The art of weaving beautiful baskets from sikki and kans grass

Parbati Chaudhary shows her creations.

Last September I met with two inspiring women – Parbati Chaudhary and Naina Chaudhary. Parbati, from Padariya Village, Saptari, lost her husband but didn't lose her hope. She now leads 100 women weaving baskets, mats, bags and other daily use items from sikki, elephant grass, silver grass, wallichia leaves, pater (a kind of reed growing in wetlands), paper reeds and corn leaves collected from wetlands, forests and fields. She sells the handcrafted items in the domestic market and has also exported them as far as the US with the support of WEAN Multipurpose Cooperative Ltd.

Some of Parbati's creations.

"The women weave handicrafts in their free time which otherwise would be spent gossiping or checking Facebook posts," said Parbati. "Now they're financially independent."

Some of Parbati's creations 

A basket made from sikki grass with beautiful floral designs, called dhakki in Nepali and daliya in the local language fetches around 120-130 USD for Parbati. But she says the pattern is very difficult for the women weavers and only some Tharu women with a high level of patience agree to weave the dhakki with intricate designs.

Naina Chaudhary weaving baskets from wool

Naina Chaudhary, from Haripur Village in Saptari, due to unavailability of sikki during all seasons, weaves the same dhakki from wool. She sells them at the local market and each one brings her about Rs. 500. “I learnt the tricks of the trade from Parbati,” she said. “However, I decided to start a business of my own.”

Some of Naina's creations

Naina makes beautiful silver grass handicrafts that fetch better prices but there's not much demand for the fancy items she can produce at local markets. Women like her need a helping hand to get these products to national and international markets.

Sikki and elephant grass used for making baskets

Not only Parbati and Naina, but many Tharu and Maithil women from the southern plains of Nepal have been weaving baskets of all shapes and sizes from the kans grass since ages and the art has been passed from one generation to another. The mothers and grandmothers have been teaching the young ones to weave baskets out of kans, considered useless, and sikki, regarded as pure.

Kharhi, the base material for weaving baskets

Let’s have a look at how they weave these beautiful baskets. The women collect the kans stems just before they bear flower (they call it gabaha in the Tharu language). Then they take out the flowery filaments and leave the stems to dry. Since the stem then becomes hollow, it can be wound into any shape and size.

A basket without its base - it is added later.

The upper and lower parts of the stem are trimmed. They can be used as the base material to wound the kans stem around. They also collect the kans grass from much earlier than their flowering stage. The stalks are usually hard then and can be used as the base material for the baskets. People also use fistfuls of kans grass from this stage of growth as a broom.

Takuwa, the needle like equipment to weave baskets

The gabaha is soaked in water so that it becomes flexible. A takuwa, needle-like equipment with a rounded end to hold on while weaving a basket, is needed, besides the grass of course, to weave the baskets. Taking a fistful of the kans grass, the gabaha is wound around it. Then it is swirled to give a round shape binding the framework with the gabaha. With the help of the takuwa, holes are made in the structure and gabaha is inserted in those holes binding the kans till it takes the shape a conical basket without a base, which is added later.

Dhakki made from sikki are in high demand.

The beautiful baskets called pauti and daliya in the local language of the Terai are woven similarly. First, sikki stems are collected and torn apart into two equal splinters. Then they are left to dry. Once dried, they are coloured.

Creativity has no bounds.

The coloured sikki splinters are soaked in water and as in the case of kans grass baskets, with the help of a takuwa the colourful sikki splinters are wound around kans grass. They create beautiful colourful patterns on the basket by further weaving sikki splinters on the basket – that requires some real skills!

Republished from ECS.

Pan fried pumpkin blossoms and bottle gourd skin fritters

Pumpkin blossoms

Most people love pumpkins whether green or orange. However, have you ever tried eating pumpkin blossoms, Nepali-style? It’s a delicacy in the southern plains of Nepal and they taste finger-licking good! Called kadima ke phula ke tikiya in eastern Nepal, it’s also a famous dish in the eastern Indian state Odisha, where they call it kakharu fula bhaja.

Here’s how you can prepare pan-fried pumpkin blossoms at home:

Pumpkin flowers after removing the pistils

Collect pumpkin flowers and remove the pistils. Make sure the petals are intact and dust any ants, aphids and beetles from them. Wash the petals with cold water and let them drain.

