Here is your short essay on Tribal Religion

Tribal religion is the most primitive from of religion found in human society. The following are the important characteristics ofthe Indian tribal religion.

1. Mana

Defining faith in Mana found in tribal society Codrington has pointed out that Mana is, “a force altogether distinct from physical power, which acts in all kinds of ways for good and evil, and which is of the greatest advantage to possess or control.”

Thus Mana is a supernatural power which is useful to man in the control of many natural phenomena beyond his power. According to Majumdar and Madan, “Entire religious life of the primitives, is born out of their belief in certain understandable, impersonal, non-material and unindividualized supernatural power which takes abode in all the objects, animate and inanimate, that exist in the world.”

According to Maxmuller, Mana is an attempt to define certain natural phenomena in terms of an impersonal power. The high mountain, the river, the thunder and all other natural phenomena according to the tribal people, act with the power of Mana. This power acts both for good and for bad. It is connected with the soul, ghost of the departed man and the living being. The Ho and Munda tribes of Chhota Nagpur call it Bonga.

2. The concept of Bonga

According to these tribes, Bonga is a mysterious and impersonal power at the back of rains, tempests, cold, floods, epidemics and the wild animals. Everywhere activity is due to the power of Bonga. Thus Bonga is a form of Mana.

3. Animism

Another important characteristic of Indian tribal religion is animism. According to Risley, tribal religion is animism. The tribal people believe in the presence of supernatural powers at the back of high mountains, flooded rivers, big trees and epidemics. They try to please these powers by means of different types of propitiations and worships.

Sometimes they are worshipped even without being given any name. An important type of animism is ancestral worship which is found among the Santhals and Oraons. The Santhals worship deities of family and village deities.

Among the Korawa tribe, there is a goddess of crop, one of animals and a deity presiding rains. The tribal people try to please these gods and goddesses by offering the sacrifices of different types of animals and birds before them.

The principle of animism is based on the following two beliefs:

1. There are powerful souls besides powerful gods. The souls are connected with men, and feel pleasure and pain through them. They influence the events in this world and also control them.

2. The soul of man survives even after his death. The word ‘animism’ was used for the first time by E.B. Taylor in anthropological literature

Animism, according to Taylor, is “the groundwork of the philosophy of religion from that of savage upto that of civilized man.”

3. Animatism

According to animatism there is some impersonal power behind every material object besides the living beings. Thus in the tribal religions is found faith in the presence of super natural power in bones and feathers, etc.

This impersonal power is worshipped to maintain peace and prosperity in the group. It is difficult to distinguish between animatism and animism. The following distinctions however, have been pointed out between the two. While according to animatism there is some mysterious, unknown, impersonal power at the back of all living beings and things, according to animism there is animal spirit found in all movable and immovable things.

An example of animatism is found in the tribes of Bihar. They consider the bones, beads, stones and feathers to have living and magical powers. The stones are considered to be the children of mother earth and worshipped.

The tribal people worship only those powers which can do some harm to them, but sometimes such powers are also worshipped which cannot do any harm, for example, the Sing-bonga of the Munda tribe.

Though it is difficult to say as to which type of nature worship is found in a particular tribe in India, generally one finds animism as well as animatism in most of the tribes. From the comparative point of view, however, animatism is more widespread than animism.

4. Naturalism

A universal characteristic of tribal religion is naturalism or nature worship. The Garo tribe of Assam worships sun and moon. The Munda people worship sun god. Besides, other tribes worship T Rivers, mountains, stars, trees and other natural objects.

5. Faith in the immortality of soul

Among many tribes there is a custom of observing funeral rites two times. This is because of their faith in the immortality of soul. Sometimes the second rite is considered to be more important than the first.

The tribals believe that the soul is not destroyed on the death of the body and requires food, etc., for a sufficiently long time. Among the Nagas and the tribals of the Nikobar island, the skull of the dead man is placed on a wooden statue believing that the soul of the dead man will pass from the skull to the statue.

Now the statue is served like a living human being and efforts are made to fulfil all its needs. Sometimes the statue is made of brass. Such is the custom among the Garo tribe of Assam. In south India in Kerala the statue of a dead person is worshipped at least once a year.

The tribals believe that the soul matter can increase the fertility of land and produce life. In the Naga tribe there is a custom of worshipping souls of the ancestors at the time of sowing and in the need of rains.

6. Faith in rebirth

Most of the Indian tribes believe that after death the soul of a man survives the body and enters into the body of some animal, bird, or other living being. Among the bhils efforts are made to find out as to which body will be entered into by a particular soul. Similar beliefs are found among Nagas of Assam, Ahirs of Bengal, Kamar and Gond tribes.

7. Faith in magic

The most important characteristic of tribal religion is faith in magic. According to M.F. Keesing, “In its technical sense, magic is a term which summaries a variety of methods by which man purports to influence automatically the course of events by that touch of the supernatural. A magical act is a rite carried out to twist Nature in a specific way to satisfy human desire.” Different types of magical acts are prevalent in different tribes. The tribals believe in magicians and witches.

If a woman is declared a witch by the magician of the village, she is given all types of tortures. A strange type of magical rite is found among the bhils to contradict the effect of epidemic. In the event of the spread of epidemic, some people hang some pitchers and baskets in a bamboo pole and run on the main street crying ‘Toraka.’ Hearing them other people of the village help them in carrying this load out of the village.

The load is carried to the nearest river or jungle and throwing it the people believe that the epidemic has been thrown out of the village in the river or the forest.

8. Totem and Taboo

The custom of totem is an important characteristic of tribal religion. Different Indian tribes believe in different types of totem.

The totem is considered to be the originator of a particular tribe. Its killing and eating is a taboo for the people of the particular tribe. It is worshipped and respected everywhere. Marriages cannot be contracted among the male and female of the same totem, because they are thought to be having blood relationships.

In fact tribal religion is the most primitive form of human religion. Thus it exhibits that unified purity characteristic of the primitive form. It is the beginning of religious revolution. Hence in it one finds magic, religion and ritualism all in one.

In it there is no distinction of utility and religious sanctity. Mostly, the latter depends on the former. The tribal religion is not merely a particular part of the tribal life, but enters in life everywhere. The religious and social activities of the tribal people are closely interred connected.