Brill’s Encyclopedia of the Religions of the Indigenous People of South Asia Online

Get access Subject: Asian Studies


Edited by:
Marine Carrin (Editor-in-Chief), University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, and Michel Boivin, Centre for South Asian Studies (CNRS-EHESS), Gérard Toffin, Centre d’Études Himalayennes, Paul Hockings, University of Illinois at Chicago, Raphaël Rousseleau, Université de Lausanne, Tanka Subba, North-Eastern Hill University, Harald Tambs-Lyche, University of de Picardie-Jules Verne (Section Editors)

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Brill’s Encyclopedia of the Religions of the Indigenous People of South Asia strives to reflect the diversity of indigenous cultures of South Asia with its many language groups and religious traditions. Shaped by their own mythologies, these tribal religions differ in form and content from Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity, though variants of the latter traditions have been adopted by some indigenous people. Religion is taken in a broad sense and includes aspects of morality, symbolism, identity formation, environmental concerns, and art. Far from being simple survivals of an earlier stage, these religions often show remarkable capacity for adaptation and change. The approach is contemporary rather than a reconstruction of an anterior state, though it does not overlook relevant historical processes.

More information: Brill.com

Dongria Kond

(16,466 words)

Author(s): Hardenberg, Roland | K. Nayak, Prasanna | Borde, Radhika
Dongria Kond I. Perspectivism in Tribal India – II. Bearing of Religion on the Dongria Kond – III. Inheritors and Custodians of a Sacred KingdomThe Dongria Kond is a community of about 6,000 people according to the 2011 census, who inhabit the Niyamgiri Hills in the Rayagada and Kalahandi districts, Odisha. For years, this group has been in the focus of news reports worldwide due to its struggle against the mining plans of the Vedanta Resources corporation. The community’s name occurs in various spellings, for example …
Date: 2021-11-10

Dongria Kond: Fact Sheet

(501 words)

Author(s): Hardenberg, Roland
The Dongria Kond of Odisha is a community of about 10,000 people who inhabit the Niyamgiri mountain range in eastern India. For years, this group has been in the focus of news reports worldwide due to its struggle against the mining plans of the Vedanta corporation. The community’s name occurs in various spellings, for example Dong(a)ria Kond or Dong(a)ria Kondh. The word “Dongria” is derived from the Odiya word for “hill” or “mountain” ( dongor). The name “Kond” similarly means “mountains” in Dravidian languages and refers to a larger number of different subtribes w…
Date: 2019-11-02

Dongria Kond: Perspectivism in Tribal India

(6,002 words)

Author(s): Hardenberg, Roland
In this article, I relate my previous ethnographic studies of the Dongria Kond in Odisha, India, to the recent “ontological turn” and the concept of “animism” as defined by E. Viveiros de Castro, P. Descola, T. Ingold, and others. N. Bird-David was one of the first anthropologists with research experience in India who used these newly developed approaches in her writings on the food-gathering Nayaka or Naiken (also called Jenu Kurumba) who live in the Nilgiri Mountains in South India. For centra…
Date: 2019-11-02