Ollar Gadba of Koraput

Preface Under the research scheme entitled Ethnographic Survey of the Selected Tribes of Central Iudia (E. S. S. T. C. I.), we were assigned to carry out the field work among the group of people called the Ollar Gadba of Koraput, Orissa. We had already completed the ethnographic study on the Dhurwa of Bastar (M. P.), who are held to be, linguistically speaking, closely related to the Ollari speaking Gadba of Koraput (Orissa). It may be that both these Dravidian speaking groups of people occupy at present the contiguous districts of Bastar (M. P.) and Koraput (Orissa). There is also historical evidence to show that the Bastar-Koraput region (at one time called Chakrakota) formed a single unit under different ruling powers in 4th and 11th centuries. While a detailed comparative study on different aspects of the life of these two neighbouring and linguisti- cally related groups of people will be fruitful in more than one respect, it may be remarked at this stage that there are some common oral traditions that are still current among these groups of people, res- pectively, known as the Dhurwa (Parja) and the Ollar Gadba. These are some of the grounds why we took up the fieldwork among the Ollar Gadba of Koraput district of Orissa and its neighbouring areas.

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