58-538: Bwisagu is one of the most popular seasonal festivals of the Bodos of Assam .. This Bwisagu festival is observed at the beginning of the first month of the Boro year, around mid-April. The Bodos call this popular festival "Bwisagu", which means the start of the new year. Bwisagu is a Boro word which originated from the word "Bwisa" that means "year" or "age" and "Agu" that means "starting" or "start". The characteristics of
116-705: A Tibeto-Burman speaking ethnolinguistic group native to the state of Assam in India . They are a part of the greater Bodo-Kachari family of ethnolinguistic groups and are spread across northeastern India . They are concentrated mainly in the Bodoland Territorial Region of Assam, though Boros inhabit all other districts of Assam and Meghalaya . Boros were listed under both "Boro" and "Borokachari" in The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, and are continued to be called so in
174-537: A clean surface near a home or courtyard is prepared. Usually, worship offerings include a betel nut called a 'goi' and a betel leaf called a 'pathwi' or 'bathwi' and rice, milk, and sugar. Another important Hindu festival, the Kherai Puja, where an altar is placed in a rice field, is the most important festival of the Boros. However, caste and dowry practices are not practised by the majority of Boro Hindus, who follow
232-442: A cohesive nationality. And by 1901 the official definition of a tribe was set down by Risley. Within this formulation Northeast India was seen as a special case that required separate legislation. The elites from these social groups, including that from the Boros, used these categories for political articulation. The Tribal League , a full political organisation, emerged in 1933 as the common platform for all plains tribes of
290-469: A host of other ethnic groups that fall under the Kachari umbrella. Eventually the appellation kachari was retained only by those groups that have been fully integrated into Assamese society, such as Sarania Kachari , Sonowal Kachari , whereas others who were formerly called Kacharis have assumed ethnonyms, such as Boro or Dimasa . Kachari is pronounced as Kachhāri or Kossāri. The origin of
348-996: A neologism and insisted on the use of the name Kachari and pointed to the Kachari's contribution to the Assamese culture to underline their historical political legacy. Those of the Kacharis who preferred to progress socially by initiation into the Ekasarana Dharma are called Sarania Kachari and are not considered as Boros today. The period from 1919 saw the emergence of different Boro organisations: Bodo Chatra Sanmilan (Bodo Students Association), Kachari Chatra Sanmilan (Kachari Students Association), Bodo Maha Sanmilan (Greater Bodo Association), Kachari Jatiyo Sanmilan (Kachari Community Association), etc. These organisations pushed divergent means for social and political progress. For example, Bodo Chatra Sanmilan advocated giving up tribal attributes and wanted women to follow
406-693: A new Bodo Identity. Whereas earlier educated Kacharis like Rupnath had few options for social mobility other than assimilating into the Hindu lower castes, thus the Brahma religion developed by the Bodos that asserted respectable and autonomous Bodo identity while rejecting the cast dominance, and by the 1921 census the Boros began giving up their tribal names and identifying themselves as Boro by caste and language and Brahma by religion. Additional avenues, via conversion to Christianity , were already available by
464-564: A plains tribe in the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution , and have special powers in the Bodoland Territorial Region , an autonomous division ; and also as a minority people. Boro is the self-designation or autonym of the community. Boro comes from Bara-fisa , which means "son of Bara", and Bara stands for "man" or "male member" of the group. In the cognate language Kokborok , Borok means man ('k' being
522-558: A rhythm with a piece of split bamboo called "Thãrkhã". Girls dance in bands and play on the Jew's harp called "Gongonã" and small cymbals called "jotha". The Bodos perform certain rites on the occasion me the Bwisãgu festival: The last date of the month of Chaitra is called by the Bodos as the Bwisâgu for the cows or cattle. On the same day, the Bodos lead the cattle to the tank or
