Frog’s tongue squashed in five drops of hen’s blood -- a remedy for epilepsy!! Passing a kid through a window formed over a door of the hut to cure convulsion among infants!! And pricking the navel of a new born to prevent the baby from affliction to abdominal diseases !!
Is it the 21st century characterized by remarkable advancement in medical sciences or are we still stuck in the Dark Ages? In a sense, the tribal dominated tail of this part of the country seems to be frozen in time with tribals continuing to hook on a host of weird practices that their ancestors, steeped in superstitions, might have found indispensable in their times.
According to Dr Prakas Oraon, the Director, Tribal Research Institute, a government institution, these actions are associated with an age old beliefs and tradition s of tribal society. He, however, has no qualms in accepting that his navel was pricked with a hot sickle when he was barely 21 days old.
According to this tribal tradition the day the newly born baby completes 21 days an elaborate puja along with other rituals is performed. Once the preliminaries are over, she heats a sickle and then pricks the baby to make at least twenty-one tattoos around the navel. Thereafter the wounds are treated with the tribal medicine to provide succour to the baby. “This tradition is still in practice in the Panch pargana area namely Bundu, Tamar, Rahe, Arki and Ichagarh of Jharkhand. The Oraon, Munda and Panchbarganiya tribes pursue this tradition. They beleive that pricking an infants’ navel prevents the child from abdominal diseases, said Dr. Prakas Oraon talking to Deccan Herald.
For instance, a pregnant tribal woman is told not to eat the papaya fruit. The popular belief is that it aborts a pregnancy. However, the woes of a pregnant woman multiply further towards the date of her delivery.
As her time for the delivery approaches, the mother to be is offered a garland of chirchiti, a wild plant around her neck. Her hair is tied to the roots of a banana plant; besides her husband’s trouser is hung in front of her face. “The popular belief in these tribal societies is that such gimmicks distract a mother- to-be and thereby reduces the intensity of labour pain , ” said tribal woman Etra Oraoin.
Woes of the pregnant woman does not end right here in case she gives the birth of a son. The mother has to undergo a three day long fast, which is further followed by a week long subsistence on rice and salt only. The rationale underlying all these practices are that it would ensure the new born baby a long life. There are other modes of treatment prevalent in tribal society as well. “We have come across several case studies when an epilepsy patient is offered a frog’s tongue squashed in five drops of hen’s blood. The feedback from the patients’ attendants suggests that it is quite a popular.
Similarly to cure epilepsy in a child, the patient is passed through the window formed over a door of the hut in tune with age old beliefs,” said a psychiatrist attached to the Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry and Allied Sciences.
Social worker Faisal Anurag attributes all such beliefs to the prevalent socio-economic conditions characterised by poverty and illiteracy. “Though we are into the twenty first century, the old time beliefs, herbal and superstitious methods of treatment still prevail in an Adivasi dominated society and their caste neighbours. A majority of tribals in remote villages are dependent on quacks for treatment and thus the acceptance of allopathic and other modern medicine is very low.