Rice flour batter ingredients

Prepare a batter of rice flour, turmeric powder, chilli powder and add other spices and salt to taste. If you want the fritters to be crispy, use coarse rice flour.

Covering the flowers with rice flour batter

Dip the petals in the batter while you heat mustard oil in a pan.

Frying the flowers in mustard oil

Fry the blossoms and turn over as the they turn yellowish brown. Make sure the flower inside the batter gets cooked well. Once you drain the oil from the fritter, it’s ready to eat. It tastes best when served with puffed rice.

A good thing about rural lifestyles is that they try to minimise wastage and practise sustainability. Called lauka ke chhala ke tikiya, fritters made from bottle gourd skin are another delicacy that is rarely found in other areas.

Here’s how to make these tasty fritters for yourself:

Bottle gourd

Wash the bottle gourd. Cut it into two halves. Rest the flat part on a plate and with the help of a knife, peeler or grater scrape the skin off the bottle gourd. Make sure you only remove the green skin and that it is shredded into fine pieces.

Scraping the skin of bottle gourd

Make a batter of rice flour, turmeric powder, chilli powder, spices and salt and as with the pan-fried pumpkin blossoms, if you want to make the fritters crispy, use coarse rice flour.

Finely grated bottle gourd skin

Put the bottle gourd skin into the batter and shape into flat round fritters.

Ready-to-eat bottle gourd skin fritters

Heat mustard oil in a pan and fry the fritters on both sides. Again, drain to remove excess oil and they’re ready to eat. Like the pan fried pumpkin blossoms, these fritters taste best with either puffed or beaten rice.

Republished from ECS.

Nepalis as profiled by the book ‘The People of India’

The New York Public Library Digital Collections has released The People of India in the public domain. You can now view, download and use the images from the rare book.

Cover of the book 'People of India'. Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Edited by J. Forbes Watson and John William Kaye, the book comprises three volumes and has a collection of photographic illustrations with descriptive letterpress. Published in the year 1868 by the India Museum, the book gives you a rare view of the races and tribes of that time.

Profiled in page 117 of the third volume of the book, here’s an image of a Tharu couple from Shahjahanpur, now in Uttar Pradesh of India. The writer duo describe the couple as ‘Tharoos. (Low Caste Hindoos: Probably Aboriginal.) Shahjehanpore.’

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Further, you can see images of people from Nepal (written ‘Nipal’) and the neighbouring Indian states.

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Collections

Note: All the above images have been arranged in alphabetical order.

Different shapes, one taste -- dhikri, bagiya and bhakka

Bagiya is famous, especially in southern plains of Eastern Nepal.

Among several finger-licking dishes made from rice flour, dhikri, bagiya, and bhakka are popular, especially in the southern plains of Nepal. While dhikri, tubular and cylindrical in shape, is popular among the Tharus in Western Nepal, bagiya, which is flat, is a favorite among people living in Eastern Nepal. Bhakka, the round version, is especially popular among the Rajbanshis and others in Eastern Nepal.

While dhikri and bhakka are made by just shaping the rice dough and steaming it, bagiya is generally stuffed with lentils or mashed potatoes. Dhikri is prepared principally during the Magh or Maghe Sankrati festival while bagiya is prepared especially during the Deepawali festival.

Dhikri is popular among Tharus of Western Nepal.

Let’s see how bagiya is made:

The rice is soaked in water and ground in a dhiki, the traditional rice milling machine. These days rice mills have replaced the dhikis. However, flour ground in a dhiki tastes much better than that ground in a rice mill.

The flour is then sifted and fried. Warm water is mixed with it and it is kneaded enough to make the dough tender. Steamed lentils or mashed potatoes, spices, ginger and salt are added to the dough and it is shaped by hand into a round, and flattened with the palms at the middle while both ends are left protruding. Then they are steamed over a clay pot of boiling water.

The steamed bagiya is served with chutney or vegetable curry. In Eastern Nepal, the Tharus and others celebrate the Govardhan Pooja (the day following Laxmi Pooja) by worshipping their agriculture tools and cattle, and eating bagiya. Every household makes sure to prepare bagiya from the rice flour of newly harvested rice on that day.

Bhakka, originating from Eastern Nepal, is now becoming popular in main cities.

As these dishes are made by steaming rice flour dough, all of them are not only delicious but also healthy. However, these tasty dishes are still struggling to find a place in eateries, although a few outlets have started selling bhakka, dhikri and bagiya in cities including Kathmandu, we are happy to say!