580-564: A ruling clan among themselves who are termed as Hasnusa. Some Dimasa scholars opined that they were also known as Hasnusa at some point of time in History. Among Chutias , Burok means noble/great men. The Chutias who were thought to be healthy and strong was termed as Burok and took up the administrative and military roles in the Chutia kingdom. Even the Matak king Sarbananda Singha belonged to
638-693: A set of rules called Brahma Dharma. A majority of the Bodo people still follow Bathouism, but in censuses, they are often classified as Hindus, as their native religion has no official recognition under the Indian constitution . Christianity is followed by around 10% of the Boros and is predominantly of the Baptist denomination. The major Boro Churches associations are the Boro Baptist Convention and Boro Baptist Church Association After
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#1732783719406696-620: A suffix for nouns) and so logically, Boro would mean man even in the Boro language . Generally, the word Boro means a man , in the wider sense Boro means a human being (but not specific to a female member of the family) in the languages used by the Bodo-Kachari peoples . The Boro language is a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It belongs to the Boro–Garo group of
754-473: A wide group of peoples that included in the minimum the Mech and the Kacharis. This led to two type of approaches to the Boro identity: one is the notion of a wide group was picked up by Kalicharan Brahma and his peers who posited the Boro identity in opposition to the caste-Hindu Assamese , and the other one, Jadunath Khakhlari who accepted the notion for the greater Bodo race but at the same time criticised it as
812-679: Is water in Austroasiatic. The Kacharis were the first people to rear silkworms and produce silk material and were considered to be associated with ashu rice culture in Assam before the advent of sali (transplanted rice) was introduced from the Gangetic plains. These peoples aren't culturally uniform. Bodo, Deori, Tripuri and Reang follow patrilineal descent, Garo, Rabha and Koch follow Matrilineal descent, Dimasa follows both bilateral descent, and Tiwa follows ambilineal descent. Some of
870-587: Is derived from the Tibetan Hbrogpa . The umbrella name "Bodo", denoting the umbrella group, is resisted by numerically smaller groups such as the Dimasas. Unlike Hodgson's assumption, Boro is no longer considered as the "core" of the Boro–Garo languages. Therefore, it has been suggested that the whole group should not be called "Bodo". The term Kachari has been used through much of history to denote
928-408: Is done on the second day of the festival. There is also the ceremo - eating cooked fowl with a bitter herb known as "Khungkha" or other wild vegetables with varied flavors. They also offer this to visitors. Merrymaking is an integral part of this Bodo Festival. Music and dance become a regular feature. Young men play on the " Sifung " (flute), "Kham" (drum), the four-stringed "Serjã", and beat out
986-434: Is for "Oma" meant for swine ; the fifth day is for "Dao", or meant for fowl ; the sixth for duck and other birds; the seventh is meant for receiving relatives and friends. House cleaning, cattle rites, worship of Bathow and offering food to their ancestors, ruthoi of new and washed clothes, receiving and visiting relatives, friends, etc. may be said to constitute the formal part of the festival. Worshiping of Bathow
1044-542: Is generally believed that when the first Tibeto-Burman speakers entered the Brahmaputra valley , it was already populated by people speaking Austroasiatic and probably other language. Bodo-Kachari community traditions as well as scholars agree that they came from the north or the east; and current phylogenetic studies suggest that the Boro–Garo language descended from Proto-Tibeto-Burman in Northern China near
1102-566: Is mostly used by mixing of modern day assamese and the Moran words which prevail have great similarities with Bodo and dimasa language. They were also known as Habungiya or Hasa where "Ha" means soil and "Sa" means son or Son of soil. The Deoris (who were priests by profession) also have the Burok clan among them. They call themselves Jimochayan (children of the sun) and have maintained their traditional culture and language. Historically, they lived in
1160-594: The Koch , the Ahoms , and British colonialism —the Boros resisted entry into their fiscal systems and moved slowly but continuously to avoid them. Due to the expansion of these states and the expansion of tenured peasantry, the Boros were those who finally converged close to the forested regions of the lower Himalayan foothills. In this habitat, the Boros practised shifting cultivation for self-sustenance and controlled forest products. To cultivate in this difficult terrain
