The Bedia are a community in India. They believe that they originally lived on Mohdipahar of Hazaribagh district and have descended from the union of Vedbansi prince with a Munda girl. A legend has heard that they had their own 'Vedas' and hence it is called Bediya. Their Veda was different from the Vedas of Aryans, which were destroyed by the Aryans[1]

Present circumstances

The Bedia who have settled down in West Bengal, are also known as the Bede or Bedia. They speak in Nagpuri, an Indo-Aryan language, at home and Bengali for inter-group communication. The Bengali and Devanagari scripts are used.[2]

The 2011 Census of India for Uttar Pradesh, where they were classified as a Scheduled Caste under the name Beriya, showed their population as 46,775.[3] In Jharkhand, they are listed as Scheduled Tribe.[4]

Clans

They have numbers of exogamous clans such as Pecha (owl), Mahua (Madhuca India), Suia (parrot), Kachhua (tortoise), Chidra (squirrel) etc.[4] Their deity are Bad Pahari and Palcharu. They celebrate festivals such as Jitiya, Sohrai, Fagun, Sarhul.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Bedia". ((cite journal)): Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ "Bedia". ((cite journal)): Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. ^ "A-10 Individual Scheduled Caste Primary Census Abstract Data and its Appendix - Uttar Pradesh". Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  4. ^ a b c Saswatik Tripathy, Aditi Khan (2018). "A Study on the Bedia Community of the Village Nagrabera, Jharkhand": 1. Retrieved 29 October 2022. ((cite journal)): Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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