As I travel widely by road, I come across huge flocks of sheeps and goats grazed by these colorfully turbaned gentleman, in the romotest parts of the country and I am amazed at their passion to graze the cattle. They travel all the way from Gujarat and Rajasthan, for a few thousand kilometres on foot, every year, just grazing the cattle. On one such encounter recently, Flocks after flocks I passed by. I found two young girls too grazing the goats along the roads with gentleman and I was wondering how they could cope with such an ardous journey with the gentleman.
Rabari or Rewari live throughout the Rajasthan, and Gujarat, states in India. There are some Rabari families who also live in Pakistan, especially in the region of Sindh. The word “rabari” basically means the “Path breakers”. This is because hundreds of rajputs migrated to desert in protection of the jaisalmer state against the mughals. Since then, they were left out of the rajput community and were later known as rabari. The Rabari’s main business since then used to be raising cattle, camels and goats; for some traditional-minded families this is still the case.
These Rabari in the past were great warriors, wise men and clan royalty. Rabari clans are called ‘ NAKH ‘. These clans are further sub-divided in SHAKHS [Branches].
The actual Rabari are hun rajput. They invaded India in 507 AD. and ruled from 509 to 511 AD. Their king was Mihrikula, the leader of hun rajput. If we go to the early history their head was ATTILLA THE HUN. Attilla the hun was born in southern part of Russia. Some people also believed that Rabari or Huns Rajput, came to India from the Roman side because Attila the Hun was king of the region at the time.
Somewhere, over the centuries, they became nomadic – camel herders and wanderers. These days the Rabaris are said to be semi-nomadic. Some live in small hamlets of round huts with mud walls and thatched roofs. The women manage the hamlets and are shrewd and intelligent. They sell wool and clarified butter to city merchants and manage all money matters. The women are usually strong, beautiful,tall and well built. The Rabari men are also tall,handsome and well-built. They can often be seen roaming the countryside with their droves. They travel hundreds of miles on annual migration routes in search of new pastures to graze their animals.
Rabari girls can be married as young as 15-months old. Most of the Rabari marriages take place on the same day once a year and can be a very extravagant event involving polygamist rites.
Nowadays a very small percentage of Rabari are nomadic. Most of the grazing land is gone in India, because of an increase in human population. After the independence of India, many other opportunities opened up in business and education. So most Rabari at present day have settled down in their original communities, and are engaging in commerce and agriculture. Many have entered into politics. In the state of Gujarat some Rabaris became ministers and member of parliament in Delhi. Education has opened up other avenue for them. So many have become lawyers, engineers, teachers, nurses, dentists, doctors and MOD staff. Not all Rabari live in India now, some who wanted a better life live abroad in countries like Canada, USA, UK, Australia and Italy
Madhu said:
Stunning shots Sreenie! Love the second one in particular.
Vikram Rabari said:
Hey shreeni…. I m Rabari n feel proud to see this stuff here n It will be entirely my pleasure to assist and support you to gather or acquire more info about my community if needed.
R Srinivasan said:
Thanks Vikram. Love to have a story by you
milan rabari said:
thanks sir….
R Srinivasan said:
welcome! enjoy the journey..
ranjit ragiya said:
Nice picture rabari thanks sreeni
Juan said:
Hi Srini,
My name is Juan, I am from Spain.
I am writing because I am coming to Rajasthan in November and would love to be able to travel with the Rabari for some time. I wonder if you can help me on where to go to find them.
Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you.
Juan Gutierrez
R Srinivasan said:
Holla Juan. Responded on email. Thanks
ragiya ranjit said:
I love my Maldhari samaj of rabari samaj in rajasthan india
R Srinivasan said:
we need to keep the traditions going… lest the next generations should be missing these.
Sandeep Raika said:
Hello Sir, I am Sandeep Raika.
I am running the website of Rubari society, I am interested in writing history but economically weak to realize the dream
Sandeep Raika said:
Sir, you have described the history of the Rabari community, it is wrong in my opinion, because Atilla Hun was a cruel ruler, but there is no such example of cruelty in the Rabari community.