BHUNIYA or Bhuiya, a tribe in varied stages of civilisation, and of varied religious development. Buchanan Hamilton found them in Bhagulpur, Bihar, and Divajpur, and he considered them to be the remains of the armies of Jarasandha. Some of the tribe live strictly as Hindus; while others eat beef, pork, camels, horses, asses, rats, cats, lizards, and worship the Vim or spirits of their deified heroes. Mr. (Sir George) Campbell considered them to be part of the Bhui tribe of the northern parts of the Madras Presidency; and Colonel Dalton regards them as part of the Bans lihni tribe who at one time ruled in the valley of Assam. In northern and eastern Bengal, and in Chutia Nagpur, they are so humble as not even to cultivate their own fields. Yet the landowners surrounding Parnanath hill, though claiming to be Kshatriya, are undoubtedly Bhuiya, being almost black, with coarse negro-like features. The Bhuiya are numerous in Singbhum. Tradi tion says they were once dominant in the western and southern parts of that country, but were sub , jugated by the Ho' (Kol). Colonel Dalton says they are the monkey-like tribes who aided llama. Hammen, the general of the ape army, was Pawan-Ka-put, 'the son of the wind ; ' and the Bhuiya to the south of Singbhum call themselves Pawanbans, the children of the wind. They are a dark-brown, well-proportioned race, with black, straight hair, plentiful on the head, but scant on the face ; of middle height, light-framed like the Hindu, but with figures well knit, and capable of enduring great fatigue. The nose is but slightly elevated, still neither so depressed nor so broad at the root as the generality of Turanian noses. They sometimes call themselves Khandaits, and claim to be -of the same family as the.
IChandaits or Paiks of Orissa, and assume the Brahmanical cord. They are the earliest known settlers in parts of Singbhum, Gangpur, Bonai, Keonjhur, and Bamra, and are almost the only class possessing proprietary right under the chiefs. The chiefs of these estates now call themselves Rajputs; but the country for the most part belongs to the Bhuiya sub-proprietors. They are a privi leged class, holding as hereditaments the principal offices of the state, and are organized as a body of militia. The chiefs have no right to exercise any authority till they have received the tilak,' or token of investiture, from their powerful Bhuiya vassals. They have their own priests, called deori, and their sacred groves, called Deota Sara, dedicated to four. deities, Dasum Pat, Bamoni Pat, Koisar Pat, and Boram, the sun deity. In each village there is, as with 'the Oraons, an open space for a dancing ground, called by the Bhuiya the Darbar; and near it the bachelors' hall, called the Dhangar bassa, or Mandarghar, as here the young men, Dhangar, must all sleep at night, and here the drums, Mandar, are kept. Some villages have a Dhangarin bassa, or house for maidens, which they are allowed to occupy without any one to look after them. Whenever the young men of the village go to the Darbar and beat the drums, the young girls join them there, and they spend their evenings dancing and enjoying themselves, without any interference on the part of the elders. The Bhuiya dances have their peculiar features, but compared with the lively and graceful move ments of the Kols, they are very tame performances. —Dalton, Ethnol. of Beng. 140.