HYDERABAD: A group of students belonging to indigenous communities in Telangana are on a mission to find their origins. Twenty members of the Birsa Munda Youth and Research Centre travelled 3000 km, covering Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, from August 16 to 20, to find answers to the genesis of early humans in Gondwana, their relation to the existing Koya and Gond tribes and the similarities which still exist between various tribes in this region.
The Adivasi research team visited forts, hubs of rock paintings, tribal museums and temples and interacted with historians and local tribes. They compared the existing literature and indigenous folklore to arrive at a conclusion that the Gonds and Koyas of Telangana were originally descendants of Koyathur tribe, which had their roots at Amarkantak, from where the Narmada river originated in the Vindhya Range of Anuppur district in Madhya Pradesh.
According to M Arun Kumar, a research scholar from Osmania University who led the team, there were several evidences of the origins of Gonds and Koyas in their indigenous folklore, which led them to Amarkantak, pointing out that Koyathur tribals of the ninth clan (gottu) were still the priests of Shambu Shaak temple.
“Telangana is home to the third to seventh clans of Gonds. Our research has shown that there are 12 clans with 750 surnames across the country. Even Lord Shiva, who is worshipped as Persa Pein in Telangana, Badadev in Maharashtra, Kruparlingo in Chhattisgarh and Shambhu Mahadev in Madhya Pradesh, belongs to the third clan and regarded as the king of Gondwana by tribals,” Arun claims.
The students visited the fort of ‘Ooke dynasty’ in Satpura range of Maharashtra, to which Tul Dokiri, the mother of Sammakka, belonged. “Tul Dokiri belonged to the fifth clan. Gond literature of Maharashtra states that the kingdom was ruled by the fifth clan king Raibandani. We came to this conclusion by studying the ‘Padige’ (the sacred flag) of Sammakka and the Doli folklore sung during the Medaram jatara,” Arun said.
Six-year-long research
The Birsa Munda Youth and Research Centre has been conducting field-level research in 18 States across the country for the past six years, which they say, have come to an end