Bhils- The forerunners of Indian tribal medical knowledge:

Bhils are listed as Adivasi residents of the states of Gujarat, Madhya  Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,

Maharashtra and Rajasthan - all in the western Deccan regions and central India - as well as in Tripura in far-eastern India, on the border with Bangladesh. Bhils are divided into a number of endogamous territorial divisions, which in turn have a number of clans and lineages.
The origin of the Bhils dates back to the medieval and colonial period, where apart  from serving as hunters (“Shikaris”) for the Rajput rulers or as furious warriors in Mewar army under great rulers like Maharana
Pratap and Shivaji, they made significant contribution to the field of traditional medical development in India.
The Bhils were said to possess an excellent knowledge of the Indian terrain, which served in varied knowledge of the Indian flora. The priest or Badwai was the chief physician among the Bhils, though most old men were supposed to know something about medicine. The myths and legends of the tribal people reveal that they suffered from a wide range of ailments – endemic as well as epidemic – in the past. Before the 1880s, they were left largely to their own devices when ill. In a few cases, they may have sought herbal and faith based cures from wandering mendicants – such as sadhus and pirs – who resided in forest tracts. Most healing was by relatives and neighbors using herbal and other folk remedies. Tribal specialists who used herbal remedies, cauterization, divination and exorcism, treated the more intractable cases for them.
Bhils had classified diseases as per their knowledge, where they specialized themselves in curing various ailments, which are still prevalent in recent times and sometimes proved to be quiet promising like:
• Fever (Bukhar/Taav): The first stage of treatment normally is giving the patient some tea.
Then, people seek the help of the badwai, the faith-healer  (also called jhare wala or Bhopa). If it does not get cured, then people resort to allopathic medicine.

Likewise, in the case of Malaria (Malaria taav) also, which is very common during and after the rainy season, the treatment sought is the same. This was the general trend in case of most of the villages, but at certain places located on the highways and where health facilities existed, non-tribal people directly went to the hospitals after the home treatment. In the villages with 100% tribal population, and located off the main roads, people normally went to the bhopas. Since most of them could not afford to visit towns or cities for treatment, they stuck to the treatment offered by the faith healers for a relatively longer period.
• Dental Problems: The dental problems identified were caries (keera), tooth-ache (dant dard),

swelling (sujan) and pyorrhoea (peek). It was observed that  people do not attach much importance to dental problems. They apply i.e. rub tobacco (tambhacoo) to the aching parts. It was reported that most of their problems got cured by tobacco, and none was reported going to a hospital for dental treatment in any of the villages.

Some people mentioned applying cloves (long) or clove oil (long ka tel) for curing dental problems. Some others mentioned applying the juice of the leaves of the Climbing bean (Dolichos lablab) (Sem ki phali ki pattion ka ras) or Garhia ki patti as home treatment. Other problems mentioned during the discussion included cough and cold. The common treatment mentioned for this problem was taking honey, crushed tulsi leaves (sacred basil) and tea with black pepper. Again, as in the case of dental problems, not much attention was paid to them. People believe that these problems are part of one's life, and carry on as normally as possible in such cases.
• Jaundice (peelia): In this case the sufferer is given sugarcane juice as local treatment. This, people believe, is an effective treatment and none mentioned  going to a hospital for treatment of
jaundice.

Bhopas or faith-healers (jhare wala) were especially called in for removing the ill effects of 'evil eye' (nazar), spells of black magic (tona), etc. Though some people were initially reluctant to admit this, later on they admitted that though they knew the treatment was not as effective as allopathic treatment, it was still being used by poor people owing to the very high cost of allopathic medicine.

Constipation (kebjee)  and abdominal pain (pet dard) were other allied health problems worth mentioning, which were treated by prescribing various fruits including Banana (Kela), Wood apple (Kodbel), etc were prescribed.
• Children’s problems: 
 Diarrhoea (dast) was the main problem faced by children under 5 years of age. The local
treatment administered at home was giving some water  with lemon (nimbu paani) and salt, milk with sugar (doodh) or a kind of soup.
Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) (Saans Chalna): After Diarrhoea, Acute Respiratory Infection (Pneumonia) was the second most common  problem among the children. The domestic treatment included giving nutmeg (jaiphal), clove (long) and saffron (kesar) at the first stage, were in severe cases light roasted black cumin( Kala jeera) was very popular.
• Reproductive Health Problems of the Females: The
problems faced by pregnant women during their term included indigestion, vomiting, oedema  (haath pag sooje), general weakness (kamjori) and body ache (haath pag toote). Some home remedies practised include giving “burnt and ground corn cobs” to those suffering from vomiting. The problems identified during childbirth are: excessive bleeding (gano khoon chale) and weakness following the delivery (kamjori). The home remedies for these include giving a solution of unrefined sugar in water (gurh ka paani), solution of the gum of certain trees such as Babool (Acacia nilotica) (gond ka pani), and turmeric powder in milk (haldi ka doodh).
Though with the flow of time, this knowledge perished gradually being crushed under the wheels of development yet the little documented history that has been dug out from the sands of time, still speaks about the Bhils as pioneers of medical development in India and the forerunners of traditional medical knowledge.