by a rough bamboo wall. The Baiga house is tiny but often cosy enough and always scrupulously clean. Most household goods are hung from the roof, oily and black from the smoke of constant fires. There were a dozen little bundles of various spices and herbs, packets of tobacco, jungle medicines carefully wrapped in bits of cloth, clothes stored in a jhapi, gourds, bows and arrows, traps of every kind, bundles of drying maise, brooms — both the bamboo kareta and the grass bahari, a kawar for carrying loads, and the karchari or sujia for transporting bundles of hay or straw. Hung from the roof, also by loops of grass, is the adgasani, a bamboo pole that serves as a clothesline and is hung most of the household’s clothing.

On the walls, you may find axes, sickles, a khanta for dibbling holes for seed, more bows and arrows, the larger traps like the bissera or khujji-phanda bundles of hemp for string, strips of bark, drums, the bamboo frame for making a tobacco thali. Standing in a corner may be a bed, and every kind of basket in various parts of the house. In the inner room are a few cooking-pots, probably simply an earthen handi for pej an earthen tilai for vegetables, a paina for steaming rice. In a corner is an earthen dohni full of pej to be kept till evening. Standing against the wall may be a chatai or bamboo mat for sleeping. By the fire is a machi or pidha little seats — the machi may have legs of sambhar horns, and the pidha is a flat square of wood. There are also two or three gursi shallow earthen pots for holding fire; these are put under the beds at night. The Baiga home is dark and cosy, smelling eternally of wood smoke and food cooking. It is a place of warmth and affection, not a permanent abode, but a good tent on life’s journey.

Food and Drinking Habits:

Ek bita jag jita: sanjh khay bihana rita. The stomach is a span broad: you go throughout the world for it. Eat in the evening: empty again in the morning. — Baiga Proverb.

The bulk of Baiga food is poor and monotonous enough. The Baiga eat three times a day. First, in the early morning, at about eight, they call the meat juara, and they usually drink pej of kodon, kutki, siker or rice. The second meal, which also consists of pej, is taken about four in the afternoon and is called marraiya, and the third, at night, relatively late, called biyari, may consist of kodon and dal, with vegetables and sometimes bread of wheat or marria. In the Mandla Tehsil, these meals are known as murgal, marria and biyari. Pej is prepared by boiling a quantity of water, two seers for each adult. When it is bubbling, rice, kodon or kutki is thrown into the pot — one seer of grain for every six of water, and is left to boil. Then it is taken off the fire, and two or three more seers of cold-water arc poured onto the rice. This is known as pej bhedtia. Kodon requires more water than rice; a seer of kodon needs to be mixed with ten or eleven seers of water. Well-to-do people, sick people or pregnant women take pej without adding cold water. Kodon passes through three stages on its way to the cooking pot. It is first partially husked in the jata and becomes akri-kodai. It is then fully husked and partly cleaned by the musar: it is now bhagri-kodai. Finally, it is cleaned and washed and is kodai proper. But it is eaten at all three stages. Bhagri-kodai is preferred because of its flavour. But pej is only the basis and foundation for other food. In the kanda-bari, only sweet potatoes and maise are cultivated, but the Baiga go out and gather every kind of jungle leaf and herb. The karil-chena (bamboo shoots) are a great delicacy. They are prepared by removing the outer skin and boiling. Then all the water is squeezed out of them and pounded a little. Then they are again boiled with salt, turmeric, and chilli. Pipal leaves are first boiled and then dried in the sun. Afterwards, they are rubbed in the hands and cooked in buttermilk.

Among the most popular fruits is the mango. During the mango season, everybody goes to the jungle and gathers baskets of small green fruit: often, they take it to the bazaar and sell it at loo an anna, but they eat a large portion themselves. The mahua (bassia latifolia) is so valued by the Baiga that they never cut it in their bewar. Its sweet and sickly flowers are dried and made into a gruel or chutney. Its seeds yield an oil that can be used for cooking. The Corolla is made into liquor.

Almost every kind of meat is acceptable. Most people prefer the haril or the flesh of the sambhar, though Mahi likes a nice boiled chicken, and her husband is a plump jungle pig. Mahi’s chicken must be a jungle fowl, which is much tastier than a domestic fowl. But even a domestic fowl is better than a rat. Meat is generally prepared by being first boiled in water and then either cut up and made into curry or fried in ghee or oil. A haril or fowl is put on the open fire till all the feathers are burnt off and then roasted. A petite chick is roasted like a rat with a stick thrust into its mouth. The Baiga eat the skin and the entrails, even the bones, if the bird or animal is small. They especially delight in a roast goat prepared for special occasions. The whole party sits quietly drinking round a great fire, and a goat is suspended above it. Then, as it roasts, the company pull bits of the flesh out of the flames and eats them while drinking. Eggs are boiled, and the shell is removed and made into a curry with haldi, chih, and any vegetable available. Eggs are also put in balls of fresh cow dung and placed in the glowing embers of a fire until ready.

It is not true that the Baiga drink is only for getting drunk. Liquor has a solemn ritual significance, and its flavour gives exquisite pleasure. The Baiga are very particular about the quality of their liquor and sometimes go many miles to a shop where a finer flavour may be obtained. But they do, of course, enjoy the sensation of being drunk. It is an escape from an often all too grim reality. Bhagavan himself sent the great giant Bhimsen to find mahua liquor before the foundation of the world and thus established it as a necessary ingredient in all Baiga worship. It is drunk at the Bida, which drives away disease from the village, and at the sacrifices which protect the been war. Mourners take it at a funeral and revellers at a wedding. It is an essential item in the gifts at the sagai (engagement); it is generally levied as part of the fine for readmission to tribal penalties after excommunication; it is a convenient way of paying a gunia for his services. The liquor in the first few bottles is called phuli; it is powerful and costs about eight annas. The rest is rasi and expenses from one and a half to three annas a bottle. The liquor is drunk out of neat little cups of folded sarai or mohlain leaf. When several people drink together, they sometimes pour a corporate libation to Dharti Mata before serving it.

