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The Gor usually refer to themselves as Banjaras and outsiders as Kor, but this usage does not extend outside their own community. A related usage is Gor Mati or Gormati, meaning "own people".[2][3] Motiraj Rathod believes that the community became known as banjara from around the fourteenth century AD and previously had some association with the Laman, who claim a 3,000-year history.[4]
Irfan Habib believes the origin of banjara lies in the Sanskrit word variously rendered as vanij, vanik, and banik, as does the name of the Bania caste, which historically was India's "pre-eminent" trading community.[5] However, according to B. G. Halbar, the word banjara is derived from the Sanskrit vana chara.[6][a]
The group is known by different names in different parts of the country, including Gor Banjara, Baladiya, Gor, Gour Rajput, Rajput Banjara, Ladaniya, Labana, Nayak, etc.[citation needed]Despite the community adopting a multitude of languages, banjara is used throughout India, although in Karnataka, the name is altered to banijagaru.[8] A survey conducted in 1968 by the All India Banjara Seva Sangh, a caste association, recorded 27 synonyms and 17 subgroups.[9]
According to author J. J. Roy Burman, Banjaras have settled across Rajasthan and other parts of India.[10] Together with the Bhopa, Domba, and Kalbelia, they are sometimes called the "gypsies of India".[11] D. B. Naik has said that "There are so many cultural similarities in the Roma Gypsies and the Banjara Lambanis".[12]
Author B. G. Halbar has stated that most nomadic communities believe that they are descended from Rajput ancestry. They claim that during the Mughal empire, they retreated to the forests and vowed to return only when the foreign influence had gone. According to Halbar, they appear to be of mixed ethnicity, possibly originating in north-central India.[6] However, Irfan Habib notes that their constituent groups may not in fact share a common origin, with the theories that suggest otherwise reflecting the systemic bias of 19-century British ethnographers who were keen to create simple classifications.[13] Laxman Satya notes that "Their status as Banjaras was circumscribed by the colonial state disregarding the rich diversity that existed among various groups".[14]
Although not referred to as Banjara until the 16th century, Habib believes that the royal court chroniclers Ziauddin Barani and Shaikh Nasiruddin documented them operating in the Delhi Sultanate some centuries earlier, around the time of the rule of Alauddin Khalji.[15] Halbar dates things earlier, suggesting that Dandin, a Sanskrit writer who lived in the 6th century, refers to them but, again, not by name.[6]
Banjaras were historically pastoralists, traders, breeders, and transporters of goods in the inland regions of India, for which they used boats, carts, camels, oxen, donkeys, and sometimes the relatively scarce horse, hence controlling a large section of trade and economy. The mode of transport depended upon the terrain. For example, camels and donkeys were better suited to the highlands, which carts could not negotiate, whilst oxen were able to progress better through wet lowland areas.[15][16] Their prowess in negotiating thick forests was particularly prized.[17] They often travelled in groups for protection, this tanda[b] being led by an elected headman, variously described as a muqaddam, nayak, or naik.[15][19] Such tandas usually comprised carriage of one specific product and thus were essentially a combined trade operation.[20] They could be huge assemblies, some being recorded as comprising 190,000 beasts, and they also serviced the needs of armies, whose movements naturally followed the same trade and caravan routes. The Duke of Wellington used them for that purpose in his campaign against the Maratha Confederacy around the late 1790s,[21] and Jahangir, a Mughal emperor who reigned in the early seventeenth century, described them as .mw-parser-output .templatequoteoverflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 32px.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequoteciteline-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0
a fixed class of people, who possess a thousand oxen, or more or less, varying in numbers. They bring grain from the villages to the towns and also accompany armies. With an army, there may at least be a hundred thousand oxen, or more.[8]
generated tremendous diversity within the Banjara society in terms of language, customs, beliefs and practices. It developed in them a rather casual, unorthodox, and open attitude towards religion, family, and women. Many of the practices which were prohibited in the mainstream orthodox Hindu society were freely practised in the Banjara community.[26]
Movement of goods around the country meant that the Banjaras had to be, and were, trusted by merchants, moneylenders, and traders. Any disruption caused by the grazing of their livestock along the trade routes was tolerated, because the same beasts provided manure to fertilise the land.[23] However, many Europeans historically thought the Banjaras to be similar to Gypsies, although this was unjustified, as there were significant differences. Habib notes that "Superstitions of all kinds, including suspected witch killings and sacrifices, reinforced the Gypsy image of the class".[20]
