Social Organisation, Community and Village:

There is no doubt in categorising Birhors into the proto-australoid group of races. They are short with a long head, black in colour, and they have long, wavy, reddish-rusty hair and a broad, flattened nose. Hunting nature made them unique compared to other proto-australoid tribes. Their body structural efficiency is more developed, i.e., eye site power, running capacity, smelling proficiency, developed vocal cords for producing sounds like animals, balancing skill to climb a tree or rock and a flexible soul to survive in different climates make them peculiar. Due to these developed skills, many scholars refer to them as ‘the kings of the forest’. They are very curious and humble. The present situation and lack of forests optimise the natural ' habitual wanderer’ of Birhors, and this leads Birhors to be divided into two groups, i.e., uthlu (/uʈʰlu/) or bhulaiya (/bʰulaija/) and jaghi (/dʒagʰi/) or thania (/tʰanija/). The uthlu groups of Birhors are the food gatherer who move from forest to forest to collect food as per their comforts. They first form a tanda and start living in a forest where there is enough food and water. Once they feel the crisis of food, they leave the place and search for another. Thus, they move from one forest to another and return to the place from which they started their journey. The cycle of their movement takes nearly two and a half years.

According to Babu Sarat Chandra Roy, (1) the social organisation of the Birhors is very simple, though not primitive. They have, at the present day, a two-fold organisation, namely, one for purposes of food-gathering and another for purposes of marriage and kinship. He further writes that the tribe is divided into scattered communities, each consisting of from three to four to about nine or ten families, who move about as one band from jungle to jungle in search of food, or live together in or near some jungle as a comparatively settled local group or tanda. Each tanda has a headman supposed to be supernaturally elected. This headman is called the Naya. He is chosen of the spirits, and he alone can propitiate them and keep them in order and thereby avert mischief and misfortune and secure good luck to the community. Although he is regarded as the ‘malik’ or lord of the settlement, his position is only that of a chief among equals. On the death of a Naya, the will of the spirits as to his successor is known through the medium of a ghost-doctor or mail of which there are one or two in almost every group. The Naya appoints a man of his local group as the Kotwar or Diguar whose duties are to call people to the hunt, to attend at the sacrifices and make all necessary arrangements or them. Even if he fails to attend a hunt he is given a share of the game equal to what each of the hunters receives. Sarat Chandra Roy, further writes that the association of each tanda group is, based on the need for association in the food-quest. The principal occupation of the Birhor is to secure food by hunting. And, as is but natural, his social organization as well as his religion and his system of taboos are essentially concerned with success or ‘luck’ in hunting. Any case of ill-luck that befalls the community either in respect' of food, health or elemental concern of life is attributed infringement of some taboo by some member of the community and the consequent wrath of some ancestral or other spirit. Rope-making and monkey-catching are the two favourite occupations which distinguish the Birhor tandas or food-groups from other aboriginal communities in Chota Nagpur. The collection of chops and its manufacture, like the gathering of edible herbs, tubers, honey, and bees' wax, are no longer pursued collectively by the entire tandas. Still, each Birhor family gathers its herbs and tubers, honey, and bees’ wax, and collects its chop and manufactures its ropes, strings and nets for its use or sale or barter for its benefit, although in these occupations members of one family may not often associate with those of one or more others. Members of a tanda are usually seen sitting together in an open space inside the tanda, engaged in friendly conversation while splitting chop fibres, uniting the strands, and making them into strings, ropes, or nets. The monkey hunt, or Gari-sendra, is, however, still conducted jointly by the adult members of an entire tanda. Birhor are just as proud of their association with forests as they are with their relationship with monkeys (even though the reference to these animals is absent in their endoethnonym). In other words, one reason for their collective pride is their distinct reputation for exceptional skills in catching monkeys. Further contributing to this pride is the critical fact that the Birhor have even cunningly created a place for themselves and their special relationship with monkeys in the Ramayana, an epic Hindu poem known and loved throughout India, as well as among tribal people. According to their version of the Ramayana, it was no less than Hanuman himself, the Hindu monkey-God worshipped by millions of devotees, who taught them how to catch him and, consequently,

