Artist from Agariya tribe of Madhya Pradesh IMG 8561

The Agariya are community of the states of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

and

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

in India. Those in the vicinity of

Mirzapur Mirzapur () is a city in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is known for its carpets and brassware industries, and the tradition of kajari and birha music. Straddled by the Kaimur extension of Vindhya mountains, it served as the headquarters of t ...

were involved in mining and smelting iron during the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

. The Agariya speak the Agariya language as well as

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

Chhattisgarhi Chhattisgarhi () is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 16.25 million people from Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in India. It is the official language of Chhattisgarh. It is grouped within the Eastern Hindi lan ...

. There is a group known as the Agariya in

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

that are salt makers in the desert. A ritual associated with this community is that the feet of Agariya people are burnt separately. Since they are standing continuously in salt fields, their feet get wounded and salt get absorbed in the feet. So it will not burn easily in the funeral. It is not clear if these Agariya have any relation to the others. In the early 20th century, the Agariya in Mirzapur were divided into totemic groups. They had been heavily influenced by

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

. They called themselves Hindu but did not worship any of the major Hindu deities which other Hindus did. The

Government of Uttar Pradesh The Government of Uttar Pradesh (International Organization for Standardization, ISO: ''Uttara Pradēśa Sarakāra''; often abbreviated as GoUP) is the subnational government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with the governor as its appoin ...

had classified the Agariya as a Scheduled Caste but by 2007, they were one of several groups that it redesignated as Scheduled Tribes. As of 2017, this tribal designation applies only for

Sonbhadra district Sonbhadra (also known as Sonebhadra) or Sonanchal is the second largest district by area of Uttar Pradesh after Lakhimpur Kheri. The district headquarters is in the town of Robertsganj. Sonbhadra is also known as the "Energy Capital of India" f ...

. They are a Scheduled Tribe in Madhya Pradesh. The 2011 Census of India for Uttar Pradesh showed the Agariya Scheduled Caste population as 5803.

References

{{Tribes of Uttar Pradesh Scheduled Tribes of Uttar Pradesh Scheduled Tribes of Madhya Pradesh Scheduled Castes of Uttar Pradesh

See also

References