The Bauris are people of aboriginal

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 origin, belonging to a caste, low in the caste system in India

Caste system in India

The Indian caste system is a system of social stratification and social restriction in India in which communities are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups called Jātis....

, found in large numbers in Bankura

Bankura District

Bankura district is one of the seven districts of Burdwan Division in the Indian state of West Bengal. The district has been described as the “connecting link between the plains of Bengal on the east and Chota Nagpur plateau on the west.” The areas to the east and north-east are low lying alluvial...

, Birbhum

Birbhum district

Birbhum district is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the northernmost district of Burdwan division—one of the three administrative divisions of West Bengal. The district headquarters is located at Suri...

 and other districts in the western fringe of the India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state

States and territories of India

India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...

 of West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

.

Bauris numbered 1,091,022 in the 2001 census and were 5.9 per cent of the scheduled caste population of West Bengal. 37.5 per cent of the Bauris were literate – 51.8 per cent males and 22.7 per cent females were literate. Only 4.7 per cent of the Bauris were matriculates or completed schooling.

Subcastes

Bauris are divided ino the following subcastes: Mallabhumia, Sikharia or Gobaria, Panchakoti, Mola or Mulo, Dhalia or Dhulo, Malua, Jhatia or Jhetia, and Pathuria. Some of these subcastes appear to be territorial subdivisions. Mallabhumia, Malua and perhaps also Mola, were residents of Mallabhum

Mallabhum

Mallabhum was the kingdom ruled by the Malla kings of Bishnupur primarily in the present Bankura district in the Indian state of West Bengal.-Extent:...

, the central and eastern parts of Bankura district. Sikharia were Bauris who hailed from Shikharbhum, the tract between the Kasai

Kangsabati River

Kangsabati River rises from the Chota Nagpur plateau in the state of Jharkhand, India and passes through the districts of Purulia, Bankura and Paschim Medinipur in West Bengal before draining in the Hooghly River.-Course:After rising near Jhalda in the Chota Nagpur plateau in Purulia district,...

 and Barakar

Barakar River

The Barakar River is the main tributary of the Damodar River in eastern India. Originating near Padma in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand it flows for across the northern part of the Chota Nagpur Plateau, mostly in a west to east direction, before joining the Damodar near Dishergarh in Bardhaman...

 rivers. The Dhulia subcaste is supposed to be from Dhalbhum, which is the area in Khatra subdivision

Khatra subdivision

Khatra subdivision is a subdivision of the Bankura district in the state of West Bengal, India. It consists of eight community development blocs: Indpur, Khatra, Hirbandh, Raipur, Sarenga, Ranibandh, Simlapal and Taldangra. The eight blocks contain 59 gram panchayats...

. Panchakoti refers to the central area of Panchet estate now in Purulia district

Purulia District

Purulia district is one of the nineteen districts of West Bengal state in eastern India. The town of Purulia is the administrative headquarters of the district.-History:...

. Gobaria is said to refer to a domestic custom of clearing up the remnants of a meal with cowdung. Jhatia is explained as denoting a group who simply sweep away the fragments of a meal without washing the place where it has been spread.

Practices

Traces of totemism

Totem

A totem is a stipulated ancestor of a group of people, such as a family, clan, group, lineage, or tribe.Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem...

 still survive in their reverence for the red-backed heron and the dog. The heron is looked upon as the emblem of the tribe. Dogs are also sacred, and a bauri will on no account kill a dog.

Bauris are addicted to strong drinks and they eat beef, pork, fowls, all kids of fish and rats. However, they do not eat snakes and lizards.

Prominent Bauris

Sandhya Bauri and her daughter, Susmita Bauri

Susmita Bauri

Susmita Bauri is an Indian politician and has been elected on a CPI ticket from the Bishnupur in the Indian state of West Bengal to the 14th and 15th Lok Sabha....

, have been members of parliament from Bishnupur (Lok Sabha constituency).