1218-655: The Tibeto-Burman languages branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. It is an official language of the state of Assam and the Bodoland Territorial Region of India . It is also one of the twenty-two languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India . Traditionally, Boros practised Bathouism , which is the worshiping of supreme God , known as Obonglaoree . The shijou tree (in
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#17327837194061276-648: The tribal identity among the Boro and other groups. The Tribal League, which included Boro leaders such as Rabi Chandra Kachari and Rupnath Brahma , succeeded in protecting the Line system in 1937 against the proposal by the Muslim League. Around 1.45 million Bodos are living in Assam, thus constituting 4.53% of the state population. A majority of them around 68.96% alone are being concentrated in Bodoland Territorial Region of Assam, numbering 1 million out of total 3.15 million population, thus constituting 31% of
1334-527: The 18th century and then slowly became less mobile; even during the colonial period, most Boros refused permanent land tenure or made no effort to secure landholding documents. When the Koch dynasty (1515–1949) consolidated its rule in the 16th century into the regions that the Boro people had settled in, it demarcated the region north of the Gohain Kamal Ali —which came to be called the Duars —as
1392-462: The Bara (the great one). The Mech are found in both Assam and Bengal. Hodgson (1847) wrote as "Mech is name imposed by strangers. This people call themselves as Bodo. Thus, Bodo is their proper designation" They speak mainly the Boro language J.D Anderson wrote, "In Assam proper Hindus call them Kacharis, In Bengal they are known as Meches. Their own name for the race is Boro or Bodo." Dimasas have
1450-437: The Boros developed innovative low-cost irrigation systems that supported shifting cultivation. Landholding, sowing and harvesting, irrigation, and hunting were all performed collectively. As those who controlled forest based produce, they emerged as intermediaries in the trade in these as well as other goods between the plains and the hills and complex relationships developed. The Boros remained shifting cultivators at least till
1508-525: The Brahmaputra valley that included the Boro , Karbi , Mising , Tiwa and the Rabha . This formation excluded the hills tribes which were not allowed political participation. The colonial state and ethnographers' desire to define the tribal people, the need of the people to define themselves, and the earlier pre-political associations were significant contributory factors in the development of
1566-489: The Brahmaputra valley, such as the Mising people and Karbi people , are not considered Bodo–Kachari. Many of these peoples have formed early states in the late Medieval era of Indian history ( Chutia Kingdom , Dimasa Kingdom , Koch dynasty , Twipra Kingdom ) and came under varying degrees of Sanskritisation . The speakers of Tibeto–Burman are considered to have reached the Brahmaputra valley via Tibet and settled in
1624-548: The Burok Chutia clan. Surnames like Bora, Borha, Borua have their origins in the Chutia kingdom and are related to Bara/Bodo/Buruk. There is mention of Manik Chandra Barua, Dhela Bora, Borhuloi Barua as commanders of Chutia army. The Morans had their own kingdom before the arrival of Tai people and called their leader/chief as Bodousa (great son) where 'sa' means child or son in Moran language . The present day Moran language
1682-468: The Bwisagu festivals can be classified as follows: Bwisagu, as observed by Kacharis, indicates the pattern which the festival follows over several days. The first day is for the "Makhau" or "Mashau" meant for cattle , on which the cows are bathed in the river. The second day is meant for the "Mansi" or Men but starts with worshiping their gods; the third day is for "Saima" meant for dogs ; the fourth day
1740-592: The Census of India documents. Boros speak the Boro language , a Boro-Garo language of the Tibeto-Burman family, which is recognised as one of twenty-two Scheduled languages of India . Over two-thirds of the people are bilingual, speaking Assamese as second language. The Boro along with other cognate groups of Bodo-Kachari peoples are prehistoric settlers who are believed to have migrated at least 3,000 years ago. Boros are mostly settled farmers, who have traditional irrigation, dong. The Boro people are recognised as
