In official documents, people who inhabited the highlands are called pahariyas. The journal of Buchanan gives some interesting accounts of the Pahariyas. His journal is in the form of a diary. The places he saw, the people he met, their customs, etc. are recorded in his journal. But he has not written about their origin or history. Therefore to recreate the history of Pahariyas, historians had to rely on the revenue records of the 18th century. They give much information about Pahariyas.
Pahariyas lived on the Rajmahal hills. For their livelihood they depended on the forest. They got their food from the forest. They also did shifting cultivation. They cleared small tracts in the forest and dug the ground with their hoes, planting pulses and com. After using the tracts for some time they left them fallow to restore their fertility and moved to another place.
For food, the Pahariyas collected a kind of flowers called ‘mahua’ from forests. They also collected cocoons of silkworms and resin for sale. They collected wood to make charcoal. They grazed their animals in the grasslands of the forests. Thus they did many things connected with the forest.
They lived in huts made among tamarind groves. They rested in the shade of trees. They considered the entire area their own. Their being and life depended on these forests.
