IN MALKANGIRI district of Orissa, a district is situated at outmost extreme south of the state. Here, we can find a special type of tribe, which the world is unknown about. This is called Bonda tribes. The Bondas, known as Remo (men), are a small tribe. They have kept themselves comparatively unaffected by the mordent civilisation of today’s era.

 

Indeed, plainsmen and officials regard the Bondas as entirely savages. Their outfits and appearances as well as their unfamiliar tongue (they speak a different Astro-Asiatic language) make them fall into that category. The inaccessibility of their abode separates them from other tribes of the district. The origin and affiliations of the Bondas are obscure, but one may accept the possibility that they are members of a group of Austro-Asiatic tribes, which at some remote date, took shelter in the wild Jeypore hills. There is every reason to assume that the Bondas have changed very little during their long history, and in them, one can have a change of studying a type of character and its material expression that may be millions of years old.

 

The Bondas have been enlisted as scheduled tribes. They are the oldest tribal people of Malkangiri district. They live on the mountains at the height of 3000 feet. In the year 1971, their number was 5245, and in the year 1981, their number increased up to 5895. But in 1991, they were decreased to a number of 5129 (2414 males and 2715 females).

 

These people live in Bonda hill under Khairput block, mainly called as Bonda Ghat. They are mainly of two types like Ontal and Kilo. Bonda men are fond of Podu cultivation and Bonda ladies help them in this job.

 

In Bonda community, the bride is older than the groom. In the months of April and May, ‘Patkhanda Yatra’ at Mudulipada is the main festival of Bondas. These tribes also celebrate a festival called Chaitra Praba – a festival to hunt wild life from the forests. Chaitra Praba is also called Pangal, a word that comes from south India. It lasts for the whole month of March. Men and boys go out into the forest for hunting. If they come back without anything, they cannot show their faces to women. Therefore, no animal escapes the hunters. If they get nothing else, they even kill a jackal. Women dance and sing whole day in the streets and in village commons. All motor vehicles are stopped several times on the road by streams of girls who dance and sing across the road. Only after paying few paise, the vehicles are allowed to move. With the rise in prices, this levy may have risen to rupees. A car going from or coming to Malkangiri may be stopped a dozen times. Witnessing a tribal dance for a few rupees is a cheap entertaining.

 

The Bondas keep their own rules fairly well. They observe the taboos on incest or adultery and their religious obligations with such fidelity that the few exceptions are long remembered. The Bondas spend a great deal of time on their religions and its feasts and holidays are an important part of Bonda lives. Certain features are common to every festival. The religious occasions are real festivals and holidays; dancing accompanies each festival and there are some relaxation of rules, which forbid men and women of the same village to dance together. The chief festival among the Kondh is the Kedu festival, which was once associated with human sacrifice. At present, a buffalo is sacrificed in place of the human victim.

 

Hunting is one of the peoples’ favourite recreations. In the hot season and especially in the month of March, when the entire world makes holiday, organised beats are held in which, all the men and boys of the village take part, armed with bows and arrows, axes or spears and occasionally with matchlocks, and they slay any live thing, irrespective of age or sex that they may meet in the forest. Such expeditions, as a matter of course, culminate in a feast and arouse in the village.

 

By nature, Bondas are short-tempered and they get angry at the simplest thing and forget the relationship and commit murder. Murder is a simple thing for Bondas, because of this a lot of person have been life-imprisoned at the Koraput jail. Due to this, Bonda population has been reduced a lot during the last decade.