_Bhunjia. [377]_--A small Dravidian tribe residing in the
Bindranawagarh and Khariar zamindaris of the Raipur District, and
numbering about 7000 persons. The tribe was not returned outside this
area in 1911, but Sherring mentions them in a list of the hill tribes
of the Jaipur zamindari of Vizagapatam, which touches the extreme
south of Bindranawagarh. The Bhunjias are divided into two branches,
Chaukhutia and Chinda, and the former have the following legend of
their origin. On one occasion a Bhatra Gond named Bachar cast a net
into the Pairi river and brought out a stone. He threw the stone back
into the river and cast his net again, but a second and yet a third
time the stone came out. So he laid the stone on the bank of the
river and went back to his house, and that night he dreamt that the
stone was Bura Deo, the great God of the Gonds. So he said: 'If this
dream be true let me draw in a deer in my net to-morrow for a sign';
and the next day the body of a deer appeared in his net. The stone
then called upon the Gond to worship him as Bura Deo, but the Gond
demurred to doing so himself, and said he would provide a substitute
as a devotee. To this Bura Deo agreed, but said that Bachar, the Gond,
must marry his daughter to the substituted worshipper. The Gond then
set out to search for somebody, and in the village of Lafandi he
found a Halba of the name of Konda, who was a cripple, deaf and dumb,
blind, and a leper. He brought Konda to the stone, and on reaching
it he was miraculously cured of all his ailments and gladly began
to worship Bura Deo. He afterwards married the Gond's daughter and
they had a son called Chaukhutia Bhunjia, who was the ancestor of
the Chaukhutia division of the tribe. Now the term Chaukhutia in
Chhattisgarhi signifies a bastard, and the story related above is
obviously intended to signify that the Chaukhutia Bhunjias are of
mixed descent from the Gonds and Halbas. It is clearly with this
end in view that the Gond is made to decline to worship the stone
himself and promise to find a substitute, an incident which is wholly
unnatural and is simply dragged in to meet the case. The Chaukhutia
subtribe especially worship Bura Deo, and sing a song relating to
the finding of the stone in their marriage ceremony as follows:
Johar, johar Thakur Deota, Tumko lagon,
Do matia ghar men dine tumhare nam.
Johar, johar Konda, Tumko lagon,
Do matia ghar men, etc.
Johar, johar Bachar Jhakar Tumko lagon, etc.
Johar, johar Budha Raja Tumko lagon, etc.
Johar, johar Lafandi Mati Tumko lagon, etc.
Johar, johar Anand Mati Tumko lagon, etc.
which may be rendered:
I make obeisance to thee, O Thakur Deo, I bow down to thee!
In thy name have I placed two pots in my house (as a mark of
respect).
I make obeisance to thee, O Konda Pujari, I bow down to thee!
In thy name have I placed two pots in my house.
I make obeisance to thee, O Bachar Jhakar!
In thy name have I placed two pots in my house.
I make obeisance to thee, O Budha Raja!
In thy name have I placed two pots in my house.
I make obeisance to thee, O Soil of Lafandi!
In thy name have I placed two pots in my house.
I make obeisance to thee, O Happy Spot!
In thy name have I placed two pots in my house.
The song refers to the incidents in the story. Thakur Deo is the
title given to the divine stone, Konda is the Halba priest, and
Bachar the Gond who cast the net. Budha Raja, otherwise Singh Sei,
is the Chief who was ruling in Bindranawagarh at the time, Lafandi the
village where Konda Halba was found, and the Anand Mati or Happy Spot
is that where the stone was taken out of the river. The majority of
the sept-names returned are of Gond origin, and there seems no doubt
that the Chaukhutias are, as the story says, of mixed descent from
the Halbas and Gonds. It is noticeable, however, that the Bhunjias,
though surrounded by Gonds on all sides, do not speak Gondi but a
dialect of Hindi, which Sir G. Grierson considers to resemble that of
the Halbas, and also describes as "A form of Chhattisgarhi which is
practically the same as Baigani. It is a jargon spoken by Binjhwars,
Bhumias and Bhunjias of Raipur, Raigarh, Sarangarh and Patna in the
Central Provinces." [378] The Binjhwars also belong to the country
of the Bhunjias, and one or two estates close to Bindranawagarh are
held by members of this tribe. The Chinda division of the Bhunjias
have a saying about themselves: '_Chinda Raja, Bhunjia Paik'_; and
they say that there was originally a Kamar ruler of Bindranawagarh who
was dispossessed by Chinda. The Kamars are a small and very primitive
tribe of the same locality. _Paik_ means a foot-soldier, and it seems
therefore that the Bhunjias formed the levies of this Chinda, who may
very probably have been one of themselves. The term Bhunjia may perhaps
signify one who lives on the soil, from _bhum_, the earth, and _jia_,
dependent on. The word _Birjia_, a synonym for Binjhwar, is similarly
a corruption of _bewar jia_, and means one who is dependent on _dahia_
or patch cultivation. Sir H. Risley gives Birjia, Binjhia and Binjhwar
[379] as synonymous terms, and Bhunjia may be another corruption of
the same sort. The Binjhwars are a Hinduised offshoot of the ancient
Baiga tribe, who may probably have been in possession of the hills
bordering the Chhattisgarh plain as well as of the Satpura range before
the advent of the Gonds, as the term Baiga is employed for a village
priest over a large part of this area. It thus seems not improbable
that the Chinda Bhunjias may have been derived from the Binjhwars,
and this would account for the fact that the tribe speaks a dialect
of Hindi and not Gondi. As already seen, the Chaukhutia subcaste
appear to be of mixed origin from the Gonds and Halbas, and as the
Chindas are probably descended from the Baigas, the Bhunjias may be
considered to be an offshoot from these three important tribes.