Bhil

Clans and Kinship

The Encyclopedia of World Cultures describes Bhil clans called atak: patrilineal, exogamous descent groups, spread over wide areas, whose main role is to set the bounds of marriage and of descent. Within each clan are local lineages, nal, that hold rights in property and settle disputes among members; a village is often founded by one lineage, the bhaibeta, which holds the best land, with later lineages, karhan, as tenants. Each village has a hereditary headman (vasawo in Gujarat, tadavi in Ratanmal, mukhi in Kotra) and a council (panch) of senior men. Russell and Hira Lal (1916) found in Nimar septs named after plants and animals, which members honour; a man could not marry in his own sept or in the families of his mother and grandmothers. Enthoven (1920) records that in Khandesh each clan has a devak or totem it will not cut or eat, and that some clans take Rajput names such as Parmar, Jadhav and Rathod. A woman joins her husband's kin group at marriage.

First the septs of the Nimar Bhils in Russell and Hira Lal (1916, vol. 2, pp. 286-287), in their order; then the clans and devak of the Khandesh Bhils in Enthoven (1920, vol. 1, article 'Bhils', section on divisions), in his order; then a few of the many clan names Enthoven says claim a strain of non-Bhil descent. The Bhil have many hundreds of clans and the lists differ by region; these are examples from two districts a century ago.

In the Official Lists

• Scheduled Tribe

  Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tripura

  Listed as: Bhil

  In Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka one entry: 'Bhil, Bhil Garasia, Dholi Bhil, Dungri Bhil, Dungri Garasia, Mewasi Bhil, Rawal Bhil, Tadvi Bhil, Bhagalia, Bhilala, Pawra, Vasava, Vasave'. In Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh 'Bhil, Bhilala, Barela, Patelia'; Gujarat has that entry too, and a third, 'Tadvi Bhil, Bawra, Vasave'. In Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tripura simply 'Bhil'.

The Bhil Mina of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are a separate entry (see the Meena page). Checked against the 2011 census tables of each state and Wikipedia's compilation of the order; the 2011 census counted Andhra Pradesh and Telangana together. 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

The name is usually derived from a Dravidian word for bow, villu or billu, the weapon long associated with the Bhil (Russell and Hira Lal 1916, Enthoven 1920, Encyclopedia of World Cultures). Enthoven gives the earliest mention he knew in Sanskrit as the Kathasaritsagara, about the sixth century, which tells of a Bhil chief on an elephant barring a king's way through the Vindhyas. Bhil tradition, as Malcolm and Russell record it, tells of a son of Mahadeo who killed his father's bull and was sent to the forests, the ancestor of the Bhil. Scholars agree that the Bhil were the earliest people of southern Rajasthan and the hills of Gujarat; their original language is not known.

History

By the end of the tenth century much of Rewakantha, the hill country of the Narmada, was ruled by Bhil or Koli chiefs, and between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries they were replaced by chiefs of Rajput or mixed descent (Encyclopedia of World Cultures). Rajput rulers long acknowledged the Bhil as the older owners of the land: at the accession of a Sesodia chief of Mewar a Bhil of Oguna or Undri marked the tika on his forehead with blood from his own thumb (Russell and Hira Lal). In the eighteenth century Maratha and local rulers met Bhil resistance with mass killings, and many Bhils withdrew deeper into the hills. In 1825 the British raised the Khandesh Bhil Corps and offered land and pardon; in Rewakantha an agreement between the political agent Willoughby and Kumar Vasava of Sagbara, a Bhil chief, gave the Bhil land and forest rights. Tantia Bhil, whom colonial writers called a dacoit and Bhils remember as a hero, was hanged in 1889. Ram Pande, cited in Wikipedia's account, describes Govind Guru as a reformer who led many Bhils of the Mewar region to give up meat and liquor and pressed for village councils and an end to forced labour; in 1921 Motilal Tejawat led Bhils and Garasias against forced labour and heavy taxes.

Faith and Worship

Bhil religion varies by region. The Encyclopedia of World Cultures records local deities such as Wagh Deo, the tiger god, and Nandervo, god of the crops, a supreme deity called Bhagwan (in Ratanmal also Mahadeva), and Kalika, the earth mother, for whom Holi is kept; priests called badava act as mediums and healers. Russell and Hira Lal (1916) found Khande Rao (Khandoba) the favourite god of the Nimar Bhils. Hinduism, Islam and Christianity are the main faiths among Bhils today, Hindu belief having the widest influence; the Tadvi of Khandesh and Madhya Pradesh and the Nirle of Maharashtra are Muslim and keep the urs of the village pir, and some Bhils are Christian. The encyclopedia also notes the Hindu Bhagat movement among the Bhils.

Deities named in the sources: Wagh Deo, Khandoba

Customs

Bhil houses stand apart from one another on hilltops with their fields around them, so a village of a few dozen families may spread over three or four square kilometres (Encyclopedia of World Cultures). Clan exogamy is kept everywhere; in some areas marriage with a father's sister's daughter is preferred. A bride-price is paid, and marriage may be arranged, by elopement or by service. Russell records the custom of elopement at the Tosina fair in Mahi Kantha. Bhils of western Madhya Pradesh keep the Bhagoria fairs in the Holi season, and the Bhils of Udaipur the Gavari after Holi.

Festivals

Stories and Legends

Notable Personalities