BASTAR WAS ONCE A PRINCELY STATE covering nearly 39,000 sq. km. (25,000 square miles) of thick sal forest and wild, almost mountainous hills.

Over 70% of its people, under a Rajput ruler, belonged to forest tribes with social and religious customs distinct from, yet profoundly intermeshed with Hindu India.

Over the past 30 years large numbers of non-tribal outsiders have settled the area, despite constitutional prohibitions. Forests and villages have made way for iron ore mines and other industrial development.

But Bastar forests are large and its tribal people resilient. Tribal clan and villages deities, in their log form (left) known as anga, recall the widespread serpent worship of the past.

Deep in the forests of North Bastar, not far from Narayanpur, a tranquil Buddha (below left) sits on the site of an ancient monastery.

At Garh Gobrahin near Keshkal stands a granite Shivling (far left), possibly 8th century, evidence of the variety and influence of worship over the years.

The Rajput ruling family are said to have brought the state goddess Danteshwari, a ferocious aspect of Durga, from Warangal to Dantewara seven centuries ago (right).

In the ubiquitous weekly markets, at village dances and marriages, and at the colourful winter festivals, it is still possible to get close to the uniqueness of tribal Bastar. 

Life is changing fast, but then Bastar is not a zoo.

(Photographs of Gobrahin Shivling and Sri Danteshwari Mai courtesy of Franco-Indian Research Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai.)

Below: GreenGondwana's Kulvir Singh meets Koitor friends at a weekly market near Chota Dongar in the still unspoiled, rarely visited forest heart of North Bastar.

GreenGondwana is Secret India's travel arm, offering Unusual Destinations with More than a Touch of Luxury, including guided tours of tribal Bastar. For more information on Bastar - what to see and do - click on the GreenGondwana Guide or visit our travel web site GreenGondwana.com.