The Puberty & Birth Rituals of the Halba Tribe of Chattisgarh

The Halba tribe is often seen as one of the more progressive tribal communities of Chattisgarh and Central India. Typically the tribal people & communities have been hunter gatherers. Even to this day, many of the tribal customs and cultures revolve around their hunting activities. Contrasting that are the Halba tribal people of Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra & Odisha.

The name Halba is derived from ‘Hal’ which means plough. This clearly implies the Halbas were primarily farmers in the olden days. Of all the tribes that occupy Chhattisgarh, the Halbas are possibly the most affluent and progressive. They also enjoy the privileged status of a high local caste and are very well respected in the tribal society. The unique traits of the Halba tribe show in their dress, languages and traditional rituals.

Interesting rituals of the Halba tribal communities

Puberty Rituals of Halba Tribe

While some tribal puberty rituals like that of the Yanesha tribe are vanishing slowly, that of the Halba tribal people are still very much practiced in their settlements in Chattisgarh. Their puberty ritual can be seen to have many merits and we have seen that many of these practices are still followed in many households to this day.

During the monthly menstruation periods, Halbi women are spoken of as “Mund maili” literally meaning “head dirty”. They are considered to be impure for four or five days, during which they sleep on the ground and not on cots.

They are secluded in a separate room and forbidden to cook or to touch the clothes or even be in contact with other members of the family. The ritual mandated that they must not walk on a ploughed field, nor will the men of their family drive the plough or sow seed during the time of their impurity.

On the fifth day the menstruating women wash their heads with earth and boil their clothes in water mixed with wood ashes. Cloth stained with the menstrual blood is usually buried underground. A firm belief that if their cloth is burnt it is supposed that the woman to who it belonged will become barren. While on the other hand if another barren woman should swallow the ashes of the cloth then the fertility of its owner would be transferred to her.

The Halba Tribal Rituals of Birth

Pregnant women experience longings for strange kinds of food. It is believed that these really come from the child in the womb and must be satisfied for the normal development of the child. Consequently in the fifth month of a woman’s first pregnancy, or shortly before delivery, her mother takes to her various kinds of food and feeds her.

It is a common birth ritual of the Halbas for pregnant women in general. Pregnant women eat earth of a clayey texture or the ordinary black cotton soil or dried clay scraped off the walls of houses or even the ashes of burnt cow dung cakes. This is done by low-caste women in most parts of the Halba communities but if it is done in excess it could lead to severe intestinal infections which often prove fatal.

Other rituals of birth requires that a pregnant woman must not cross a river, eat anything with a knife and she must observe various precautions against the machinations of witches.

Halba Child Delivery Rituals

The woman sits on the ground and is attended by a midwife, who may be a Chamar, Mahar or Ganda by caste. The navel cord is burnt in the lying-in room, but the after-birth, known as Phul, is usually buried in a rubbish pit outside the house. The portion of the cord attached to the child’s body is also burnt when it falls off, but in the northern Districts it is preserved and used as a cure for the child if it suffers from sore eyes.

If a woman who has borne only girl children can obtain the dried navel-string of a male child and swallow it, they believe that she will have a son. While if its swallowed by the mother of the boy, she will henceforth bear only daughters. This is the reason why the cord is carefully secreted and not simply thrown away.

Halba Child Naming Rituals

The Halba tribal communities of Bastar names the new born child on the sixth. The female relatives and friends of the family are invited to take food at the house. The father touches the feet of the child with blades of dub grass (Cynodon dactyloti) steeped first in milk or melted butter, then in sandalwood-paste & finally in water and each time passes the blade over his head as a mark of respect. The blades of grass are afterwards thrown over the roof of the house so that they may not be trampled under foot.

The women guests then bring leaf-cups containing rice and a few copper coins, which they offer to the mother with the younger ones bowing before her with a prayer that the child may grow as old as the speaker. All the women kiss the child and the elder ones the mother also as a mark of respect & solidarity. The offerings of rice and coins are taken by the midwife.

Of the many other interesting customs & rituals of the Halba tribes of Chattisgarh, the next couple of articles will be focused on the marriage rituals & the rituals of death & last rites.