Bathudi

Clans and Kinship

SCSTRTI (2019) describes the Bathudi as an endogamous community divided into totemic exogamous clans, called khili or gotra, whose members do not harm their totems and regard each other as brothers and sisters, so marriage within the clan is forbidden. Cross-cousin and parallel-cousin marriage are not allowed. The family is mostly nuclear, patrilineal and patrilocal, and the eldest son takes his father's place in society. Settlements are often of one clan. A village council of the pradhan (headman) with the desh chatia, dakua and chowkia manages village affairs, and a regional council (jati samaj) under a hereditary chief, the desh pradhan in Mayurbhanj and the mahanaik in Keonjhar, decides what the village cannot.

The clans SCSTRTI names for the Bathudi (handbook 2019 and profile), in its order, with its glosses; its 'etc.' shows the list is not complete.

In the Official Lists

• Scheduled Tribe

  Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar

  Listed as: Bathudi

  The Odisha census table enters 'Bathudi, Bathuri'.

Checked against the 2011 census table of each state and Wikipedia's compilation of the order; amendments after 2011 were not checked.

Checked on 2026-11-07 against the sources below. The lists are amended from time to time and can differ by district; for a certificate, the current order or the state's list is what counts.

Name and Origin

SCSTRTI (2019) records the other names Bathdi, Bahutuli and Bathuhuli. The Bathudi believe they are among the original settlers of Bhanjabhumi, which covered present Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar and part of Singhbhum, and some say they came from Bakua in the Similipal hills. A tradition cited by Raghavaiah (1972) says they were born from the arm (bahu) of Brahma. The Mayurbhanj State census report of 1931, as SCSTRTI quotes it, placed their first home at Batuligarh. Many Bathudis believe their own chiefs once ruled in the Similipal range and later built a fort at Jashipur.

History

Bathudi surnames such as Nayak, Giri, Bishal, Rout, Khawli, Bansori, Patra, Mundiyar, Khandai and Sangia are said to come from the military or household service their ancestors gave the old zamindars (SCSTRTI 2019). They are settled cultivators who also work for wages and gather forest produce. In villages shared with other communities they live in their own wards, keeping their own identity.

Faith and Worship

The Bathudi keep local Hindu festivals and worship Hindu deities together with their own deities in the sarna or gramthan, the sacred grove; their own priest is the dehuri. Before marriage both boys and girls must receive the karna mantra from a Vaishnava guru (SCSTRTI 2019).

Customs

Monogamy and adult marriage are the rule; marriage by negotiation (sambandha) is preferred, with other forms by consent (bhalpai), exchange (badal) and intrusion (dhuka). Widows, widowers and the divorced may remarry, and junior levirate and sororate are allowed. Birth pollution lasts nine days, and on the twenty-first day, at ekosia, the child is named by rice divination. The dead are cremated or buried, and death pollution lasts ten days (SCSTRTI).

Festivals