It is not only the tanda organisation that is based on the necessity for association for purposes of securing food: by hunting; once a year may be seen a larger association in which almost all the able-bodied men belonging to several situated within a day’s journey from one another, come together for purposes of hunting. In this annual hunting expedition known as the Disum sendra (or regional hunt), we meet with a rudimentary form of association in larger wholes than the Nyass and other elders of the different groups act as umpires in any dispute regarding game between the hunters of the different fundas, and consult one another in other matters connected with the expedition. This expedition starts on the Sunday before the full moon in the month of Baishokh. The Dhiguars of the different tandas communicate the information at the markets that the Disum sendra will be held at such and such a hill or jungle, and at the same time notify all the tandas concerned. In each of the nights preceding the date so fixed, the Naya and his wife must observe strict sexual continence.

The second form of social grouping among the Birhors is concerned with kinship and marriage. The fundamental features in the marriage and kinship organisation of the Birhors, as well as their kinsmen and neighbours, the Mundas and the Santals, are the division of the tribe into exogamous clans called gotras, which are mostly named after animals, plants, fruits, flowers, or other material objects. It is interesting to note that the few families that comprise a Birhor tanda or food group do not all belong to the same clan or kinship group. Chance or, more often, marital connections would appear to have originally brought together in a tanda families belonging to different clans. Sex totems and associated totems are unknown. A Birhor's totem is hereditary and not acquired. Although the Birhors have no individual or personal totems, properly so called, they have a peculiar belief of a somewhat analogous nature. When a Birhor dreams of some bird, beast, worm, reptile, or other thing in the night, and the following morning receives a visit from some friend or relative, he at once concludes that the object of his dream, whether it be a snake or an ant or even a rope or some other thing, must be the rais (the ‘daemon' or 'genius’) of his guest. Sarat Chandra Roy further writes that, although the Birhors of our days do not believe in the actual descent of a clan from its totem, they appear to find some resemblance in the temperament or the physical appearance of the members of a clan to that of their totem animal or plant. Thus, it is said, people of the Gidhi (vulture) clan usually have little hair on the crown of the head; the Andi gotra men have bald forehead; members of the Lupung clan are generally short but plump like the lupung fruit; the Ludamba gotra as well as the Mahali gotra people are short and lean; members of the Here Hembrom clan are thin and short; the Chauli Hembrom men often have matted hair; people of the Geroa clan, it is said, have generally no nails on their toes and their teeth decay prematurely;

As with other totemic peoples, a Birhor must abstain from killing, destroying, maiming, hunting, injuring, eating or otherwise using the animal, plant or other object that forms his clan totem, or anything made from or obtained from it; and, if possible, he will also prevent others from doing so in his presence. In matters such as food taboos, festivals, sacrifices and the like, there are differences among the different clans. Thus, the men of the Nagpuria clans- clan offer an ox; those of the Khangar, Andi, and Shamjhakhoa clans offer a goat; those of the Ludamba clan offer two goats; those of the Murum clan offer one chicken and one goat; the Here Hembrom, Chauli Hembrom, Khudi Hembrom, the Bhuiya, the Mahali and the Sada clans each offer two chickens to their respective Orabongn or Buru-bonga or Khunt-bhut. The headman of the Ludamba clan, while offering sacrifices to his Buril-bonga, wears the Brahmanic sacred thread, as the Sulim burn hill, which is their reputed ancestral hill, is supposed to be a 'Brahman bhut’ or Brahman spirit.

In the presence of so many points of difference in custom between the different clans, it is no wonder that a Birhor should identify ‘clan’ with ‘jat’ or caste, and that there is yet hardly any genuine tribal sentiment or any cohesion between the members of the different clans. However, since members of two or three clans generally form one food group by camping together in the same tanda or settlement, or by wandering about and hunting in the same jungle, a well-recognised connection has developed between certain clans.