Republished from ECS.

These phrases and idioms show the relationship between Tharus and their cattle

Monochrome bull in alley photo by Adam Sherez ( mr_sherez) on Unsplash

No doubt, Tharus have been tilling the earth for centuries. And their partners have been none other than the oxen. While the oxen have been treated as mere animals and have been the origin of the metaphor ‘goru’ in Nepali for morons, the Tharus have had deep respect for these animals. Have a look at few phrases and idioms in Tharu language that further establishes this fact. These idioms also showcase the Tharu way of life.

Bahaut maugi me marad upas, bahut marad me barad upas

This idiom means ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’. It says: “If you have too many women [in the house], a man has to remain hungry; if you have too many men [in the house], an ox has to remain hungry.” Although sexist, the idiom shows how the household chores including cooking was assigned to women while other outdoor activities were taken care of by men including feeding and grazing the cattle.

Mangni barad ke dant dekhe gelai kahi

I haven’t come across an English idiom equivalent to this one. This idiom means you need to have money with you if you’re willing to buy something. It says: “Why to undertake seeing the teeth of an ox, if you don’t have money [in your pockets]?” Buying and selling oxen was common between farmers and traders, and while buying oxen it was mandatory to have a look at the pair of teeth the animals had. So as to ascertain the age of the oxen!

Har ne barad dhodhai marad

This idiom is about people who brag a lot. It says: “[Some people] brag a lot though they don’t even have a plough and oxen.” Have you ever heard the Chinese proverb “Great boast, small roast”? This exactly matches in meaning with the Tharu idiom.

Jau dekhi barad maina, ta ladi yahai par se dyadi baina

This idiom means leap at the opportunity (to do something). It says: “If you see a suitable ox (for ploughing or pulling a cart), give the advance from the river bank [where you’re standing].” It shows the urgency and says “don’t even think of crossing the river to get to the seller or the ox, just hand over the advance to seal the deal.”

The three tasty nuggets from the southern plains of Nepal

Republished from ECS.

As the saying goes ‘make hay while the sun shines', local communities in Nepal have the habit of saving food items for the rainy season when vegetables are scarce. They have been making gundruk, sinki, and pickles along with drying vegetables to save for rainy days since time immemorial. Among those several food items, namely adauri, chiknauri and fulauri are three nuggets that you must taste while travelling to the southern plains of Nepal.

Adauri

Adauri are made from black gram, which is soaked in water overnight and then dehusked the following day. This dehusked black gram is then left to dry in the sun for two to three days and then milled into flour. The flour is mixed with water to form a gooey dough and shaped into small nuggets, which are spread either on a mat or a nanglo (a flat, round bamboo tray) and left to dry in the sun for a day or two. A thin layer of mustard oil is used to coat the surface before spreading out the adauri so that they don’t stick to the mat or nanglo. Once dry they are stored in an airtight dry container. They tastes superb and are full of protein. However, it's tricky to cook. You need to fry it before adding spices, water and salt to taste. And if you fry it more than needed, it further stiffens and you won't be able to chew it. But if you fry it less than required, it smells like raw black gram flour. However, if fried to a reddish brown colour and then cooked as any other curry, it softens and tastes great. That's why, especially in the southern plains, a newly married bride is asked to cook adauri when she arrives at the groom's house, to check her culinary skills!

Adauri is also cooked together with other vegetables and when it’s combined with potatoes, bottle gourd or brinjal (eggplant) it tastes much better. Although adauri is made mainly from black gram flour, it is occasionally also made from other lentils like green gram. The green gram adauri and brinjal make a great combination.

Chiknauri

Another nugget, in fact, is a super nugget since it is made from flaxseed which we all know is a super food. Called chiknauri (beware, it's a vulgar word in Nepali) in the southern plains of Nepal, flaxseeds are bound together with a black gram paste and salt is added to taste. The nuggets, again like adauri, are spread out on a mat or nanglo with a thin layer of mustard oil and left to dry in the sun. Once dry, they can be stored in an air-tight container and fried up whenever you want to eat them. They’re crispy and tasty.

Fulauri

Fulauri or rice flour cracker, is our final southern food and it’s pretty simple to make. Rice flour is boiled together with water till it becomes sticky and gooey. Then salt is added to taste, together with a bit of carom seeds and edible colour before the batter is allowed to cool. Then small nuggets are made from the mixture and left to dry in the sun. These can also be fried and are then ready to eat as snacks.

