Caste in a Tribal Society :

The Formative Processes

N. S. REDDY
ANDHRA UNIVERSITY, WALTAIR

The hilly, sylvan hinterland of Visakhapatnam District (Andhra Pradesh)

is inhabited by different tribes such as the Bagatha, Rona, Mukadora,
Kondadora, Valmiki, Ojulu, Gadaba, and Khond. The total tribal popula-
tion in the district is 213,820 (1961 census). A significant characteristic of
the tribal area of this district is that except for the Khond and the Gadaba,
who live exclusively in their respective hamlets, the rest of the groups are
living in mixed, multi-tribal villages. The numerically preponderant
groups are the Bagatha and the Valmiki, the former occupying the
highest position in the local social hierarchy and the latter having a low
status. T’he other groups fill in different intermediate positions between the
Bagatha and the Valmiki; there are a few small groups here and there who
arc however ranked lower than the latter. ,

The composition of the tribal groups differs slightly from village to village.
Therc is a common pattern of complementary roles allocated to different
groups in the villages over the region, which has contributed to the growth
of a general consensus about the status-ranking of different constituents.
It is this social phenomenon which is sought to be presented in the following
pages by taking one village, Kothapaderu, as a case study.
Kothapaderu (in Paderu Taluk of Visakhapatnam District) is a multi-
tribal village like most of the villages found in this region. Forty-seven
families belonging to seven distinct groups inhabit this village. There are
seventeen families belonging to the Bagatha, three families belonging ’to the
Kummari, two families belonging to the Kotia, two families belonging to the
Mukadora, fifteen families belonging to the Ozulu, five families of the Valmiki,
and three families of the Ghasi.
The Kummari are the potters in the Hindu villages of the plains. Their
ancestors must have migrated into the tribal region supplying the much
needed. earthen pots to the local people. They have still remained on the
periphery of the local tribal society and have not become fully integrated into
the village organization except that they sell pots (in exchange for money
or grain) to the people in the village even as they sell them to a wider circle

Downloaded from cis.sagepub.com at CARLETON UNIV on June 23, 2015

160

of customers in the
weekly markets.
The status-ranking among these groups can be represented in the following
order:

Bagatha Kummari
Kotia
Mukadora
Ozulu
Valmiki
Ghasi

Leaving apart the Kummari who are socially aloof, the rest of the com-
munity divides itself into two strata, the upper and the lower. The Bagatha,
Kotia, and Mukadora constitute the upper section while the Ozulu, Valmiki,
and Ghasi form the lower section.

Comniensal Rules
They follow a set of commensal rules which reflect the order of social pre-
cedence among them. The Bagatha and the Kotia interdine with each other,
but they do it in such a way that the relative superiority of the former is
explicated. When a Bagatha dines at the house of a Kotia, the latter has to
pour water from a mug and help the former to wash his hands. The leaf-
plate in which the Bagatha has eaten is removed by the Kotia host. But
when a Kotia eats at the house of a Bagatha, the guest has to help himself
in washing his hands and should himself remove the leaf-plate in which he
has eaten.1 The Bagatha do not accept cooked food or water from any
other group except the Kotia.
The Kotia and the Mukadora interdine with each other but with the
associated practices of the aforementioned kind which vindicate the superio-
rity of the former over the latter. None of the tribes in the upper section
of the society accepts cooked food or water from the lower section (comprising
the Ozulu, Valmiki, and Ghasi), while the latter groups accept food and
water from the former. Among the groups of the lower section again, any
cooked food touched by the Valmiki or the Ghasi becomes unacceptable for
the Ozulu. The two tribes at the bottom of the hierarchy accept food from
all other groups, but they do not interdine with each other.
The Kummari do not accept cooked food and water from any other group
including the Bagatha. The tribes of the upper stratum reciprocate by a
similar negative attitude towards the Kummari. But the tribes of the lower
1This writer has paid periodical visits to this area, but he is indebted to Dr. A. M.
Reddy for this shrewd observation (Dr. A. M. Reddy : The Bagathas and the Related Tribes,-
Unpublished thesis 1972).
Downloaded from cis.sagepub.com at CARLETON UNIV on June 23, 2015
 161

