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The Rathva or Rathwa (also spelled as Rathava and Rathawa) is a Subcategory of the Koli people caste found in the Indian state of Gujarat. Rathava Kolis were agriculturist by profession and turbulent by habits but now lives like such as Bhil because of their neighborhood
Although sometimes referred to as the Rathwa Koli, and sometimes self-identifying as such, they are treated as inferior by the Koli people. Some sources say that they are in fact descended from migrant Bhil people, although Shereen Ratnagar noted that those Rathwa to whom she spoke during her anthropological studies rejected that association and that labels such as Koli and Bhil were historically imposed upon communities by administrative outsiders as catch-all terms. Bhils and Kolis historically co-existed in the hills of what is now Gujarat, which sociologist Arvind Shah says has led to confusion of the two groups, not helped by there being "hardly any modern, systematic, anthropological, sociological or historical study" of the Kolis. The Rathwa themselves were barely studied until a seminal paper produced by R. B. Lal in 1970, in part because they lived as niche communities in steep, densely forested, relatively inaccessible areas.
==Gallery ==
Pithora Painting1.JPG|Pithora Painting on Canvas
Pithora painting3.JPG|Pithora painting
The Rathwas are culturally indistinguishable - even by themselves - from the Dhanka and Naikda tribes of the area, having similar dress, similar celebrations of life events such as birth, marriage and death, similar religious beliefs, songs and dance. Like the Dhanka and Naikda, they are endogamy and this lack of inter-community marriage is the one thing that clearly separates them from each other. Lal recorded the community as practising a patrilineality system of inheritance and subsisting mainly through agriculture, supplemented by food gathering, fishing and hunting. They have a number of exogamy clans, including the Hamania, Thebaria, Mahania, Kothari Baka and Fadia. Lal recorded around 32 .
As with other tribes of the region, ancestor worship is common among the Rathwas. They believe in an omnipresent deity called Babo Pithora or Baba Deb, who is depicted with other scenes of everyday life in religious paintings on the walls of their houses. Gregory Alles believes that these artworks are akin to Cosmography. merging aspects of real life with an imaginary world. They appeal to the deity in times of need and create the painting - called a pithora - as a thanks for resolution of those needs. Pithora ritual art, described by Ratnagar as "vibrant colours ... teeming with gods, people, plants, birds and animals", is unique to the Rathwa and significant in its appeal to tourists; aside from practising it in their own houses, the Rathwa also paint pithora in the houses of Dhanak and Naikda people.
Horses have a particularly prominent role in worship as Babo Pithora is thought to ride one. Not only do the animals feature in the pithora paintings but clay models of them, sourced from Kumbhar potters, are also offered in thanks at temples. No member of a family is permitted to sit with their back facing the pithora in the house. Aside from worship of ancestors, nature and tribal deities, Lal noted some aspects of Hinduism integrated into their belief systems; the number professing solely Hindu beliefs has been increasing under the influence of . Although Gujarat is a "dry" state, the Rathwas also traditionally consider alcohol to be a gift from god that alleviates temporal sorrows while awaiting death, and will travel to smuggle it from neighbouring states or brew it in their own homes. (2025). 9780191505010, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191505010
Government agencies have struggled to define the Rathwa, whom Ratnagar says were not separately recorded from the Kolis until the census of 1971. However, Lal's paper notes population figures from 1961, which was also a census year. The community is classified as a Scheduled Tribe in three states under India's system of positive discrimination, those being Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
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