The Clan System

The pari or clans, on the other hand, do not figure in the cycle of myths which deal with the birth and liberation of the Gonds’ divine ancestors, their settlement at Dhanegaon and the institution of the social order by Pahandi Kupar Lingal. The legends of each clan are woven round a set of key personages, and it would seem that in most clans of a phratry these mythical figures bear the same or similar names. The hymns sung by Pardhans on the occasion of the Persa Pen rites, are not the only songs which recall the traditional order of precedence of the clans of a phratry. All the members of a clan share the consciousness of a common mythical history. The evidence of the rota bhiri or clan legends would seem to speak in favour of the assumption that at one time in the history of the Raj Gonds the clans had territorial associations.