At a Glance :

Location : North Gujarat

Major Festivals : Chitra Vichitra festival

Garasia tribe is situated in the north of Gujarat. They wear a colorful attire; especially in the Chitra Vichitra fair. It is usually held in Khedrahma's Poshina area, At the Aakal River and Sabarmati's conflux point. Garasia tribes believe in the congenital worship. Garasia tribe of Shamlaji is partitioned in 2 dozen clans, it is known as Goter-Gotra. There are no barriers. All Goter have similar status. Goter comes from certain events or thing or place. In the Garasia tribe, they have kinship group which is called as Kakababa or Kakaba or family of antecessor. They don’t have any written document which can specify their tradition. They have endogamous but it is divided into twenty eight exogamous clans. In 3 moieties, it has been divided mid moities: Raidra, Chauhan, Vansia, Rathod, Gamar, Khokharia, Dhadhi, Bhumbharia, Pargi; Higher moity: Solanki, Parmar, Angari, Dungaicha, Kharadi; Lower moities: Makwana, Mali, Garina.

In Garasia tribe, they call their father by the name of 'Bapa' and the mother 'Ayi'. The whole family shares the earning and occupation, that the individual members have obtained. In the nuclear family, the eldest person handles or manages the major responsibilities. After the eldest man his wife or mature son manages all the important things of the family. This tribe's people like to have gold Rekhu in their teeth which adds more beauty to their smile. They also use Nail polish to decorate their hands. They usually wear gold jewellery. Garasia tribal group live in Saurashtra and wear ornaments like Pandadi Yali Haar , Ramnomi or necklaces which are made by using the metal leaves, Thodiya, Zarmar, Kokarva, Kap etc. they wear Vedla in the ears, Gujariya and Darshaniya are worn on wrists, on the upper arms they wear Kadu or Lokit, on the ankles the golden or silver Chhada, Bediyu, Kambikadla, Sankla and Zanzari are worn.

Marriage or Elopement is very important moments of the Garasia tribe. In this tribe arrange marriages takes from 2 to 12 days. The first day of marriage is known as Chhedo Palavo. Middle days of ceremony are known as Ada Dari. Ceremony's second last day is known as Fulelku and last day of ceremony is known as Mandava. The relative of the bride and groom perform songs and dances in these middle days. The day after the Mandava, the groom's relatives goes to the bride's house. Garasia tribal people practice the nuclear family system. Men of this tribe are decent but to have 2 or 3 wives is not new for them. Villagers allow marriages like arrange, love and elopement. In this tribe, widow remarriage is welcomed.

Garasia tribes major occupation is farming or agriculture. They also earn on forest products. Men work in leveling of farms, ploughing and making of roofs and females work such as plastering floor, housework, cow dung etc. Garasia tribe follow their customs like a memory of the dead person is carved on the stone which is erected on the dead bodies burned bones and that stone is called as Sura. This tribal people submit their dead relatives burned bones and ashes into the river water. They do this custom in the Chitra Vichitra Fair. Young girls of this tribe wear new clothes on the fair day and come with her family to have the fun in the fair. They don't have specific God or Goddess, to whom they worship but they do worship their traditional clay horses. They don’t follow any festival or ritual customs but they worship these clay horses, to get the solution to  problems and to have the peace in their village.