Mythologies of the Savara Tribe

Savaras or Sabaras referred to in both the epics were a non-Aryan tribe. The earliest mention of them is to be found in the Aitareya Brahmana where it is stated that the elder sons of Vishwamitra were cursed to become progenitors of such servile races as Andhras, Pundras, Savaras, Pulindasand Mutibas. The implication of this passage seems to be that the Savaras were a non-Aryan people dwelling somewhere in the Daksinapatha. The Matsya Purana and Vayu Purana definitely locate them in the south, describing them as Daksinapathavasinah. The Mahabharata also places them in the Deccan along with the Andhras and Pulindas. Historians have mentioned a country called Sabarai which is generally held to be identical with the region inhabited by the Savaras. Some historians have identified the Sabarai with Suari, and has further identified both with the aboriginal Savaras or Suars, a wild race who lived in the woods and jungles without any fixed habitations, and whose country extended as far southward as the Pennar River. These Savaras or Suars are only a single branch of a widely spread race found in large numbers to the south-west of Gwalior and Marwar and south Rajputana where they are known as Surrius.

The Savara are one of the most primitive tribes of Andhrapradesh. They are mainly found in the picturesque Palakonda hill ranges (part of Eastern Ghats) of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts. They are also found scattered in the district of Vishakhapatnam of Andhrapradesh. About 9o% of Savara in Andhrapradesh are concentrated in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts. They belong to Proto-Australoid racial stock. On the basis of physical features the Savara habitat can be divided into two distinct zones: (1) the hill settlements and (2) the foothill settlements. The hill settlements, as the name suggests, are mainly in mountainous country, of late large number of these settlements are accessible by road. Only during the last ten years have the Savara of these settlements come in contact with the outside world, mainly due to the penetration of the Christian missionaries, who are organizing the promotion of the Gospel of Christ. For all practical purposes the normal administrative machinery of government was absent in the past, except for the activities of forest guards. Contact with the outside world is only peripheral, and the Savara of these settlements have remained food gatherers and shifting-cultivators. The second zone, the smaller of the two in terms of population and number of settlements, consists of the foothill settlements of Savara along the Eastern Ghats. These settlements came in touch with outsiders much earlier than the hill settlements, and these contacts have increased in the last two decades due to the migration of non-tribal into tribal areas. The Savara of these settlements cultivate terraced land with ploughs, like the Jatapu of the foothill settlements. Etymologically, in Sanskrit, Savara or Sabara means a mountaineer. It is believed that savaras were one of the indigenous tribes of pre-historic India adept in manufacturing painted pottery and even copper tools and weapons. H.D.Sankalia was of the opinion that “the bearers of the Nevasa – Nevadatoli culture as well as of the copper hoard belong to indigenous tribes, such as Nishads, Pulindas, Savars, some of whom though now quite primitive might have made 3000-4000 years ago beautiful painted pottery and even copper tools and weapons”. The savaras were the first tribal groups mentioned in the Hindu epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Sri Rama, during his wanderings in search of sita, is said to have met an aryanised savara women by name Sabari.

The Savaras, Sawaras, or Saoras, are an important hill-tribe in Ganjam and Vizagapatam. The name is derived by General Cunningham from the Scythian sagar, an axe, in reference to the axe which they carry in their hands. In Sanskrit, sabara or savara means a mountaineer, barbarian, or savage. The tribe has been identified by various authorities with the Suari of Pliny and Sabarai of Ptolemy. "Towards the Ganges," the latter writes, "are the Sabarai, in whose country the diamond is found in great abundance." This diamond producing country is located by Cunningham near Sambalpūr in the Central Provinces. In one of his grants, Nandivarma Pallavamalla, a Pallava king, claims to have released the hostile king of the Sābaras, Udayana by name, and captured his mirror-banner made of peacock's feathers. The Rev. T. Foulkes identifies the Sābaras of this copper-plate grant with the Savaras of the eastern ghāts. But Dr. E. Hultzsch, who has re-edited the grant, is of opinion that these Sābaras cannot be identified with the Savaras. The Aitareya Brāhmana of the Rig-vēda makes the Savaras the descendants of the sons of Visvāmitra, who were cursed to become impure by their father for an act of disobedience, while the Rāmayana describes them as having emanated from the body of Vasishta's cow to fight against the sage Visvāmitra. The language of the Savaras is included by Mr.G. A. Grierson in the Mundā family. It has, he writes, "been largely influenced by Telugu, and is no longer an unmixed form of speech. It is most closely related to Khariā and Juāng, but in some characteristics differs from them, and agrees with the various dialects of the language which has in this (linguistic) survey been described under the denomination of Kherwāri." The Savaras are described by Mr, F. Fawcett as being much more industrious than the Khonds, "Many a time," he writes, "have I tried to find a place for an extra paddy (rice) field might be made, but never with success. It is not too much to say that paddy is grown on every available foot of arable ground, all the hill streams being utilized for this purpose. From almost the very tops of the hills, in fact from wherever the springs are, there are paddy fields; at the top of every small area a few square yards, the front perpendicular revetment [of large masses of stones] sometimes as large in area as the area of the field; and larger and larger, down the hillside, taking every advantage of every available foot of ground there are fields below fields to the bottoms of the valleys. The Saoras show remarkable engineering skill in constructing their paddy fields, and I wish I could do it justice. They seem to construct them in the most impossible places, and certainly at the expense of great labour. Yet, with all their superior activity and industry, the Saoras are decidedly physically inferior to the Khonds. It seems hard the Saoras should not be allowed to reap the benefit of their industry, but must givehalf of it to the parasitic Bissoyis and their retainers. The greater part of the Saoras' hills have been denuded of forest owing to the persistent hacking down of trees for the purpose of growing dry crops, so much so that, in places, the hills look almost bare in the dry weather. Nearly all the jungle (mostly sāl, Shorea robusta) is cut down every few years. When the Saoras want to work a piece of new ground, where the jungle has been allowed to grow for a few years, the trees are cut down, and, when dry, burned, and the ground is grubbed up by the women with a kind of hoe. The hoe is used on the steep hill sides, where the ground is very stony and rocky, and the stumps of the felled trees are numerous, and the plough cannot be used. In the paddy fields, or on any flat ground, they use ploughs of lighter and simpler make than those used in the plains. They use cattle for ploughing." It is noted by Mr. G. V. Ramamurti Pantulu, in an article on the Savaras, that "in some cases the Bissoyi, who was originally a feudatory chief under the authority of the zemindar, and in other cases the zemindar claims a fixed rent in kind or cash, or both. Subject to the rents payable to the Bissoyis, the Savaras under them are said to exercise their right to sell or mortgage their lands. Below the ghāts, in the plains, the Savara has lost his right, and the mustajars or the renters to whom the Savara villages are farmed out take half of whatever crops are raised by the Savaras." Mr. Ramamurti states further that a new-comer should obtain the permission of the Gōmongo (headman) and the Bōya before he can reclaim any jungle land, and that, at the time of sale or mortgage, the village elders should be present, and partake of the flesh of the pig sacrificed on the occasion. In some places, the Savaras are said to be entirely in the power of Paidi settlers from the plains, who seize their entire produce on the plea of debts contracted at a usurious rate of interests. In recent years, some Savaras emigrated to Assam to work in the tea-gardens. But emigration has now stopped by edict.