Tribes and their lifestiles

Santal
Santal

The Santals are part of the Austro-Asiatic family, distantly related to Vietnamese and Khmer. This tribe habitation is mainly in the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and Assam. Historians believe that they were the ancestors of the tribal community residing in the eastern part of India(excluding hill portions). The Santal language, Santali, belongs to the Munda(or Mundari) branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family.

Bhumia
Bhumia

The Bhumia tribe of Odisha has a rich cultural heritage and is also considered as the most heroic of all tribal communities of the State. It is believed that the Bhumias are a sub-caste of the Baiga tribe living in Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh. The Bhumias, unlike other tribes, speak Desia, a lingua-franca of Koraput rather than a separate tribal language.

Bonda
Bonda

The Bonda people are tribal people who currently live in the hills of Odisha's Malkangiri district in India. There are two different Bonda tribes: the Upper Bondas are the most isolated from mainstream Indian society, and the Lower Bondas.

Kondh
Kondh

Kondhs are a tribal community in India. Traditionally, hunter-gatherers, they are divided into the hill-dwelling Kondhs and plain-dwelling Kondhs for census purposes; all the Kondhs identify by their clan and usually hold large tracts of fertile land but still practice hunting, gathering and slash-and-burn agriculture in the forests as a symbol of their connection to and ownership of the forest. Kondhs speak the Kui and Kuvi languages and write them in Odia script.

They are a designated Scheduled Tribe in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and West Bengal.

Gond
Gond

The Gonds are the tribal community mostly found in the Gond forests of central India. They are widely spread in the Chhindwara District of Madhya Pradesh, Bastar district of Chhattisgarh and also in the parts of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

They are the largest Dravidian tribe. Historically, they were the most important group of original Indian tribes. In the 1500s, several Gond dynasties were established and the Gond Rajas ruled until they were conquered by Muslim armies in 1592. In the 1700s, the Gond lost all power to the Maratha kings, who forced them to escape into the hills.

Oraon
Oraon

The Oraon or Kurukh, also spelled Uraon or Oram, are an ethnic group inhabiting in Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. They, speak languages such as Kurukh, Sadri and Hindi which are from the Dravidian family of languages. They write using the Devanagari script. In stature, they are short or below medium in height.

Sora
Sora

The Soras is a prominent tribal community with a patriarchal society in the Rayagada district of Odisha and specific pockets of Koraput and Gajapati districts. The Soras speak Sora, a Munda language. However, written language in Sora is not followed by all. They practice shifting cultivation, with a few gradually taking up settled agriculture.

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