Page 91 - SST Class 07

These are hundreds of other groups who estab- cultures. As a result, they slowly began to change
lish their origin to one or the other groups. These their isolated lifestyle. Many of them began to
tribal groups during medieval period got widely lead a settled life and adopted better methods of
dispersed all over India. There are also references agriculture. Many tribal customs, ceremonies and
to some tribal groups particularly those of Gonds gods also became part of the existing culture.
and Munda tribes in the Hindu epics, especially During the medieval period, some tribes became
Ramayana. On account of inter-mixing it is dominant. Those that controlled the key trade
difficult to draw clear boundary lines of settle- routes and forest resources became very power-
ment. While most of the tribal communities are ful. The Mughals tried to extract either taxes or
settled and spread over whole of India. There are services from these tribal people. The Gonds and
also mobile communities who have not settled at the Ahoms were two tribal groups who estab-
any fixed place. lished powerful and independent kingdoms.

Occupations GONDS
The tribal people were engaged in agriculture, The Gonds lived in Gondwana which was a large
herding and hunting-gathering. They depended forested region. The name Gondwana means
on the natural resources of the region they lived ‘country inhabited by Gonds’. The kind of
in. Some tribes settled down in an area perma- agriculture practised by them was called shifting
nently, while others led a nomadic lifestyle and cultivation. The Gond tribe was further divided
moved from one place to another. Settled agri- into many smaller clans. Each clan had its own
culturists remained few in number. There were raja or rai. During the period when the Delhi
also people following other professions who Sultans were facing a decline in power, a few
travelled from place to place, selling their goods large Gond kingdoms were beginning to domi-
or entertaining people with songs and folk tales. nate the smaller Gond chiefs. The history of
Life of the Nomadic Tribal Groups Akbar’s reign, called Akbar Nama, mentions the
Most of the tribal people were nomads. They Gond kingdom of Garha Katanga that had
moved about with their animals. When the 70,000 villages.
supply of food for these animals got exhausted in
an area, they moved to another area. They
exchanged milk, honey, wool, ghee and so on
with the settled agriculturists for grain and vari-
ous other products.
You have read about the banjaras in the previous
chapter. They can be called nomadic or travelling
traders. They travelled with their families in big
groups. Contemporary records tell us that they
transported grain from villages to towns on
bullock carts. They also reared and sold animals Gonds
such as horses and cattle to people of the towns The administration system of these kingdoms
they visited. was becoming centralised in nature. The king-
Changing Nature of Tribal Society dom was divided into garhs. A particular Gond

With the time, tribal groups were exposed to new clan controlled each garh. This was further

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