Akhil Bharatiya Binjhia Samaj

ved from the Vindhyan range, which in turn comes from the Sanskrit ‘Vindhya’ a hunter. They are a small community of industrious farmers spread over a contiguous and inaccessible area of Ranchi district inSimdega Subdivision. BINJHIA is a cast belongs to Scheduled Tribe and also described as Vindhyaniwasi and Vindhyabasini Kshatriya, according to their version Binjhia was given to them by others when they settled in Chhota-Nagpur (Prasad, 1961). Risley (1891) has mentioned two subgroups, the Pahariya Binijhias and the Dand Binjhias, among them. They believe that they were the inhabitants of Kolanagari in the Vindhya valley. Now they have settled down in the districts of Jharkhand and Odisha, i.e. According to the 1981 census, their population is 10,009. Thye are mainly a rural-based community with a population of 99.64 per cent from rural areas. They speak the Indo-Aryan language, sadri , at home and use the Hindi language and the Devanagari script for inter-group communication. They are non-vegetarians but do not eat beef and pork. Their principal food is rice and jowar supplemented with various pulses and vegetables. They use mustard, dori and jethangi oil for cooking. Tea is a common drink, and rice beer (haria) and distilled liquor (daru) are also consumed by them. The Binjhia have a number of exogamous totemic clans. They have titles like Naik, Pradhan, Raut and Majhi. Child marriage is now being replaced by abult marriage. The common modes of selecting a spouse are negotiation, mutual consent and exchange. They generally follow monogamy but polygyny is also practised. Junior levirate (devar biya) and junior sororate (sali biya) are permitted. Putting vermilion (sindurdan) and a symbolic marriage with a mango tree (amba biya) are the main marriage rituals among the Binjhia. Vermilion and glass bangles are the marriage symbols for women. Bride price (dalipaise) is paid in both cash and kind. post-marital residence is patrilocal. Divorce is allowed with social approval. Remarriage (sagai) is allowed for both the sexes and in such a marriage alliance, bride price is not paid. Most of their families are nuclear, though extended families are not uncommon. The parental property is divided equally among the sons. The eldest son succeed to the right of ancestor worship. The women attend to all the household chores and participate in or twenty-one days, and ends after the barhi ritual is observed. On that day the child is named by a Brahman and tonsure (mundan) is also performed. The first feeding of rice (mujhutti) is help either in the fifth or the sixth month. The dead are either buried or cremated. They observe death pol- lution (chhut) for ten days and on the twelfth day (akhri) the lineage members are treated to a feast.