Special food combinations from the Terai that sound absurd but taste amazing

Republished from ECS.

Identifying ideal food combinations is not only a culinary art but also a tedious process. If you get the combination right, the food not only tastes amazing but also has several health benefits. However, if the combination goes haywire, it might lead even to food poisoning. But we are lucky to inherit so many different food traditions handed down to us by our elders. Let’s have a look at some unique food combinations from the southern plains of Nepal.

Khesari saag.

Grass peas and brinjal (Khesari – bhanta)
Grass peas (Lathyrus sativus), grown as a forage in Europe, is considered a poor man’s pigeon pea (rahar ko dal) in the Terai. Although there’s a common belief that its prolonged use can cause paralysis, people love the grass peas and brinjal (eggplant or aubergine) curry in the southern plains.

Here’s how you cook it: Cut khesari leaves into fine pieces and chop the brinjal into fine cubes. Get your spices ready to start with. Then heat few spoonful of mustard oil, fry finely with chopped garlic, onion, ginger and chilly pieces. As the onion turns brown, add the brinjal pieces and fry them for a while. Then slowly add the grass peas and cook for a while. As you cook the curry, add the spices (turmeric, chilly, coriander and cumin powder) and water and cook on low heat. You can eat the curry with boiled rice but it tastes better when eaten with puffed rice.

Bottle gourd and mustard greens (Gonja)
Have you ever tried cooking bottle gourd and mustard greens together? The mixed curry of bottle gourd and mustard greens, called gonja in Eastern Nepal, is a local delicacy during the onset of the winter season.

Here’s how you cook it: Scrape the bottle gourd and cut it into small pieces. Also cut small pieces of mustard leaves. Just like other curries, start with frying onion, chillies, ginger and garlic pieces. You can also fry fenugreek and cumin seeds for a unique taste. Once the onion gets brown, add the bottle gourd pieces and fry till they pieces become a bit translucent. Then add the mustard greens. Fry them both and cook on low heat. Finally add a bit of water and add a pinch of rice flour, if available. Let it cook for a while—it'll be ready in few minutes. Serve it with either rice or puffed rice. They also cook bottle gourd and sinki (fermented and dried greens) together. It’s also called gonja but is a bit sour in taste.

Drumsticks and flaxseed.

Drumstick and flaxseed (moonga – aalash)
Drumstick, flaxseed and bay leaf make a yummy curry. Just roast the seeds and grind them into powder form. While cooking the drumsticks start by frying the bay leaves, dried red chillies and nicely sliced onions in mustard oil. As the onion slices turn brown add the drumstick pieces and slices of potatoes to taste and cook on low heat. Add cumin, coriander, turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste and salt to taste and add warm water. Finally, add the flaxseed powder for thick gravy and your dish is ready!

Jhilli

Jhilli – dahi curry
Jhilli, made of chickpea flour, looks like a jalebi but is salty in taste. Fried in mustard oil or vanaspati ghee, they are one of the most sought after snacks in haats, the weekly markets of the southern plains. And if you cook it in a thick gravy of chopped onion, spices and dahi (curd), it makes a fabulous curry.

Elephant foot yam and mango ginger (Oal- amadi)
We talked about elephant foot yam aka oal curry in our September 2018 issue. When mixed with mango ginger aka amadi, the oal tastes much better. The amadi looks like ginger but tastes like raw mango and it makes a unique combination with oal. You’ll just need to grind elephant foot yam and mango ginger, together with chilly and spices. Then dry the mixture in the sun first before packing it in a bottle with mustard oil and salt to taste. It's finger licking good!

Fresh bamboo shoots and flaxseed (Tama – aalash)
The fresh bamboo shoots are a bit bitter when cooked without treating with baking soda. But when boiled with baking soda, the bitterness goes away. And once garnished with flaxseed powder, the slurpy bamboo shoot curry tastes amazing! It's a peculiar dish cooked in the southern plains of Nepal and since the flaxseed has been deemed a superfood, the curry, if introduced to a wider audience, is set to be a hit among foodies.

Koiralo leaves and flaxseed
The Bauhinia variegata L. flowers are delicious to eat as a pickle or chutney. Called koiralo in Nepali and koilar in the local language of the southern plains of Nepal, its tender leaves are eaten as a popular vegetable. And if garnished with flaxseed powder just like the fresh bamboo shoots, it tastes superb!

