Section- Anthropology & Archaeology

Section- Anthropology & Archaeology
TITLE- Utility of Marriage procedure in the search of the
identity of an unknown group.
Author Dr. Alok Chantia, Lecturer, Anthropology, J.N.P.G. College, Lucknow.
Key words Dhankut, Marriage, Rang parana, Mangni, Lagna, Badhawa, Saal tree,
Fish, Paipuja.
Abstract
Dhankut is an unknown endogamous group of Bahraich district of U.P.. It is very
difficult to locate a group at the proper position without knowing their social and caste
stratification, while no literature or government records are available about them.
Dhankut is a specific group in this regard. Government is not ready to give them caste
certificate in the absence of their caste. So they are facing many problems. In this regard,
I applied the Ecological-Cultural approach. This is very valuable to sketch a profile of
their reality in the light of their marriage practice .In my proposed paper I have tried to
know their original place and caste with the help of Mangni, Lagna, Badhawa, Paipuja
ceremonies of the marriage. It has been proved that Dhankut is a migrated population
from an unknown place and that place is sketched in my proposed paper.