Collecting water from the river

Jaunsaries

Hindus have always worshipped their rivers and as the holiest among these, the Ganga originates from Garhwal. People of the Indian subcontinent have frequented this region for thousands of year. The Pandavas after the epic battle of Mahabharata are said to have ascended the heavens from these mountains. (Swargarohini peak which actually means way to the heavens) The Badri temples are dedicated to Lord Vishnu whereas the Kedars are essentially Shiva temples. The pujaris (priests) of some of the Kedars come from the Jangham Shaiv Samparaday which has its firm roots in Karnataka, while the Badrinath head priest is from Kerala.!

Women sowing paddy sapplings For this reason, the main valleys – those of the Ganga and its tributaries have people of Hindu origin who have come and settled here over centuries from various parts of the country – the Bahugunas from Bengal, Bhats from Gujarat and Maharashtra, the Dimris from Kashmir and Namboodris of Badrinath from Kerala. You will find Maharashtrian surnames still being used by the people of Devprayag even today. Apart from the Brahmins who have followed the yatra trail and settled along the valleys - there is a substantial population of Rajputs who came to guard the Pilgrim centres and the secure trade routes.

A weaver at village Gondar near Madhyamaheshwar Who are the original people of Garhwal? No one really has answered the question convincingly. Atkinson, in his briliant and most outstanding works, ‘The Himalayan Gazetteers’ has propounded some theories which are not quite convincing and debated by experts.

The celestial division of the region is on the grounds of Shiva and Vishnu and not quite crystal clear – the earlier inhabitants of the region like the Jaunsaries and the Kno Parvaty are more of Shaivites and take their local deities on annual pilgrimages to Kedarnath and never Badrinath.

The main language spoken in the main valleys is Garhwali , which varies from one valley to the other. The dialects change gradually as you go along a river but the changes could be total if you were to go across the valley, so much so that the dialect spoken on one side of the river could be entirely different from the one on the other side. The reason is simple; the rapid streams acted as a geographical barrier between people and communities living a mile from each other had no interaction between them.

Apart from the settlers who have been there for almost five centuries, there are some other communities which are distinct from the rest. These groups are - Kno Parvati, Jaunsaries, Bhotias, Jadhs, Marchyas and the Tolcha.

Kno Parvati
Tradiional dress and jewellery - tons valley They reside in the upper reaches of the Tons and its tributaries – Rupin and Supin. Some of their villages include Naitwar, Doni, Masri, Taluka, Paniwali and Osla. They are a polyandrous society, orthodox in their ways and are highly superstitious. Their homes are made of a semi-monocoque structure, which means that the ribbed skin made out of a wooden framework filled with stones takes the load and their is no foundation. This makes the houses earthquake proof as the whole structure is held together with joints of massive logs with a layer of stones as filler. The houses are usually three to four stories high with beautiful wood-carvings and covered balconies.

Jaunsaries
Classified as tribal by the Govt of India, this these people have been studied by sociologists in great details because they live in areas which have been accessible to the academicians living in the cities of northern India. Jaunsar and Bhabar form the northern district of Dehradun, Chakrata, Purila and the Ranwai district of Uttarkashi. They slightly differ from the Kno Parvati in physical features, customs, traditions, dress, architecture and art, but they too, are a polyandrous society where polygamy is practised. A woman is normally married to a number of brothers and they live in a big family house.

Bhotias
A marchya elder at chinka Village Consisting of three distinct groups, these are people who traded with Tibet before the Indo-Tibetan border was closed after the 1962 conflict between India and China. They are similar to the Sherpas of Nepal but not essentially Buddhist. Known by different names from region to region, they are born mountaineers who used to take caravans across the high mountain passes to the Tibetan plateau. The barter trade consisted of cotton and jaggery from the Indian side in return of borax, salt and wool from Tibet. To keep business secrets and ensure that both the sides involved did not understand their trade secrets, the Bhotias had evolved their own dialects which were neither understood by the Tibetans nor the Garhwalis.

All of them maintained two settlements, one very close to the Tibetan border at an altitude of 3000m and above and the other at a lower altitude where they retreated during winters to conduct sale of the imported goods from Tibet.

In Garhwal the caravans followed three Tolca girls from Dronagiri Village major passes – Niti, Mana and the Nilang. The way to Niti pass was along the Dhauli Ganga, the Mana pass through the higher reaches of the Alaknanda beyond Badrinath and the Nilang pass access was through the narrow gorge of the Jad Ganga beyond Harsil. These are tough, industrious and shrewd business people. The tribe that calls themselves the Bhotias lives in the northern highlands of the Kumaon hills and belong to the Himalayan group of Tibeto-Burmese tribals. The Uttarakhand Bhotias claim to be descendants of the Rajput from the Garhwal and are found along the Tibetan border. The tribes found in the Mana and Niti pass areas are known as the Tolchas.

The Marchyas are of Mongoloid origin and live in upper Chamoli district – the difference between them is that the Tolchas are less Mongoloid. They are traders by profession and also keep herds of sheep by tradition During cold weather they migrate to lower areas for three to four months. They earn their living selling wool, meat and milk. Their homes are built of stone with slate roofs.

Jads at harsil The Jadhs are a tribal community in the cold, dry areas of Uttarkashi. Their main villages were Nilang and Jadhang, which are both above 3400 m. A number of them have settled in Harsil, a town close to Gangotri. They are also nomadic shepherds who migrate to the Jhanavi valley during summers and to Rishikesh in the winter. Each family owns about two to four hundred animals, a measure of their wealth. They call themselves Rajputs and adhere loosely to the caste system