CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS PRACTICES OF THE CHENCHUS

A Study on the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups of the Nallamalai Forest in Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Studying the culture and the religious practices of the tribe’s communities always gives excitement to the researchers. The origin of this trend was on track with emergence of the westerns researchers in India. The present study is also such an attempt to examine the religious practices and mythological aspects of the Chenchu Tribes (the PVTGs) of the Nallamail forest. The Scheduled Tribes of India possess unique culture, diversity and socio religious beliefs and practices. In a similar tone, the Chenchus of the Nallamalai forest also have their peculiar religious and cultural practices. As a matter of fact, broadly, the Chenchus tribes associated with and followed the Hindu religion, However, they worship many other non-Hindu deities. In this paper, an attempt is made to examine the overall religious practices of the Chenchus tribes. Evans-Pritchard, the anthropologist has categorise primitive religion into two major groups: (i) Psychological and (ii) Sociological. The present study adopted the latter approach.