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Saharia


Saharia, Sahar, Sehariya, or Sahariya is an indigenous Munda-speaking tribe in the Madhya Pradesh province of India. The Saharias are mainly found in the districts of Morena, Sheopur, Bhind, Gwalior, Datia, Shivpuri, Vidisha and Guna districts of Madhya Pradesh and Baran district of Rajasthan.

The history of the Saharia tribe is spotty and in many places completely lost. The older generations of the Saharia tribespeople fail to give any account of their history, and written records of ancestry are virtually nonexistent. Traditionally, they trace their beginnings to the days of the Ramayana and beyond. They trace their origin from Shabri of the Ramayan. Another theory suggests that Brahma, the creator was busy casting the Universe. He made out a place to seat all persons. In the centre of that place he put a Sahariya who was a simpleton. Others came to join him sitting but they pushed him further from the square centre to an extreme corner or khoont. The story goes that an annoyed Brahma chided the Sahariya for his inability to cope with the pressure and decreed that he would henceforth live in forests and such other out of the way places. Some Sahariya's claim descent from Baiju Bheel, a worshiper of the Hindu god Shiva.

They inhabit clusters of houses in areas called saharana outside the main villages. The housing is generally characterized by prehistoric standards made of stone boulders and roofing of stone slabs that locally are called patore. In some villages mud structures are also constructed. Brick and concrete are very rare. They live in small joint families. The elder sons live separately after marriage and younger son bear the responsibilities of the parents and unmarried brothers-sisters.


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