Banjara Erotic

For several centuries, if grain or salt was moving overland across the Indian interior, there was a fair chance a Banjara caravan was carrying it. The Banjara call themselves Gor and are known in different regions as Lambani, Lamana or Lambadi. They drove long trains of pack bullocks between markets and supplied armies from the Mughal period into the British campaigns of the late eighteenth century. That life on the road still shapes what sets them apart: settlements kept separate from neighboring villages, a language unlike the ones spoken around it, and clothing trimmed with mirrors, coins and cowrie shells that many women still wear.

The trade did not survive colonial rule. Roads and railways made the bullock trains obsolete. Colonial authorities also listed many Banjara groups under the Criminal Tribes Act, and the stigma lasted well beyond the law's repeal after independence. Families settled down but kept the tanda, the old caravan camp, as the pattern for village life, often with a headman known as the naik. The largest populations now live in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Clan names such as Rathod, Chavan and Pawar still point back to Rajasthan, which Banjara tradition names as their place of origin. Hyderabad's Banjara Hills is named after them. Their official status differs from state to state: Scheduled Tribe in some, Scheduled Caste or a denotified nomadic category in others. That difference decides who qualifies for reserved jobs and school places.

Their language, Gor Boli, also called Banjari or Lamani, is Indo-Aryan and closest to the Rajasthani dialects. That makes it a small island surrounded by Telugu, Kannada and Marathi. Most speakers are bilingual, and the language has no script of its own, so it survives mainly in speech and song. Most Banjara are Hindu, but their worship centers on their own figures: the goddess Jagadamba and the eighteenth-century saint Sevalal Maharaj, whose shrine at Pohradevi in Maharashtra draws large pilgrim crowds. Sikh and Muslim communities in north India trace their roots to the same carrying trade.

Some customs are rarely seen by outsiders. During Teej, unmarried girls sow wheat in small baskets and tend the sprouts for days with songs. At weddings, the bride traditionally sings laments before leaving her family. The needlework on women's clothing has also found a second life: Sandur Lambani embroidery from Karnataka holds a geographical indication tag, which turns the caravan style into a recognized craft.