1798-667: The Epic period. Aroi or Ari or Ary is a suffix in Boro language, which means folk. Some of the important clans of Boros are: Bodo-Kachari people Bodo–Kacharis (also Kacharis or Bodos ) is a name used by anthropologists and linguists to define a collection of ethnic groups living predominantly in the Northeast Indian states of Assam , Tripura , Meghalaya and West Bengal . These peoples are speakers of either Bodo–Garo languages or Assamese . Some Tibeto-Burman speakers who live closely in and around
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1856-576: The Kokborok people in Tripura and Bangladesh. This is in contrast to popular and socio-political usage, where Bodo denotes the politically dominant sub-group—the Boros —in the Bodoland Territorial Region . The term Bodo generally stands for man in some of the cognate languages (Boro: Boro ; Tripuri: Borok ) but not in others (Garo: Mande ; Karbi: Arlen ). According to historians, the word "Bodo"
1914-661: The Simon Commission included, among others, Kalicharan Brahma and Jadav Khakhlari. The delegation submitted that Goalpara should remain with Assam and should not be included with Bengal ; and that the Boros were culturally close to the Assamese. The only human category in the pre-colonial times was jati . In the early 19th century the East India Company became interested in the 'tribal' question owing to situations arising out of insurgencies against local rulers who were seeking British protection; but over
1972-482: The Tibeto-Burman and Austroasiatic populations of pre-Kamarupa, Kamarupa and post-Kamarupa kingdoms and polities of Assam, a proposition that other linguists find compelling, The Proto-Boro–Garo first as a lingua franca used for communication across the various linguistic communicates of the region and its striking simplicity and transparency reflect a period when it was widely spoken by communities for whom it
2030-580: The Tibeto-Burman communities of Northeast India harbour significant population that were originally Austroasiatic speaking —for example, genetic studies show presence of O2a-M95, a haplogroup associated with AA populations, among the Garos . The Boro people, also called Bodo, are found concentrated in the duars regions, north of Goalpara and Kamrup . The origin of Kachari term was unknown to Boro themselves, but known to others. They call themselves as Boro, Bada, Bodo, Barafisa. Barafisa translated as Children of
2088-680: The Tiwa is their division into two sub-groups, Hill Tiwa and Plains Tiwas, displaying contrasting cultural features. The hill Tiwas speak Tiwa and follows matrilineality while the plain Tiwa who are more numerous in number speak Assamese and adhere to a patrilineal form of society. The Tripuris are the inhabitants of the Tripura Kingdom. The Tripuri people through Manikya dynasty ruled the Kingdom of Tripura . The Tripuri , Chutia , Koch , and Dimasa had established powerful kingdoms in
2146-572: The Yellow River. Linguists suggest that the initial ingress took place 3000 years before present or earlier, and that the immigrant proto-Boro–Garo speakers were not as numerous as the natives. Linguists find the Boro–Garo languages remarkable in two aspects—they have a highly creolised grammar, and they extend over a vast region that radiates out into Nepal and Tripura from the Brahmaputra valley. Burling (2007) has suggested that Nagamese , Jingpho , and Garo today are in different stages in
2204-463: The associations felt particularly pressed to show that the Boros were not primitive as some other tribal groups and at the same time did not fall into the caste- Hindu hierarchy. The demand for community rights was made for the first time when at the 1929 Simon Commission the Boro leaders evoked colonial imagery of backward tribes and requested protection in the form of reserved representation in local and central legislatures. The Boro delegation to
2262-456: The break-up of Kamarupa around the 12th century till the colonial times (19th century) and beyond different ethnic groups settled in different ecological regions but the constant movements and intermixing of peoples led to the development of distinctive but hybrid cultural practices. According to Saikia (2012) , even as different state systems emerged, expanded, and fell—such as the Mughals ,