Religion:

Of the Birhors, as of other tribes at a similar level of culture, Religion may very well be said to constitute almost their whole way of life. All the ills of life— and life to them is brimful of ills—arc believed to be caused by supernatural agencies—either by spirits hovering about in earth, air, and water, hill and forest, river, and spring, or by lesser powers and energies immanent in various animate beings as well as inanimate objects. The Birhor’s whole life—economic, domestic, social and socio-political—is pervaded by his religion (including that aspect of it which anthropologists generally term Magic); and his religion consists in a haunting sense of ‘sacred’ presences— a haunting fear of spirits and spiritual energies leading him to continuous endeavors, through appropriate rites and sacrifices, charms and spells, to conciliate them, when necessary, and control, avoid or repel them, when possible. Besides the spirits of their numerous native hills, forests and streams, there are the ever-increasing spirits of dead human beings, all seeking food and nourishment. The deer is called by the Birhor ‘the goat of the gods’, and, as we have seen, when the Birhor slays a deer, he offers a bit of its hair or skin to the ‘gods’ of the forest to avert their displeasure. Thus, for the Birhor, the world is a vast ‘sacred’ arena where man and spirit are continually engaged in a silent struggle, each for its hand. And, over it all, sits apart the great God Singbonga, symbolised by the Sun, generally an unconcerned Spectator—the ‘Sakhi’ or Witness, as the Birhor aptly characterises Him—of the doings of men and spirits, their struggles and strivings to secure food and sustain and strengthen life. The Birhor recognises a distinction between gods or spirits that may require propitiation through prayers and sacrifices, and impersonal powers, forces, or energies that can be controlled, averted, or repelled by spells, threats, and other methods of ‘magic.’ The main deities of the Birhors, besides Sinbonga, the Creator, and Devi Mai or the Earth goddess, are certain hill spirits and ancestor spirits. A few beast-gods such as Bagh-bir (tiger god), Hundar-bir (Wolf-god), Bir-banhey (orangutan-god), Bandar-bir (Monkey-god) and Hanuman-bir (Baboon-god) are also propitiated. Although certain trees are believed to be the abode of spirits, tree worship as a cult is not well-documented. The festival of the Karam (Nauclea parvifolia) tree and the Jitia-pipar tree appear to have been adopted by some of the settled groups from their neighbours, the Mundas and certain semi-Hinduised tribes. And then there is Mahadeo (generally worshipped only by certain families or individuals), Singbonga, and the mother-goddesses Devi Ma Burhi Mui and Kali Mai, who are, however, deities superior to man and stand as a class apart. These mother-goddesses truly belong to a comparatively higher level of culture and appear to have been borrowed by the Birhors from their Hinduized neighbours, who are in the agricultural stage. They are the gods proper, and the rest are spirits and bhuts. Among spirits, the Buru-Bongas, or ancestral hill-spirits, and the Haprom, or ancestor-spirits, rank highest. The rest are bhuts among whom Chandi is a general spirit, sacrificed to by the whole tribe.

The Uthlu section of the Birhors, whose time is entirely taken up in the quest for food and precautions against the consequent dangers from natural and supernatural sources, has no leisure to indulge in regular religious festivals. From year’s end to year’s end, they are in a state of almost constant anxiety for securing food. But even a Uthlu Birhor, both before he proceeds in the food-quest and after he secures the desired food, takes care to propitiate the spirits whose good wishes or at any rate absence of ill-will, are considered essential to success in this as in every other affair of life. Thus, Birhors of the Kawan clan, who are mostly Uthlus, before they begin digging for yams and tubers strike the ground three times with their axes and invoke their clan- God or Hill-god (Bum bonga) known as Haser banga or the yam spirit (in imitation of the crowing of a cock) by uttering the queer cry of “Kok-ro-cho.” and pray to the spirit for plenty of yams and tubers: And all Birhors, Uthlu as well as Jaghi, as soon as they have gathered honey must offer to the Chowrasi hamprom and other spirits a few drops of honey and minute grains of pollen or other matter ( which they call remnants of honey flowers ) found in the cells of the comb. It is believed that if this is omitted, they will have no success in honey-gathering in future. Sarat Chandra Roy further writes that “all the landed Jaghi Birhors that I have known have also adopted from the Mundas and other neighbours the Soso Bongas and the Nawajom festivals.”

