Votive offering

Adivasis in central India sacrifice animals to their gods. Indigenous population groups in Gujarat or Madhya Pradesh such as the Bhil, Bhilala, Bhargi, Rathwa, Dhonaka or Naika refer to themselves as Adivasi to express their position in the Indian caste system. They are the "first settlers" or "original inhabitants" as the expression can be translated.
For the sacrifices, horses, elephants, cattle and even camels are replaced by clay replicas. The potters do not strive for realistic anatomical forms. The hole on the chest shows how the cylindrical body parts were made on the potter's wheel.
In difficult times, the village priest (badvo) is consulted on how to avert impending disaster or how to ask for good luck in general. Depending on the threat or the extent of the wishes, he recommends the sacrifice of animals made of clay, food, cooking oil, incense and money. These gifts are brought in processions to a shrine on the edge of the village, where the animals are left, usually under a sacred tree. The food is eaten together after the ceremonies. All of this can be organized by a single family or the entire village community.

The clay figures are referred to as bhog as offerings to gods such as the mother goddesses (devlimadi, khedbaima, dhabasmaand), gods to ward off diseases (kabail) or to protect the herds (govaldev). Understood as samvari, they are mounts on which the guardian gods ride at night against evil demons and fight them.