Oraons Of Chota Nagpur

The Oraons are one of the largest tribes in South Asia numbering 17,02,663 Persons at the 1971 Census, about half of them live in Bihar mainly on the Chota Nagpur Plateau the remainder are in Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal . They speak a Dravidian language known as Kurukh. Orans are closely related to the neighboring Munda tribe and the headman of an Oraon is called Munda. Though there are no subcast among the Oraons, the Kudas and Kisans having their distinct occupations tend to marry among themselves, beyond this Oraons observe Village and clan exogamy. Boys and girls marry after puberty between 16 to 20 years. This follows a period in which both sexes sleep in a youth dormitory, boys are branded on the arm before being admitted to this institution, dormitory provides a pool of agricultural labour that can be hired when necessary. Small minority follow the tribe are Christian and the Grate majority follow the Hindu form of worship. Police record indicates that even as late as the 1980s, there were a couple of sacrifies a year among the Munda Maria and Oraon tribres and it is asssumed that all the cases do not reach police attention, these are the illegal sacrifies.

By Sarat Chandra Roy