In the Soso-Bonga festival, which generally happens in July, after transplantation of the paddy seedlings is finished, the head of each of the few Jaghi Birhor families that have taken to wet paddy cultivation brings a few branches of the soso (semicarpis anacardium) plant and calls in a person who has learnt the details of the ceremony. Whereas, Nawa Jom is the ceremony of eating the New Rice. On the morning following the Sosa-bonga festival, the owner of the fields, upon returning from the fields after planting the soso branches, bathes and comes home. Meanwhile, his wife has cleaned the angan again with cow dung and water, gathered some fresh soso leaves and some new upland (gord) rice from a neighbour’s field, threshed the rice, and made chiura (flattened rice) from it. A little milk in a jug or cup, some chiura oil soso leaves, and molasses (gur) and clarified butter (ghi) on leafcups, are placed in the angan where the man first takes up the jug of milk in his hand in a standing posture, goes on dropping the milk on the chiuru, placed on the ground over sosa leaves. As he drops the milk he prays, —” Sirmare Sing Bonga tihingdo emkanaing dud kusum, Ne jomene. Llli husu bohu-hasu bilnun tihing ate, etc” i.e. thou Singbonga in heaven, today I am giving (Thee) milk (lit., milkflower). Eat (drink) this. From today, may there be no sickness in the stomach or head. A little chiura is also offered to the ancestor-spirits (Burha-Burhi) by putting the chiura, on soso-leaves at the ading. Then they all eat new chiura and drink rice beer. A screen is hung over the spot in the angan where the offerings to Singbonga were made. In the afternoon, when the rice has been boiled, and the meat of the fowl cooked, a little of this rice and meat are offered to the Burha-Burhi in the tiding by the head of the family. Then, all the family members and any invited friends partake of the feast. The leaf-plates on which they have eaten are stowed away in a corner of the hut. In the evening, when the canopy has been removed from the angan, these leaf plates are thrown away in the angan.

The Dasai Festival: This festival is celebrated in the month of Asvina. The sacrifice and, if possible, other adult family members remain fasting throughout the day and night; goats are sacrificed at the family's thaan.

The Karaam Festival: — The Karam festival is held on the eleventh day of the moon in the month of Bhodro. A Karam Adina cordifolia branch is brought to the angan where it is ceremoniously planted. And the story (kahani) of the two brothers Karam and Dharam is recited by someone who knows it by heart.

The Jitia Festival is celebrated annually, twelve days after the Karma Festival. The head of the family and his wife remain fasting the whole day. The man plants in his angan a branch of the Jitia pipcir tree (Ficus religiosa), a branch of the sekre or sidha tree, and a twig of the mohua (Hassia latifolia) tree, along with a bamboo and a sugarcane, all tied together with a straw rope in the middle. The Jitia Kahini is recited by someone who knows it, preferably by a Brahman, if available. Offerings of Gulaichi flower bael (Aegis marmegos) leaves, clarified rice, milk, molasses, clarified butter (ghee), rice-flour cakes (pitha), and flattened rice (chiura) are offered to the Jitia branch and its associates.

Marriage:

The marriage system of Birhors is quite interesting. They follow the inter-clan marriage system. Once the boy is ready and agrees to marry a girl, he tells his parents. Their parents arrange a meeting with the girl's parents, and with the presence of the naya, they set a date for the marriage. Before marriage, the boy goes to the forest in a team for hunting, which shows his manliness. That day, the girl wears a bridal costume, and the boy wears the groom's costume. The whole village comes together for a feast. A large amount of mahua or rice beer is made. The entire day, they start drinking and arrange for a dance and singing practice. They call the bride and ask her to run in the forest, and the groom is asked to catch his bride. Meanwhile, both parents sing traditional wedding songs. After seeing the bride, they have other rituals. They sacrifice a hen or a fowl to their god and cook the hen or fowl and eat together. Besides that, they roast pork and eat together by sitting around the fire and continuing their drinking. At the marriage ceremony, they serve food and drink on a special kind of plate and bowl made from green leaves. The women start making those plates in the early morning or the day before their marriage. This ceremony lasts for the next few days. After marriage, the bride is no longer called by her father’s clan name. From the day of marriage, the bride is identified by the husband’s clan name, and she follows the husband’s clan rules and beliefs. However, in modern times, the traditional marriage system is gradually declining. However, Sarat Chandra Roy mentioned different types of marriage practices of Birhors. These are:

bolo bapla (/bolo bapla/):

This is a widow marriage system, but the way of marriage is quite different. Here, a widow enters a man’s kumba forcefully along with a basket of mohua flowers or a bundle of firewood. The house members try to chase her out, and if they are unable to do so, the man must marry the lady.

nam napom bapla (/nam napom bapla/):

This kind of marriage is arranged when a boy and a girl genuinely love each other and are unable to be separated. In this case, the elderly people of the tanda arrange a meeting and take the girl to the boy’s house, following certain rituals. When the father of the boy pays the bride price to the girl's family, the members of the tanda and relatives of both families come together and do the final marriage rituals, especially by using minium.

udara udari bapla (/ud̪ara ud̪ari bapla/):

When a boy and girl love each other, sometimes they leave their tanda and stay separately as a husband and wife. After a few days, their parents visit them and take them back to their tanda. Then, after paying the bride price, they conduct the wedding ceremony, following their traditional rituals.

sipundur bapla (/sipund̪ur bapla/):

When a boy loves a girl, he waits with minium (mixed with oil) in hand for a chance, and if he finds the girl in a fair or crowded place, he puts the minium on her head. If the girl marries another boy, it will be her second marriage. In this kind of marriage, the boy’s side is stronger than the girl’s side.

kiring-jauye bapla (/kiriŋ dʒauje bapla/):

In this kind of wedding system, expenses are spent by the girl’s parents. The wedding is held at the girl’s house, and then the girl goes to the boy’s house, where she stays for a month. After the wedding, the boy must reimburse the expenses in instalments. Until the payment is complete, the boy must be at his wife’s house. If the boy is unable to pay the costs, he must work for his father-in-law until the payment is complete.

golhat bapla (/golhat̪ bapla/):

The exchange of betel leaves and betel nuts marks this type of wedding. Here, the bride-groom or groom-bride is exchanged, i.e., if a boy marries a girl, the boy from the bride’s family or her relatives must marry a girl from the groom’s family or his relatives. In this kind of wedding, there is no bride price.

bengkari bapla (/beŋkari bapla/):

In this type of wedding, the boy's family takes a girl from a poor family to their house and performs the marriage ceremony by following all the traditional rituals.

hirum bapla (/hirum bapla/):

If one marries an unmarried girl despite being married, it is known as hirum bapla. Here, the wedding is arranged by following the general rituals.

sanga bapla (/saŋa bapla/):

If one marries a married girl despite having a wife, it is known as sanga bapla. Here, the wedding is also arranged by the general rituals.

Economic Life and Profession of Birhors:

A.K. Sinha, in his article (2), writes that Hunting of wild animals and rope making, comprise the main occupation of the Birhor. Their principal games consist of monkeys, rats, deer, wild goats and numerous types of birds. Along with hunting, they also collect fibres, which are used in rope making. Honey and adhesive materials are also collected. Birhor children move about in a collection of mahua flowers and fruits, as well as wild fruits and leaves. Women follow the traditional practice of rope-making. 281 families follow the conventional practice of rope-making from Patwa. Fifty-three families from the Bagicha area manufacture frames for the kanwar (balance) and madar (beating drum). Twenty Birhor families from Kunkuri are engaged in hunting monkeys, in addition to other occupations, and sometimes supplement their income by making earthen tiles, donas (bowls made from leaves), pattais (leaf plates), Chatis (mats), and tokris (baskets). The economic condition of the Birhors is in a sorry state. In recent years, they have begun clearing forest lands for cultivation, but due to a lack of sufficient means, it reminds us of a stage of incipient agriculture. In Raigarh district, out of a total of 281 families, only 27 families own land; the rest (254 families) are landless. All of them follow the traditional occupation of rope making, agricultural labour and collection of marginal forest produce.

