The Malto or Maler people, also known as Pahariya, are a Dravidian tribal group from the

Rajmahal Hills The Rajmahal Hills are located in the Santhal Pargana division of Jharkhand, India. They were located on the northern margin of the Gondwana supercontinent, and its hills are today inhabited by the Sauria Paharia people whilst its valleys are d ...

in the northeastern Chota Nagpur Plateau. They are divided into three subgroups: Mal Paharia, Sauria Paharia and Kumarbhag Paharia. All three are listed as Scheduled Tribes in

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . I ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

and

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

. They speak Malto, related to the nearby Kurukh language. When the British first encountered them they were nomadic. They practiced ''jhum'' cultivation, as well as hunting and gathering, and would often also raid the plains of Bihar to the north or Bengal to the east, and would then retreat back into the forest. If there was a crop failure, death or other disaster, they would move to a new spot. Due to the remoteness of their territory they were never conquered by any of the many empires that claimed to rule the region. When the British induced Santals to cultivate the Rajmahal Hills, the Maltos fought back, but were eventually driven out. The three subgroups of the Malto tribe do not intermarry. The Mal Paharia look down on the Sauria Paharia for eating cows. The Mal Paharia and Kumarbhag Paharia subgroups combined have a population of 182,560, while the Sauria Paharia subgroup has a population of 51,634, making the total Malto population 234,194. Today they still practice ''jhum'' cultivation, called ''kurwa'' in their language, and collect minor forest produce. They are plagued by many problems, including high levels of poverty and extreme malnutrition. For this reason they are classified as a

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group A Particularly vulnerable tribal group or PVTG previously known as a Primitive tribal group is a sub-classification of Scheduled Tribe or section of a Scheduled Tribe, that is considered more vulnerable than a regular Scheduled Tribe. The PVTG list ...

. However some are now settled cultivators. They fish in summer, and many now work as daily wage labourers. A few have government jobs. Among the Sauria Paharia, their traditional marriage ceremony is known as ''bedi'', that takes place in a house. Their society has no restrictions on premarital sexual relations, and children not born out of a marriage can still live with the mother. Another type of common marriage is marriage by capture. The Malto practice animism and revere a court of spirits known as ''Gosain''. The main Malto god is ''Dharmer Gosain'', a sun god, while their priests are known as ''demano''. The men wear a small loincloth, known as ''bhagwan'', while the women wear two garments: ''panchi'', an upper garment, usually an unstitched cloth, and ''pardhan'', a cloth around the waist.

References

Dravidian peoples Ethnic groups in Bangladesh Ethnic groups in India Adivasi {{Asia-ethno-group-stub