Dress, Ornaments and Tattoos:

Traditionally, Baigas dressed scantily, and their orthodox practice was to wear as little as possible. It is believed that the Nanga Baiga (the first Baiga man) was gifted a piece of cloth nine hands (cubits) in length by God, but he returned all of it but a hand and a half that was necessary. Some elderly Baigas believe that the present poverty in the Baigas can be traced to their wearing of clothes and shoes. Short dhotis above the knees and sleeveless waistcoats are sported by many Baiga men, though in recent times, trousers, T-shirts and shirts are also commonly worn. The Baiga men traditionally sported long hair tied into elegant knots, a practice that can be seen disappearing with time.

The traditional dress of the Baiga women is called lugra, a long strip of pink cloth tied around the waist, carried across the breast, and tucked in at the shoulder. The skirt formed around it is short and does not reach the knees. Recently, sarees have become a popular choice among the Baiga women. The Baiga girls and women sport necklaces and ornaments of colourful beads and coins, silver and aluminium bracelets, armlets, and bangles. The Baiga women sport permanent tattoos on their bodies, forming a distinct characteristic of their cultural identity. A girl gets tattooed on her forehead at the age of five. By the time she gets married, she gets tattoos all over her body. Elwin writes that different sections of Baiga may easily be distinguished by their ornaments. Only the Bhumia generally wear the heavy brass tin-kor around their ankles. The Bharotia are distinguished by wearing only brass bangles, a lot of them; the highest up the arm, more significant than the others, is called the darakna. The others are the kaknahi. They do not wear the tarki or any ornaments faced with lac. The Narotia, however, wear the tarki, but only very rarely brass bangles. They prefer coloured glass, which Bharotia never wears. Muria and Binjhwar wear ordinary glass or aluminium bangles. The Kath-Shaina wear brass bangles and a single glass bangle for various reasons. In Niwas, the Chhota Bhumia wear the tikli or spangle on the forehead, and Bara Bhumia or a Bharotia never wore it.

The Baiga have whispers of the forest etched onto the skin. Not mere decoration, mind you, but a chronicle, a cartography of womanhood, inked in soot and myth. Imagine the flicker of a sesame oil lamp; its soot is a dark promise, a pigment born of shadow. This is the ink of the Badnin, the Ojha woman, her hands a legacy, her memory a living tapestry.

These women, the needle keepers, don't simply draw. They inscribe. The Baiga girl, a tender sapling, marked upon the brow with the crescent moon, a sliver of celestial light, a declaration: I am Baiga. A rite of passage, a passage into the very fabric of her people. Eight, ten years old, and already the skin remembers.

And the patterns, ah, the patterns! Not some random flourish, but a language of the wild. The cow’s eye, a dark, knowing circle, pressed against the breast, the back – a gaze that sees beyond the veil, a beauty that transcends the flesh. Mountains rise in triangular lines, sharp and resolute, just like the ridges of their homeland. The sun, a radiant pulse at the heart, symbolises life's relentless flame. Dots crosses, circles – a symphony of geometry, a silent song of symmetry, echoing the rhythms of the forest.

The body becomes a canvas, a testament. Arms, legs, a narrative unfolding, a story etched in pricks of pain and enduring beauty. Marriageable age, the skin a masterpiece, save for the thighs, a space reserved for the husband’s desire, a whisper of intimacy. And then, the ultimate seal: the neck, the breasts, adorned after childbirth, a proclamation: I have brought forth life. A woman fully realised her story.

But it is not just about beauty, is it? No, it is about eternity. The ink, they say, becomes one with the flesh, a spirit carried into the afterlife, a tangible connection to the ancestors. So the Baiga woman, adorned with the symbols of her world, carries her history, identity, and soul with her beyond the veil of mortality.

And the Badnin, the artist, the historian, her tools are simple: a sliver of wood, needles bound together, the soot of the lamp. But the art, ah, the art, that is a treasure passed down, a whispered secret from mother to daughter, grandmother to grandchild. No books, no sketches, just memory, just the oral tradition, a living, breathing testament to a culture that refuses to fade. They prick, they bleed, they remember. And in doing so, they keep the heart of the Baiga beating, inked in the very skin of their women. It is a beautiful, brutal, eternal art. In her article on the Baiga tattoo tradition, Shatabdi Chakrabarti writes that the displacement from their ancestral environment has hurt their culture and traditions. It can be observed that the Baiga women who live closer to the cities do not have elaborate traditional tattoos. Most of them did have a tattoo on their forehead, but instead of the lines and patterns on their arms and legs, they had smaller motifs which seemed to be influenced by the Gond tribe. The only place one can find Baiga women with their entire bodies tattooed is in the interior villages in Dhindhori district. Only the older generation still has these marks. I asked a woman why her daughter was not tattooed. I was told that she will not get tattooed as she goes to school, and the teachers and children who come to the school from other tribes and villages make fun of her. In most of the tattooed tribes, with the death of its older members, the skills and oral memory associated with tattooing will also be lost forever. Conflict between urban and tribal values is not the only reason this art form is disappearing.