The family is the unit of production among the Birhors. Although after marriage, the son and his wife reside in a separate place, agricultural activities are carried out jointly, i.e., the son joins his parents in harvesting the land, and the produce is divided between the two households. Males carry out heavy and complex jobs, and females assist them in agriculture. Additionally, females continue to make rope at home as a craft. Birhors are always ready to help each other in times of crisis, which shows their solidarity and communal integrity.

Rajesh Pankaj, in his article (3), writes that despite significant changes, hunting and food gathering remain essential, though no longer exclusive, economic activities. The Birhor now primarily rely on small game. Commonly hunted animals include hares (kulhai), wild hens (bir seem), and various wild birds, such as titir and ashkhal. Less frequently, they trap wild deer (kotra/jeelu), wild pigs (sukri), torhut, and other birds such as dahuk, parrots (suga), sparrows (perwa), gundri, and owls (kokor).

They employ different types of nets (jhali), generally made from the inner bark of the lama vine (Bauhinia vahilli) and other trees. These nets typically range in length from 8 to 15 meters. Hunting, rope-making, and mat-making continue year-round, but the intensity of these activities varies seasonally. Hunting is more prevalent during the dry season (February to May), while rope and mat-making, along with honey collection, are concentrated in the wet season (June to October).

Two main types of hunting expeditions are practised: the daily hunt (jhora sendra) and the less frequent 'baser'. The 'disum sendra', a large-scale inter-tanda hunt mentioned in earlier accounts, is no longer prevalent due to deforestation and a decline in game.

The 'baser' hunt, which occurs 2-3 times a month during the summer and spring, involves a group of 6-10 men and women who venture deeper into the forest for 2-3 days. Animals caught during 'baser' expeditions include wild pigs, rabbits, mongooses, torhuts, spiny animals (jeeg), harbas, monkeys (gari), apes (haru), and occasionally wild deer (jeelu/kotra), along with various birds. The more common 'jhora' is a daily hunt where the group decides upon the hunting area. Animals are trapped using a method called 'jhulewa', where nets are spread and game is chased towards them by 4-5 men and women. Young men are usually positioned to secure the trapped animals. Women also participate in this process. Hunting is considered a precarious activity, while gathering is relatively more certain. Pankaj Rajesh further writes that women are primarily responsible for collecting various fruits, edible plants, and wild yams. Popular yams include a sweet variety (Ipomoea) called 'haser' and a bitter yam (Dioscorea) known as 'pisca'. 'Pisca' requires soaking overnight in flowing water to neutralise its bitterness. While the practice of storing 'pisca' for emergencies has reduced, it is not absent. Women collect wild roots and leafy foods throughout the year, making significant contributions to the household economy. Men sometimes participate in gathering, looking for beehives, fruits, roots, and small rodents. Women also collect firewood daily for cooking. Additionally, women are involved in childcare, food preparation, and twisting bark fibres into strands for rope-making. They accompany men on honey collection expeditions, especially in November, December, and January, selling the honey in its raw form to avoid suspicion of adulteration. During December and January, women collect 'guru dhan' (mole's rice), which is rice hoards of the Indian mole-rat, gathered after the paddy harvest. This collection, however, is small and provides food for only a few days. The Birhor are increasingly shifting from a nomadic to a settled or semi-settled existence. The primary driver for this sedentarization is the depletion of forest resources, which made the traditional cyclical movement (uthlus) in search of resources unsustainable. Settling in one place allowed them to explore additional and diverse livelihood means.

This has led to occupational diversification. Some Birhor, such as those in Sadbahiya Tanda, have taken up agriculture, often on land provided by the government. They primarily produce for self-consumption while still utilising the forest for minor forest produce. There is a discernible trend towards agriculture becoming a full-fledged profession for many.

