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FERTILITY AND BIRTH
A barren woman is considered so inauspicious that it is believed that no
other woman should take a bath where she takes her bath. They blame the
woman and not the man in almost all cases. A large number of fasts, penances and other observances aimed at the propitiation of several gods and
goddesses including Shiva and Parvati and many local deities,
devotion to the spiritually powerful Sanyasis, bathing at and visiting
some famous centres of pilgrimage-all these are done to remove the evil
fate of barrenness.
In tribal society
barrenness is also a matter of concern for the relatives and may lead
to a divorce or marriage with a second or even a third wife. The preference
for having sons is widespread in tribal and non tribal societies in Orissa. The
ceremonies connected with child birth are more elaborate and lively in the case
of the male child than that of the female one. The Hindu families of higher
castes become anxious to have at least one male child, so that he will be
ritually qualified to offer the proper oblations to the ancestral spirits. They
believe that, unless such oblations are offered by a male descendant, who continues the
patrilineal line of descent, the ancestors will be tormented in a special
hell.
DEATH AND FUNERAL
Hindus of Orissa cremate
their dead, but they make some exceptions. Young
children, adults who die of epidemics or of snake bite, and sanyasi who
has forsaken the world are all given a burial and in some cases
floated down the river. In tribal society the custom varies from community
to community. Those who are Hinduised like Gond, the Bhuiyan and others cremate
their dead whereas others bury them. But if a tiger kills a person he or she is
not cremated, even if cremation is the usual custom. When a pregnant woman dies, the
foetus is taken out of the womb and is given a separate burial. As the pregnant woman
is universally believed to become a dangerous ghost which tries to snatch away
babies out of her own frustration, her bones are broken and thrones and other
inhibiting materials put in her grave in order to pin her down at the place
where she is buried.
Whether Hindu, Christian,
Muslim or tribal, all have the common belief of the
immortality of the soul. Among the Hindus the soul is reborn in human or in some
other form according to the balance of religious merits earned in the previous
lives. The disembodied soul may go to heaven or hell in accordance with
one's "Karmaphala" or the balance of the fruits of action through a
series of former lives. Every year the ancestral spirits are offered "Shraddha" oblations at
least once. The Muslim and Christian souls await the
final judgment from God at the end of the world. But among the tribal people the
soul usually goes to the underground world but always maintains contact
with the living descendants, protecting or punishing them by bringing
illness or misfortune if they morally or spiritually go astray.
Funeral ceremonies in almost all communities are
so expensive that many
tribal families get themselves literally bound to richer brethren or to
neighbours for generations because of the debts they incur to meet these
expenses. On the completion of the funeral ceremony the close relatives, and
among the tribal group, the whole village, indulge in merriment.
COMMUNITY LAW AND CRIMINALITY
Almost
all the castes have the caste panchayat at various levels, at the village in
whole or in a small group of villages, in a region and in a few cases for the caste
group as a
whole. This panchayat of sub-castes elders had the right to supervise the
social interactions especially in taking of food and
drink from member of other castes and avoiding sexual contact
with members of the so called lower castes. Besides this, the
panchayat used to sit in judgment on cases of choice of
transgression of marriage regulations, divorce, and adultery
cases or in cases of partition in a family and in cases of choice of
occupation and client etc. Further, the panchayat was competent to
ostracise members of the sub castes when they contravened its
regulations and injunctions and it could also prescribe ritual expiations
in case of some specific sins committed ( incest, killing a
cow, killing of a Brahman, one's wounds getting gangrenous and infested
with maggots-all of which were considered great transgressions). Though the
Hindu Raja was the highest court of appeal in social and caste, matters, and he had to rely up on his family Brahman Purohit or the other
learned Brahman Pandits, the caste panchayats were left much to themselves and
led a semi-autonomous and self-regulatory existence.
Each tribal community had at least a village council looking after the
village affairs, rituals social, economic and political. Among the Oraons,
the Mundas, the Santhals and the Hos etc., there was an inter-village
tribal organisation with a series of officials holding hereditary positions
as periodically selected. Among the tribes of Orissa murders are
rarely committed for the gain of property. But murder for revenge is rather
frequent, as also murder for jealousy in sex.
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