User:Ravi thakkar 761/sandbox

Rabari Community

Overview

The Rabari Community is an indigenous and nomadic Tribe that is prevalent mostly in Gujarat and parts of Rajasthan. The word 'Rabari' means "beyond rules and regulations". There have been many myths regarding their origin. Some claim that they are the decedents of the Rajputs whereas some say that they were sent by Lord Shiva.

They are typically Shepherd based communities whose hunger for cattle keeps them moving. However, they have started farming in Patan, Gujarat. Post partition, the Rabaris have faced tremendous struggle because their business mainly consisted of driving the cattle from parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and then eventually, to India. Their language is a blend of Gujarati, Kachchhi and Marwari. They wear different types of ornaments, depending on their age, marital status and the number of children.Their staple food is bajra, jowar and rice along with different pulses and vegetables. Most the Rabaris are vegetarian but some families also eat eggs, chicken and pork. The literacy rate in this community is very low and especially amongst the women of the Rabari Community. Women do not have any right on the parental property and generally only focus on home-making and raising children. The Rabaris profess HInduism and mostly and preach Lord Shiva and Shakti. Most of the Rabari families practice sheep breeding and selling milk even today and earn their survival through this economic activity only. The embroidery work of the women of the Rabari Community is known for its originality.

Majority of the Rabari families are nuclear families because a vertically extended family of the Rabaris generally splits. This community has struggled for years and therefore the Indian Government is encouraging them by providing loan wavers and helping them in small business set ups in order to help them and make their survival easier.

Rabari is the community which is spreaded out all over kutch. It is mainly spread in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. Their livelihood runs in animal husbandry, and they have to transact with goats, sheep, cows and buffaloes. An extensive piece of the relocations of Rabari shepherds happen in thickly developed zones. In Kutch, regions where water system is accessible are utilized as shelter when the climate is dry and water is rare. Past Kutch, green zones in northern, focal and southern Gujarat, and additionally in Saurashtra are favored movement goals amid winter and summer. There is drastic change took in rabari community in present. The people who were travelling with their animals are faced with many difficulties as they cannot do farming very easily as they were able to do in the past. Many middle aged community people are selling their animals and going back to their place from where they belonged as they are thinking to get a job in neighbouring factory as this is the most preferable choice they would opt for. In 1960s, the green revolution enabled farmers to increase the production of the crops as there was no shortage of water. But in other way it also affected farmers and shepherds in bad way.

rabari earrings as a attire

Attire

Rabari community has unique dressing pattern for themselves,  rabari men’s wear the white clothes which is also known as kediyu and they do wear white dhoti , turban on their head, rabari men also wear earrings on both the side of their ears.  Among rabari women’s black clothes are wore, which includes blouse , ghaghro and chundari (scarf) to cover their heads.  Rabari women’s clothes also has embroidery work integrated to their clothes, as it makes their clothes unique. Rabari women also dresses themselves with heavy silver jewellery and ivory bangles around the upper arms.

Occupation

A Rabari with his cattles.

Rabari community has purely emphasised on the self-employment rather that engaging any other service sectors.  Traditionally, the rabari’s occupation has remained of keeping cows, buffaloes and goats. Rabari community also engages itself into field work like farming activities. This community has been into the field of supplying milk and milk products like ghee and yogurt.  Rabari women have also played role in the occupational sector, like they have started doing the trading of embroidery working by themselves. Women , designs the embroidery art on the basis of their traditional designs which keeps their culture alive.

Marriage

Rabari community practices marriage systems like childhood marriages and restricting out-caste marriages of both men and women.  It is believed that in rabari community that , from the birth only the marriage partner is tied up by the parents.  The practice of childhood marriage is still prevalent in their culture.  The rabari’s also have rigid structure for marriages like they don’t allow  men or women to marry with people who belong to other caste and communities. They believe that marriages should be done into their caste and community only.  However, adult marriages also have some issues like dowry systems like paying hefty amount of money and in other forms like gold and other assets to the groom or his family.

Religion

Rabari community follows hindu religion and they also have different-different kuldevis  and devtas , like momai mata , goga maharaj . They also worship the saints of their religion who guides them for their festivals ,religious ceremonies and they are called bhuvas in their regional language.

Rabari Culture

     Rabaris are interesting ethnic community among all ethnic communities living in Gujarat as well as Rajasthan. It is a shepherd community. Their hunger for sheep and goats always keep them interesting in all ethnic communities.Their customs and lifestyle are also one of the most interesting part of their culture. Rabaris have very rich culture. 

