Bhubaneswar: As a new initiative of ST&SC Development Department, the visitors can visit the Odisha State Tribal Museum by opening the Facebook and Twitter pages
@scstrti, @stscdev. Today, one can see the Kandha House.
The Kandha House is rectangular structure with no windows but a wide verandah in the front. The main living space has a wooden platform for the storage of grain and household articles. The hearth and worship space is located within the kitchen. A separate shed is made for livestock at the back of the house.
The Kandha is numerically the largest tribe of Odisha distributed in various pockets of southern Odisha forming several endogamous territorial sections,
namely Kutia, Dongria, Desia, Sitha, Nanguli, Jhamia, Pengo, Jharia, Malua etc.
with the suffix Kandha. Territorial and exogamous clan groups called Kuda or Bons form each section. They organize themselves into territorial clan groups
further subdivided into four functional groups called Punja, Namely Mondal, Bismajhi, Jani and Pujari. The Kandha villages have linear settlement pattern.
Jarkhiri, the altar of their earth Goddess. Dharani Penu lies at the centre of the village street.
They have the institution of youth dormitory which is called in various names, such as Dhangda-Dhangdi Basa, Dhangda-Dhangdi Dhar, Dhanger, Idu etc. The girls dormitory is one of the interesting institutions to which young boy of the same village cannot enter. They acquire mates by negotiation. They follow both the burial and cremation practices. Death pollution continues for ten days.
Dharni Penu-the earth Goddess is their supreme deity.
Village deity Gungi Penu (the stream deity), Bima Penu (the mountain God), Lai Penu (the forest God), Sita Penu (the deity of wealth), Birna Penu (the rain God) etc. are propitiated by them. They also worship ancestral spirits, ghosts and other benevolent and malevolent spirits and firmly believe in the efficacy of black and white magic. Sacrifice of buffalo, goats, pigs, pigeons, chicks, cocks
etc. is indispensable in Kandha rituals. Their traditional village functionaries are saanta, Mondal, Jari, Bismajhi and Bari.
Kandhas mainly live in Rayagada, kandhamala, Kalahandi, Koraput district. They speak Kui and Kuvi. Their major occupations are settled and shifting cultivation, animal husbandry, hunting and collecting forest produce. Their major festivals are Ghanta Parab, Chaiti Parab, Meria, Dakira, Mandiariani, Korubiha, Dussera.
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