Chenchu Tribe:
The National Sanskrit University (NSU) organised a symposium, panel discussion, and exhibition recently highlighting the unique privilege the Chenchu tribal community has with the Ahobilam shrine and the deity of Lord Narasimha.
- The Chenchus are a food-gathering tribe primarily residing in the Nallamalai forests of Andhra Pradesh.
- They are one of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in Andhra Pradesh.
- They are also found in Telangana, Karnataka and Odisha.
- They speak variants of Telugu, the Dravidian language of the region.
- A Chenchu village is known as “Penta“.
- Each penta consists of a few huts that are spaced apart and are grouped together based on kinship patterns.
- Small conjugal families predominate, women taking equal rank with men and marrying only upon maturity.
- “Peddamanishi” or the village elder, is generally the authority to maintain social harmony in a family or a village.
- Their rituals are few and simple; religious and political specializations are slight.
- The Chenchu live life with exemplary simplicity. Most of them still gather food from the forest and roam in it to find things to meet their needs.
- The bow and arrow and a small knife are all the Chenchus possess to hunt and live.
- The Chenchus collect forest products like roots, fruits, tubers, beedi leaf, mohua flower, honey, gum, tamarind, and green leaves and make a meagre income from it by selling these to traders and government cooperatives.
- Though at times they work as forest labourers, they mostly prefer to fall back on their native skills to hunt and gather food.
- The Chenchus do not care much for money or material wealth.
- Chenchus worship a number of deities. Chenchus have also adopted certain religious practices from Hindus.
- For ages, the Chenchus have been associated with the famous Srisailam temple (dedicated to Lord Shiva and Devi Brahmaramba) in Andhra Pradesh, situated at the heart of Chenchu land.
- The Chenchus enjoy special privileges at Srisailam temple.