Besides agriculture, new economic activities include working as part-time labourers on fields during agricultural seasons, in brick-kiln industries, as tractor drivers, and as rickshaw pullers in towns. Some families migrate to cities like Varanasi and Patna to work as labourers in brick-kiln industries, staying for a year or more before returning with their earnings. In one tanda of 25 households, 11 were primarily involved in non-foraging activities like tractor driving, agricultural labour, and work in stone quarries. The working members in these households were generally younger, under 30 years old. The remaining 13 households, predominantly comprising older Birhor (aged 30-60 years), were still primarily engaged in foraging, rope-making, and mat-making. Younger Birhor women are often less skilled in traditional crafts, such as mat and rope-making, compared to older women.

Begging has also emerged as a significant, albeit concerning, economic activity, particularly for women and children. This practice, noted by Williams (1974), has intensified over time. Begging often occurs on Fridays outside mosques in towns like Hazaribagh, which has a substantial Muslim population, and on Sundays (market days), as well as on weekdays in nearby villages.

Dress and Ornaments:

The Birhors require effortless clothes. The working dress of male members consists of a kopni or loincloth (a narrow cotton strip of cloth passed between the legs and tied at the waist), a portion of which hangs in front. The usual attire consists of a short, coarse piece of unsewn cloth (dhoti) and a short kurta (a sleeveless shirt). When at home, they generally do not wear any fabric on the upper part of their body. They do not use shoes or any footwear. The females use a type of coarse saree without any undergarments. This cloth covers both the upper and lower parts of the body. Modern shirts and trousers are gaining popularity among male labourers. The Birhor females prefer tattooing. Glass bangles, earrings, and finger rings are commonly used among Birhor females as ornaments.

Food and Drinks:

Besides hunting, trapping, and making ropes, the Birhor collect a variety of wild roots, fruits, flowers, leafy vegetables, and mushrooms throughout the year. Collection of food is also an equally important source of their livelihood. The Birhors are a non-vegetarian community. The Birhor tribe only hunts for food and no other purposes. They trap khera (Rabbits, Lepus nigricollis), titir (Bronze-winged Jacana, Metopidius indicus), banar (monkeys, Macaca rhesus), rats, deer, etc., in the forest. They hunt in local woods, such as Matha, Baghmundi, and Balarampur range. Different wild animals are also consumed according to availability. Generally, two or three Birhor males go together to the local forests with hunting implements. Sometimes they take some dry food with them. They eat the meat of hunted animals by roasting it over the fire and sometimes cooking it. The Birhors may have all kinds of meat, except beef and pork. As they believe that they belong to the Hindu religion, they do not eat pork. They hunt a unique animal, called Surjomukhi or Bonrui (Pangolin, Manis crassicaudata). It has a body covered in scales and emerges only at night. The Surjomukhi lives between large stones, under the soil. They killed it by detaching the head from the body. When the animal has died, they uncovered its skin and sold it at the market. They eat its meat. During the rainy season, when game is scarce, they must rely solely on plant food. It was found (4) that they were consuming four meals a day. Their food intake was dependent mainly on the availability of food. Rice is their staple food. They eat rice with potatoes, tomatoes (bilati), and sometimes with fish or meat. Sometimes, they also have eggs and chicken, but only occasionally. Fish provides a significant source of animal protein, particularly during the latter part of the rainy season and the subsequent period. Recently, some of the villagers have been catching rare fish in the village pond. Occasionally, they catch fish from the pond, which supplements their food and, to some extent, their economy. They usually eat rice four times a day, i.e., breakfast, lunch (seta kalwa joma), evening, and dinner (ayub pandam). In the morning, they go to work with rice that has been soaked in water. They eat stale rice (the remnants of the previous night's cooked rice soaked in water) with vegetables for breakfast, locally called ‘mar bhat’. At lunch, they eat steamed rice (ai-marrizam) or tata bhaat and vegetable curry. After returning from work, the female folk cook for the other members of the house. In the evening, they consume dry rice (sukha bhat) with vegetable curry. At dinner, they eat steamed rice (Nida-marrizam) with boiled vegetables. Currently, some of them are accustomed to eating roti (handmade bread) at night instead of rice. With rice, they prefer to eat boiled vegetables, salt, and chilli. They grow chillies on homestead land. The use of spices, garlic, and turmeric is limited to a certain extent. Among them, the use of edible oil is minimal. Foods are mainly boiled and baked. But for a few families, mustard oil is the medium of cooking. They use a minimal quantity of mustard oil or rapeseed oil and spices. Their usual pulses are moong and masur. They eat mostly sak-pata, i.e. green leafy vegetables. They eat cabbage and cauliflower during the winter season, in addition to tomatoes and brinjals. Birhors take shim (malhan), cockshim, lauwa, mula, kounda, birti (look like small Brinjal), kochu leaf (alti ara), palan leaf (palan ara), kurmun leaf, sajina leaf (munga ara) and flower. The leafy vegetables were known as ‘ara’. This was consumed as per availability. They eat roots, which they call locally baoula gethi and kundri. They usually have fruits such as kend, pial, bhela and plum. They used to eat wild fruits and vegetables. They occasionally eat fruits, particularly during any socio-religious event in the family. They eat one type of leaf called karanja. At first, they dried the leaves in the sunlight and then ground them into a powder. Then cook it with tomatoes. Some unique cooking practices were found among them. They also eat some pickle or chutney made of amra fruit or red ant (kurkut). The kurkut chutney is made in several steps. First, many red ants are collected from the local jungle. These ants lived in the leaves, made a nest on the leaves in Berry trees (jamun) and kusum tree. Then they smashed it and cooked it with ginger, pepper, chilli, and salt. It is very delicious to them. The egg of a red ant, along with morich, ginger, and garlic, is ground and used to cure coughs and colds. Children’s breakfast is specially made with ant eggs. The eggs are boiled with salt and served to the children.

