The tradition and culture of the chutiya tribe of Assam and its changes: A discussion

Introduction

The Chutiyas are said to be one of the early inhabitants of Assam. According to many scholars they are of Aryan origin. However, for some, they are Proto Australoid or Austric origin. But, most of the scholars are of the view that the Chutiyas are of Mongoloid origin. All of these have a unanimous view that the Chutiyas come under the Bodos of Assam. Many stories are there of the origin of the Chutiyas.

To find the meaning of the word Chutiya in the dictionary, one can find in Hemkosha that the Chutiyas are the people coming from the mountains and staying in the plains for a long time. Most of these people stay in upper Assam. Those who accepted the Hindu religion are called the Hindu Chutiya and those who do not use fire (‘Hom-Yajna') in the marriage are the Ahom Chutiya.

According to Chandrakanta Abhidhan the Chutiya are the people coming from the hills and staying in the plains (Phukan, Bora, Saikia, etc of the Ahom Kingdom are also part of the Chutiyas. Those who use fire Hom-Yajna during the marriage is the Hindu Chutiyas and those who do not use fire are the Ahom Chutiyas) an aboriginal tribe of Assam now settled in the plains.

According to a number of scholars the word ‘Chutiya' comes from ‘Swata' or ‘Swati'. However, there is no evidence that the Chutiyas migrated from the ‘Swata' area of Afghanistan to Chutiya Nagpur state of India and then to Assam. The Bodo people use to live in the area near Swati River or lake and swan Swetagiri mountain of the agar area of the Sowansiri River and it is said that the Chutiyas are part of these Bodo tribe who got detached from their own culture and got their name according to the place of their habitat (Baruah, 2007).

According to the history of the Ahoms, the Chutiyas used to live in the eastern part of Assam during the early 13th century when the Ahoms under Sukapha migrated to Assam to establish a Ahom Kingdom. The eastern part of Brahmaputra which includes Sowansiri River and southern part which includes Disang River and all the land areas surrounding these two rivers come under the Chutiya Kingdom. That is why Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, Dhemaji and Sivsagar have more Chutiya inhabitants than any other part of Assam. With amalgamation of the Chutiya Kingdom and the Ahom Kingdom in the 16th century, the Chutiya population got distributed all over Assam. The Chutiyas have been living for almost 400 years in some parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Starting from Lakhimpur to Biswanath, the whole north side of Brahmaputra valley was once under the Chutiya Kingdom. At present, most of the Chutiyas live in the upper Assam especially in Lakhimpur and Sibsagar district. However, some people live in hilly areas like Karimganj also.

The chutiyas have enriched – Assamese cultures in almost every sphere including language, music, festivals, architecture etc. But globalization has changed everything.

Globalization and the culture of the Chutiyas

With the advent of human civilization, a great change in the social, economic, and cultural sides can be seen. With the development of science and technology, an advancement in industrial sector as well as cultural sector is widely visible due to which the cultural side is seen getting a completely new way keeping aside its originality. Such a process of globalization and intermingling not only changes and brings newer perspectives to various tribes but also at times becomes a threat to its existence. The process of globalization cannot be denied by any of the tribes. The cultures of the Chutiya tribe are also not different.

A brief discussion about the changes is made:

The tradition of their festivals and the changes

The Chutiyas celebrate different festivals at different times. They celebrate festivals that are religious as well as festivals related to agriculture.

Chutiya celebrated the agriculture-based festival ‘Bihu'. They used to call ‘Bihu' as ‘Bichu'. However, with time and oral orientation, the word ‘Bichu' (Saikia, 2011) got converted to ‘Bihu'. There is a legendary saying that during the time of the last battle between the Ahoms and the Chutiyas, the Ahoms were unable to defeat the Chutiyas initially. But the Ahom soldiers made up a plan and started playing Dhol (drum) and attracted the Chutiyas with Bihu and defeated them. When this news got into the ears of the Chutiya Queen Sadhani, she could not bear it and took her own life. That is why the Chutiyas celebrate the 7th day of the month of Bohag Sadhani Divas.

In the early days, the Chutiya male and female used to celebrate Bihu in front of Tamreshwari temple. Later, such celebration got shifted to celebration under the Banyan trees. Apart from this, they also used to offer prayer in the Tamreshwari temple before starting the ‘Huchari'. They had the tradition of starting the ‘Huchari' from the very first Wednesday or Thursday only. They also used to celebrate ‘Dangoria Bihu' or ‘Ojha Bihu' on the third or fourth day of the month of Bohag. But such tradition is nowhere to be found among the Chutiyas. Bihu nowadays is celebrated on stage. Likewise, the Kati Bihu was celebrated by lightning earthen lamps under the tulsi plant or a granary but now such traditions are maintained for the sake of tradition only. Also, the ‘Pithas' of Bhogali Bihu have now become more commercial than traditional. Such commercial impacts on the festival are taking away the real taste of the tradition of Bihu.

