About the Karbis

The Karbis are one of northeast India's, tribal groups with high concentrations in the  Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao (earlier North Cachar) hills district. Ethnically they belong to the Indo-Mongoloid group and linguistically to the Tibeto-Burman family of languages (Phangcho, 2003, p.1). The Karbis were previously known as ‘Mikir’ but they prefer to call themselves Karbi, and sometimes Arleng (meaning a man). The name “Mikir’ was given to the community by the Assamese, but the origin, however, in unknown (Stack and Lyall, 1908). Regarding the term ‘Karbi’ Bey in his book The Karbi Belief mentions that the term ‘Karbi’ is derived from the word ‘Thekar kibi’ which in course of time became Karbi (Bey, 2009, p.1). ‘Thekar’ is a process of offering to the deities for purification before eating or drinking either in private, social or on any ritual occasion. The adherents of the  ‘Thekar’ tradition came to be known as Karbi in due course of time. The Karbis were classified by the census of India as ‘Scheduled Tribe Hills’,  and their total population according to the 2011 Census is 4, 30,452  (Statistical profile of ST in India, 2013,p. 156). 

Presently the Karbis inhabit in greatest strength the hills called after them i.e., the Karbi Anglong district. Some Karbi localities are also found in Dima Hasao (earlier North Cachar), Nagaon, Morigaon, Sonitpur, Golaghat, Sibsagar, and Kamrup districts of Assam. The Karbis of Kamrup is known as dumarali. Karbi communities are also found in the Balijan circle of Papumpare district in Arunachal Pradesh, Jaintia and East Khasi Hills districts of Meghalaya as well as the foothills around Dimapur district in Nagaland (Sharma, 2014, p.33).

Clan & Marriage 

The Karbis are divided into five clans called nok’hum or Kur, and these are Ingti/Engti (Lijang), Terang (Hanjang), Teron (Kronjang), Inghi/Enghi (Ejang), and Timung (Tungjang). Each of these clans has a number of sub-clans. While Inghi and Timung have 30 (thirty) sub-clans each, Terang has 15 (fifteen) sub-clans, Teron have 9 (nine) sub-clans), and Ingti has only 6 (six) sub-clans. 

These clans are completely exogamous and there can never be a marriage between a boy and a girl belonging to the same clan as the children of the same clan are called brothers and sisters. Violation of this customary law may lead to banishment. Interestingly, even if the clan of their mother is the same, a man and a woman will be regarded as brothers and sisters, although they may belong to different clans. and they can't get married. however, this rule doesn't apply to partners whose paternal grandmother is of the same clan (Bouchery, 2008, pp.71-72).

There are strict rules of clan exogamy in the Karbi society. Monogamy is the most prevalent practice, but polygamy does not have a limit, but such cases are rare. Cross-cousin is the preferred form of marriage, that is, marrying the daughter of maternal uncle or daughter of mother's brother. Marriage by negotiation is prevalent among the Karbis. The girl's consent is a necessity in the marriage of negotiation. Divorce is rare in Karbi society and can be obtained by the village council's approval, and the council only approves it if the cases are serious. like other tribal societies, there is no bride price or dowry system in the Karbis. After marriage, the married woman continues her father’s surname, but the children write the surname of their father (Sharma, 2014, pp.36-37). Marriage systems of the Karbis are popularly known as “Adam Asar”. 

Family Structure & Rule of Inheritance

The Karbis have the patrilineal pattern of family structure. The father is the head of the family. The line of descent is followed through the male line. The head of the family, his wife, their children, the unmarried brother, and sister live under the same roof in the same family, but when the boys get married, they have to constitute their own family. In remote villages, the joint family is found, but nowadays the families are moving towards the nuclear pattern. After the death of the father, the son inherits the property of his father and becomes the head of the family. However, the widowed mother is considered as the head of the family until her death (Sharma, 2014, p.37).

The basic rule of inheritance in the Karbi society is that all immovable properties (land and buildings), as well as family artifacts, are to be distributed among man’s sons, whereas all the jewelry is passed down from mother to daughters and shared equally among them. Cash is divided among both sons and daughters. Generally, all sons get an equal share of the parental property, except for ritual artifacts of the household, which are inherited by the eldest son alone (Bouchery, 2008, p.72).

Settlement Pattern

The Settlement pattern of the Karbis is in the form of a village and each village is headed by Sarthe (Village Headman) and each village is named after him. The Karbis have a scattered settlement. In some of the villages, it may constitute by few households only, maybe two households making the total populations six to ten only. There is also a headman called ‘Bor gaonbura’ or ‘Sarkari Gaonbura’ above several village headmen (Sarthe) appointed by the District Council to collect revenues from the respective villages (Phangcho, 2001, p. 38). In the present day context, there exist no shifting settlements among the Karbis. Although some Karbis, especially those living in the hills do pursue shifting cultivation, their villages are not shifted.