2320-487: The creation of the universe there was simply a great void , in which the supreme being 'Aham Guru', Anan Binan Gosai or Obonglaoree existed formlessly. Aham Guru became tired of living a formless existence and desired to live in flesh and blood. He descended on this great void with all human characteristics and created the universe. In addition to Bathouism, Boro people have also been converted to Hinduism , especially Hoom Jaygya . For this worship through fire ceremony,
2378-474: The development as lingua francas , a cycle which leads to mixed and creolised languages, language shifts , linguistic discontinuities and ethnic mixing. It is estimated that Austroasiatic languages were present even as late as 4th-5th centuries CE, which is also supported by paleographic evidence from the Kamarupa inscriptions . The heavy creolisation occurred when Boro–Garo emerged as the lingua franca of
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2436-644: The foothills of the eastern Himalayan range which includes the whole of Assam, Tripura, North Bengal of West Bengal and parts of Bangladesh. The belief that Bodo–Kacharis were early settlers of the river valleys is taken from the fact that most of the rivers in the Brahmaputra valley in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh today carry Tibeto–Burman names of Kachari origin— Dibang , Dihang, Dikhou , Dihing , Doiyang , Doigrung etc.—where Di/Doi- means water in Boro-Garo languages , and many of these names end in -ong , which
2494-474: The genus Euphorbia ) is taken as the symbol of Bathou and worshiped. It is also claimed as the supreme god. In the Boro language, Ba means five and thou means deep. Since Boros believe in the five mighty elements of God – land, water, air, fire, and ether – the number five has become significant in the Bathou culture, which is similar to the five elements of other Asian religions. According to Bathouism, before
2552-876: The groups, such as Moran and Saraniya consider themselves as Hindus under Ekasarana Dharma . The term Bodo finds its first mention in the book by Hodgson in 1847, to refer to the Mech and Kachari peoples. Grierson took this term Bodo to denote a section of the Assam-Burma group of the Tibeto-Burman languages of the Sino-Tibetan family, which included the languages of (1) Mech; (2) Rabha ; (3) Lalung (Tiwa) ; (4) Dimasa (Hills Kachari) ; (5) Garo (6) Tiprasa (7) Deuri (8) Moran and Boro . Subsequently Bodo emerged as an umbrella term both in anthropological and linguistic usage. This umbrella-group includes such sub-groups as Mech in Bengal and Nepal; Boros, Dimasa, Chutia, Sonowal, Moran, Rabha, Tiwa in Assam, and
2610-427: The ideals of Sita of Ramayana . Even as self-assertive politics was on, the Boros were not ready to severe their relationship with the greater Assamese society, with even Kalicharan Brahma advocating Assamese as the medium of instruction in schools, and Boro associations seeking patronage from Assamese figures who showed sympathy for their cause. In the absence of an acknowledged past history of state formation ,
2668-480: The indigenous elite, were not exposed to education till the end of the 19th century, and it was by the early 20th century when a class of Boro/Kachari publicists finally emerged —a small Kachari elite formed in the early 20th century from among traders, school teachers and contractors. Foremost among them was Kalicharan Brahma , a trader from Goalpara who established a new monotheistic faith called " Brahma -ism" and most importantly, claimed for himself and his peers
2726-577: The joidaam and patkai foothills and upper valley of Brahmaputra. There are four main geographical clans and 16-25 approx sub-clans( bojai) in deori community. Tiwa (Lalung) is an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the states of Assam and Meghalaya in northeastern India. They were known as Lalungs in the Assamese Buranjis, though members of the group prefer to call themselves Tiwa (meaning "the people who were lifted from below"). Some of their neighbors still call them Lalung. A striking peculiarity of
2784-402: The late 19th century especially with the evangelical work of Sidney Endle who is also known for his tome "The Kacharis", and this formed a parallel stream of Boro articulation till much later times. Boro as a self-referential term for all Kacharis was reported by Montgomery in 1838. Bodo was a term reported by Brian Houghton Hodgson (1847) as a endonym that, he speculated, encompassed