The village centric Chutiya society celebrate ‘Lakhimi Sobah', ‘Na Khowa', ‘Gopini Sobah', ‘Opeshwari Sobah' traditionally. The main aim of the ‘Lakhimi Sobah' is to pray the Goddess Lakshmi. Likewise, the ‘Opeshwari Sobah' is a female centric festival where the female prays either on the front yard or in the river bank by offering rice powder, milk, banana, betel-nut, earthen lamp. The Chutiyaa believe that if the family members are suffering from fever or having any bad health, it is because of bad omen of the ‘Opeshwari'. They also believe that due to bad omen of Opeshwari, the small children might not be able to speak.

The agrarian Chutiya domesticated cows and buffaloes and for their safety, they celebrate ‘Garakhiya Sobah' ‘Khuti Sobah', ‘Kalika Mota Sobah' etc. Similarly, according to the earthy belief system, the Chutiyas celebrate various festivals. They perform ‘Aai Sokam', ‘Jaldevatar Sokam', ‘Dangoriar Sokam', ‘Guru Sokam', Apart from these, they also organize programs related to the offerings to the death, or offering rice to the Mars-Saturn, planets. They also pray ‘Jaldevata' the God of water while going for fishing and prau ‘Ban devata', God of Jungle while going for hunting.

The Chutiyas celebrate ‘Bihu Sokam' or, ‘Bihu Solita Logowa’ every year during the end of Bihu. This is celebrated for the satisfaction of their dead forefathers or dead father and mother.

With the advent of time, people’s viewpoint on religion and society have changed. Many Chutiyas have accepted the Vaishnavite religion and have started offerings ‘Kirtan Path' and ‘Naam Prosongo'. Some others have accepted the religious believe preached by Srimanta Sankardeva and have excluded certain festivals celebrated by the Chutiyas in the early times; for which there is a high risk of the extinguishing of certain traditions and customs of the Chutiyas.

Considering their livelihood, the Chutiyas perform three festivals namely ‘Jonmo' (Birth), ‘Mrityu' (Death), ‘Bibah' (Marriage). Various festivals related to birth starts with the pregnancy of the lady. Like many other tribes, the Chutiyas too have the tradition of feeding the pregnant women on the fifth month of pregnancy and on the ninth month of pregnancy. They have the tradition of keeping branches of peach, torn-out fish net etc. on the front yard during the day of child birth in order to safeguard them from any danger. They also light fire inside the labor room. They make the mother eat spice on the third day and the baby is taken outside on the 7th, 9th or 11th day. There is the occasion of purifying after 1 month. If the child is a boy child, he is asked to touch bow, arrow or books. And if it’s a girl child, she is asked to touch cotton, shuttle or books.

The rural Chutiyas follow certain traditional belief system. If the child does not walk on time, there is the tradition of drawing on the ground in-between the legs of the child with a knife. If the child cannot talk on time, there is the tradition of making them eat rice on the leaves of peepul tree. If the child gets shock while sleeping, there is a maternal uncle will take raw banana over his soldier and throw it away in the evening.

But, due to globalization various traditional cultures of the Chutiyas are in expansion. The tradition of feeding the pregnant woman during the 5th or 9th month is lessening now-a-days. Likewise, the use of branch of peach or torn fish nets during child birth is completely vanished. Apart from this, with the birth of the child in hospital and with the system of birth certificate, the tradition of naming the child (Namkaran) and the tradition of eating spice are almost excluded.

Like other tribes, the Chutiyas also celebrate the puberty of the girl child which is known as ‘Tuloni Biya' when a girl child gets her very first puberty, the Chutiyas traditionally belief that the girl child should not see cow, males and even sun and moon. On the 4th day, she is bathed well and ok 7th, 9th or 11th day the ‘Tuloni Biya' is performed. During that period, the girl child should eat only the food gifted to her. On ‘Nuwoi Tuloni biya' there is the tradition of roasting puffed rice, taking water from the river, beautification of the girl etc.

Various types of marriages can be seen in the Chutiya society. Marriages like ‘Dharam Biya’ are there. They also have the tradition of forcefully taking the bride and groom for marriages, tradition of marriages by elopement and also the tradition of keeping the groom in the bride’s place as ‘ghar jowai' (Gogoi, 2013). There is this saying of the marriage of Bhismak’s daughter Rukmini by Shri Krishna using the ‘Rakshash' process in the Bishnupurana. Similarly, in the Chutiya society, the daughter of King Dheernarayan, Sadhani is married off to Nilipal using the ‘Swayambar' process. All the tradition customs are followed.

In the marriages done by elopement or marriage done by simply getting the blessings etc. no traditional customs are followed. The Chutiya people prohibit the marriage with the maternal relatives. However, no such restrictions can be seen in the widow marriages. With the advent of globalization and with the imitation of the Western Culture, various traditional customs related to marriage are at the verge of extinction. The colorful lights and decoration along with the foreign foods/cuisines are somehow sidelining the originality of rural marriages.