The food of southern Nepal is diverse and delicious – give one of the above recipes a try, or ask for these dishes at local eateries the next time you visit the plains.

Looks like ginger, tastes like mango

Republished from ECS.

Amadi looks like ginger but tastes like raw mango.

If you go to the southern plains of eastern Nepal and ask for local snacks at roadside eateries, you’ll most probably be served a savory mixture of beaten and puffed rice, chickpea curry, fritters, fried chili, and a special chutney made from amadi.

Amadi looks like ginger or turmeric, but tastes like a raw mango. In eastern Nepal, a mango is called aam, and ginger is called aadi, so these two words might have been combined to derive the word ‘amadi’. In the hilly region, it is called aaphaledo, while in western Nepal, it is called aaphardi, or aamhardi—a combination of aap, or aam, for mango, and hardi for turmeric. Its English name is mango ginger or white turmeric.

Amadi chutney, tangy but delicious, is also a must-have item at community feasts in the eastern   Terai. Made by grinding amadi and chili together and adding mustard oil and salt to taste, the chutney not only adds that extra special flavor, but also helps digestion.

Grown sparsely in the Terai and mid-hills, this root is also used as a medicine. It’s been used in Ayurveda and Greek medicine as a cure for all types of itching and skin diseases and as an appetizer. Recently, researchers in Germany have discovered that it is a good medicine for obesity. Tharus in eastern Nepal believe that it even cures paralysis, and is an antidote for the effects of heat wave.

While different types of pickles can be made from amadi, the oal (elephant foot yam) and amadi pickle stands out among all. For that, you’ll need to gather mango ginger, elephant foot yam, tamarind, green chilies, and other spices. Clean and cut the mango ginger and elephant foot yam into small slices and let them dry for a day. Then, crush them into fine pieces together with tamarind, chilies, and ginger. Add turmeric powder, other spices, and salt to taste, and mix them well. Leave the mixture to dry in the sun again for a day or two and then pack it into a bottle and add mustard oil to it. The pickle can be eaten from the first day itself, but it tastes much better if consumed a few days after it’s made.

Faceless in History

Written by Tej Narayan Panjiar

Republished from the July/Aug 1993 issue of Himal magazine. Used with permission.

A charter at Chapagaon. Photo by Bikas Rauniar. Used with permission.

The Tharus could not have hid out in the jungle for aeons waiting to be discovered during the malaria eradication campaign of the 1950s. They must have a history of their own.

Henry Ambrose Oldfield, in his book Sketches from Nepal, describes the Tharu of the Nepal Tarai as “a puny, badly developed and miserable-looking race, and probably belonging to the same original stock as the natives of the adjacent Plains of India”.

Apart from the extreme cultural bias of this description, the belittling terminology was not borne out even in Old field's day, when the robust forest-dwelling Tharus were described by another contemporary book as being “chiefly employed in the difficult and dangerous task of catching wild elephants". And a population group that had defied mighty malaria itself could hardly have been "badly developed".

As for Tharu origins, rather than his perfunctory hypothesis, Oldfield might have delved into the possibility that the Tharu have Mongolian blood, but he probably was not interested.

Unfortunately, things have hardly changed since Oldfield's days, and successive British writers and historians, as well as the subsequent South Asian scholars have, by and large, shown similar weaknesses with regard to the Tharu society and its history. As one of the most disenfranchised groups of the Ganga basin, it is perhaps natural that this should happen to the Tharus.

Sympathetic Mention
What were the Tharus doing in the malarial jungles and how did they get there? No social scientist has yet felt a need to study history of the Tharus in depth. They make up an invisible community which makes an appearance only when it suits the interests of the mainstream historians. In the case of Nepal, such a time arrived when malaria eradication finally cleared the jungles and it was imperative to say something about the resilient population of this region.

Even so, the interest of modern historians of Nepal and India seems limited to brief sympathetic mention of Tharus as an exploited population group, and how they have resilience against malaria. Some bizarre theories are also propounded as to the Tharu's origin. When they finally find the time to delve into the Tharus' past, researchers will find that they have not been faceless in history, and have in fact been active participants in the happenings of the Himalayan region and adjacent plains.

