Healing Practices among Oraon people in Brambe Village

Oraon is the second largest tribe of Jharkhand. Knowledge related to healing practices is one of sphere where we find a close relation of these people with the environment. Oraon have their own folk knowledge of dealing with different dimensions of health whether it is physical dimension, mental dimension or spiritual dimension related to body, mind or soul. Even in the era of popular medical sector (Allopathic, Homeopathy or Ayurveda), folk medicine practices is quit famous and influential among the Oraon tribe of Brambe village in Ranchi District of Jharkhand. The use of traditional medicine was observed to be wide spread and prevalent over modern medicine in the study area.

This paper deals with the study of healing practices among Oraon people in Brambe village. In this context two domains of etiologies which are naturalistic and personalistic will be focused. Naturalistic domain will focus on medicinal plants, roots and herbs whereas personalistic domain will focus on super natural causes of illness and disease and ways of treating them through different traditional methods.