While the world measures wealth in terms of currency the Adivasi Gonds and Kolams of Agency areas in Adilabad district continue to measure wealth in terms of number of cows and for these tribes Lakshmi Puja, on the day after Diwali, is time to worship cows.
On Monday the members of the two tribes performed ‘Mura Mituswal’ or cow worship, an important event in the Adivasi ethos. The cows are fed with sauted round eatable made of green gram ‘garkang’, a stuffed sweet roti ‘puran poli’ and rice with ghee ‘ghato’ before its puja.
According to the tradition the woman of the household stands close to the cattle shed handing out rice to neighbours for sprinkling on the cows to bless the animals. The householders are then greeted by those who worshipped their cows.
As Gond and Kolam farmers were livestock breeders the tradition was well celebrated until about three decades ago. Every Adivasi household in the Agency areas of the undivided Adilabad district had boasted of at least five cows.
For example, Kanaka Pollu of Marlavai village owned 30 cows in the mid 1990s. Now he has only three as taking care of the bovines became an increasingly difficult task due to lack of hands in the family. From a milk consuming society, these aboriginal people have strangely been rendered as those who have no use for the dairy product, within the last three decades. Not many own cows these days and those who do, are a shade better in terms of resources but aim only at breeding bullocks.
“Pastures are dwindling, fodder has become costly and we are unable to spend time for herding the cows to graze in nearby jungles,” Kodapa Rama Rao of Jainoor in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district said explaining the reasons for the dwindling number of livestock.
