The Pengo Porajas of Koraput

Preface Sometime in 1964 Shri S. Bhattacharya, the then Linguist of the Central India Station of Nagpur of the Anthropological Survey of India, stated in one of the seminar meetings that the Pengo (as well as the Manda) speakers occupy the tract of the country in Central India, which roughly extends from Raipur in Madhya Pradesh the Ghats of Koraput in Orissa. According to him, the Pengos form, linguistically speaking, a distinct group, being separate from the Khond (consisting of the Kui and the Kuvi speakers) as well as from the various Gondi speaking people and the so-called Parji- Kolami cluster of people, although, to be sure, all the above men- tioned ethnic groups living at present in different areas of Central India are commonly included within the larger Dravidian family.

After completing the Ethnographic survey of the Ollar Gadaba of Koraput district (Orissa) and other official assignments, I was required to take up-thanks to the interest shown by Shri H. K. Rakshit, the then Officer-in-Charge of the Central India Station, Nagpur of the Anthropological Survey of India-the ethnographic survey of the Pengo of Koraput district (Orissa). It was decided by us that I should first ascertain how far the Pengo exist as a distinct ethnic group in the district of Koraput in Orissa; and then I was required to delineate the maximum concentration of their popula- tion in the area of the study. I was also expected to collect some useful data having a bearing on their social organisation as well as on their religious beliefs and practices.

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