section accept food and water from the hands of the Kummari. (Let it be
noted that the commensal interdiction relates only to cooked food and water
and not to raw food like grains, vegetables, fruits and milk which are mutually
acceptable between all the groups.)
The tribes of the upper section do not rear pigs nor do they eat pork,
though they eat the meat of the wild boar. They consider the domestic
pig unclean. But the tribes of the lower section rear pigs and eat their meat.
Only the Valmiki and the Ghasi are known to eat carrion.
Now and then the village community as a whole sets out for a hunt. On
such occasions there are distinct roles prescribed for different tribal groups.
According to their traditional rules, a hunter who first strikes the animal
gets a bigger share in the meat. But the division of labour between the groups
is such that a member of the lower section scarcely gets a chance to strike.
The tribes like the V~almiki and the Ghasi are given the work of driving the
game towards the spot where the hunters of the upper section lie in wait.
Even if by chance a member of the lower section bags the game, he is not to
touch it. Only the members of the upper section are expected to cut the
animal and apportion the meat among different participants.

The Occupational Picture

The Bagatha own about four-fifths of the cultivable land in the village.
They are the dominant landholding group of this region. In a few cases
where the Bagatha families do not have lands of their own or have only very
small holdings, they have rented some land from the richer members
of their own tribe. Thus some of the Bagatha are living as tenant-
cultivators, but none of them is working as a farm-servant or as a casual
labourer.
The Kummari, as already stated, are the potters. The Kotia cultivate
their own land. Their particular interest lies in horticulture, and they sell
vegetables and other produce, mostly in the weekly markets. The Mukadra
depend for their livelihood on agriculture as well as collection of forest
produce and wage labour. The Ozulu who are the traditional smiths and
carpenters have acquired some lands in this village. The establishment of
the Block Development Headquarters in the vicinity of this village has resul-
ted in an influx of Ozulu families who found ready employment in the cons-
truction of the official buildings. They now own nearly one-tenth of the cul-
tivable land in the village and have thus become agriculturists-cum-artisans.
. When an Ozulu works for other agricultural families by way of making or
repairing ploughs and other agricultural implements, he receives from each
of the ten measures (locally known as kuncham)- of grain per year.
The Valmiki combine a number of economic pursuits Some of them are
cultivators of their own land which accounts for about five per cent of the
Downloaded from cis.sagepub.com at CARLETON UNIV on June 23, 2015
162

total cultivable land in the village. The others among them have been share-
croppers, casual labourers, and cattle grazers. For grazing the cattle of
other families, a person is paid four local measures of grain per year per pair
of cattle. The Ghasi are the village servants directly responsible to the chief
of the village council. In the past, their mainwork consisted of looking
after the horses of the village headman and attending to the needs of the
visiting ofhcials. For this they have received small patches of service-tenure
lands. They also take to wage-labour whenever they can, without prejudice
to their civic duties. Both the Valmiki and the Ghasi are the traditional
musicians of the community. When they play on drum and wind pipe at
the marriages of other groups, they are remunerated for their services.

Habitational Loci of Different Groups

There are four distinct wards or &dquo;streets&dquo; in the village, each bearing
a distinct appellation. Three of them are named after the major groups
living in them. They are called the Bagatha Street, the Kummari Street,
and the Valmiki Street respectively. The fourth one is not named after any
tribe, but is called &dquo;Gonduru&dquo;, meaning the locality round the corner.
The first three wards are not exclusively inhabited by the respective groups
after which they are named. The pattern of distribution of the families
suggests that the socially proximate groups tend to develop residential
neighbourhoods. The Bagatha street has not only the homes of the Bagatha,
but also those of the Kotia and Mukadora. The Kummari Street is a small
one, and it houses only a few Kummari families. The Valmiki Street accom-
modates not only the homes of the Valmiki but also those of the Ghasi.
The Ozulu are the predominant group in the fourth locality, Gonduru, but
besides them there are a few other recently immigrated families, one of the
Kummari and two of the Bagatha. It can be guessed that the latter families
have used this ward at the far end of the village as a landing strip and, in
course of time, might shift their residence to the locality of their confreres,
if space should be available there.

