The Koyas

      Each of these sub-divisions among the Koyas have exogamous phratries
      having separate totems which are again split into a number of totemistic
      sects which form the lineage (“velpu”) pattern. For example, in Chinthur
      mandal of Bhadrachalam agency, the Paderu Gatta (phratry) of Racha Koyas
      worship “Dhoolraj” and their totem is wooden. These phratries have a
      number of totemistic sects each denoted by a name, totem and worshipped by
      a group of families having separate names. For instance, 3 Gatta
      worshippers of Bheemraj are further classified into three groups on the
      basis of their “Ilavelpulu” (family deities). Marriages between members
      of the same totemistic sect is prohibited.
      The Kinship network among the Koyas assigns every individual a definite
      place within a system of relationships and defines one’s behaviour towards
      others. Every Koya is born into a phratry and a clan and his position is
      immutable.
      The Koyas have a patrilineal and patrilocal family. The family is called
      “Kutum”. The nuclear family is the predominant type. Usually, sons in a
      family live separately after marriage, but continue to do joint
      cultivation (Pottu Vyavasayam) along with parents and unmarried brothers.
      Monogamy is prevalent among the Koyas. Marriages take place after boys and
      girls become adults and in marriage negotiations the girl’s consent is
      taken. The preferential marriage rules favour mother’s brother’s daughter
      or the father’s sister’s daughter.
      Generally, the mate is selected through negotiations. But other practices
      of capture and elopement also exist, involving a simple ritual of pouring
      water on the girl - the water being the symbol of fertility. There is
      bride price involved in arranged marriages. Marriage is celebrated for
      three days. It is not simply an affair between two families. It is an
      occasion for two villages and all the relatives. Every person carries
      grain and liquor to a marriage to help the bridgroom’s family. Marriages
      take place in summer when palm juice is abundantly available. The
      Bison-horn dance is a special feature on the occasion of a marriage
      ceremony among the Koyas.
      Birth, marriage and death are the three important aspects of life and each
      event is celebrated on a grand scale in Koya society. The funeral ceremony
      among the Koyas is strikingly peculiar. The corpse is carried on a cot
      accompanied by the kinsmen and villagers including women. They
      symbolically offer material objects like grains, liquor, new clothes,
      money and a cow’s tail by placing them on a cot besides the corpse and the
      whole cot is placed on the pyre with the feet towards the west. They
      generally burn the corpse. The corpses of pregnant women and children
      below five months old are buried. They have a ceremony on the eleventh day
      after the death which is called “Dinalu”. At this time they believe that
      the spirit of the dead comes back and resides in the earthern pot called
      “Aanakunda”. The occasion of death is a common concern in which all the
      relatives share the burden and expenditure of the family of the deceased.
      After the ceremony is over, they sing, dance and have feasts.
       The Koyas are thickly populated in the Chinthur mandal of Bhadrachalam
      agency in Andhra Pradesh. This area is part of the thick forest region
      that extends along the left bank of the Godavari river.
       The major forest species are teak, bamboo, maddi and cashew. The minor
      forest produce includes beedi leaves, gum, honey and tamarind. Sorghum is
      the staple crop and rice and tobacco are grown along the river banks.
      There are 89 Koya villages and a small town in this mandal with density of
      population being 123 persons per sq.km. Agriculture is totally dependent
      on rains. Owing to small land holdings (the average land-holding per
      family is 2.0 acres wet and 4.1 acres dry land) and no irrigation
      facilities, above 55 percent of the families continue practicing slash and
      burn (podu) cultivation, while 10 percent of the population are landless.
      Due to the limited availability of land for cultivation, total dependence
      on rain for irrigation and the growing population pressure over the Koya
      land, the agriculture of the Koyas has become predominantly a subsistence
      way of farming. The ecological surroundings - especially forests - provide
      the Koyas with food, beverages, fodder, shelter and medicinal herbs.
