“The greater part of Bastar is a tilted peninsular plateau, varying in elevation between 284 and 1,200 m. […] The principal rivers of the region are Indravati and Sabari, both tributaries of the Godavari in the south, the largest of the rivers flowing from west to east in the region. Winter nights can be extremely cold and most Adivasi homes get by with a fire to sleep beside. Summer is hot, sometimes sufficiently so to cause stands of sal trees to dry up and die. […] Most agriculture is rain-fed, depending upon the south-west monsoon.” – Madhu Ramnath, Preface to Woodsmoke and Leafcups (HarperCollins India, 2015), pp. xviii
https://worldcat.org/en/title/930839347
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=20305
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This encyclopedia addresses the religions of a category of South Asians known as tribals, Ādivāsīs (“First Inhabitants”; or Janajātis, lit. “Class of People”; see also below), and, more recently, indigenous peoples. The three terms, “tribal,” “Ādivāsī,” and “indigenous peoples” are related, but have their own trajectories; they have come into use at different times and … Read more
Twenty years back, in June 1995, newly-wedded couple Sunil and Nirupama Deshpande picked up a remote village, Lavada in Melghat region as their home. “We wanted to live in a place where people needed us,” says Nirupama, a former MHADA employee and MSW from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The two wanted to work … Read more
Audio samples and details: Smithsonian >> Tribal Music of India: The Muria and Maria Gonds of Madhya PradeshCULTURE GROUP(S) Maria; MuriaRECORD LABEL Folkways Records 1983Various Artists FW04028 A buffalo-horn trumpet, the hakum, announces the joyful harvest festival and varying types of drums called mandri, kotoloka and kundir take over. A group of women chant antiphonally … Read more
Lively: Bastar Band from Chhattisgarh | Video >> Bastar Band, a music and dance band from Bastar, Chhattisgarh, which was formed two years back aims at taking different tribal dance forms and music to the doorsteps of the urban folk. The band is touring different parts of the country in an attempt to showcase the beauty … Read more
Kondagaon Dance Competition 2004 from Asian Ethnology on Vimeo. Editors’ Note Frank J. Korom (Boston University) & Benjamin Dorman (Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture), 28 September 2014, Nagoya, Japan This year we bring you a special double issue dedicated to the study of tribal culture in India. Some of our readers might wonder why we … Read more