Rajbanshi : The Indigenous Inhabitant of Eastern Nepal
Rajbanshi
The coach community of Eastern Nepal is known as Rajbanshi. They have been living in different parts of Morang and Jhapa districts for a long time. Dynasty means ‘royal family’, meaning ‘affiliated with the royal family’. It is said that they are called dynasties as they are descendants of kings and emperors. The dynastic caste is also called Koch or Koche. Considering themselves members of the regional dynasty, they initially believed that Virat Raja had given them shelter. Kichak, who ruled in eastern Nepal, is believed to be their ancestor. That is why they call themselves the descendants of the king.
According to sociologist Dor Bahadur Bista, the people who have been living in the Sankoshanadi, Kosh and Koshindi geographical areas in present day Assam since ancient times are called Kochs. The political history of the Kochs came to an end in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the Koch Empire, which stretched from Bihar in the south and Morang in the north to Assam in India, was annexed by the British in India and the districts of Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari.
Even before the arrival of the Aryans, the coaches, who had been ruling with their own rich culture and glorious traditions, gradually began to decline in their self-esteem and dignity in front of the castes and classes who were considered more powerful and prosperous than themselves. Most of the coaches became the judges of the Brahmin priests. They secretly began to change castes. In order to become civilized, he changed the name of his caste to Rajput-like dynasty. As a result, the royal family and affluent coaches succeeded in becoming dynasties like the Rajputs, while some converted to Islam.
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After the fall of the Koch kingdom, the Hindu caste system seems to have influenced the traditional culture of the caste and fostered culturally social diversity. At present, the dynasty is socially divided into Hindu dynasty, Muslim dynasty and Koch. The social condition of the dynasty is very complicated. According to the Adivasi Janajati Pratishthan Act, 2058 BS, out of the 59 Adivasi Janajatis listed, the population of the Rajbanshis belonging to the marginalized Adivasi Janajatis is 1,15,252 as per the 2068 census. Of these, 62,491 are women and 52,761 are men. The population of the dynasties is 66,06,000 worldwide.
The main occupation of this caste is farming. Nowadays, they are also involved in other professions including wages. This caste is rich in its culture, tradition, language and literature. Dynasties are straightforward. Like fights, Adda likes to stay away from court legal hassles. The dynasties often live in large huts. Although agriculture is the main occupation, the dependence on agriculture is declining and the younger generation has migrated to foreign employment due to lack of education and employment.
The ancient original costumes of the dynasties are the petani, gaji, barhati worn by women and the pazhal, dhuti, ganji and kameez worn by men. Their diet consists of lentils, rice, vegetables, pickles, pantabhat, kharkhara bhat, gazimuri, bari, bhaka, pith, perperi, pa, beni ruti, chheka-pelka, sukati, fodgo, khari, kanji, rasiya, darakach, poe sag, laaf sag. , Ghotol, Satsagi, Sidal, Sukta, Kakhar (Gangto), Gunjri (Ghungi), Situ etc.
Language of Rajbanshi
The language spoken by the dynasties is called dynastic language. This language belongs to the Bharopeli family. Although there is a separate script of the dynastic language, they use the Devanagari script as a written tradition. There are differences in the language of the dynasty. There are three types of dialects: Eastern (Bhadangiya) spoken in the eastern part, Thet (Middle) dynasty spoken in the middle and Western spoken in the western part. There is also a difference in the dynastic language spoken in Jhapa and Morang.
Professor Dr. According to Madhav Prasad Pokhrel, there are four dialects of Rajbanshi language. Among them are Tajpuria, Gangai, Surjapura and Kevarat. In the local villages of Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari in the Terai region of Nepal, the Rajbanshi language has been used as a local language or dialect, so the number of Rajbanshi speakers in Nepal is more than the population of the Rajbanshi.
Apart from the dynasties in this region, Tharu, Gangai, Tajpuria, Majhi, Giri and Muslims also speak the dynastic language. In the past, the traders of Madwari, in the west (Yadav, Rajput, Kayastha, Dum, Musahar, etc.) also used the dynastic language. In some places the language of the dynasty is still used. In Nepal alone, the number of speakers of this language is around 250,000. Apart from Nepal, this language is spoken in India, Bangladesh and Bhutan.
There are 48,78,000 speakers of dynastic languages in India, 123,000 in Nepal, 16,05,000 in Bangladesh and 300 in Pakistan. The population of the dynasties is found to be the first among the indigenous tribes in the world.