The Hindu people generally do their cremation by lightning fire to the dead body. The Chutiyas, just because they are Hindu, follow such tradition. However, they dug the dead body of infants, pregnant women alongwith those who died by suicide or by any chronic disease. For such people, no rituals are performed on the 10th day. Before taking the dead body to the crematory ground, the Chutiyas bathed the dead body using lentils and turmeric. The one who will set the fire to the dead, needs to buy land of length four hands from land Goddess. It is done by giving one rupee. Then seven pilis of wood are made and the dead body is circulated 7 times around the wooden pile before it is landed to the pile. Then seven more piles of wood are given above the dead body and then it is set to fire. Like other tribes, the Chutiyas perform ‘Tiloni' on the third day of death and shraddha on the eleventh day. The Chutiya people generally don’t eat anything till the third day except cold water. On the third day ‘Tiloni' is observed and the people will have rice powder and break their fast. After the breaking of the fast, they will have only boiled food once every day till the day of ‘Shraddha'. They don’t sit on chair and do not cut any nails, hairs or beards. However, with the advancement of science technology and more urban kind of lifestyle, people, now-a-days, are doing the rituals according to their own convenience.

Their dress, jewelleries and their changes

The Chutiyas have their traditional dress and jewelleries. They have their own weaving skills. The ladies use handloom machines to weave dresses for both male and female. The male used to wear traditional dhotis called ‘Churiya' and tradition shirt called ‘Kamij'. Earlier they use to wear red, black or white ‘churiyas'. They used to wear a shirt with front open like shirts. The aristocrats use to take another shawl called ‘Cheleng Chadar' over their body

The females used to wear a garment over their chest known as ‘Methoni'. The aristocrats use to wear ‘Mekhela Chadar' and ‘Riha'. Both males and females use to wear cotton, Muga or Paat clothes. Apart from these, they also use ‘Endi clothes, ‘Ghamucha’ and ‘tangali'.

Just the clothes, their jewelleries are also traditional. They used to wear traditional jewelleries like ‘Maduli', ‘Dugdugi', ‘Jangfai', ‘thuria', ‘Gaamkharu' in their hands and necks. The males used to pierce one ear and wear ‘Long Keru’ and wear ‘Motamoni' in their necks. They used to have long hairs. They used to wear footwears made of wood or canes. With the change in time, the dress code of Chutiya people has changed. The females used to wear ‘Salwar', ‘Jeans', ‘Lehenga' alongwith ‘Mekhela Chadar' now-a-day. However, such silk clothes are now-a-days use to made Salwar, saree etc. The Western influence can be seen in the dress code of the males too. Earlier, people used to use handmade towel (gamucha) which is now replaced by readymade towels. The women folles are seen interested in jewelleries from all over North East and gold ornaments made in jewellers.

The tradition of their food habits and its changes

The Chutiyas have their own food habit. However, many commonalities among the food habits of other tribes and the Chutiyas are evident. Their primary food is fish, yet they eat meat too. They have almost all the foods like potato, collocasia, (kochu), fiddlehead fern (Dhekia) along with rice, chicken, pork etc.

Earlier they use to make rice beer from rice. Such tradition is very rare now-a-days. There Dry fish is their favorite food. There is this saying that the Ahom king Chuhungmung captured the dry fish guard and took him to his place after defeating the Chutiyas (Saikia, 2017). The Chutiyas did not have the habit of having only food. They used to eat milk/curd alongwith special type of rice and special pancakes. The old fashioned and new fashioned Chutiyas have different food habits in different functions. For example: the old fashioned Chutiyas use rice beer made of rice, fish, crabs, chicken, duck etc. in any of their traditional rituals. But, the new-fashioned use fruits, lentils, jaggery, sugar, milk etc. The new-fashioned are more conscious. They don’t eat pork or chicken. They don’t eat specific fishes and such fishes are prohibited in their homes. They don’t use any alcoholic drinks like liquor etc.

However, with the advent of civilization, the traditional food of the Chutiyas is replaced by the market bound foods. The hearth is being replaced by modular kitchen with oven. This resulted in the loss of certain traditional food among the new/young generation. They are more into biscuits, Maggie than traditional pancakes (pithas).

Conclusion

The Chutiyas are early inhabitant of Assam. During the time of Ahom, the Chutiyas took the region in Upper Assam. They were advanced in almost every spheres starting from art, culture and tradition. With the advent of the time, the Chutiyas, just like early inhabitants of Assam, have overcome lots of changes. Changes are inevitable in every sphere of life. With globalization and civilization, the Chutiyas have undergone lots of changes. Changes can be seen in the agrarian side too. The reasons behind the celebration of any agrarian festivals or tradition die. There can be changes in rituals and norms but the folk culture will always be there in the name of preservation. Therefore, there is a need for preservation of all these traditions and customs for the upcoming generation.

With these changes, many festivals and customs are seen to have lost. Yet, there are villages which are still following their own tradition and customs even though there are different between the old fashioned and the new fashioned are quite visible. Various traditional practices like ‘Deu-Kuber Utsav', ‘Satya Narayan Puja', ‘Bor-sewa’ are still prevalent. They also celebrate ‘Sadhani Divas' in the memory of their last ruler queen Sadhani.