Tribal Philosophy

The world of tribes in India is still undiscovered and it often appears mysterious to the common man. Their peculiar belief system, worship of myriad spirits, animals, plants, hills, rivers and mountains compound the mystery. Even today, their world view, lifestyle, ritual and value system remain beyond the grasp of the mainstream society. Tribes are often dismissed as just animists, without a philosophy. Scholars so far have been dwelling mostly on the anthropological aspects of the tribes. This book is the first systematic effort to deal with the tribes from the point of view of philosophy. The work goes beyond what appears about the tribes on the surface level, and delves into their world of cosmology, metaphysics, aesthetics, epistemology and eschatology, man-animal-nature relations, gods, spirits, body and soul. Though the book is a work of philosophy, it chooses to avoid dry and cumbersome _ philosophical process; but in the final analysis succeeds to bring forth the philosophy of the tribal community in a manner appealing even to the general readers. A large number of legends and folktales have been interpreted philosophically in order to give sensible meaning to them vis-a-vis Vedic philosophy and Christian philosophy; and it is therefore that the book promises to be an exotic journey into the world of the tribes.