Nishada
Topic: Society in Early India: Kinship, Varna-Jati, Women · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Kinship, Caste and Class - Early Societies"
Meaning
Nishada was the name Sanskrit texts gave to forest people who lived by hunting and gathering. They lived outside the four varnas (the four ranked social orders), so Brahmanical writers often showed them as strange or lesser. Over time, such groups were often brought into society as a jati, a birth-based community. Jatis could grow in number in a way the four varnas could not. The nishadas matter because they show how early Indian society slowly absorbed people on its edges while keeping them at the bottom.
Example
In the Mahabharata, the nishada boy Ekalavya learnt archery on his own and became very skilled. Drona asked him to cut off his right thumb as a teacher's fee, so that no one could surpass Arjuna, and Ekalavya obeyed. In modern times, Mahashweta Devi's story "Kunti O Nishadi" brings back the nishada woman who burned with her five sons in the house of lac. The Pandavas had let them die in their place.
Don't confuse with
- Mlechchha: this word meant outsiders, especially people who did not speak Sanskrit, such as the Shakas. Nishada meant forest hunter-gatherers in particular.