The Village Council

Each tribe in the village has a headman, and also each tribe has its regional
organization. But there is also a village council consisting of the headmen
of the tribal groups. The chief of the village council is a Bagatha and this
ofhce runs in the same family line from generation to generation. There is
also a regional council, in a purely territorial sense, having jurisdiction over
about 20 villages, which is again under a chief belonging to the Bagatha
tribe The regional chief is known as Muttadar and the area over which he
wields his power is known as Mutta. The regional chiefs and the village
chiefs perform important functions such as collection of land revenue,
Downloaded from cis.sagepub.com at CARLETON UNIV on June 23, 2015
 163

arbitration in inter-tribal disputes and overall direction of activities which

are of common interest to the community.
Matters which affect only a single tribe are arbitrated by the concerned
headman. But matters which concern more than one tribe, or affect the
village as a whole, are brought before the village council presided over by the
Bagatha. A few stone slabs, put closely together under a tree, mark the venue
of the village council. When the headmen representing different groups
gather at the place, the representatives of the higher section sit on the slabs
while the representatives of the Ozulu, Valmiki, and Ghasi sit on the ground.

Religious Activities
The system of beliefs and rituals in the village suggests that each group
might have had its own set of deities in the past, but when. they came to live
together in the same community, the different deities found themselves juxta-

posed in a common pantheon recognized by one and all. Priesthood is

still dispersed, each deity being served by a specialized functionary of a
particular tribe. But sacrifices are offered to every deity on behalf of the
entire village community. In this congerie of priests, the Bagatha again
have assumed overall leadership. There is one Bagatha priest who fixes thc
auspicious moment for the commencement of every festival and also decides
the nature of sacrifice to be offered to each deity on a particular occasion. In
the case of certain festivals, the Bagatha priest is at the helm of the affairs,
getting lay assistance from other members of his tribe as well as from the Kotia
and Mukadora. The members of the lower section of the community are not
actively involved in the associated rituals, but they present their offerings
to the deity at the appropriate time.
The deities called Rakasamma and Pandavulu are propitiated by a priest
belonging to the Ozulu. The Valmiki and Ghasi sacrifice pigs to the deity
called Sanku Devudu at an annual festival and go round the village with the
image, receiving offerings from each household. In all the festivals including
those in which the Ozulu, Valmiki, and Ghasi offer the main services, the
Bagatha priest sets the dates and specifies the sacrifices, and the Bagatha
chief working through the village council mobilizes the resources necessary
for the occasion and ensures that everything is accomplished in the proper
way. The Kummari are not actively involved in any of these rituals, but
they pay their obeisance to all the deities when the images are taken round the
village.
Inter-Tribal Marriages
Each tribe is endogamous, and each tribe guards against transgressions of
this fundamental rule which is at the basis of its separate identity. But some
inter-tribal unions do occur. These heterodox couples, and their hybrid
Downloaded from cis.sagepub.com at CARLETON UNIV on June 23, 2015
164

offsprings, are accommodated in certain ways depending on the circumstances

of each case. When such unions occur, there is first a formal notification to
the whole community and then a prescribed procedure for expiation. In
some cases no expiation seems to be possible, and the conferring of legitimacy

on the union is ruled out.

There are two cases of Bagatha men of the village eloping with women of
the Kotia tribe of a neighbouring village. After due expiation, their unions
were legitimatized and the women were admitted into the Bagatha tribe.
In another instance a Valmiki man brought in an Ozulu woman to live with
him. There was no difficulty in admitting her into the Valmiki group as
she belonged to a tribe of relatively higher status. But the family of the
Ozulu woman was excommunicated and her father had to go through the
process of expiation in order to be readmitted into his own tribe.
There was another case which was more complicated. An influential
Bagatha had long-standing liaison with a Valmiki woman who continued to
stay in her own quarters. Children were born of this union, and there was
a general recognition that they were the children of the Bagatha father. But

there did not seem to be any way of legitimatizing the union and declaring
the couple as husband and wife. The implicit rule governing the inter-tribal
marriages is that if the partners are from tribes of proximate statuses, the
woman is admitted into the man’s tribe and the children follow patrilineal
affiliation. But if the social distance between the man and woman is great,
the norms do not seem to provide any solution. As things stand, the children
in the aforementioned case may have to settle down as members of the
Valmiki tribe.

