Dumal

Dumal, also called as Dumala, is a community found mostly in western Odisha, India.

Dumal caste is mainly an agrarian dependent caste. During and prior to British rule, people of the Dumal caste were landlords and zamindars. They provided lands to peasants for cultivation of various crops & collect the money or produce as tax from them so as to pay it to the rulers or officials. Some Zamindars used to function autonomous of the rulers and dictated rules and laws within their village and zamindari reaches. [1][2] They are distributed through the districts of Boudh, Phulbani, Balangir, Sonepur, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Angul and Debgarh.

This caste is categorised as an Other Backward Class according to Reservation system of India.[3][4][5][6]

History

There are several theories and legends related to the origin of the Dumal caste. Some of them are mentioned below. According to survey of British India government on the Tribes and Castes of central provinces, the book published mentioned that the caste originally came from Odisha. The name Dumal was derived from the village of Dumba Handapa in the former Athmallik state (Now Athmallik Sub-Division of Angul district).[5]

Population

According to Ashutosh Kalta, undertaking the historical observations, evidences and using statistical population growth projection method, he mentioned that the population of dumal caste could never grow constantly throughout the history due to constant wars as they lived in the tri junction point of Kingdoms (Chauhan's, Bhanja's and ever changing Odisha rulers) for which they had to get involved in wars and provide warriors to their feudal rulers. The famines also had a major affect on the growth of population due to their dependency on monsoon for cultivation, with the western odisha region renowned for its dry season( major reason for cotton farming).

Dumal people were affected by the Orissa famine of 1866. Loss of agricultural production in addition with dengue, cholera and malaria lead to the wipe out of Dumal caste population in high death toll. During the census of 1901, India, there were only 41,000 people belonging to the dumal caste which shows the caste is not very old and had formed recently in event of time and thus could spread only to the western part of the state. Population of Dumal caste grew in the 20th century at quadruple times due to the availability of medical health care and proper education leading to low infant death rate and increased life expectancy.

Traditions

Marriages are performed with the help of a Brahmin priest and Vedic rituals are followed.

After the death of a family member they mourn for 12 days, in which they can't cook their own food and someone other than the family has to cook food for them. On the night of 13th day, the family members take turn to call their deceased members in the village by taking a specific amount of bowl of rice grains. On calling their deceased member if an animal or bird sound is heard then it means that the deceased person used to like that person the most and answered that person's call and has returned to the earth as that form. On returning home the rice bowl is measured, if the bowl has surplus amount of grains then it is believed that he returned to the house happily and if he does not respond to the call of anyone then the process is kept repeating by all family members.

References
  1. K. S. Singh (1992). People of India: Odisha (2 pts.). Anthropological Survey of India. ISBN 9788170462934.
  2. K. S. Singh (1992). People of India. Anthropological Survey of India. pp. 88–. ISBN 9788185579092.
  3. Gazette of India, 27 October 1994. Retrieved on 24 July 2014.
  4. Russell, R. V.; Hira Lal, Rai Bahadur (1916). The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India (Volume I). Macmillan and Co.
  5. Russell, R. V.; Hira Lal, Rai Bahadur (1916). The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India (Volume II). Macmillan and Co.
  6. Hutton 1963, pp. 50, 257.

Sources

Further reading
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