The Hill Maria of Bastar - India

 
 

Introduction Bastar State lies in the extreme southeast corner of the central Provinces of India. The Gonds of Bastar were divided up as six different tribal units in 1931, when they had a population of about 400,000. The Hill Maria traditionally lived in the northwest corner of Bastar north of the Indrawati River. Tribal classification is greatly oversimplified and the location of different tribal units is extremely complex. In 1931, there were about 16,000 Hill Maria. As late as the 1930’s the Hindus and Moslems in surrounding areas considered Bastar a "land of savages", seeking still for human victims to sacrifice to their fetishes, skilled in herbs and simples, and potent practitioners of magic and witchcraft." Although it was commonly believed that the people of Bastar practiced ritual human sacrifice, there has never been single authenticated case. The Gotul System of Sex Education A few Hill Maria practiced the ghotul in a similar manner as the Muria tribes. The description which follows describes the Hill Maria customs as were found by W.V. Grigson in two villages during the early 1930’s. The main difference appeared to have been that the girls of the Hill Maria went home to their parents each evening, while the girls of the Ghotul Muria slept with the boys in boy/girl dormitories. In the Hill Maria villages, girls assembled every evening by the boys’ dormitory to join in song, dance and games, including sexual games. The girls had gotul names and responsibilities just as the boys did, and the elder boys and girls were charged with teaching the young the elements of tribal culture. Hill Maria girls associated with boys at an early age. Children were expected to attend the dormitories beginning at the age of eleven or twelve. All boys assembled at the dormitory in the evening for dancing, games and social or sexual training, sleeping on there after the departure of the girls to their homes late in the night. Every girl attended the boy’s dormitory every night and had her boy friend to serve. Each girl paired off with a boy of a clan that was eligible for marriage. The girls combed their boys’ hair and massaged their arms and legs, danced with them, were initiated into the mysteries of sex with them. According to numerous informants, they often had sexual intercourse together and were expected to ultimately marry their mate. Marriage frequently followed these dormitory unions, but by no means always.  Marriage Pre-puberty marriage rarely occurred amongst the Hill Maria who looked upon it as an abhorrent custom of the Hindus. In the 1920’s some of the Bison-born Maria (3 of 100) were practicing child marriage, but this was thought to be a recently imported custom. No value was set on pre-marital chastity and it is doubtful whether any girl preserved her virginity until marriage.    Hill Maria girls ready for a dance          If the youth and the girl liked each other they would have been free to have sexual intercourse several times to see if they fit together before performing a marriage ceremony. If pre-marital intercourse resulted in pregnancy no formal ceremony was needed or allowed. The girl simply named the man responsible and went to live in his house without any further ado, the union being described as ottur. Hill Maria parents didn’t try and interfere with their children’s choice of husband or wife. The free choice of a youth and a girl was of utmost importance in choosing marriage partners. When a youth and a girl knew their minds, each told his or her parents. The parents went with the elders of their village without the youth to the girl’s house and left about five bottles of mahua spirit inside the door of the girl’s house. The parents and elders sat outside the girl’s parents’ house. When the parents arrived they told them that the liquor had been brought on the girl’s account and asked if she is willing to go and live with the youth. If the girl agreed, the parties at once drank the liquor and the parents prepared a dinner for the visiting party. If the girl refused, the parents of the youth took the liquor back home with them. The ceremony was called talq-da’ina or ‘going to ask’.  After the ceremony, A year or so passed in which the betrothed did not meet each other. The girl felt shame to look upon her newly betrothed. During this time, the bride-price was prepared.  In one example the bride price consisted of a rupee’s worth of new cloth for the bride’s mother, a gelded pig, four pounds of salt, four pounds of ground roselle flowers, one or two pounds of red chilies, two or three pieces of turmeric, as well as baskets of grain, bottles of mahua spirit, and 5-40 rupees of cash. The pig, grain and liquor are eaten and drunk at the wedding. The cash was voided in a cross-cousin marriage. It was also common for a bridegroom who couldn’t afford the bride price to serve as a servant to the girl’s father for a period of three to seven years. During the first part of this time the bridegroom was expected to not have sexual intercourse with his bride. Provided the girl agreed, and she nearly always did, the couple generally did begin sexual relationships after a period of about a year. If she became pregnant during the time of absistence, the parents were fined a pig, which was eaten by their clansmen. Afterwards, the girl was considered the boy’s wife.  Cross-cousin marriages were very common, especially between a daughter and her mother’s brother’s son. The family, which has given a daughter to another family in one generation thus, was repaid by getting a daughter back as a wife for a son of the next generation. If a cross-cousin marriage had been arranged in this sort of reciprocal agreement, occasionally a father would assert his right to a girl before his son or the girl had reached puberty. He expected to arrange the wedding in the near future, especially if there were rumors that the girl was to be given to someone else. In such cases the girl’s father almost always refused to give the girl until at least both the boy and the girl are mature. Upon maturity the girl’s father gladly agreed to give his daughter in marriage to her cross cousin.  Women were very free to change their attachments, or if unattached, to go to the house of the man of their choice and live with him as wife even if he was already married. Many men had two or three wives, and there was little social difference between them. The beating or ill treatment of wives was strongly condemned by all Marias.  Source Grigson, W.V. 1938. The Maria Gonds of Bastar. London: Oxford University Press. Further Reading Elwin, Verrier. 1947. The Muria and their Ghotul. London: Oxford University Press

Index

Primates	Victorian England	Azande-Congo	Hill Maria-India	Nuba-Sudan
Nuba-Otoro	Nuba-Koalib	Marquesas Islanders	Child Marriage: India	Irish Village