THE JOURNEY OF A MEMORY STONE : PATALKOT

Patalkot is a valley 3000 feet underground the plains, bordered by Satpura ranges in the state
of Madhya Pradesh. This region belongs to many tribes but Gonds and Bharias are the main
inhabitants of this region. The geography of this region has under covered these tribes for
many years, revealing it to the researchers in 1990’s.
‘Gonds’ is one of the major tribal groups of India concentrated in Madhya Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Orissa and Jharkhand state. The middle India was in
history a Gondwana region. Between 17th century to 20th century four major Gond kingdom
ruled the middle region.
But now the word, “scheduled tribes” is a constitutional identity for all the tribes of India.
Due to the geographical location of Patalkot this tribe have been able to retain some of their
cultural believes. Among the tribes, death always had more emphasized celebration than
birth. The death is been celebrated in the form of elaborated ritual and at last erecting a
memory stone in the name of the deceased.
Gond has their own concept of dead, where the personality of the deceased adheres after
death not to the reincarnated jiv, but to the sanal, which in Gondi means literally the
Departed, the Dead.1 While it is believed in Gond culture that the jIv departs to the realm of
God, sanal is believed to linger near the corpse.2 The sanal holds an important place in the
life of the living community so thus the memory stone erected as the representation of the
sanal. The sanal is said to be the object of various pious observances.
Residing in large locations over time Gond culture have become more localized and cut from
the other settlements thus developing a localized Gond identity with the amalgamation of
different cultures from the vicinity. Different Gond settlements have adopted different
dominant style of erecting memory stone. The visual vocabulary of Gonds of Chhattisgarh
stands different from that of Patalkot that make it unique to their regions. The memory stone
found in Chhattisgarh are wooden pillar as well as stones which usually have paintings. The
painted themes usually show the progress of time and some of the newer ones have
aeroplanes, trains, modern buildings with the traditional tribal motifs. Many a times likes and
dislikes of the deceased is also depicted on the memory pillar of this region.3

1
Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf,” The After-Life in Indian Tribal Belief.”, The Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 83, No. 1 (Jan. - Jun., 1953), pp. 37-49
2
Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf,” The After-Life in Indian Tribal Belief.”, The Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 83, No. 1 (Jan. - Jun., 1953), pp. 37-49
3
Verma, Abhishek.” The Memory Pillars.” Goan Connection, Sep,16,2022.
https://www.gaonconnection.com/lead-stories/memory-pillar-bastar-dantewada-chhattisgarh-gond-tribe-
tribal-history-archaeology-past-dead-rituals-51262
 MEMORY STONES FOUND IN BASTAR REGION OF CHHATTISGARH

Image source: https://www.gaonconnection.com/h-upload/2022/09/16/361579-51.webp

For hundreds of years living in Patalkot, Gonds have developed their own visual vocabulary
for the memory stone which is similar in concept but different in representation. The memory
stone of Patalkot region are most commonly painted low relief sculpture stones which is
usually the portrait of the deceased sculpted on the stone. Vernaculars of Patalkot had
tradition emphasising on the visual appearance of the deceased. The minute commonalities in
the appearance are been crated in the stone to bring it close to likeness of the person who had
died. Usually, tribes have strong sense of identity and the person is represented first through
his tribe than his individual identity but by introducing the language of portraiture there is
advancement of tribes as the concept of individualism is seen to be incorporated in tribal
philosophy rather than erecting a symbol of tribe for the dead.
MEMORY STONES OF PATALKOT REGION

Image source: self

The scholars have connected the tradition of erecting stone in the memory of the deceased to
centuries old megalithic tradition. The contemporary Gonds of Patalkot is still practicing the
tradition but the involvement of some advancements.
The stone has the journey before putting it down to its final destination. It starts with the
home of the artist where it is created then travelling through its living home to the burial
ground and finally its destination rests on in the fields cultivated by the family or near their
village. According to Gond religion sanal is the person itself and is said to reside in these
memory stones.
The stone travels like the life of person which has its birthplace than travelling to its living
home and from there to the burial place. Its final destination rests on the fields or near the
community.
Erecting memory stone is a ritualistic festival among the Gonds. Then the stone is brough
home in well wrapped white cloth on the beats of the drum. The day is celebrated with
‘bhojan’(feast) and worship of the stone in the name of the deceased by the whole
community. The next day it travels to the place of burial where the prayer is been offered
asking the ancestor for protection and forgiveness. Its final destination rest in the fields, the
Gonds cultivate or near their village. The memory stones are usually collectively installed but
sometimes individual wish to install it in places of their choice.
The interesting fact about this ritual is, vernaculars have started calling it “Ganga Puja”. As
we know the tribal culture is the culture of oral tradition. It is usually the language which
holds the strongest identity of a culture. It plays an important role in transferring culture from
one generation to another, thus forming an identity. The language is the redolent of the
culture in the community which had held the history. So, calling it “Ganga Puja” have a
swathed concept. It is usually through politics of language that there are alterations in
thoughts for a particular tradition and culture.
According to the Hindu Philosophy, the final destination of the deceased is the emersion of
ashes in the holy river Ganga. The final destination of the deceased for the Gond tribe is
completed in the form of this ritual which now by the tribe is been called ‘Ganga Puja’.
Though Hindu believe in cremation and Gonds mostly have the ritual of burial but there is the
final destination of the deceased which is been related to river Ganga. This is an example of
how politics of language are been used to guide a particular tradition and culture.
The two aspects in oral tradition which leads to alter of traditions is first, the fall in use of
their mother tongue in this case is language of Gonds- ‘Gondi’, which holds the proper word
for proper rituals and do not fall prey of connotations and second, the awareness of the choice
of words been used to describe a particular ritual.
There is a long history of amalgamation of Hindu and tribal culture. The vicinity has always
influenced the oral traditions. This stands at the juncture of non-powerful sub-altern culture
and politics of powerful culture which raises some important questions as- Is it the
nonconfidence of sub-altern in their ritualistic practices ...? Or is it the methodology adopted
by the tribes to protect their culture from the power in the guise of calling it ‘ganga puja’

Image source: self

Thus calling it ganga puja may be is a way of tribes finding name for the final destination of
their deceased in a Hindu dominant society..
It stands as a great example of how the practices and philosophies of different religions get
influenced by the power of dominant religion. The fear of been sub-altern may have made
these tribes call their centuries old funerary tradition as ‘Ganga Puja’ to find the equivalence
of Hindu Believe system.

REFERENCES
1. Shamrao Koreti,” Socio-Cultural History of the Gond Tribes of Middle India,”
International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vo;.6, No.4, April 2016
2. Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf,” The After-Life in Indian Tribal Belief.”, The
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 83,
No. 1 (Jan. - Jun., 1953), pp. 37-49

3. Verma, Abhishek.” The Memory Pillars.” Goan Connection, Sep,16,2022.

https://www.gaonconnection.com/lead-stories/memory-pillar-bastar-dantewada-
chhattisgarh-gond-tribe-tribal-history-archaeology-past-dead-rituals-51262