For example, there exist many lalmohars (land grant documents) awarded by the kings of Palpa, Makwanpur and Nepal Valley to Tharus for their bravery, "extraordinary sense of duty", or other reasons. Such documents can be found from Morang district all the way west to Kanchanpur. There are lalmohars from the kings of Kathmandu and Palpa which grant full enjoyment of Tharus to Tarai lands (except the tithe) if they are able to control the wild animals and the spirits of the jungles.

Mahesh Chandra Regmi, the economic historian, in his book Landownership in Nepal during the Nineteenth Century seeks to prove that the Tarai lands belonged to the Thakuris, Ranas and Bahuns. While this is doubtless partly true, it must be remembered that, at best, the hill people came down for three months in mid-winter, and were gone by the end of February. They did not know what the Tharus produced in their lands, and were content to let the Tharus be the defacto landowners.

Thus, the Tharus were the masters of much of the Tarai lands, but there are numerous lalmohars to prove that they also had de jure title over vast tracts. For instance, one such lalmohar sanctions land in today’s Parsa district south of Kathmandu in favour of the family of Darpnarayan Garwar Tharu, for "gallantry" shown in a war between Makwanpur and southern marauders. There are many such lalmohars available for other parts of the Tarai as well.

The very fact of the linear habitation of Nepal through the length of Nepal's Tarai tends to prove that they spread out and inhabited this expanse over a long historical period. Unfortunately, we know little about this period. The priests and nobles of India and Nepal have always worked well together when the question at issue does not touch upon their rival claims upon one another. When it comes to the Tharus, therefore, these groups have found it mutually convenient to relegate the Tharus to a historical corner, the implication being that these are barbarians with no history.

Rajasthan, Rajasthan
An attempt to write the social history of the Tharus is problematic, and credit goes to anthropologist Dor Bahadur Bista for at least having made a start in People of Nepal (HMG Nepal, 1967). But other historians are satisfied with fanciful notions about Tharu origins that do injustice to the community.

With no evidence to support the contention, some have claimed that the Tharus are descended from those that fled from the Thar Desert in Rajasthan during the attack of Allauddin Khilji in the 12th century and Emperor Akbar in the 16th century. Baburam Acharya, a Nepali historian of stature, has accepted this thesis and stated that many Rajput soldiers were killed by Akbar's forces and that the women of those soldiers fled to the jungles of Nepal with their servants. The Tharus are supposed to be the progeny of these mistresses and their servants.

Some innocent/ crafty modern-day Tharus have taken satisfaction in this explanation, possibly because it links the community to the glorious Rajputs of Rajasthan. The reason the Tharus lost the sacred thread, it is reasoned, is because they gave up warfare and adopted agriculture. (That perhaps they were not originally Hindus is indicated from an order that was issued to enforce the Muluki Ain (1854) among Tharus who lived between Morang and Dang-Deokhuri. Among other things, the order decrees that Tharus are not to eat pork or drink liquor, and that males are not to marry maternal cousin sisters).

Rajasthan lies to the south and west of Delhi, which was the seat of the Muslim kings and emperors. Why would the bevy of doubtlessly brave Rajput ladies insist on travelling through Mughal territory to end up in the jungles of the lower Himalaya when they could have fled easily southwards to the hills of the Satpura and Vindhya ranges?

A theory propounded by Iswor Baral, presently the Vice Chancellor of the Royal Nepal Academy, seems more plausible than the 'flight from Rajasthan' myth. Baral, who grew up among the Tharus and knows the community well, is of the view that the Tharus are descended from a community that was persecuted and banished northwards during the expansion of the Vajjii Republic. According to the Buddhist scholar Ashwagosa, this was a flourishing state during the Sakyamuni’s time. From geographical history, we know that the Vajjii territory incorporated Champaran, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga districts in present-day Bihar.

This would explain why, as Baral theorises, the Tharus call all non-Tharu population to the south by the name "Vajiya". This term has now even entered the Nepali language, "bajiya" meaning "uncouth". This theory must, of course, stand the rigours of academic reasoning, which will probably happen when more scholars take an interest in Tharu history.

Sakya of Lumbini

Octoradii from Lumbini. 

 
The Tharus certainly were not a community that hid out in the forest for eons waiting to be discovered during the malaria eradication campaign of the 1960s. Serious work on their antiquity would probably reveal interesting linkages with the main stream of South Asian history. Could it be, for example, that the Sakyamuni Buddha was a Tharu?

