Espadilla, Korina Marie P.

III-14 AB/BSE Literature Academic Writing

Of Chasing & Deciphering India’s Rabari

Who else could track and uncover a Dynamic “lost” Indian civilization better than a

Linguistic anthropologist?

The Rabari, literally means “wanderer”, is an Indian tribe whose origins are unknown.

No official records about them exist. People either shrug them off as “just myths” but those who

had encountered the Rabari had branded them as dog eaters. According to an Indian myth, the

Rabari is once a glorious tribe. They were led by a group of council known as the mukha. Once,

one of the mukhas had a beautiful daughter whose hand was asked in marriage by a prince of a

neighbouring tribe known for producing salt; but the Rabari held their ground into letting one of

their daughters marry somebody outside their caste. As the neighbouring tribe persuade the

mukhas to bestow their blessings to the proposal, the beautiful princess prayed to Mother Earth

to swallow her whole so she wouldn’t have to marry. Her people, who from that day on would

mourn her loss, wore their mourning clothes and toss the salt to grounds vowing never to eat salt

from that neighbouring tribe again. Using the Indian lore as a tool in the hopes of finding the lost

civilization of the Rabari, I headed to Kutsch where myth dictates as one of the routes the Rabari

takes as a part of their annual dang or migration.

The mukhas or elders of the tribe agreed to take me as long as I won’t meddle with their

ways.

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 For days on end, I have watched the Rabari go about their daily lives. Communication

wasn’t so good and we make do by sign language. Gujarati, in fact, is actually not the language

that they use. It is more of the combination of the dialects of Kutsch, Punjab and Gujarat. Here is

my observation regarding their language:

SOCIETY PEOPLE Women: “wife and

mother”
Men: “husband and
father”
Children: “wise small
one”, “innocent leader”;
“little stargazer”
GOVERNMENT Several terms for leader
(all plural); Praise:
“peacemaker, conciliator”
GEOGRAPHY “absolutely flat”; “rolling”; “slightly hilly”
ARTS Twenty words for book; 9 words for Artist; 4 words for
theatre
HEALTH 7 terms: stages of life; 1 term for life; 2 term: puberty to
death
Sex: “to plant a wise one”
LIVELIHOOD 12 terms for grain; 8 terms for wheat; terms for cow, pig,
calf and sheep
CLIMATE 7 words for precipitation: “rain”; 1 term for “snow”
***No Concepts of: War, Ocean, pork, veal, leather and mutton

It is a pleasant surprise to hear and witness how Rabari men and women stood equal

before their society considering India’s long history of social stratification and patriarchy. It is

evident by the way they use the term mudra for womenfolk which roughly translates as “wife

and mother” in English and padma for menfolk synonymous to our term for “husband and

father”. They also held children in high esteem as they affectionately call them binhi meaning

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“wise small one”, “innocent leader” and “little stargazer”. Like other civilizations, the Rabari

regard their children as the future leaders who would continue the bloodline and the traditions of

their tribe. It is also common among the Rabari children (especially the females) to possess

uncanny gifts such as the knowledge of astronomy or healing (shamans and/or priestess). Unlike

our manner of governance where only a monarch or an elected leader holds the highest power,

the Rabari has a council of mukhas consists of men and women alike who have equal powers

regarding tribal matters but it is interesting to note that everybody in this tribe could speak up in

meetings even without a position and it is actually considered by the mukhas It’s also not a

mystery why the Rabari only has three terms to describe the places they’ve been: “absolutely

flat, rolling and slightly hilly” since although they go on migration annually, they always take

the same, familiar, worn paths. The Rabari, like their fellowmen, has always been a lover of the

arts evident by several terms for theatre which I hypothesise corresponds to the Rabari’s four

primary entertainments: storytelling, singing and dancing, poetry reading and stargazing. It’s just

seem odd for a wandering tribe to gather their knowledge, wisdom, traditions and pass it on to

their sons and daughters in the forms of bounded books which they have twenty words and nine

words for artists that corresponds to nine skills that the Rabari value the most but they do. The

Rabari, like the entire human race, places life (the child inside the mother’s womb) as sacred.

They place a high regard for procreation that in our language it roughly translates as “to plant a

wise one”. The Rabari has seven terms for the different stages of life up to puberty; one term to

describe life and another word for puberty to death. Seven, as we know, is a number which

signifies completion. For the Rabari, when a child reaches puberty he or she is formally

welcomed in the society. The duties of the child’s parents have been completed. It’s now the

child’s turn to give back to his or her tribe. These wanderers who follow the same worn path

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every year are known for raising cows, pigs, calves & sheep and sell it to eke out a living. But

they don’t have terms for beef, pork, veal or mutton considering the fact that they practise

Hinduism which abhors killing animals which they regard as sacred because their gods and

goddesses might reincarnate into one. Rabari women are said to be excellent in planting grains.

It’s no wonder now why they have twelve terms for grains—eight alone for wheat. It’s just seem

out of place for them as wanderers to engage in a livelihood such as farming which could mean

settling in a place considering they are constantly on their feet but this also shows their resilience

in adapting to their surroundings—specially the climate in a place where it always rains (seven

terms for precipitation roughly translates as rain and one term for snow).

The Rabari’s life maybe an Asian version of the American myth’s “city upon a hill”

minus all the Puritan perfection or a good basis for another Indiana Jones adventure minus all the

trappings but one thing is sure, they were right when they told me: “We’re all here. There’s no

such thing as alone.” Allophones: Intertextuality.