Tribes, Nomads and Settled Communities

This is Chapter 5 of Our Pasts – II. Chapters 2–4 (gess102–gess104) traced kingdoms, the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals; this chapter looks at society in the same centuries. It covers: varna-based and tribal societies and how they met; who the tribal people were, region by region; nomads and mobile people, above all the Banjaras; the rise of jatis and new hierarchies, including the Rajput clans; and two tribal states seen closely — the Gonds and the Ahoms. It has ten pages of reading, so eight concept sections. The words NCERT uses — ‘tribe’, ‘caste’, ‘varna’, ‘jati’ — are kept and explained; they describe groups in the past, not judgements about any community. The next chapter, gess106, turns to the Bhakti and Sufi traditions.

• Links in this book: gess102 (Rajput clans, the Brahmana sabha); gess103 (Alauddin Khalji’s markets, which the Banjaras supplied); gess104 (Akbar, mansabdars, Raja Man Singh, the Akbar Nama); gess107 (regional cultures, including Assam); gess108 (the Bundelas and Marathas who later overpowered the Gonds).
• Other pages: iest203 (Class 9: the Ahoms, Lachit Barphukan and Saraighat); lehs204 (Class 12: forests and tribes in Mughal India); lesy103 (Class 12 Sociology: caste and tribe as concepts, and the debates about them); hess204 (Class 8: tribal societies under colonial rule); kefa107 (lost-wax bronze casting, still practised by tribal communities). This page links them and does not re-teach them.
• UPSC: Prelims asked what the Banjaras were (2016: traders). GS1 asks about caste as both fluid and static (2023) — this chapter’s jatis, absorbed tribes and new Rajput clans are the historical evidence. Present-day tribal policy (Fifth Schedule, PESA, Forest Rights) belongs to the polity and sociology pages, not here.

• Two kinds of society: varna rules prescribed by the Brahmanas, growing hierarchy under the Sultans and Mughals (NCERT); and tribes — kinship bonds, land held jointly, few written records but rich oral traditions; they both clashed and depended on each other.
• Who and where: Khokhars (Punjab, 13th–14th c.), Gakkhars (Kamal Khan made a mansabdar by Akbar), Langahs and Arghuns, Balochis, Gaddis (shepherds, western Himalaya), Nagas, Ahoms; Cheros (defeated by Man Singh, 1591), Mundas, Santals; Kolis, Berads, Koragas, Vetars, Maravars; Bhils; Gonds.
• Mobile people: pastoralists trade wool and ghee for grain; Banjaras — caravan = tanda; grain for Alauddin Khalji’s markets and the Mughal army (up to 100,000 bullocks); Peter Mundy: a tanda of 14,000 oxen; pedlars, mendicant-merchants, entertainers.
• New castes: jatis within varnas; tribes and artisans become jatis — jati, not varna, organises society; the rathakaras inscription (12th c., Uyyakondan Udaiyar); new Rajput clans, some once tribes; Islam in Punjab, Sind and the north-west.
• Gonds: Gondwana, shifting cultivation, clan raja/rai; Garha Katanga (70,000 villages, Akbar Nama) → garh → chaurasi (84) → barhot (12); Aman Das = Sangram Shah; Rani Durgawati resists Asaf Khan (NCERT 1565; most books 1564).
• Ahoms: from present-day Myanmar, 13th c.; suppress the bhuiyans; annex Chhutiyas (1523), Koch-Hajo (1581); firearms 1530s; Mir Jumla 1662; Lachit Barphukan, Saraighat 1671; paiks, census, khels; Sib Singh (1714–1744); buranjis.

NCERT begins by noting that social change was not the same everywhere. In large parts of the subcontinent society was already divided according to the rules of varna; these rules, prescribed by the Brahmanas, were accepted by the rulers of large kingdoms. The gap between high and low, rich and poor, increased, and — in NCERT’s words — under the Delhi Sultans and the Mughals the hierarchy between social classes grew further. But there were other kinds of society. Many did not follow the Brahmanas’ social rules and rituals, and were not divided into numerous unequal classes; such societies are often called tribes. Members of a tribe were united by kinship. Many lived by agriculture; others were hunter-gatherers or herders; most combined these to use the resources around them; some were nomadic. A tribe controlled land and pastures jointly and divided them among households by its own rules. Tribes usually lived in forests, hills, deserts and places hard to reach; sometimes they clashed with the more powerful caste-based societies and kept their freedom and separate culture — but the two kinds of society also depended on each other, and this mix of conflict and dependence changed both.

