(in Russian, Bara-Bodo), a group of peoples in northeastern India (primarily in Assam). The population was approximately 1.5 million according to a 1967 estimate. The Bodo languages make up a special subgroup in the Burmese group of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The largest subdivisions of the Bodo include the Garo, Kachari, and Dimasa. Their occupations are hunting and farming. The Bodo are one of the oldest Tibeto-Burman groups to have penetrated the territory of India. Apparently, they had already populated Assam in the second millennium B. C. Between the 13th and 15th centuries A. D., Bodo groups established in Assam and in northern Bengal a number of early class-based state formations which carried on a fierce struggle with the Ahom (Burmese Shan) invaders. Bodo social structure preserved elements of matriarchal tribal relationships. In religion, Bodos are animists and partially Hindus.

(sometimes called Garo), the most numerous of the Bara-Bodo group of peoples. Population, approximately 300,000 (1967 estimate). They live in the Garo Hills in the state of Assam, India. The Bodo language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. The Bodo religion centers on the worship of the sacred stones that guard the entrance to the village. The Bodo peoples have preserved many vestiges of family-tribal organization, including survivals of matriarchal relations, especially in the inheritance of family property and in the use of land. The chief occupation is slash-and-burn farming (rice, corn), which accounts for the periodic resettlement patterns of the Bodo peoples.