Tribes of Orissa

The state of Orissa is a beautiful coastal state of India. Full of resplendent beauty, ravishing beaches, verdant forests and exotic wildlife. When talking about Orissa one more feature that grabs the attention is the populace of vibrant tribes of the state. In India, Orissa houses the largest number of tribes. Of 437 tribal communities in entire country, it boasts of being a haven to sixty two (62) tribes. The tribes of Orissa have their own set of culture, customs, traditions and language.

PEOPLE
The major tribes of the state are Kondhs, Koyas, Gadabas, Oraon, Bonda Bhuyain, Juangs, Saora and Santhals. The tribes of Orissa are linguistically classified as Indo Aryan speakers, Dravidian speakers and Austric speakers. All the districts are dotted with these tribal communities. Districts of Koraput, Rayagada, Kalahandi, Naurangpur and Malkangiri have a major population of tribes. The people here build their houses of bamboos with a thatched roof.

OCCUPATION
Their survival and livelihood is dependent on occupations like gathering, hunting and fishing. Tribes that inhabit the hilly terrains of Orissa take up farming as their occupation.

COSTUMES
A tribesman can be seen wearing a loin cloth while a woman would be covering herself with a long cloth material and often a scarf. The girls above the age of five years, generally have tattoos on their faces. They are fond of jewelery. So a tribeswoman wears jewelery pieces, bracelets, necklaces of aluminum and brass.

RELIGION
The tribal communities of Orissa are deeply religious. They do believe in the supremacy of a superpower. The most popular religions of these tribes are animism, animalism, nature-worship, fetishism, shamanism, and anthropomorphism. They do worship their ancestors. The main objective behind worshiping is to ask for happiness and prosperity not only personal but of entire clan.

FESTIVALS
The people are fun loving and so celebrate every possible moment of life. Life or death of a family member and a daughter's attainment of pubic age are celebrated within the family with much gaiety. Other festivals are associated with sowing or harvest time and include the entire clan. They also practice animal sacrifice.

MARRIAGE
Tribal people are much social and believe in social values. They adhere to the social norms their traditions are associated with happiness and gaiety. They have firm belief in the institution of marriage where the groom acquires a bride through the practice of 'capturing'. Bride Price practice is also prevalent among these tribes. Other practices like elopement, purchase, service and negotiation are also practiced by them.

The tribes of Orissa are still not fully influenced by modernity although they have adapted to some of the trends.

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