2842-462: The name is most likely a self-designation korosa aris that is found in a very old Boro song: Pra Ari, Korasa Ari Jong pari lari lari (We are Korosa Aris, first-born sea race Our line is continuous) Today the peoples included in the Bodo-Kacharis speak either one of the languages from the Boro–Garo branch of Tibeto-Burman or an Indo-Aryan language such as Assamese or Bengali. It
2900-484: The owner pays respects to them. While leading the cows to the river for bathing the cowherds sing songs and beat them lightly with the "Dighalati" plant. After taking away the cows from the cowshed, the cow dunk cakes are thrown away and the shed is cleaned. The old ropes (phaga) are replaced by new ones. [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=YuSSBQAAQBAJ&dq=Bwisagu+assam&pg=PP1 Bodo people The Boro (बर'/बड़ो [bɔɽo] ), also called Bodo , are
2958-640: The past even the Ahom kingdom was founded in the kingdom gifted by Moran king Bodousa to his son in law Sukapha. The Tripuri kings had even defeated the Mughals and the Burmese kingdoms in the past. Today, the Boros, the Tripuris, and the Garos have established a strong political and ethnic identity and are developing their language and literature. The Sonowal Kachari is also a branch of greater Kachari. They live in
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#17327837194063016-566: The region where non-Brahmin culture could thrive. After the Ahom kingdom consolidated its power in western Assam in the 17/18th century it made special arrangements with Bhutan to share administrative and fiscal responsibilities. But when the British banned forest lands from being used for cultivation in the last quarter of the 19th century the Boros suffered a major habitat loss since the forest lands historically used for shifting cultivation and
3074-455: The region's population. In Bodoland's capital Kokrajhar , they are in minority, forming only 25% of the town's population. The history of the Boro people can be explained from folk traditions. According to Padma Bhushan winner Suniti Kumar Chatterjee , mythologically , Boros are "the offspring of son of the Vishnu ( Baraha ) and Mother-Earth ( Basumati )" who were termed "Kiratas" during
3132-448: The river for bathing. Before taking to the river or tank the cattle are offered paddy and horns and hooves are smeared with mustard oil. The body of the cow is routed with black marking with a mixture prepared from black ashes and mustard oil, using the stem of the Eri tree as the marker. The cows are also garlanded with garlands made of gourd and brinjals . Before taking them off the cowshed
3190-488: The same people who came to be termed as Bodo. One of the earliest usage can be found in the 16th century Assamese language Bhagavata , where the word Kachari is used synonymously with Kirata in a list that mentions Koch and Mech separately. In Buranjis and colonial documents Boro–Garo speakers who were from the plains were collectively called Kachari . Endle's 1911 ethnographic work, The Kacharis , explain that there were plains Kacharis and hills Kacharis and
3248-490: The source of other produce suddenly became unavailable to them. To alienate indigenous peasants from their lands was a stated colonial aim, to make them available as labour in other enterprises. Boros identity formation began in the colonial period, when the Boro elite and intelligentsia began differentiating themselves from the Assamese caste - Hindu society. The Boro, as well as many other communities as also much of
3306-659: The years the East India Company/ British Raj evolved its role as saviours of the not the local rulers but the local people by offering to protect them against these rulers just as the primitive people of Africa needed protection. The notion of primitive vs non-primitive difference was further refined by the introduction of European notions of racial differences and by the census of 1872, categories such as 'aboriginal tribe' and 'semi-Hinduised aboriginals' emerged. The 1881 census proposed that India consisted of two hostile populations and thus did not possess
3364-642: Was not a native language. Among these ethnic groups some of the Rabha, and Koch may have Khasi ancestors. The Tibeto-Burmification of the Valley must have been more a matter of language replacement than the wholesale population replacement. Some of the Boro–Garo speaking communities such as the matrilineal and uxorilocal Garo, Rabha, and to some extent Koch still retain cultural features that are found among Austroasiatic speakers and which are not found among other Tibeto-Burman speakers. Genetic studies too have shown that
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