      Though the Koyas are farmers by occupation, most of their food supplies
      are drawn from the forest. Roots and fruits form their subsidiary food.
      They eat Keski dumpa and Karsi dumpa, which are the common roots available
      in this region. They cut these roots into pieces, keep them in running
      water for three days and boil them to make them edible. During drought
      years the Koyas go in groups into the forest to collect these roots in
      large quantities.
      The Koyas also collect various forest products to supplement their meagre
      agricultural returns. They sell these products in the weekly shandy and
      buy other required commodities. There is no other monetary transaction
      among the Koyas except in the shandy.
       Their staple diet is sorghum. They grow several varieties of sorghum
      (Konda Jonna, Pacha jonna, etc.) and a few pulses. Rice is also grown in a
      few wetlands. Podu - the slash and burn cultivation - is the traditional
      mode of agriculture for the Koyas. They clear the jungle on hillslopes,
      burn the trees and grow crops in the ashes. In the past, they used to
      cultivate a piece of land for two to three years and leave it fallow for
      eight to ten years. Now, the fallow period has been reduced to two to
      three years due to the restrictions on podu and the increase in population
      among the Koyas. Most peasant families among the Koyas practice podu. They
      regard slash and burn cultivation as a necessary evil and resort to it
      solely for their survival.
      The overall land under settled cultivation is barely seven percent. Rice
      is generally preferred in wetlands, although few families have recently
      started cultivating some commercial crops. On the whole only 0.4% of the
      agricultural produce is sold. In the majority of cases, the rate of yields
      do not even meet the requirements of the farmers.
      The size and nature of the land and environmental conditions made
      agriculture labour-intensive, demanding co-operation of the kinsmen and
      the villagers in undertaking agricultural operations. Joint cultivation,
      known as “Pottu Vyavasayam” is a common practice among the Koyas. Landless
      families go with their agricultural implements and join those who own
      land. The yield is shared between the landowner and others who have
      contributed labour. This practice ensures unity within the group and
      avoids further division of land holdings.
      The Koyas are expert hunters and the good hunters are looked upon as
      heroes. For the Koyas, hunting is an essential skill for food as well as
      for defence from wild animals in the forest. On the occasion of the “Vijja
      Pandum” (the festival of seeds), Koyas go hunting in groups.
       Fish is another important food for the Koyas. In villages near rivers,
      quite often fish is a meal for every family. They ensure fair share of
      fish to all. The Koyas use various types of nets tied to bamboo poles
      which are used in still waters.
      During the toddy palm season, every Koya family lives mainly on palm juice
      for almost four months. For them palm juice is not just a beverage, but
      also a complete food. On average, every Koya family owns at least four to
      eight palm trees. Palm juice is consumed three to four times a day in
      large community gatherings known as “gujjadis”.
      The Koyas consider the palm tree as a gift of nature and to secure this
      gift they worship the village Goddess “Muthyalamma”.
      On all social and religious occasion, liquor plays an important role among
      the Koyas. The “Ippa Sara” or the mohuva drink is purely an intoxicating
      beverage. The Koyas consume mohuva liquor to get relief from the physical
      hardship of the day and to withstand extreme variations in the climate.
      The houses are built within one’s own agricultural land. These are
      rectangular in fashion and are built of the material that is available
      from the forest. These houses are constructed on an elevation of two to
      three feet with walls made of bamboo, plastered with mud and roofed with
      palm leaves. The houses are highly functional and meet the requirements of
      a farmer’s family. They are leak-proof, quite warm during winter and cool
      during summer.
       Most of their festivals are related to agricultural operations. Kolupu is
      one such occasion which comes during November. The Koyas worship the
      Earth-Goddess “Bhudevi” and they enlist the co-operation of the Goddess by
      offering animal sacrifices during the festival. They believe that sowing
      seeds that are soaked in sacrificial blood brings them good crops.
      The Koyas deify their ancestors and worship them on all social occasions.
      All the clan members join together to worship their ancestors.
