Religious Belief and Practices of the People of Gond Tribe of Nuapada District of Odisha in Eastern India

Abstract

The religious tradition of the Gond people of Nuapada district is an important aspect of the tribal culture of Odisha in Eastern India. The Gond people of Nuapada district of Odisha are polytheist and their religious belief and practices begin witch primitive notions of animism and reaches up through the worship of nature duties. The group of the Gods and deities of high order revered by the Gonds of Nuapada are numerous. Most of the gods belong to the Hindu pantheon and are worshipped by the neighbouring Hindu people of that region. The most distinctive features of the Gond tribal religion in the cult of the supreme God Bara Deo and Goddess Dharti Mata who are considered as the clan deities like many other tribes of Nuapada district, Gonds worship a village sprit God known as Bara Deo, Bhagavan, and Maha Deo known sometimes, rather confusing as Bara Deo they are worshipped by the Gonds. The Gond god and goddess are generally referred as Deve, Devta, Deo and Devi. They are supposed to be the inhabitant of heaven as conceived by the Gonds. Many of them are nature God’s worshipped in different names by the aboriginal communities. Odisha has been considered as a state of different tribes and it occupies a unique place in the history of tribal India. Out of the total 705 tribes of India, as many as 62 tribes are noticed in the state of Odisha. Gond is an important tribe of the Nuapada district of Odisha. Really, the people of Gond tribe are the majority among all the total thirteen tribal communities of the Nuapada district. The religious life of the Gonds of Nuapada district is associated with several traditional ceremonies. The traditional religious belief and practices of the Gonds of Nuapada district are very curious and interesting for study of tribal culture of Odisha. Hence, the present scholars have undertaken this topic for scholarly discussion. The aim of this article is to focus on the religious belief, rituals and festivals practised by the Gond people of Nuapada district of Odisha. Here, the primary as well as secondary sources have been used by the authors for the writing of this article