Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 349

SEPTEMBER, 1929) REMARKS ON THE ANDAMAN ISLANDERS AND THEIR COUNTRY
17
da.
Table of the names for themselves and each other used by the five South
Andaman tribes or Bójigngiji group. Sense. Tribe. Bêa. Balawa. Bôjigyab. Jûwai. Kol. Fresh-water. Bea .Akd-Bea-da. Akat-Bea ..0.Bêa-da .. Oko-Bêye. 0-Béa-che.
lekile. Opposite-side Balara .. Aka-Bala- Akat-Bale ..0-Pole-da .. Oko-Pole- 0.Pole-che. wa-da.
lekile. Speak the Bojigyáb.. Aka-Boji. Akat-B8- 0-Pachik Oko-Pachi--Pachik. language. gyab-da. jigyuåbnga. wår-da. kyar- war-che.
lekile. Patterns cut Júwai .. Akà-Jûwai. Akat-Jûwai .O-Jûwai. Oko-Jûwai Ô-Jûwaion bows. da.
lekile. che. Bitter or salt Kol ..Aka-Kol-da. Akat-Kol .. -Kôl-da .. Oko-Kol. Ö-Kol-che. taste.
lekile. So too Yere, Jéru or Järo for the Aka-Yère Tribe means & (sort of) "canoe " in all the languages and Unge means "a man" in its own language.
An Andamanoso individual, as the people themselves recognise, belongs to a family, which belongs to a sept, which belongs to a tribe, which belongs to a group of tribes or division of the race. The first two of these, without being specifically named, are recognised; the last two have specific names.
The Census proved the existence of twelve tribes of the Andamanese, cach with its clearly defined locality or rather "run," with its own language, and to a certain extent its own separate habits. The tribes are from north to south : Chariâr, Kora, Tabo, Yere, Kede, Juwai, Kôl, Bôjigyáb, Balawa, Béa, on the Great Andaman. The Önge-Járawa occupies, with its Jára wa division, the interior of the South Andaman, the North Sentinel, and parts of Rutland Island; with its Unge division parts of Rutland Island and the Little Andaman. In the Archipelago is the Balawa tribo. Portman in his History divides the Andamanege into twelve tribes, necessarily omitting the Kôra and Tabó, but dividing the Jarawas into three tribes according as they inhabit South Andaman, Rutland Island, and the North Sentinel. It is to that painstaking and accurate observer, Mr. E. H. Man, that we are indebted for the true differentiation of the tribes.
In their present depopulated condition the friendly tribes have amalgamated, as so many savages have done before them elsewhere in other parts of the world in similar circumstances. Thus, though the Kôra, TAbô and Yère still in 1901 kept more aloof than the rest in the jungles of the North Andaman, the whole of the remainder are thoroughly mixed up nt the Home and practically throughout the Great Andaman and the Archipelago. This is a matter of the generation now passing away, and I well recollect about 1876, though the Bðjigyáb were then known to us, tho "coming in " of the first Balawa from the Archipelago and of the first Chåri&r from the extreme north, and the difficulty experienced in communicating with them.
In reading the following remarks on the tribes it must always be borne in mind that the statements therein made refer largely to a state of things already passed away and never likely to be revived. The reader can without difficulty use his discretion in separating what is from what has been in the course of his perusal..
The Andamanese tribes are by themselves divided into three distinct groups, having certain salient characteristics: the forms of the huts, bows and arrows, of the canoes, of ornamentation, fomale clothing, bair dressing, and utensils, of tattooing, and of language common generally to the group, but differing in details and sometimes entirely from those of other groups. Judged by this standard the tribal affinities may be thus stated : Northern or Yerewa Group, ChariAr, Kora, TabÔ, Yère, Kede; Southern or Bajigngiji Group, Bóa, Balawa, Bôjigyáb, Jûwai, Kol: Outer Group, Unge-Járawa, who do not tattoo. Some of the tribes are divided into septs, fairly well defined under headmen and with a local area of their own, but not under any separate designation.