At a Glance:
- Location: Gujarat, Baroda forest area of Jamnagar district and Gir of Junagarh district
- Festivals: Krishna Janmashtami, Tarnetar fair and Navratri.
This tribe is a follower of Krishna, Bharwad tribe is come from the Vrindavan and infiltrated into Gujarat, Vrindavan is very near to Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. This Tribes dress is very similar to the Rabaris, men’s cloth are different in design as they wear the design of parrot, peacock, flowers on their cloths (Kehdiyun), ladies wear backless tops or shirts which are very rarely covered by the help of veils. The most attractive clothes is ‘Ghaghro’ Bharwad ladies wear this; it takes approximately 2 months to complete the embroidery work on the cloth. In Bharwad tribes, they wear thick cloth around the waist which is called as Bori, both women and men wear this.
In the olden times, this tribe used to wear ivory ornaments. Now days, women commonly wear kansu, khoteritu, kambikadla, anhuthi, vedhla, Dalyu, Kokarva, vedhla, Akota, Baloya which is worn on the wrists and Nathli is worn on the nose. Bharwad men also wear different type of ornaments in their fingers, on neck, armlet and one earring which are known as ‘Variyo’. You can see the Bharwad jewellery in their annual Tarnetar Fair which is held in September.
Few years ago, in Bharvad tribe mass marriages were taking place among the tribe people. This tradition was formed in protection of single Muslim girls, at that time it was needed when girls were again and again getting kidnapped. The Bharwad tribe people used to gather in the Trinetreshwar temple at the first week every September. The temple is at Tarnetar, and is around sixty five kilometer from Rajkot. They celebrate this festival by singing their traditional songs and dance. They also take shelter under the shade which is decorated by embroidery; they do this activity only on some special occasion. In the fair of Tarnetar, all the groups of Bharwad meet and celebrate the Aatam Saaram. These groups also visit their temples of Tharagam, which is at Banaskantha and they too worship God Shivpuri Bapa in Jajavada temple. This tribe is also known because of their traditional folk song such as Garbi, Hinch. Folk songs are like Duba, Garba and Bhajan, are sung on the occasions such as Sagai, Lagan and Bharawano.
These tribals are great followers of the Mata and they have relation with Vala and Jhala Rajputs. In the case of god Khodiar, Mahamai, Sindhui, Havechi, Machhu and Chamunda they believe Hindu religion. Their major God Machhu Mata is situated on the Manchu river bank. Bharwad tribe also worships moon, mountain, river, forest, animals and sun.
