Tribal people were found in almost every region of the subcontinent. Contemporary historians and travellers give little information about the tribes because the tribal people mostly did not keep written records.
They preserved their customs and oral traditions which were passed on from generation to generation and these were used to write their histories

(i) Garha Katanga was a rich state and earned much wealth by trapping and exporting wild elephants to other kingdoms.
(ii) When the Mughals defeated the Gonds, they captured huge booty of precious coins and elephants.
(iii) They annexed part of the kingdom and granted the rest to Chandra Shah, an uncle of Bir Narain.
(iv) Despite the fall of Garha Katanga, the Gond kingdoms survived for some time.
(v) However, they became much weaker and later struggled unsuccessfully against the stronger Bundelas and Marathas.

i) By the 11th and 12th centuries Rajput clans became powerful amongst some tribes. The Rajput became the rulers in different parts of India which inspired the tribal people.
ii) Gradually with the support of the Brahmans, many tribes included in the caste system. 
iii) Only the leading tribal families could join the ruling class. A large majority of tribes joined the lower jatis of caste society.
vi) Many dominant tribes of Punjab, Sind and North-West Frontier adapted Islam to reject the orthodox Hindu casteism.

i) The Banjaras were very important for the economy. They were trader-nomads and controlled trade and commerce. They played an important role in the transportation of grains to the city markets.
ii) They usually bought grain where it was cheaply available and carried it to places where it was dearer. They even transported foodgrain for the Mughal towns and during military campaigns.

Garha Katanga was a rich state and Rani Durgawati extended her empire. To centro] her and capture the wealth of Garha Katanga, Mughal forces under Asaf Khan attacked it. The Mughals defeated the Gonds, captured huge booty of precious coins and elephants. Mughals were ambitious, they desired to expand their empire and capture the wealth of the land of the Gonds.

Nomadic pastoralists moved over long distances with their animals. They lived on milk 'and other pastoral products. They bought and sold these goods as they moved from one place to another. They carried them on the back of their animals. The Banjaras were the most important trader nomads.
Sultan Alauddin Khalji and Mughal Emperor Jahangir used the Banjaras to transport grain to the city markets.
Many pastoral tribes reared and sold animals like cattle and horses, to the prosperous people. Different castes of petty pedlars travelled from village to village and sold ropes, seeds, straw matting and coarse socks. Mendicants acted as wandering merchants.

Unlike the varna system of society, the tribal societies do not follow social rituals prescribed by the Brahmanas. They were also not divided into unequal castes, classes.
Members of each societies of tribes are united by kinship bonds. Most of them carryon cultivation. Many others were hunter-gatherer or herders. Some other were nomadic and moved from place to place. Most of them combined these activities to make full use of the natural resources. A tribal group controlled land and pastures jointly and divided these amongst households according to its own rules.Sometimes they clashed with the more powerful caste-based societies. The tribes retained their freedom and preserved their separate culture. The caste based societies and the tribal societies also depended on each other for their diverse needs.

There were several other societies in the subcontinent which did not follow the social rules and rituals prescribed by the Brahmanas. Such societies are called as tribes. Tribal people were found in every region of the subcontinent. In Punjab, the Khokhar tribe was influential during the 13th and 14th centuries. In Multan and Sind, the Langahs and Arghuns dominated extensive regions. The Balochis were large and powerful tribe, Gaddis. The Nagas, Ahoms lived in the North Eastern part of the subcontinent.
Chero, Mundas and Santhals were in Bihar, Jharkhand Orissa and Bengal.
The other tribes were the Kolis, Berads Koragas, Vetars, Maravars, Gonds etc.
The Bhils By the late 16th century many of them had become settled agriculturists and some even zamindars. So, now they considered forests, deserts and difficult places to reach as their home. They do not want to be treated as unequals as it is being practiced in varna system of society.

(i) Almost all adult males served in the army during war.
(ii) They were also engaged in building dams, irrigation systems and other public works.
(iii) The Ahoms also introduced new method of rice cultivation.
(iv) Ahom society was divided into clans or khels. 
(v) There were very few castes of artisans, so they came from the adjoining kingdoms.
(vi) A khel often controlled several villages. 
(vii) The peasant was given land by his village community.
(viii) Even the king could not take it away without the community's consent.
(ix) In the beginning the Ahoms worshipped their own tribal gods.
(x) During the first half of the seventeenth century, they were influenced by Brahmanas. Temples and Brahmanas were granted land by the king. In the reign of Sib Singh (1714-1744), Hinduism became their major religion.
(xi) The Ahom kings did not completely give up their traditional beliefs after adopting Hinduism.
(xii) Ahom society was very sophisticated. Poets and scholars were given land grants. Theatre was encouraged. Important works of Sanskrit were translated into the local languages. Historical works, known as buranjis, were also written-first in the Ahom language and then in Assamese.

The Life of Banjaras :
Peter Mundy, an English trader who came to India during the early seventeenth century, has described the Banjaras.
(i) In the morning we met a tanda of Banjaras with 14,000 oxen.
(ii) They were all laden with grains such as wheat and rice.
(iii) These Banjaras carry their hold, wives and children, along with them.
One tanda consists of many families Their way of life is similar to that of carriers who continuously travel from place to place. They own their oxen. They are sometimes hired by merchants, but most commonly they are themselves merrhants. They buy grain where it is cheaply available and carry it to places where it is dearer. From there, they again reload their oxen with anything that can be profitably sold in other places.
(iv) In a tanda there may be as many as 6 or 7 hundred persons. They do not travel more than 6 or 7 miles a day that, too, in the cool weather. After unloading their oxen, they turn them free to graze as there is enough land here, and no one is there to forbid them.