The Apatanis are settled in the lower Subansiri district ofArunachal and are one of the most advancing tribes of the state.There are no literary sources regarding the origin and migrationof the Apatanis and the archaeological evidences are toomeagre to throw however, the Apatanis have preserved differentmyths and traditions, which throw welcome light on all aspects oftheir life including their origin and migration.

Abujmaria

These Indian tribes can be seen in the mountain regions of Madhya Pradesh. These tribes of India have a very deep history. In the earlier period Abujmaria tribes were known as Abudjamadis, Abujmariya and Hill Maria. These Indian tribes were considered as a sub part of the important gonds tribes (discussed earlier) who played a pivotal role in knowing the original Indian tribes.These tribes of India are generally found in Abujhmar Mountains and KutrumarHills in the Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh.They generally speak the Dravidian form of language, Abujmaria bein the native language of these tribes of India.

The Adivasi Girasia of India

The Adiwasi Girasia, inhabits the Banaskantha and

Sabarkantha districts of northern Gujarat State of

western central India.The Adiwasi Girasia are the

descendants of the Rajput who married Bhil women.

During the thirteenth century, many poor Rajput fled to

the Vindhya and Aravalli hills where they mixed with the

Bhil settlersWhat are their beliefs?

Sixty percent of the Adiwasi practice ethnic religions, and 30% are

Hindus. The latter respect cows, worship the millions of Hindu gods, and

also believe in many spirits. They all have a strong fear of ghosts, spirits

of the dead, and black magic.

What are their lives like?

Among the Adiwasi Girasia, the average land holding is small and

therefore, the man of the household is able to do all of the work himself.

Their strong sense of community often leads to an exchange of field labor

among themselves. Maize is the staple food grown by all families. Many

also depend on forest produce as a means of support. The people are

generally vegetarians and are no longer addicted to alcohol like other Bhil

tribes.

AdiyanPopulation: 9690

Adiyan - The word Adiyan means “slave.

” in Malayalam. The Adiyans are found in the them are agricultural labourers. It is believed that they were agrWayanad and Kannur districts of Kerala. Most of icultural slaves in the past. During the annual festival at the Valliyurkkavu temple in Mananthavady, Wayand, the Adiyarpeople used to gather where they were sold and bought by landlords.

Ahir Place /Location (then and

now)

Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh & Bengal

Population

750,000

Languages spoken

Hindi

Religion/God

Lord Krishna

Food

Rice, wheat , millet, mutton, chicken, fish & eggs

These tribes are found mainly

in the Andaman

Islands, Arunachal Pradesh

and also in parts of Assam.

The Aka people are so named

for a black, sticky paint they

use on their faces. They used

to speak Aka (now an extinct

language) on the Andaman

Islands and Aka Lel, a dialect

of Nisi, in Assam. The Aka

people in Assam celebrate

the Nechido Festival every

year on the first day of

November.

Aka

Alar is a tribal community settled in

the regions of Palakkad

District, Kerala. They are also

known by different names such as

Chathans and Chatans. The Alar

and Malayalam are the two

languages spoken by them.Alars

perform the Chatthankali, a dance

form prevalent in many areas

of Ponnani and Tirur in Malappura

m District. The dance is performed

in the attire of a village deity, with

the accompaniment of percussion

instruments.

Alar Tribe

Amri KaribThe Karbis are the principal tribal

community in the Karbi Anglong district

of Assam, a district administered as

per the provisions of the Sixth

Schedule of the Constitution of

India, having an autonomous district of

their own since 17 November

1951.[3] Besides Karbi Anglong

district, the Karbi-inhabited areas

include Dima Hasao, Kamrup, Marigaon

district, Nagaon, Golaghat,Karimganj a

nd Sonitpur districts of Assam; Balijan

circle of Papumpare district

in Arunachal Pradesh, Jaintia Hills, Ri

Bhoi and East Khasi Hills districts

in Meghalaya, and Dimapur

District inNagaland. Apart from

Assam, the Karbis are also recognised

as Scheduled Tribes in

Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.

With a population of around 4 lakhs 6

thousand (406,000) .

