The Gond Tribe: A Tribe That Once Ruled Kingdoms

1.1 How big is the Gond community?

The Gond are the largest tribal group in India. The Indian Express puts them at more than 1.2 crore people. One crore is ten million, so that is over 12 million people.

1.2 Where do they live?

The Gond live across central India. The school history textbook names Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. A museum note says they are concentrated in Madhya Pradesh.

2.1 What language do the Gond speak?

The Gond speak Gondi. Gondi belongs to the Dravidian family of languages. More exactly, it sits in the Gondi-Manda subgroup of the South Central branch.

2.2 Are all Gond the same?

No. The Gond have many subgroups, clans and lineages. One subgroup is the Pardhan Gond. Pardhan priests recite the stories, histories and family trees of the Gond at important rituals.

3.1 What does Gondwana mean?

Gondwana means the country inhabited by Gonds. It was a vast forested region. It was the Gond homeland in central India.

3.2 How did the Gond live?

The Gond practised shifting cultivation. In this method, farmers clear a patch of forest, grow crops for a few years, then move on.

3.3 How were the Gond ruled?

The large tribe was divided into many smaller clans. Each clan had its own raja.

4.1 When did big Gond kingdoms appear?

The Delhi Sultans were growing weaker. At about that time, a few large Gond kingdoms began to dominate the smaller Gond chiefs. So the Gond moved from clan rule to kingdoms.

4.2 How big was Garha Katanga?

The Akbar Nama, the history of Akbar’s reign, mentions the Gond kingdom of Garha Katanga. It had 70,000 villages. This kingdom was also rich. It earned wealth by trapping wild elephants and exporting them to other kingdoms.

4.3 How was a kingdom run?

The kingdom’s administration was becoming centralised. It was divided into tiers. Units of 84 villages are recorded. These were split into units of 12 villages each.

5.1 What did big states do to Gond society?

Gond society was basically equal at first. As large states grew, it slowly split into unequal classes. This is linked to the rise of states among tribal people.

5.2 Who gained land?

Brahmanas received land grants from the Gond rajas.

5.3 What happened to the kingdoms after Garha Katanga fell?

The Gond kingdoms survived for some time. They became much weaker. Later they struggled, without success, against the stronger Bundelas and Marathas.

6.1 Who was Rani Durgavati?

Dalpat, son of the Gond raja Sangram Shah, married Princess Durgawati. She was the daughter of the Chandel Rajput raja of Mahoba. Dalpat died early. She then ruled as regent for her young son Vir Narayan, from 1550 until 1564.

6.2 What happened in 1564?

Akbar sent forces led by Asaf Khan I to take Garha. Durgavati fought back in the Battle of Narrai, though badly outnumbered. She was killed. NCERT adds that she preferred death to surrender.

The two sources differ by one year. The article uses 1564, as the Indian Express does.

6.3 How is she remembered?

The Gonds revere her across the Gondwana region as a war heroine. In 2024 year-long events for her 500th birth anniversary were announced.

6.4 Was Rani Kamlapati the same queen?

No. Rani Kamlapati was a different Gond queen of the 18th century. In 2021 Madhya Pradesh asked to rename Habibganj station after her.

From the Indian Express reports of 2021 and 2024.

7.1 Where did Gond painting begin?

Gond painting began in the Gond regions of Madhya Pradesh. The Pardhan community drew it on the inside walls of village houses. The paintings show characters from Pardhan oral stories.

7.2 What changed in the 1980s?

Gonds had long painted auspicious designs on floors and walls of their homes. In the early 1980s Jangarh Singh Shyam (1960 to 2001) became one of the first Pardhan Gond artists to paint on paper and canvas.

7.3 What does the art show?

His work shows Gond gods and cosmology, folk deities, and lush scenes of jungle animals and the natural world.

8.1 Which mistakes are common?

• The Gond are the largest tribal group, over 1.2 crore people.
• Gondi is Dravidian, not Indo-Aryan.
• Rani Durgavati and Rani Kamlapati are two different queens.
• Sources differ on the year of the attack: 1564 or 1565. Check which year the question wants.