The first and foremost principle laid down by the Buddha has been named Theravada. But according to its Pali rendition, it is Theragatha, that is, the story of the Tharu. It is though t by some that the Sakyamuni modelled the organisation of his sangha on a community such as his own. It is significant that the Sakya seem not to have the Varna system, and they were isolated to the extent that they were self-governing and their polity was of a form not envisaged in Brahminical theory.

The fact that the Sakyamuni's birthplace in Lumbini is still in the midst of a Tharu settled area might be one indication that they are the original inhabitants of this area. A. Fuhrer, who discovered the Lumbini site, was himself of the view that Tharus are the descendants of the Sakyas, though he was unable to prove his case.

Excavations done at Tilaurakot, the site of the palace of the Sakyamuni's father King Suddhodhana, have brought up some 3rd century artifacts (contemporary to the Vajjii) that deserve further study. Some of the bricks are stamped with the octoradii circle, which is the mark of the "turning of the wheel of the law" throughout the Buddhist world of Southeast Asia, Japan, China, and also in the Ashokan inscriptions. Another stamp bears the mark of the trisul. On the walls of the thatched huts of the Tharus today, one finds frescos that carry identical marks of the octoradii circle and trisul.

As followers of the Buddha, were the Tharus persecuted by the Brahminical forces, and is this why they were forced into the forests, where the 20th century finally found them? As one scholar wrote in 1896, “The clan and the disciples of Buddha were so ruthlessly persecuted that all were either slain, exiled or made to change their faith. There is scarcely a case on record where a religious persecution was so successfully carried out as that by which Buddhism was driven out of its place of birth.”

Taking this line of thought a step further, it is probable that as the Tharus fled persecution, they not only entered the Tarai jungle but that some also fled further north to the Valley of Kathmandu. There are several unanswered questions in the history of the Valley that could perhaps be explained if the Tharu element were to be introduced.

Fish Lovers
Of Manadeva, said to be the founder of the Licchhavi dynasty (464 AD), there is no suggestion that he was a Licchhavi. It was only 126 years later that his descendant Sivadeva I laid claim to Licchhavi lineage. And it is Sivadeva who had a charter inscribed in stone to the people of Tharu Drang (Tharu Village), which is the present-day village of Chapagaon in Lalitpur District. The inscription, which is to be found in Chapagaon today, reduces the tax to the people of Tharu Drang on different kinds of fish. Tharus, it need hardly be stated, are fish lovers to this day.

Historians Dilli Raman Regmi and Dhana Bajra Bajracharya went to great lengths to try and identify the different kinds of fish that are named in the inscription, such as Kastika, Mukta, Bhukundika and Rajagraba, Despite complicated semantic analysis, they failed to identify these alien names. A Tharu would have told them that Kastika is a fish that can be bought even today in the Indra Chowk market. The standard name of this fish is Gainchi, but in colloquial usage it is sometimes known as Kastika, a term which indicates that the fish does not spoil as easily as other fish.

They were unable to identify a fish named Bhukundika, because, again a Tharu would have told them, Bhukundika is not a fish. It is instead a clam-type slug which is found abundantly in Kathmandu Valley but shunned by the local population. Today, the Tharus who live in Kathmandu savour the slugs as a delicacy, although today they know it as Doka.

And what does the similarities of the Jyapu caste of Kathmandu Valley and the Tharu say of the origins of either group? The Jyapus use the kharpan, balancing two loads on a bamboo pole, as do the Tharu, who call their implement the baihinga. No other Valley community uses it but the Jyapu. Both Tharus and Jyapus relish beaten rice (chiura lo the Valley dwellers, also to Tharus). Jyapu and Tharu women use the okhal and musalo to beat rice, but this is not the case with the neighbouring communities of the Valley or Tarai. Jyapu women tattoo their upper heels, exactly as the Tharu women do.

Who are the Tharus, where do they come from, and what light can their history shed on the past of the Himalaya and South Asia as a whole? Some historical interest in the Tharus by scholars of today will shed some light on numerous nooks and crannies of the past. We will then gain better understanding about so many issues, from the days of the Sakyamuni, to the spread of populations along the Ganga and Tarai belt of today's India and Nepal, the populating of the Kathmandu Valley, and the reasons behind the backwardness of Tharus today. And with such understanding, hopefully, there will develop a greater appreciation of Tharu culture, which in turn will finally work to eliminate the social and political discrimination that this community faces in Nepal today.   

T.N. Panjiar worked in the National Planning Commission of Nepal.

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