The Anal live in the Manipur

region of north-east India,

which is surrounded by

the Imphal valley to the

north, Churachandpur to the

west, the Chin Hillsto the

south and Kabaw valley to

the east. The area is very

hilly, with thick jungles and

many wild

animals. According to the

2001 census, there are

approximately 21,242 Anal in

Manipur. In 1981 they were

living in 45 villages.

Anal tribe

Angami tribeThe Angami Nagas are hill people

depending basically on cultivation and

livestock-rearing. The Angamis are

known for terraced wet-rice cultivation;

because of this labor-intensive

cultivation, land is the most important

form of property among the Angamis.

Angamis are one of the only two groups

of Nagas out of the seventeen who

practice wet-rice cultivation on terraces

made on the hill slopes. This allows them

to cultivate the same plot year after year.

They depend, to a very small extent, on

slash-and-burn cultivation. Angamis were

traditionally warriors, the Angami men

spent majority of their time in warfare

with hostile villages and taking heads.

Since 1879, when the Britishsucceeded

in annexing their territory.

Ahom tribe

The Ahom people of Assam are the descendants of the ethnic Tai people that accompanied the Tai prince Sukaphaa into the Brahmaputra valley in 1228 and ruled the area for six centuries. Sukaphaa and his followers established the Ahom kingdom(1228-1826) and the Ahom dynasty ruled and expanded the kingdom until the British gained control of the region through the Treaty of Yandabo upon winning the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1826. The kingdom established by the Ahom people gave Assam its name.

Bakarwals tribeBakarwal (or Bakharwal) is a nomadic tribe based in the PirPanjal andHimalayan mountains of South Asia. They are mainly goatherds and shepherds. They are called as Dhangar in rest of India.

Bakarwals are spread throughout the northern part of the Himalayan Range. This includes the states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab (India) in India. In Pakistan, Bakarwals are found in the hilly northern parts of Punjab (Pakistan) as well as parts of the North West Frontier Province.In Jammu and Kashmir in India, Bakarwals are found in all three regions of the state including Jammu (comprising the districts of Jammu, Kathua, Udhampur, Poonch, Rajouri and District), the Kashmir Valley (comprising the diatrictof Srinagar, Baramulla, Kupwara, Pulwama, Budgam and Anantnag) and Ladakh (comprising the district of Ladakh and Kargil).In Pakistan, Bakarwals inhabit the Northern Areas (Gilgit, the HunzaValley and Baltistan) and Azad Kashmir .

Banjaras tribe

The Banjara are a class of usually described as nomadic people from the Indian state of Rajasthan, North-West Gujarat, and Western Madhya Pradesh and Eastern Sindh province of pre-independence Pakistan. They claim to belong to the clan of Agnivanshi Rajputs, and are also known as Lakha Banjara means 'Lakhapati', Banjari, Pindari, Bangala, Banjori, Banjuri, Brinjari, Lamani, Lamadi, Lambani, Labhani, Lambara, Lavani, Lemadi, Lumadale, LabhaniMuka, Goola, Gurmarti, Gormati, Kora, Sugali, Sukali, Tanda, Vanjari, Vanzara, and Wanji. Together with the Domba, they are sometimes called the "gypsies of India".[2]

Bhils tribeThe Bhils are considered as the third largest and most widely distributed tribal groups in India. The name "Bhil" was probably derived from the word villu or billu, which in most Dravidian languages is the word for "bow." The bow has long been a characteristic weapon of the Bhil because the tribesmen always carry their bows and arrows with them. The Bhil tribes inhabit some of the most remote and inaccessible areas of India. There are two divisions of Bhils: the Central or "pure" Bhils, and the Eastern or RajputBhils. The Central Bhils live in the mountain regions in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. They are known as the connecting link between the Gujaratis and the Rajasthanis and are one of the largest tribal communities of India. They speak Bhili, which is an Indo-Aryan language. The Bhils are known to have

Cheros tribeThe Chero are scheduled caste, found in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, in North India.[2]

The community claims to have originally been Chandravanshi Rajputs. Other members of the tribe claim to be Nagvanshi. The Chero are essentially one of many tribal communities, such as the Bhar and Kol, that inhabit the southeastern corner of Uttar Pradesh. They were the traditional rulers of north Bihar, until they were disposed by the Rajputs. They are now found in a territory extending from Allahabad in the west, and Muzaffarpur in the east. The Chero have two sub-divisions, the Mahto and Chaudhary.[3]

Gaddi tribeThe Gaddi are a tribe living mainly in the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

As of 2001, the Gaddi were classified as a Scheduled Tribe under the Indian government's reservation program of positive discrimination. This classification applied through Jammu and Kashmir and in certain parts of Himachal Pradesh.

