More Murias and Markets
In the village of Garh Bengal, Santu, his brother, Kande and their families hosted us to give an interesting glimpse of developments in the region. Santu has led a traditional Muria life with a Gotul upbringing, while his younger brother, Kande attended a conventional local school.
Kande's substantial and self-built house contained a TV set and he showed us a rare film - A Jungle Saga - made over 46 years ago in Garh Bengal by a noted Swedish filmmaker, Arne Sucksdorff.
The commentary was in Swedish, but the film portrayed life in Bastar as it was then, including the adventures of a young man, Chendru, who is now quite old and still living at the other end of the village.
outside Garh Bengal Village
From there, onto the the major weekly Sunday market in Narayanpur, the principal town of North Bastar.
Narayanpur market
This was a "drunken market" (I think it was the drunken market), and the certainly unique. Everyone (including the children sits around and drinks their homemade brews after they finish selling whatever they brought. Jai said it wasn't unusual for people to just pass out along the road, sleep there all night, and return to their villages the next day. Many, many different people in their extremely diverse garments and headdresses.
They also had cock-fighting here, an important sport for the tribe. I never watched the cocks actually go at it in the fighting circle, but did see tribesmen walking away before and after the fights...some with triumphant birds tucked under their arms, and others with a dead bird hanging by its feet for dinner. Lots of money changing hands, local bookies making the odds, and people inspecting the birds before each fight.
proud owner and bird
pre-fight demonstration to increase the odds
Still more villages and dancing...
