Tigga Gotra
Oraon
At a glance
- Called a
- Gotra
- Community
- Oraon
- Found in
- Jharkhand
About
Tigga, written Tig by Roy, is a clan of the Oraon (Kurukh) of Chota Nagpur. Its totem is a monkey: Roy (1915) lists Tig as 'a species of monkey' and elsewhere calls it the Baboon clan. Men of the clan extend their rules from the monkey to a kind of mouse. The Oraon call the clan a gotra, but it is a totemic clan that marries out, not a Vedic gotra.
What “Gotra” means for the Oraon
Oraon families call their clan a gotra (Roy 1915, pp. 325, 335): a totemic clan passed from father to children, within which no one may marry, though a man may marry into his mother's clan. It is not a Vedic gotra and names no rishi.
Every gotra of the Oraon, with how the clan system works: the Oraon page.
Name and Origin
The clan is named after its totem, a monkey. Roy's list of Oraon beast totems gives both Halman (baboon) and Tig (a species of monkey) (1915, p. 325), but in his account of clan rules he calls the Tig the Baboon clan (p. 333), so the book does not settle which monkey is meant. A modern list on Wikipedia gives Tigga as monkey and Halman as langur. Roy records no story of how the clan took its totem.
Historical Journey
No written history of the Tigga clan is known. Roy wrote that the Oraon of the monkey clans he names, the Halman and the Gari, abstain from killing, injuring or even keeping a monkey, and that monkey flesh is forbidden to every Oraon whatever his clan (1915, pp. 22-23). The Tig clan appears in his list of Oraon beast totems (p. 325) and in his account of clans whose rules have spread from the totem to things like it: men of the Tig clan keep the same rules toward a kind of mouse, the chutia-musa, because it is the colour of the Tig (p. 333).
How the Gotra Is Kept
Members of the Tigga clan do not marry each other, though an Oraon may marry into his mother's clan (Roy 1915, p. 330). The clan passes from father to children, and Oraon clan names are now used as surnames. Besides the usual rules against eating, keeping, killing or hurting the totem, Roy records that men of the clan keep the same rules toward the chutia-musa, a mouse of the Tig's colour (p. 333). No family deity is tied to the Tigga clan in the sources checked.
Presence Across Regions
Chota Nagpur
Tribal - Oraon
Roy (1915) lists the Tig among the Oraon beast totems; he names no village or place for the clan.