question_answer

(a) Who were Hangars?            (b) What were their occupations? (c) Why were they continuously on the move?

Answer:

 (a) The Dhangars were an important pastoral community of Maharashtra. (b) Most of them. were shepherds, some were blanket weavers and others were buffalo herders. (c) They were continuously on the move in search of pasture for their cattle. They lived in a semiarid region with low rainfall and poor soil. Only bajra could be sown here. After harvesting their bajra in October, they moved westwards to the Konkan region. The Konkan area was a flourishing agricultural tract with high rainfall and rich soil. By this time, the char if crop had been harvested and the fields had to be fertilized and made ready for the rabi crop. The Dhangar flocks manured the fields and fed on the stubble. The Konkoni I peasants also gave supplies of rice to the shepherds. With the onset of the monsoons, the Hangars returned to their settlements on the plateau as the sheep could not tolerate the wet I monsoon conditions.