Gadba, Gadaba. [5]--A primitive tribe classified as Mundari or Kolarian
on linguistic grounds. The word Gadba, Surgeon-Major Mitchell states,
signifies a person who carries loads on his shoulders. The tribe call
themselves Guthau. They belong to the Vizagapatam District of Madras,
and in the Central Provinces are found only in the Bastar State, into
which they have immigrated to the number of some 700 persons. They
speak a Mundari dialect, called Gadba, after their tribal name, and
are one of the two Mundari tribes found so far south as Vizagapatam,
the other being the Savars. [6] Their tribal organisation is not very
strict, and a Bhatra, a Parja, a Muria, or a member of any superior
caste may become a Gadba at an expenditure of two or three rupees. The
ceremony consists of shaving the body of the novice, irrespective of
sex, clean of hair, after which he or she is given to eat rice cooked
in the water of the Ganges. This is followed by a feast to the tribe
in which a pig must be killed. The Gadbas have totemistic exogamous
septs, usually named after animals, as gutal dog, angwan bear, dungra
tortoise, surangai tiger, gumal snake, and so on. Members of each sept
abstain from killing or injuring the animal or plant after which it is
named, but they have no scruple in procuring others to do this. Thus
if a snake enters the hut of a person belonging to the Gumal sept,
he will call a neighbour of another sept to kill it. He may not touch
its carcase with his bare hand, but if he holds it through a piece
of rag no sin is incurred.