In the 19th century, and despite some British officials such as Thurston praising their trustworthiness as carriers, the British colonial authorities brought the community under the purview of the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871.[27] Edward Balfour noted in his On the migratory tribes of natives in Central India (1843) that the reduction in the number of wars by that time had contributed to their economic deprivation,[28] whilst East India Company encroachment on monopolies such as salt also affected them.[29] Many also lost their work as carriers due to the arrival of the railways and improved roads. Some tried to work the forests for wood and produce,[27] some settled as farmers, and others turned to crime.[30] Earlier than this, there had been British people who considered them to be undesirable because of their role in passing messages and weapons to armies as they went about their travels,[17] and there was also a general trend among the British to treat criminality as something that was normal among communities without fixed abode.[31][c] They were sometimes associated by the British with the Thugee[33] and by the 1830s[34] had gained some notoriety for committing crimes such as roadside robbery, cattle lifting, and theft of grain or other property. The women took a leading role in such criminality, led by the headman of the gang, and if someone was convicted, then the other members of the gang would take care of their families.[35] Poor, mostly illiterate and unskilled, the Banjaras were also resistant to improvement through education, which the British felt left no recourse other than tight control through policing. Their reputation for misdeeds persisted into the early twentieth century.[27]
The status of the Banjaras as a designated criminal tribe continued until after the independence of India, when the repeal of the Criminal Tribes Act caused them to be classified as one of the Denotified Tribes.[36]
As the Banjara language has no script, it is either written in Devanagari or in the script of the local language, such as Telugu or Kannada.[37] Many Banjaras today are bilingual or multilingual, adopting the predominant language of their surroundings, but those that continue to live in areas of dense Banjara population continue to use their traditional language.[38][39]
Banjara art includes performance arts, such as dance and music, as well as folk and plastic arts, such as rangoli, textile embroidery, tattooing, and painting.[41] Banjara embroidery and tattooing are especially prized and also form a significant aspect of the Banjara identity. Lambani women specialise in lepo embroidery, which involves stitching pieces of mirror, decorative beads, and coins onto clothes.[42] Sandur Lambani embroidery is a type of textile embroidery unique to the tribe in Sanduru, Bellary district, Karnataka. It has obtained a GI tag.[43]
Bangaras celebrate a festival called Seetala, usually during the month of June or July, during which they pray for the protection of their cattle.[44] During the month of August, they celebrate the festival of Teej, in which young, unmarried girls pray for a good groom. They sow seeds in bamboo bowls and water it three times a day for nine days, and if the sprouts grow "thick and high", it is considered a good omen. During Teej, girls sing and dance around the seedling baskets.[45]
Fire dance, Ghumar dance, and Chari dance are the traditional dance forms of the Banjaras. Banjaras have a sister community of singers known as Dadhis, or Gajugonia.[46] They traditionally travelled from village to village, singing songs to the accompaniment of sarangi.[47]
Sevalal, or Sevabhaya, is the most important saint of the Banjaras. Colonial British administrators quote his stories, place him in the 19th century, and identify his original name as Siva Rathor.[49][50]
Aside from retaining their practice of endogamy, Naik records of Banjara customs in 1990s Andhra Pradesh that they follow forms of marriage that include monogamy. Widows are allowed to remarry, and divorce is accepted, provided it has the consent of the gor panchayat.[53] Marriages are usually between people who live fairly close together, within the same taluka, or, occasionally, district. The exception to this is the relatively rare occasion when the man has some education, in which case it is becoming more common to see them making arrangements that involve a longer distance.[39]
It is the boys' fathers who initiate marriage proposals, usually when the child reaches the age of 18 and is considered capable of running an independent household. Women and girls, including the prospective bride, have no say in the matter, but the father takes advice from the naik of his tanda and from close relatives. The girls are usually prepared for this arranged marriage from the onset of puberty, and their parents will make a show of resistance when a proposal is made, before her father agrees to the advice given by his naik and village elders. Horoscopes are consulted and information gleaned regarding the boy's prospects. Sometimes, the arrangement is made earlier and may even be solemnised with a betrothal ceremony, called a sagai, but the girl will remain in the household until she attains puberty. When agreement is reached and both sides make a promise to that effect in front of the gor panchayat, the boy's family distributes liquor, betel leaves, and nuts for the tanda and the girl's family. She is presented with a full set of traditional dress upon marriage, which is made by her mother.[54] Women's dress varies according to marital status, as does their ornamentation. Although the ornamentation was once made of ivory and silver, reduced economic circumstances have caused it to be made of plastic and aluminium. The extremely elaborate nature of their dresses, comprising glass pieces, beads, and seashells on a mainly red material, means that they are worn for months between careful launderings.[53]
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