Contemporary historians and travellers say very little about tribes. With a few exceptions, tribal people did not keep written records, but they preserved rich customs and oral traditions, passed down the generations; present-day historians have begun to use these to write tribal histories. Tribal people lived in almost every region, and a tribe’s area and influence changed over time. In Punjab the Khokhars were very influential in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; later the Gakkhars became more important, and their chief Kamal Khan Gakkhar was made a noble (mansabdar) by Akbar. In Multan and Sind, the Langahs and Arghuns dominated wide areas until the Mughals subdued them. The Balochis, a large tribe of the north-west, were divided into many clans under different chiefs. The shepherd Gaddis lived in the western Himalaya; the north-east was dominated by tribes — the Nagas, Ahoms and many others. In present-day Bihar and Jharkhand, Chero chiefdoms had emerged by the twelfth century; Raja Man Singh, Akbar’s general, defeated the Cheros in 1591 and took much booty without fully subduing them, and under Aurangzeb Mughal forces captured many Chero fortresses. The Mundas and Santals lived in this region and in Orissa and Bengal. The Maharashtra highlands and Karnataka were home to Kolis, Berads and others; Kolis lived in Gujarat too. Further south lived Koragas, Vetars, Maravars and many others. The Bhils spread across western and central India; by the late sixteenth century many had become settled agriculturists and some even zamindars, while many Bhil clans remained hunter-gatherers. The Gonds lived in great numbers in present-day Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Nomadic pastoralists moved over long distances with their animals, living on milk and other pastoral products, and exchanged wool, ghee and the like with settled agriculturists for grain, cloth, utensils and other goods, buying and selling as they moved. The Banjaras were the most important trader-nomads; their caravan was called a tanda. Alauddin Khalji (gess103) used them to carry grain to the city markets; Jahangir wrote in his memoirs that they carried grain on bullocks from different areas and sold it in towns; and they transported grain for the Mughal army on campaign — with a large army there could be 100,000 bullocks. Many pastoral tribes reared and sold animals, such as cattle and horses, to the prosperous. Castes of petty pedlars travelled from village to village making and selling ropes, reeds, straw matting and coarse sacks; mendicants sometimes acted as wandering merchants; and castes of entertainers performed in towns and villages for a living.

As the economy and society’s needs grew, people with new skills were required. Smaller castes, or jatis, emerged within varnas — new castes appeared among the Brahmanas, for example. At the same time, many tribes and social groups were taken into caste-based society and given the status of jatis, and specialised artisans — smiths, carpenters and masons — were recognised by the Brahmanas as separate jatis. Jatis, rather than varna, became the basis for organising society.

Among the Kshatriyas, new Rajput clans became powerful by the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They came from different lineages — NCERT names Hunas, Chandelas, Chalukyas and others — and some had been tribes earlier. Many of these clans came to be regarded as Rajputs and gradually replaced older rulers, especially in agricultural areas, where a developed society was emerging and rulers used their wealth to build powerful states. Their rise set an example for tribal people: gradually, with the support of the Brahmanas, many tribes became part of the caste system — but only the leading tribal families could join the ruling class, and a large majority joined the lower jatis. On the other hand, many dominant tribes of Punjab, Sind and the North-West Frontier had adopted Islam quite early, continued to reject the caste system, and — in NCERT’s words — the unequal social order prescribed by orthodox Hinduism was not widely accepted there. NCERT sums up: the emergence of states is closely tied to social change among tribal people.

The Gonds lived in a vast forested region called Gondwana — ‘country inhabited by Gonds’ — and practised shifting cultivation. The large Gond tribe was divided into many clans, each with its own raja or rai. As the power of the Delhi Sultans declined, a few large Gond kingdoms began to dominate smaller Gond chiefs. The Akbar Nama mentions the Gond kingdom of Garha Katanga with 70,000 villages. Administration was becoming centralised: the kingdom was divided into garhs, each controlled by a particular Gond clan; each garh into units of 84 villages called chaurasi; and each chaurasi into barhots of 12 villages. The rise of large states changed Gond society: a basically equal society gradually divided into unequal social classes; Brahmanas received land grants from Gond rajas and became more influential; and Gond chiefs wished to be recognised as Rajputs. So Aman Das, raja of Garha Katanga, took the title Sangram Shah; his son Dalpat married princess Durgawati, daughter of Salbahan, the Chandel Rajput raja of Mahoba. Dalpat died early; the very capable Rani Durgawati ruled for her five-year-old son, Bir Narain, and the kingdom grew. In 1565 (NCERT) Mughal forces under Asaf Khan attacked; Durgawati resisted strongly, was defeated and chose death rather than surrender; her son soon died fighting too. Garha Katanga was rich — it earned much by trapping and exporting wild elephants — and the Mughals took a huge booty of coins and elephants, annexed part of the kingdom and granted the rest to Chandra Shah, Bir Narain’s uncle. Gond kingdoms survived for some time, but weaker, and later lost out to the Bundelas and Marathas.