      The Koyas believe in four guardian deities who are supposed to control the
      four directions. The Koya pantheon consists of various gods and goddesses
      who are the symbols of various forces. Among them Bhima, Muthyalamma,
      Sammakka and Sarakka are worshipped by non-tribuals of the surrounding
      regions as well.
      The sense of supernaturalism is strongly rooted in the Koya’s concept of
      nature. They worship personal spirits which are thought to animate nature.
      They also believe in evil spirits that are dangerous to the harmony of
      group life. The traditional medicine man “Buggivadde” and the sorcerer
      “Vejji” are supposed to ward off all kinds of evil spirits.
      The Koyas celebrate festivals indicating the onset of particular seasons
      for tapping palm juice, collecting mohuva flower, beginning agricultural
      operations, hunting and fishing.
       Through their cultural practices, the Koyas exercise communal control
      over their means of production. They collectively manage their natural
      resources, ensuring equal opportunity to all.
      Every koya village is a socio-political unit and also a part of a larger
      social and territorial unit called “Mutha”, a cluster of villages linked
      by economic, political and kinship ties. In the past, a Koya village
      consisted of members of a single clan only. Now it has transformed into
      multi-clan composition due to various factors such as growing population
      pressure on the land, non-tribal migration, alienation of tribals from
      forests and massive industrial deforestation.
      The customary law of the Koyas ensures communal ownership of natural
      resources administered by the village headman known as “Pedda”. The pedda
      is the senior-most person who first settled in the village and established
      the village Goddess. The position is held by descendents of the same
      family. Pedda controls the social, political and religious activities in
      the village. The village panchayat consisting of the other members (Pina
      pedda, Vepari, Pujari, etc.) deals with minor problems. Sometimes the
      pedda holds two or three positions in a panchayat. The village panchayat
      is the final authority over all issues in a village. The overall judicial
      system of a cluster of villages is maintained by the “Samithi Poyee”, a
      judicial head who is assisted by the people known as “Veparis”. Issues are
      dealt with in co-operation with the village panchayat and this makes every
      village a part of a wider cluster known as mutha and is held by tribal
      norms.
      The political system of the Koyas is slowly accommodating the process of
      colonization of agency tracts by non-tribals. The traditional systems of
      mutha and panchayat are slowly losing their autonomy. Among the Koyas
      there has been an increase in landless population in recent years. Many of
      the landless are becoming agricultural labourers. In Chinthur mandal,
      about ten percent of the population work as wage labourers in the forest
      for more than six months a year. Though the Koyas have the tradition of
      safeguarding their forests, due to the conditions of alienation from the
      land and forests, they are now slowly being reduced to wage labourers,
      engaged in cutting and loading of timber, firewood and bamboo for
      industrial requirements. This work is purely temporary and does not
      provide any steady income. There are several changes occurring in the
      subsistence pattern among the Koyas. The changes in occupational pattern
      from agriculture to wage labour are leading to changes in their social
      traditions.
      There are also servere disturbances in marital life due to non-tribal
      exploitation of women. The panchayat system now is generally weak in
      arresting non-tribal intrusion and exploitation. There is a process of low
      productivity trap in agriculture of the Koyas which is a consequence of a
      complex set of phenomena. The population pressure, the limited
      availability of land for cultivation, total dependence on rain for
      irrigation, industrial deforestation and the modernization and
      “development” process have all affected the autonomy of the Koyas and the
      integrity of the traditional social system is fast being broken down and
      is rapidly fading away.
       But through generations of trial and error in the face of adverse
      conditions of the climate and the cultural contact with non-tribals, the
      Koyas have evolved a unique pattern of adaptation to the environment
      through their various internal social arrangements and belief system. With
      every change in the productive technology and economy there will be a
      corresponding change in man’s dependence on nature and with every change
      in the relationship between man and his environment there is a change in
      the man to man relationship. Again, with every change in man’s
      relationship to nature there is a corresponding change with man’s
      relationship with his supernatural world.