Cultural Aspects Of The Ranivath Community

Culture is the way of life of a large group of people. It’s their common belief systems, rites and traditions. The clothes they wear, the food they eat, the language they speak, the gods they pray to and the houses they build are all dependent on their culture. It acts as the indicator of their difference from the rest of the world. And it’s also the lens through which they perceive the world around them.

For example- we can always differentiate between a Bengali and a Punjabi by the way they speak, their appearance, the way they carry themselves etc. These aspects are part of both material and immaterial culture. And culture itself is dependent on various aspects- the climate of the region, the fundamentals of the society at the time the culture

It’s a village located in the Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh. Located quite close to the lake from which many villages like itself feed from, the lake plays quite an important role in the lives of the villagers. They are majorly a Kevath community. Kevath is an old boating community of India, they were basically ferrymen who used to reside along the riversides and bigger lakes of the country. The Kevath community is very proud of itself because of its association with God Rama. We met some people who were quite knowledgeable about the folklores of the community, and they had quite interesting tales to

He called Guha (the head of the Kevath community), to help ferry him across the river. Guha was a big devotee of God and felt blessed to be able to help him. However, he was pretty adamant to wash his feet before he let Rama step in his boat. When Sita asked the reason, his simple reply was “As the dust of God’s feet touched a stone, and it converted into a woman… I’m afraid the same will happen to my boat too. And this boat is the only source of my livelihood! So I need to wash his feet.” Rama smiled at his simple-mindedness and innocence and let him wash his feet. Hence, he was able to do what even the great sages had not achieved. Here the story-teller told us that even though the Kevath community was simple-minded, they considered themselves quite naughty. Then Guha asked Rama to step on his hands to reach the boat. In this way, he received the blessings of the God by being able to touch his feet. When he ferried them across the Ganges, Rama asked him to wish for anything he wanted. The Kevath didn’t wanted any riches or jewels, he just wanted to be of service to the God always and asked for infinite devotion. The God felt so pleased that he declared him his equal and granted him