Food Habits & Dress Pattern

Food habits of the Karbis have undergone a tremendous change. Those who live in the plains and away from the hills and forests have largely abandoned the traditional foodways. Similarly, those who have accepted the Hindu religious norms discarded some of their traditional foods like meat, dry fish, and traditional drinks, and those who have adopted Christianity, have been influenced to some extent by western food habits. This is also the case of urbanized Karbi families who have discarded to some extent the traditional habit of taking a wild vegetable and foodstuff due to the non-availability of the resources (Phangcho, 2003, p.85). However, the Karbis who are still living in the remote hills are still practicing their traditional ways of food habits, which mainly consist of available plants, herbs, vegetables, crops, and animals. They consume different kinds of edible wild roots derived from the jungles and also the crops grown in their jhum fields mainly include hill rice, maize, cucumber, yam, sesame, bajra, ginger, turmeric, brinjal, chili, pumpkin, etc.

Changes in dress patterns have also taken place in the life of the Karbis. Nowadays they prefer or love to have a modern dress pattern; men wear long pants and shirts, while the girl uses salwar, skirt, and pants as well. Traditionally the dress of the Karbi is a simple one which is generally woven at their home looms. There are separate dresses for men and women. The men use an artistically designed shirt called Choi-ang, Choi-hongthor akelok, Choi-hongthor akeik. The Karbi men also wear the loincloth called Rikong. Besides, the Karbi men also wear a turban on his head, which is called “Poho”. The Karbi women and girls used to wear Pini, Pekok, vamkok, Pe’seleng, Pe-sarpi, Jiso, Khonjari, etc. (Phangcho, 2001, p.35).
Agriculture & Livelihood

As the majority of the Karbi still depends on agriculture for livelihood, their economy thus mainly centers on agriculture activities. The Karbis in the hills practices jhum cultivation using simple implements such as a hoe and digging sticks. Nopak or machete is used for cutting and clearing of trees, bushes, and shrubs. They grow a variety of hill paddy, maize, sesame, vegetables, and fruits. In the plains, wet cultivation is practice using both modern and traditional implements for plowing. Many villagers now earn their livelihood other than agriculture. Many of them now earn their living as daily laborers, groceries, etc. as well some of the educated Karbis are now grabbing the opportunity to have jobs both in the private and government sectors.

Festivals

Among the festivals observed by the Karbis, mention may be made of the Chojun, Rongker, Sok-Keroi, Hen-up-ahi-ke-en, Chomangkan, etc. Chojun is the ritual that is performed once, every three or four years for the family's well-being. Rongker is a religious festival of the Karbis which is observed annually on a community basis for the welfare of the village as well as for the particular regions or territories. Sok-keroi is a paddy harvesting festival that is popularly known as Hacha Kekan (the dance of Hacha). Hen-up-ahi-ke-en is the harvesting festival of bamboo shoots by the entire village community. These two festival i.e. Hacha Kekan and hen-up-ahi-ke-en is a dying tradition and can be seen only in some parts of the villages as a part of cultural preservation. Chomangkan is the death ritual or ceremony of the Karbis which is performed for the eternal peace and reunion of the deceased soul with that of the ancestor’s spirits. Besides all these the Karbis perform various rites and rituals to appease different deities and spirits throughout the year. In order to preserve and promote Karbi culture and tradition, every year in the month of February a festival called ‘Karbi Youth Festival (KYF)’ has been organized by the Karbi Cultural society. 

Religion

Karbi religion and belief system is basically composed of the ‘ancestor worshipping’, worship of ‘household deities’, ‘territorial deities’, and the death ritual or ‘Karhi’. Practically, it’s the ‘Hemphu-Mukrang’ duo that dominates the Karbi pantheon (Teron, 2011, pp.82-83). Thus, those Karbis who still follow the traditional practices are known as the followers of ‘Hemphu-Mukrang’ for which they prefer to call themselves as ‘Hemphu-Mukrang Aso’, meaning son of Hemphu and Mukrang (Hanse, 2007, p.76). Some prefer to identify themselves as 'honghari', but the term has no Karbi equivalent. It is a Sanskrit derivation, which may have been first used by American Baptist missionaries to draw a distinction between Christian Karbis and adherents of a traditional belief system (Teron,2011, p.15). 

Karbis believe that Hemphu is the creator and there is a creation myth of the creator himself. According to the myth, Hemphu with his sister Rasinja appeared on the bank of river Kuleng to two brothers Long-Mukrang and Bang-Mukrang. In due course, Hemphu and his sister were accommodated in the village headed by Rang-Mukrang father of the two brothers. Since Hemphu did not identify himself, he was addressed to as Langmangpo or Langmingpo (one who glanced sideways). He was also addressed to as Vo-hangpo (one who asked for red fowl) or Langmingpo-Vo-hangpo. This unknown entity was later elevated to Hemphu, the supreme one who introduced the Karbis to new ways of worship (Teron, 2011, pp.22-23).