Custom of wearing black attire

     There is such an interesting myth about wearing black attire. Once upon a time, there was a Muslim king who fell in love with a Rabari girl. But his proposal was refused by her because of the community. Thus, the king started threatening to kill all of them. Many years ago, Jaiselmer which is the part of Rajasthan was the main centre for Rabaris. There was a one Muslim man who believed that this was wrong and decided to help the Rabaris. At midnight, Rabaris who were very terrified broke their camp with the help of Muslim man. When the king knew about the Muslim man, he was killed. SO from then it is told that Rabari women wore black attire to mourn his death. They wore this to show sorrow for Muslim man's death.It is said that the loyal nature of Muslim man makes easy interactions between the Hindu Rabaris and Muslims that are found in Rajasthan. 

Dress Code

     This is the another interesting facet of the Rabari Community. The black color is the main color in Rabari Community.There is no any written rule in Rabari community about their dress code. Married women dress code is different from unmarried women. Married woman wear blouse pleated at the breast. Unmarried women wear white ludi or shawl that is different from married women. Married women wear brown or black ludi. Women wear long earings especially Nagali earings. Unmarried girls wear pink,blue,red and green  Ghagra that is called "Puthia". Rabari men wear white attire. They wear dhoti laced over the chest and tied with the white turban and long sleeves. On special occasions, they wear red turbans. They wear "Jhola" and "Murki" in their ears.Thus, their dress code can play a very important role in deciding the social status of the Rabari Community. 

Rabari Embroidery

      Embroidery plays a dominant role of Rabari community's culture. Rabari women are known as their finest embroidery bead work. They got inspiration to do this work from mythology and desert surrounding. It consists stitches like Interlacing stitch (bavaliyo), Broad chain stitch, Harringbone stitch, Mirror work, Button hole stitch, Square chain stitch. They are skilled embroider. They made skirt, blouse, ludi, children's cradle clothes as well as dowry bags and auspicious toran etc. Rabari women use glass mirrors in various shapes.They use square chain method of stich to give outline to their garments. Rabari women also use decorative back stitches that is known as a "Bakhiya" to give look to women's ghagra and men's kediya. They use very gaudy colors in their embroidery to make all forget about their hardship.The use of big size mirror and awesome choice for color make Rabari Embroidery very unique and known in all the countries. In present, they often use machine embroidery instead of hand embroidery. Rabari embroidery is found in modern days in high locality for fashion.

Rabari names:

Rabari means the one who is beyond rules & regulations & also who is wealthy. A group of rabari is also known as bhopa as a short name. Bhumi palak(ruler of land) is a word which is derived for bhopa. The alternate names are Rahbari, Raika, Rabari bhopa, Rabha , Devagi & utwalle.

Rabari tribe food:

Mostly rabari are vegetarian but those who are non-vegetarian eats egg, pork, mutton & chicken. The staple food for vegetarian are jowar, bajra & rice which is taken along with all kinds of pulses & vegetables. They drink strong sweet tea , fresh goat milk, buttermilk & ghee soup. In food, it also include pancake like millet bread called roti. Majority of rabari community consumed, milk products daily. For them cooking media is palmolin or groundnut oil. During festivals & fairs, they have certain rules to eat particular food item at that event. Consumption of pulses & vegetables has increase in the community.

Caste and Population

Caste

The Rabari community is scattered over the north west that is Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, and in the west Gujarat. They are also called raika, rabha, devagi, and Utwalle. Most of the Rabaris are vegetarian and have their staple food as bajra, jowar and wheat but some of them eat non vegetarian occasionally. Rabaris are also believed to the descendent of the Rajpoots as they have shared the same surnames like Rathod, Solanki, Bhati, Parmar etc with them. These surnames or clans are also known as, ‘ NAKH’ in Rabaris. These clans are further divided into branches which is termed as SHAKHS. The Shakhs are knows as “VIHOTAR’ which means Vis ( 20 ) + Sau (100) + Ter ( 13 ) which sums up to 133, that is the total number of Shakhs. They have Casts like Laltuka, Nagoh, Moidav, Bhungor, Kola, Aal, Khambhalya, Khatana, Ghangol, Bhangra, Kalotara, Mori, Bhumbhaliya, Savdharia, Punchlya, Kodiyatar, Bharai etc.

Population

The total population of Rabari in India is around 10,61,000 which is spreaded across 20 states. The largest proportion of Rabari community lives is Rajasthan which is about 645,000 then followed by Gujarat which has around 3,83,000 people residing and then many other places which have smaller proportion of Rabari people living. Most of the population speaks Gujarati as a medium of communication, but marwari, mewari, kucchi, and other indigenous languages is also been used by the Rabari community. The main occupation of the people is grazing the herds of sheep and cattle and selling the products which are being made by the milk fetched from the cattles.