Gond tribe

The Gondi (Gōndi) or Gond people are people in central India, spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra (Vidarbha),Chhattisgarh, northern Andhra Pradesh, and Western Odisha. With over four million people, they are the largest tribe in Central India.[2]

Gond or Rajgond are same tribes. The term Raj Gond was widely used in 1950s, but has now become almost obsolete, probably because of the political eclipse of the GondRajas.[3]

The Gondi language is related to Telugu and other Dravidian languages. About half of Gondsspeak Gondi languages,[4] while the rest speak Indo-Aryan languages including Hindi.

Naga tribe

The term Naga people refers to a conglomeration of several tribes inhabiting the North Eastern part of India and north-western Burma. The tribes have similar cultures and traditions, and form the majority ethnic group in the Indian states of Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, as well as Myanmar. Out of the numerous unique identities of the Nagas, the most unique traditional items that can be found in almost all of the Naga tribes and that distinctly separate Nagas from the other tribals are the Conical red headgear decorated with wild-boar canine teeth and white-black Hornbill feathers, the spear with the shaft decorated with red-black hairs and the unique Dao with broad blade and long handle.

Santhals tribeA step forward, in our Indian tribal tour takes us to Santhal tribe. With a population of more than 49000, Santhal tribes are the third largest tribes in India. Belonging to pre Aryan period, these tribes of India are found in regions of West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand. Many call them as “ the tribesat extreme”, a visit to their place will surly get your moneys worth.

Santhal Tribes of India take pride in their past. Historically, these Indian tribes were at front end againstBritishers, and their heroics against Lord Cornwallis are well known. Many famous personalities suchas Sidhu and Baba Tilka Majhi were part of these enthusiastic tribes of India.

Munda tribeThe Munda are tribal (Adivasi) people of the Chota Nagpur Plateau region.They are found across, and into parts of Bangladesh. Their language is Mundari, which belongs to the Munda subgroup of theAustroasiatic language family.There are estimated to be two million Munda people.

Kolis tribeThe Koli people are historically an ethnic group native to Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana states.

The Kolis of Gujarat intermixed with Rajputs due to the practice of hypergamous marriage,which was commonly used to enhance or secure social status as, for example, with the Nairs andNambudiriBrahmins of Ke-rala.Some Kolis had also once held small princedoms before the British Raj period and some were still significant landholders and tenants in the twentieth century.However, most Kolis had lost their once-equal standing with the Patidar community due to the land reforms of the Raj period and, for example, most Kolis in the Surashtraregion of Gujarat were still occupied as agricultural labourers or tenant cultivators in the 1990s.

Koragas tribeThe Koragas are a tribal community found mainly in the DakshinaKannada, Udupi districts of Karnataka and the Kasaragoddistrict of Kerala, south India. These areas in Karnataka, are altogether often referred to as Tulu Nadu. They are also found in small numbers in adjoining districts ofUttara -Kannada, Shimoga and Kodagu. The Koraga are classified by the Government of India as a Scheduled Tribe.

The Koraga, who numbered 16,071

according to the 2001 census of

India,have their

own language, classified as an

independent dravidian

language,which is strongly

influenced

by Kannada, Malayalam and Tulu lan

guages commonly found in their

area.

Maravars tribe

Maravar are a Tamil community of the state of Tamil Nadu, southern India, and are one of the three branches of the Mukkulathor confederacy.Maravars are found predominantly in the Southern districts of Tamil Nadu, such as Madurai, Theni, Sivagangai, Ramanathapuram, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Thirunelveli, Thoothukudi and districts of Tamil Nadu. They are also found in central districts of Tamil Nadu like Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Tiruchy. They ruled portions of Tamil Nadu along with the Kallars. The Southern martial arts of Kalarippayattu, Silambam, VarmaKalai have been practiced primarily by Kallars, Maravars and Nairs of erstwhile Travancore areas.[1] In British times, the Ramnadand Sivaganga estates were