* * *

Here is a tribal village with seven constituent groups which are endo-

gamous. In the process of living together they have developed a unified

social system with each group having an alloted place. A set of commensal
restrictions has been evolved reflecting the status-ranking of different groups.
Hypothetically, it is possible for tribes like the Bagatha, Kotia, Mukadora
or Valmiki to live each by itself in a separate hamlet, acquiring the essential

products of the artisans in the weekly markets. But all over the tribal
hinterland of Visakhapatnam District, these groups have been living together
in mixed villages and have developed an appreciable degree of interdepend-
ence.
The Ozulu with their specialized crafts of carpentry and smithy are occupa-
tionally differentiated from the rest of the community. So is the marginal
group of potters. Occupational specialization is less pronounced among
other groups though some differences are noticeable. For instance, only the
Downloaded from cis.sagepub.com at CARLETON UNIV on June 23, 2015
 165

tribes of the lower section rear pigs, and the Valmiki and the Ghasi have the
task of clearing the dead cattle from the village which incidentally leads to
their eating of carrion. (This task is being carried out by the Valmiki
in spite of the fact that in many villages of this region, the Valmiki are econo-
mically well off.) The Ghasi are the hereditary village servants. The
Valmiki and the Ghasi provide music at the marriages of all the groups.
The effective position of the village council and the complementary roles
played by different groups in the sphere of ritual activity vouch for the
organizational unity in the village community.
Two kinds of hypothesis suggest themselves on the basis of these facts. One
is that the highly developed caste system of the neighbouring plains has made
its impact on the tribal areas and has created a society after its own image.
The other hypothesis, to which I subscribe, is that the caste system of this
type is purely indigenous and it would evolve at any place given the necessary
conditions, viz. a few groups living together in the same village, observing
endogamy and having a belief in ritual pollution which leads to commensal
restrictions as well as some occupational angularities. In other words, one
observes here the basic process of the formation of castes.
A number of writers have pointed out that the origins of the caste system
lay deeper in the indigenous soil rather than in the upper stratum of Aryan
social organization. Hutton quotes a number of authors in support of this
contention. To cite but one, Olenberg is firmly of the view that endogamy
and commensal restrictions originated with the aboriginal inhabitants rather
than with the invading Aryans (Hutton 1961 : 179). Murphy points out
the existence of the ideas of ritual purity and the importance given to
ablutions in prc-Aryan India (Murphy 1943: 120).
Another point which I would like to make here is that this obviously
indigenous system does not depend on any external controls either for its
emergence or its perpetuation. Writers like Marriott are of the view that
the State has played an important part in the growth and maintenance
of the caste system (Marriott 1955: 189). While partially agreeing with
Maine in his assumption that the Kings did not interfere with the principles
on which the village communities were constituted, Dumont finds himself in

fuller agrcement with Campbell, Baden-Powell, and others, and attributes

the actual constitution (as distinguished from the principle of constitution)
of the village communities to conquests and delegation of power by the rulers
(Dumont 1966 : 88) . The role of urban centres, besides conquests, has
been referred to by Linton, besides others. To him, the caste system seems
to originate when a society organized on the basis of endogamous groups

experiences invasions on the one hand and emergence of urban centres on

the other (Linton 1948).
The words &dquo;state&dquo; and &dquo;political power&dquo; lend themselves to different levels
Downloaded from cis.sagepub.com at CARLETON UNIV on June 23, 2015
166

of interpretation. If what is meant here is the centralized political authority

of a big state, its role, as it seems to me, is not in any way directly related to
the gr owth or the maintenance of the caste system such as the one under
discussion. If the reference is to the political power within the community,
it does contribute towards the maintenance of the existing social order.
But then this political power itself is a part of the social system, and it can be
argued in the reverse that the cast,-- system itself produces a certain kind of
political organization within the community to subserve its own ends. The
fact is that when certain indigenous conditions have produced a caste system,
the latter will continue to exist as long as the former exist. Even if delegation
of power were to occur from the ruler, to a member of the indigenous
community, the chances are that only a representative of the locally powerful
group becomes the recipient of that privilege. It may be granted, too, that
the specific elements in the power structure might change in periods of
conquests, but the odds against the change of the structure itself are tremen-
dously heavy. In that context, the distinction between the actual consti-
tution and the principle of constitution of the village community becomes
irrelevant to the actual realitie3. If there is any relationship between
centralized political authority and the continuance of the caste system, it
could only be of the nature of coincidence and not of causality by any means.
’I’here is a diametrically opposite view expressed by Ghurye which should
not go unheeded. According to him, the castes multiplied because of lack
of rigid unitary control of the state and the &dquo;unwillingness of rulers to enforce
a uniform standard of law and custom&dquo; (Ghurye 1952 : 159).