The Ahoms migrated to the Brahmaputra valley from present-day Myanmar in the thirteenth century. They created a new state by suppressing the older political system of the bhuiyans (landlords). In the sixteenth century they annexed the kingdoms of the Chhutiyas (1523) and Koch-Hajo (1581) and subjugated many other tribes. For their large state they used firearms as early as the 1530s, and by the 1660s could make high-quality gunpowder and cannons. They faced many invasions from the south-west: in 1662 the Mughals under Mir Jumla attacked and, despite a brave defence, the Ahoms were defeated — but direct Mughal control did not last long. The Ahom state rested on forced labour: those who worked for the state were paiks. A census was taken; each village sent a number of paiks by rotation; people from crowded areas were moved to thinly populated ones, breaking up Ahom clans; and by the first half of the seventeenth century the administration was quite centralised. Almost all adult men served in the army in war; at other times they built dams, irrigation systems and other public works. The Ahoms introduced new methods of rice cultivation. Society was divided into clans, or khels; with very few artisan castes, artisans came from neighbouring kingdoms; a khel often controlled several villages. The peasant got land from his village community, and even the king could not take it away without the community’s consent. The Ahoms first worshipped their own tribal gods; in the first half of the seventeenth century the influence of Brahmanas grew, with land grants to temples and Brahmanas; under Sib Singh (1714–1744) Hinduism became the predominant religion, though the kings did not entirely give up their traditional beliefs. Ahom society was sophisticated: poets and scholars received land, theatre was encouraged, important Sanskrit works were translated into the local language, and historical chronicles, buranjis, were written — first in the Ahom language and then in Assamese.

NCERT concludes that considerable social change took place. Varna-based society and tribal people constantly interacted, and this made both adapt and change. There were many tribes with diverse livelihoods. Over time many merged with caste-based society; others rejected both the caste system and orthodox Hinduism; and some established extensive states with well-organised administration, became politically powerful — and so came into conflict with larger and more complex kingdoms and empires.

The chapter’s question boxes, in page order, and ‘Imagine’.

‘Let’s recall’ (1–4), ‘Let’s understand’ (5–7), ‘Let’s discuss’ (8–9) and ‘Let’s do’ (10–12), pages 59–60.

Numbers

One-liners

• Tribes did not follow varna rules and were not divided into many unequal classes.
• Tribal members were united by kinship; land and pastures were held jointly.
• Tribes kept few written records but rich oral traditions.
• Kamal Khan Gakkhar was made a mansabdar by Akbar.
• Raja Man Singh defeated the Cheros in 1591.
• By the late 16th century many Bhils were settled farmers, some even zamindars.
• The Banjaras were trader-nomads; their caravan was a tanda.
• Alauddin Khalji and the Mughals used the Banjaras to carry grain.
• Jatis, rather than varna, became the basis of organising society.
• A 12th-century sabha of Brahmanas fixed the rathakaras’ occupations.
• Some new Rajput clans had earlier been tribes.
• Gondwana means the country inhabited by Gonds.
• Aman Das of Garha Katanga took the title Sangram Shah.
• Rani Durgawati resisted the Mughals under Asaf Khan and died rather than surrender.
• The Ahoms suppressed the bhuiyans and built a state on the paik system.
• Lachit Barphukan defeated the Mughals at Saraighat in 1671.
• Buranjis were Ahom chronicles, first in Ahom, then Assamese.

Traps to avoid

• Jatis are many and formed within varnas; varnas are four.
• The Banjaras were traders, not agriculturists or warriors (UPSC 2016).
• The 100,000 bullocks were for a large army — Mundy’s tanda had 14,000 oxen.
• Chaurasi = 84 villages, barhot = 12 — villages, not cities.
• Garha Katanga’s 70,000 villages: from the Akbar Nama.
• Durgawati’s last battle: NCERT 1565, most books 1564.
• Durgawati was a Chandel Rajput princess married to the Gond Dalpat.
• Mir Jumla 1662 was a Mughal win; Saraighat 1671 an Ahom win.
• Paik = labourer for the state; khel = clan; buranji = chronicle.
• Bhils: western and central India, not the north-east.
• Tribes of Punjab, Sind and the north-west adopted Islam early and rejected caste.
• Gond lands: today largely MP, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Odisha (NCERT says Andhra Pradesh).

Prelims — what UPSC asks

• Banjaras (section 3): UPSC 2016 — ‘generally traders’. Learn tanda, Alauddin and the Mughal army, and Mundy’s numbers.
• Likely statement material from this chapter: paik, khel, buranji, bhuiyans (Ahoms); garh, chaurasi, barhot (Gonds); Saraighat 1671 vs Mir Jumla 1662; Chhutiyas 1523, Koch-Hajo 1581; Gakkhars and Kamal Khan; Cheros and Man Singh (1591). UPSC 2026 asked about the Ahom moidams — a culture question beyond this chapter.
• Traps from NCERT’s own text: Durgawati’s date (1565 vs 1564), her father’s name, states renamed or divided since the book was written.

Mains — where it appears and how to answer

• Caste as fluid and static (GS1 2023: ‘Why is caste identity in India both fluid and static?’): use this chapter for the historical side of fluidity — jatis forming within varnas, tribes and artisans becoming jatis, Rajput clans of tribal origin, Gond chiefs claiming Rajput status — set against the attributed readings (Kosambi, Srinivas, Chattopadhyaya, Surajit Sinha, Susan Bayly, Dirks). The present-day side is in lesy103.
• For GS1 answers on tribes in history, use the two state-formation case studies (Gonds and Ahoms) and the conflict-and-dependence frame; for colonial-era tribal questions go to hess204 and lehs301. Keep descriptions respectful and attribute every interpretation.

Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.

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