But the Chhattisgarh plain and the hills north and east of it are
adjacent to and belong to the same tract of country as the Chota
Nagpur States, which are the home of the Bhuiyas. Sir H. Risley
gives Baiga as a name for a sorcerer, and as a synonym or title of
the Khairwar tribe in Chota Nagpur, possibly having reference to the
idea that they, being among the original inhabitants of the country,
are best qualified to play the part of sorcerer and propitiate the
local gods. It has been suggested in the article on Khairwar that that
tribe are a mongrel offshoot of the Santals and Cheros, but the point
to be noticed here is the use of the term Baiga in Chota Nagpur for a
sorcerer; and a sorcerer may be taken as practically equivalent for a
priest of the indigenous deities, all tribes who act in this capacity
being considered as sorcerers by the Hindus. If the Bhuiyas of Chota
Nagpur had the title of Baiga, it is possible that it may have been
substituted for the proper tribal name on their migration to the
Central Provinces. Mr. Crooke distinguishes two tribes in Mirzapur
whom he calls the Bhuiyas and Bhuiyars. The Bhuiyas of Mirzapur seem
to be clearly a branch of the Bhuiya tribe of Chota Nagpur, with whom
their section-names establish their identity. [367] Mr. Crooke states
that the Bhuiyas are distinguished with very great difficulty from the
Bhuiyars with whom they are doubtless very closely connected. [368]
Of the Bhuiyars [369] he writes that the tribe is also known as Baiga,
because large numbers of the aboriginal local priests are derived
from this caste. He also states that "Most Bhuiyars are Baigas and
officiate in their own as well as allied tribes; in fact, as already
stated, one general name for the tribe is Baiga." [370] It seems not
unlikely that these Bhuiyars are the Baigas of the Central Provinces
and that they went to Mirzapur from here with the Gonds. Their original
name may have been preserved or revived there, while it has dropped
out of use in this Province. The name Baiga in the Central Provinces
is sometimes applied to members of other tribes who serve as village
priests, and, as has already been seen, it is used in the same sense in
Chota Nagpur. The Baigas of Mandla are also known as Bhumia, which is
only a variant of Bhuiya, having the same meaning of lord of the soil
or belonging to the soil. Both Bhuiya and Bhumia are in fact nearly
equivalent to our word 'aboriginal,' and both are names given to the
tribe by the Hindus and not originally that by which its members called
themselves. It would be quite natural that a branch of the Bhuiyas,
who settled in the Central Provinces and were commonly employed as
village priests by the Hindus and Gonds should have adopted the name
of the office, Baiga, as their tribal designation; just as the title
of Munda or village headman has become the name of one branch of the
Kol tribe, and Bhumij, another term equivalent to Bhuiya, of a second
branch. Mr. A. F. Hewitt, Settlement Officer of Raipur, considered
that the Buniyas of that District were the same tribe as the Bhuiyas
of the Garhjat States. [371] By Buniya he must apparently have meant
the Bhunjia tribe of Raipur, who as already stated are an offshoot
of the Baigas. Colonel Dalton describes the dances of the Bhuiyas
of Chota Nagpur as follows: [372] "The men have each a wide kind of
tambourine. They march round in a circle, beating these and singing
a very simple melody in a minor key on four notes. The women dance
opposite to them with their heads covered and bodies much inclined,
touching each other like soldiers in line, but not holding hands or
wreathing arms like the Kols." This account applies very closely to
the Sela and Rina dances of the Baigas. The Sela dance is danced
by men only who similarly march round in a circle, though they
do not carry tambourines in the Central Provinces. Here, however,
they sometimes carry sticks and march round in opposite directions,
passing in and out and hitting their sticks against each other as
they meet, the movement being exactly like the grand chain in the
Lancers. Similarly the Baiga women dance the Rina dance by themselves,
standing close to each other and bending forward, but not holding each
other by the hands and arms, just as described by Colonel Dalton. The
Gonds now also have the Sela and Rina dances, but admit that they are
derived from the Baigas. Another point of some importance is that the
Bhuiyas of Chota Nagpur and the Baigas and the tribes derived from
them in the Central Provinces have all completely abandoned their own
language and speak a broken form of that of their Hindu neighbours. As
has been seen, too, the Bhuiyas are commonly employed as priests in
Chota Nagpur, and there seems therefore to be a strong case for the
original identity of the two tribes. [373] Both the Baigas and Bhuiyas,
however, have now become greatly mixed with the surrounding tribes,
the Baigas of Mandla and Balaghat having a strong Gond element.