Most of the Birhor desire just two square meals a day, one or two clothes to wear, and a little drink. Consuming haria regularly is an integral part of their culture and tradition. Haria plays a significant role in the social and religious life of the Birhor tribe. They often purchase mahua liquor from the market and occasionally drink haria, which is prepared at home. They drink haria in community meet. Old men and young men generally take Haria. Females usually do not drink haria, but they occasionally do, usually at home or the homes of relatives. Older females sometimes eat haria. Children or junior boys and girls are the exceptions; the habit of drinking does not form in them. Haria contains about 4.40% of alcohol by volume. Haria is made in several steps, prepared from rice through fermentation.

To speak of the Birhor is to talk about a humanity pared down, perhaps, to its most elemental, yet in that very distillation, revealing a complex and resilient adaptation. They are a living archive of a relationship with nature that much of the world has bulldozed into oblivion. Their story is not merely an anthropological curiosity; it is a mirror reflecting what has been lost, and a stark reminder of the precariousness of cultural diversity in the face of a homogenizing modernity that too often mistakes uniformity for progress. To forget them, or to relegate them to a footnote, is to diminish our understanding of what it means to be human, in all its varied, tenacious, and wondrous forms.

(1) Roy, Sarat Chandra. 1925. The Birhors : A Little-Known Jungle Tribe of Chota Nagpur. Ranchi: ‘Man in India’ Office.

(2) Sinha, A.K. “The Birhor of Madhya Pradesh: As They Are Today.” Indian Anthropologist 29, no. 1 (1999): 77–101. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41919854.

(3) Pankaj, Rajesh. “The Changing Economy of the Birhor of Jharkhand.” Indian Anthropologist 38, no. 2 (2008): 75–82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41920075.

(4) Mullick, P. D. (2015). An Ethnographic Portrayal on the Changing Dimensions of Food Consumption among the Birhors in a Rural Setting of West Bengal. Sulekha. https://www.academia.edu/13905274/An_Ethnographic_Portrayal_on_the_Changing_Dimensions_of_Food_Consumption_among_the_Birhors_in_a_Rural_Setting_of_West_Bengal#loswp-work-container