The Karbis have no idols, temples or shrines (Stack & Lyall, 1908) but they do worship the spirits of each particular space, area or territories called ‘Longri Arnam’ (territorial deities) which in Assamese is known as than (sacred place/groves). As an animist, they believe that their surrounding is filled with many unseen spirits, some friendly and some angry. Animal sacrifice is an essential part of Karbi ritual performances and fowl are mainly preferred for sacrifice, other animals include hen, pigeon, pig, goat, and duck. Apart from animals, egg, rice, ground rice, the young stem of bamboo, leaves of banana, holy basil, etc. are essential ingredients of a Karbi worships.

According to Phangcho (2003) and Terang (2007), the Karbi deities can be divided into three groups according to their function-

1. Hem Angtar (Household deities)
2. Rongker (Guardian spirits of villages or territorial deities)
3. Thengpi-Thengso (Forest deities or Malevolent spirits)

The deities which fall under the group of ‘Hem Angtar’ are considered to be the most important ones as the welfare of the household depends on the continued blessings of these guardian spirits. The principal ones are ‘Arnam Kethe’, ‘Peng’, ‘Rit Anglong’, and ‘Hemphu-Mukrang-Rasinja’. Arnam Kethe is considered as the supreme deity who is believed to be the sky god. Hemphu together with Mukrang and Rasinja occupy the hierarchy next to Arnam Kethe. Peng is the caretaker of the house protecting it from all diseases and calamities, while Rit Anglong is the caretaker of the jhum field (Terang, 2007, p.88).

The deities of Rongker are propitiated on a community basis for the welfare of the particular villages or regions or territories. The main purpose of Rongker is to appease territorial deities for the protection of the village, regions or territories from any kind of natural calamities, diseases, to ensure the well-being of the people and to have a good farming season during the period.

Thengpi-Thengso is the malevolent spirits who can cause illness, sufferings or diseases to a person. Propitiation to the spirits is made to get rid of illness; diseases etc. when a person gets ill the first and foremost is to propitiate these forest spirits/deities and then go for other alternatives (Terang, 2007, p.89).

Ancestor spirits or tirim play an important role in Karbi religious tradition and they are propitiated in regular intervals, beginning with the symbolic offering of prayer known as ‘Chamburukso hor kipi’ (lit. alcohol offering) and the private ritual offering of feasts called ‘tirim kachingduk’ (lit. ancestor veneration) to the most elaborately organized ‘chojun’ (lit. eat-drink). Karbis continue to invoke their ancestor spirits from the long past. Because Karbis maintain a strong belief that ancestor spirits take active part in the lives of the living descendants and in order to continue receiving ‘their’ blessings, ‘they’ must be duly propitiated by way of arranging elaborate regular feasts to which immediate kith and kin from both the male and female lineages are compulsorily invited and sumptuously treated (Teron, 2011,p.127).

The concept of rebirth or reincarnation is another important aspect of Karbi's philosophy of religion. The expression ‘arong kachevoi’ or ‘return to the village’ is used when a person dies. The narratives of the ‘charhepi’ remain the same for every dead person rich or poor, sinner or pious, cruel or kind-hearted. In the lengthy dirge narrative, there is neither any mention of hell for punishing the bad souls nor heaven as a reward to the pious ones. All the souls are reunited with the dead ancestors, who can also be reborn to the corresponding clans immediately (Teron, 2011, pp.76-78). The Karbis performed funeral rites at the time of the cremation of the deceased and the death ceremony called ‘Chomangkan’ or ‘Karhi’ at the later date for eternal peace, well-being, and the reunion of the soul of the deceased with its ancestors’ (Bordoloi, 1982,p.1).

Some sections of the Karbis have been converted to Hinduism and Christianity, however, conversion to Islam is not yet observed so far. The first act of religious conversion among Karbis came during the period of Srimanta Sankardev when a few Karbi were converted into Vaishnavism. The second religious conversion began in the colonial period when a few of the Karbi in the hills were converted to Christianity. On 5^th February 1959 new religious groups came into being called ‘Lokhimon’ which according to Swami Bangobindo Parampanthi is a ‘variation of Vaishnavism (Phangcho, 2003, p.61). The trends of religious conversion among the Karbis are still continuing and in the present day context a number of religious groups have been come out among the Karbis and these are Sat-Sang, ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Sanatan Dhram, Arlong Chehu dhonesh adhorom, Karbi Bhaktitom Trust, Hindu Honghari etc. 

REFERENCE

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