As for the urban centres, they have provided either theological reinforce-
ments or rcorientations to the folk beliefs and practices. Andhra Pradesh
as well as other parts of India experienced waves of sectarian proselytism,

the two most important being Vaishnavite and Saivite movements. These
again took on different local hues depending on different circumstances.
Even this region under study experienced the fringe effects of these move-
ments as could be seen in the fact that the families which came under the in-
iliience of Vaishnavite preachings invite a Satani (a Sudra caste of the plains)
to officiate in their mortuary ceremonies whereas the families which came
under the influence of Saivite preachings invite a Jangam (another Sudra
caste of the plains) to ofliciate in their funeral functions. It will be too far-
fetched to conclude that these influences created a caste system where it had
not existed or that they maintained the system which otherwise would have

collapsed. In fact, these movements, as they evolved in certain areas, sought

to do away with commensal restrictions and thus to cut across the boundaries
of caste. I am prone to agree totally with the observation Mandelbaum has
made with regard to the Nilgiri tribal community : &dquo;The Nilgiri people
did maintain a kind of caste systemwithout regulation from a state power or
Downloaded from cis.sagepub.com at CARLETON UNIV on June 23, 2015
 167

constant example from urban centres&dquo; (Mandelbaum 1955: 248).

One question remains regarding the absence of an exclusively priestly class
and the absence of any semblance of division of society into four varnas. But
in the main Hindu society itself, the caste system has taken different forms in
different regions and certainly does not display the &dquo;montonous sameness&dquo;
all over India as assumed by Dumont and Pocock (1957 : 10). In the vast
majority of the area in South India, there is the absence of the second varna
of Kshatriya. There are certain village deities in South India to whom
deference is shown by all the castes including the Brahman, but which are
served by Sudra or Untouchable priests. In the society under study there
is a dispersal of priestly functions, and it will perhaps continue to be so for a
long time to come. But there are already signs of the Bagatha assuming the
overall direction of ritual activities even when they are not the officiating
priests. This may be taken to represent a situation parallel to the one cited
by Pargiter regarding the Aryan Kings of Madhyadesa who were their own
priests and in the eariiest times had no Brahman ministrants (Hutton
1961 : 229). It is also possible to venture a guess that if the sacerdotal
order is to gain in importance in future, the priests among the Bagatha may
declare themselves as a superior in-group hedged around by the walls of
endogamy. But the word &dquo;if&dquo; needs to be underlined.
Tins society has developed all the essential characteristics of a caste system
which has neither been imposed nor is bcing maintained by any external
agency. It is not a mere replica of the caste system found in the plains
around, for the caste groups on the plains do not correspond to the groups
here. It is purely an indigenous growth which gives us an insight into
some of the processes of the evolution of a complex institution at the grass

roots level.

REFER ENCES

DUMONT, L., "The Village Community from Munro to Maine", Contributions to Indian
Sociology, 9, 1966, 67-89.
DUMONT, L. and D. F. POCOCK, "For a Sociology of India", Contributions to Indian Sociology,
1, 1957, 7-22.
GHURYE, G. S., Caste and Class in India, Bombay, Popular Prakashan, 1952.
HUTTON, J. H., Caste in India, Bombay, Oxford University Press, 1961.
LINTON, R., Review of "Caste in India", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 86, 2, 1948.
MANDELBAUM, D., "The World and the World View of the Kota", Village India
( M. Marriott ed. ), Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1955.
MARRIOTT, M. ( ed. ), Village India, Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1955.
MURPHY, J., Lamps of Anthropology, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1943.

Downloaded from cis.sagepub.com at CARLETON UNIV on June 23, 2015