On the Future of Indigenous Traditions - Munin

are associated with. Roy further adds by saying that the “Aboriginal India” was
invaded by “successive tides of Aryan conquests (which) appeared to have been
followed by confused waves of migration among the aboriginal population,” 13 in the
course of time established the Aryan dominance.
The historians of India generally dismiss from consideration that these and other
aboriginal tribes as “an unclaimed ignoble horde who occupy the background of
Indian history as the jungle once covered the land to prepare the soil for better forms
of life.” 14 However, Roy refers to the Kolarian aboriginals of India stating, “not even
a chapter of decent length to these peoples in any standard work [is done] on the
history of India. And thus the story of their past have hitherto remained practically
untold.” 15 He claims that some of these aboriginal groups still retain ancient
traditions that can reveal their past histories, which, if not reconstructed would be
“lost beyond all chance of recovery”. 16
When talking about the Kolerain Mundas, who represent one of the important
aboriginals groups of India, one source is their own Cosmogonic legend and Munda
mythology 17 and folklore in the remaining oral tradition today.
There is another set of sources to investigate. These sources also became the
backbone while building an ‘Indian culture’ aimed towards independence from the
colonial rules. These sources also have a good number of references of those groups
today identified as Adivasi, however, it can be abstracted only with objective
interpretation of the same. As said earlier they are the ancient Hindu scriptures and
the traditions in conjunction to those. How it started and what it lead into would be
important to note before we see how it represented the sections of people we are
talking about. This written sources and traditions, as Mckim Marriott 18 points out in
the making of Indian nation-state were put together to bring a “single all-Indian centre
13
S.C. Roy, Mundas and Their Country (Ranchi: Catholic Press, [1912], 1995), 43.
14
Ibid., 1.
15
Ibid., 2.
16
Ibid., 2.
17
A. Van Exem, The Religious System of the Munda Tribe (Ranchi: Catholic Press, 1982), 28.
18
Clifford Geertz, Old Societies and New states, The quest for modernity in Asia and Africa (New
York: The Free Pess, 1967), 32
27