Tree of Life: Salphi
Upon reaching
our destination, a half-hour drive from Narayanpur, we saw a forlorn, modest mud
hut with a thatched roof, and no other houses.
Where is the
village, I asked?
‘This is the
ghotul where the dancers would perform this evening. The village is at a little
distance. Ghotul is located away from the village to grant privacy to
the members,’ said the primary school teacher, a local Gond and our guide and
translator.
I was curious and excited since this was my first visit to a ghotul, a highly organized but much-misunderstood societal institution of the Muria Gonds of Bastar. It is an exclusive club-cum-dormitory for the unmarried young men and women of the village to train them for future 'adult' societal roles, and for their dance and song, dating and bonding, leading to selection of partners for life. The boys are called chelik, and the girls motiari.
They believe that Lingo Pen, an ancestor, established the first ghotul, and they sing several songs in his honour. The ghotul is sacred and considered a Lingo Pen shrine.
Verrier Elwin's 1947 book The Muria and Their Ghotul provides exhaustive details about this institution, and he mentions that he had visited 347 ghotuls during 1935-1942 to gather information for his book.
‘Is it okay
if we take a look inside the hut?’ asked someone from our group.
‘The ghotul
is accessible only to members; no other villagers, elders or children may enter
this hut. But you are guests, so you may take a
quick look; but no photograph, please, and be quiet and respectful. They have a
dev inside who is worshipped before the evening’s revelry.’
The mud hut
was partitioned into two equal halves, one for men and the other for women,
with no door separating the two units, only a mud wall with an opening. Stacked along the wall of the dormitory were their musical instruments - drums, cymbals, flutes - and anklets and other accessories for the dance; and in a corner was an earthen pitcher and a few leaf-cups.
The young people were getting ready for the evening’s performance.
After our ‘inspection’,
we were seated below a mango tree on rope cots placed in a semi-circle facing
the hut. Two young men brought for each guest the welcome drink - a whitish,
foamy liquid with a strong, pungent smell - in a large leaf-cup filled to the
brim, which we held carefully on both palms outstretched.
What is
this, I asked our guide?
Salphi, he
said. They drink salphi before they dance and sing, and they offer it to guests.
Is it
alcoholic?
Yes, it is. Outsiders call it Bastar beer.
I took a
little sip. Sour, far from pleasant, and not my idea of a welcome drink. It was
already dark. There were only two lanterns with rather feeble light– one inside
the hut and another near the clearing where they would dance. I tried to discretely
put the leaf cup under the cot, but our guide noticed it.
‘Sir, they
would feel very offended if you spurn their hospitality. Please drink it,’ he
whispered. It was a command, not a request!
I closed my
nostrils, gulped it at one go, abhorred it; but after a few minutes it felt
rather good, and when a second cup was offered, I drank it happily, to hell
with the foul smell and sour taste. The first drink was feeling rather lonely and rooting for a mate, I guess!
That was my
first and only taste of salphi, and I think the drink made the
evening of dance and song by the young men and women of Bastar even more memorable.
~~~
Thereafter, during
my extensive travel in Bastar for a year, I noticed the ubiquitous salphi tree, and learned what a prized possession it was for a tribal household. Parents of a nubile girl were
disinclined to approve of the groom if his family did not own at least one
salphi tree, I was told. Sometimes, a salphi tree was also given as a dowry.
Salphi* is the
fishtail palm (Caryota urens,L) tree which is tapped for palm wine. Early in the
morning, the foamy white liquid has a bland taste, less sweet than neera, but
as the sun ascends the drink is fermented by heat and bacteria, and by
the evening it is a potent alcoholic drink much favoured by the tribals. No
human processing is needed, the sun and the bacteria brew it for free!
(Photo credit: By Pakshya - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38178223)
In the famous
weekly haats of Bastar, a venue not merely for buying and selling, but also for
revelry and entertainment, salphi (and also mahua and landa) is sold by the
glass. A friend checked from a source at Jagdalpur - a glass
of about 200 ml salphi currently sells for five rupees. No liquor or cola vendor can match that price!
I had obtained
a salphi** sapling from the forest department's nursery, and planted it in the garden of my
official residence at Kanker. That was in 1985. I wonder how the tree is doing
and whether any of my successors thought of tapping it for its elixir.
***
* Verrier Elwin's book has a whole chapter on 'The Sago Palm'. The tree is called gorga marra in Gondi and salpi rukh in Halbi. Murias have a song on the tree: Waliya wato gorga ale maamaale - O uncle, the sago-palms are everywhere.
Before the first tapping, the tree is offered a sacrifice - usually a chicken or a pig.
** This tree is called Salapa in Odisha, Jillugu in AP & Telengana, and Bagini in Karnataka.
***
An experience nicely described .A tribal drink interestingly introduced .
ReplyDeleteNice experience on tribal...way of life
ReplyDeleteA great deal of knowledge, particularly on the ways of life in the distance forests along with the drink that now fascinating the readers. But is it an elixir!!! Could not be doubted because the writer has tasted it, two glassfuls of it.
ReplyDeleteI had been to Raighar in Nawrangpur District (erstwhile Koraput) in 1990 for a research on Gondi language. Had stayed there amongst the Gonds for about 3 weeks . But none offered me Salap. Anyway I had heard about it from the Block Chairman Gujuru Naik. My compilation of Gondi vocabulary has been published by Academy of Tribal Dialects and Culture.
ReplyDelete