Chero

Clans and Kinship

Risley (1891) describes two divisions among the landholding Cheros of Palamau: the Bara-hazar, which included most descendants of the old ruling families and used the title Babuan, and the Tera-hazar or Birbandhi. These Cheros had taken Brahmanical gotras such as Kashyapa. The Cheros of Chota Nagpur, poorer and less touched by Hindu custom, kept totemic section names like those of the Kharia. Among families that kept older customs a widow might remarry, usually her late husband's younger brother or cousin; the wealthier families disapproved. Titles in use included Babuan, Kanwar, Manjhi, Manar, Rautia and Sanwat.

The sections Risley lists for the Chero (1891, vol. II, Appendix I, p. 35), in his order, with the two totems he glosses. He names only the first of the Brahmanical gotras.

In the Official Lists

• Scheduled Tribe

  Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh

  Listed as: Chero

  In Uttar Pradesh only in the districts of Sonbhadra and Varanasi (order and Census 2011 table).

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

Risley (1891), quoting Dalton, records that the Cheros claim descent from Chain Muni, one of the rishis, either through his marriage with a raja's daughter or from his seat (ashan); they also say they came from the Morang. Buchanan found that the old Cheros, like the ruling house of Chota Nagpur, claimed to be Nagbansis, descended from the great Nag. In Shahabad most of the ancient monuments were ascribed to the Cheros, and tradition said the whole country had once been theirs. Dalton thought the Cheros the last ruling people of an older Munda-speaking population of the Gangetic provinces; that is his conjecture, not Chero tradition.

History

By their own traditions as Dalton heard them, the Cheros entered Palamau from Rohtas and, with the help of Rajput chiefs, ancestors of the Thakurais of Ranka and Chainpur, drove out a Raksel raja, who withdrew to Sarguja. They left the Kharwars in peace in the hill tracts, and every Chero of note who joined the expedition received a grant of land for military service. It was said that at the start of Chero rule they numbered twelve thousand families and the Kharwars eighteen thousand, and a man would answer that he belonged to the twelve thousand or the eighteen thousand. A Chero family held Palamau until British rule; the rights of the last raja were bought by the government in 1813 after he fell into arrears, but collateral branches kept large estates (Risley 1891). Cheros joined the Kharwars in the rising of 1857-58 in Palamau (Tetarwe 2020).

Faith and Worship

Risley (1891) describes a double worship. For the Hindu gods the Cheros employed Kanaujia or Sakadwipi Brahmans, and their gurus were Brahmans or Gosains. They also honoured spirits known to the Kharia and Munda, among them Bighaut, Chenri, Darha, Dharti, Dukhnahi and Dwarpar, with goats, fowls, sweets and liquor in Aghan for a good harvest, at sacrifices led by a baiga of another tribe. Dalton, quoted by Risley, adds that every three years a buffalo and other animals were offered in the sacred grove (sarna) or on a rock near the village, by a village priest called pahan or baiga, a Bhuiya, Kharwar or Parhaiya, to the village god, known as Duar Pahar, Dharti, Purgahaili, Daknai or Dura.

Customs

In Risley's account the Chero wedding follows the Hindu pattern with a few older practices. After the couple walk round the earthen vessel under the canopy of boughs, the groom stoops, touches the bride's toe and swears to be faithful to her. After the vermilion rite the groom's elder brother washes the bride's feet, lays the wedding jewellery in her hands and puts on her head an ornament from the groom's headdress. In the rite called amlo, the groom's mother before the procession sets out, and the bride's mother when it arrives, put a mango leaf in the mouth and weep aloud while the maternal uncle pours water on the leaf.