_Nagasia, Naksia._--A primitive tribe found principally in the
Chota Nagpur States. They now number 16,000 persons in the Central
Provinces, being returned almost entirely from Jashpur and Sarguja. The
census returns are, however, liable to be inaccurate as the Nagasias
frequently call themselves Kisan, a term which is also applied to
the Oraons. The Nagasias say that they are the true Kisans whereas
the Oraons are only so by occupation. The Oraons, on the other hand,
call the Nagasias Kisada. The tribe derive their name from the Nag
or cobra, and they say that somebody left an infant in the forest
of Setambu and a cobra came and spread its hood over the child to
protect him from the rays of the sun. Some Mundas happened to pass
by and on seeing this curious sight they thought the child must be
destined to greatness, so they took him home and made him their king,
calling him Nagasia, and from him the tribe are descended. The episode
of the snake is, of course, a stock legend related by many tribes,
but the story appears to indicate that the Nagasias are an offshoot
of the Mundas; and this hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that
Nagbasia is often used as an alternative name for the Mundas by their
Hindu neighbours. The term Nagbasia is supposed to mean the original
settlers (_basia_) in Nag (Chota Nagpur).
The tribe are divided into the Telha, Dhuria and Senduria groups. The
Telhas are so called because at the marriage ceremony they mark the
forehead of the bride with _tel_ (oil), while the Dhurias instead of
oil use dust (_dhur_) taken from the sole of the bridegroom's foot,
and the Sendurias like most Hindu castes employ vermilion (_sendur_)
for this purpose. The Telhas and Dhurias marry with each other, but
not with the Sendurias, who consider themselves to be superior to
the others and use the term Nagbansia or 'Descendants of the Snake'
as their tribal name. The Telha and Dhuria women do not wear glass
bangles on their arms but only bracelets of brass, while the Sendurias
wear glass bangles and also armlets above the elbow. Telha women do
not wear nose-rings or tattoo their bodies, while the Sendurias do
both. The Telhas say that the tattooing needle and vermilion, which
they formerly employed in their marriages, were stolen from them by
Wagdeo or the tiger god. So they hit upon sesamum oil as a substitute,
which must be pressed for ceremonial purposes in a bamboo basket by
unmarried boys using a plough-yoke. This is probably, Mr. Hira Lal
remarks, merely the primitive method of extracting oil, prior to the
invention of the Teli's _ghani_ or oil-press; and the practice is
an instance of the common rule that articles employed in ceremonial
and religious rites should be prepared by the ancient and primitive
methods which for ordinary purposes have been superseded by more
recent labour-saving inventions.