_Savar, [626] Sawara, Savara, Saonr, Sahra_ (and several other
variations. In Bundelkhand the Savars, there called Saonrs, are
frequently known by the honorific title of Rawat).--A primitive tribe
numbering about 70,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911,
and principally found in the Chhattisgarh Districts and those of
Saugor and Damoh. The eastern branch of the tribe belongs chiefly
to the Uriya country. The Savars are found in large numbers in the
Madras Districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam and in Orissa. They also
live in the Bundelkhand Districts of the United Provinces. The total
number of Savars enumerated in India in 1911 was 600,000, of which the
Bundelkhand Districts contained about 100,000 and the Uriya country
the remainder. The two branches of the tribe are thus separated by a
wide expanse of territory. As regards this peculiarity of distribution
General Cunningham says: "Indeed there seems good reason to believe
that the Savaras were formerly the dominant branch of the great
Kolarian family, and that their power lasted down to a comparatively
late period, when they were pushed aside by other Kolarian tribes
in the north and east, and by the Gonds in the south. In the Saugor
District I was informed that the Savaras had formerly fought with the
Gonds and that the latter had conquered them by treacherously making
them drunk." [627] Similarly Cunningham notices that the zamindar of
Suarmar in Raipur, which name is derived from Savar, is a Gond. A
difference of opinion has existed as to whether the Savars were
Kolarian or Dravidian so far as their language was concerned, Colonel
Dalton adopting the latter view and other authorities the former and
correct one. In the Central Provinces the Savars have lost their own
language and speak the Aryan Hindi or Uriya vernacular current around
them. But in Madras they still retain their original speech, which
is classified by Sir G. Grierson as Mundari or Kolarian. He says:
"The most southerly forms of Munda speech are those spoken by the
Savars and Gadabas of the north-east of Madras. The former have been
identified with the Suari of Pliny and the Sabarae of Ptolemy. A
wild tribe of the same name is mentioned in Sanskrit literature,
even so far back as in late Vedic times, as inhabiting the Deccan,
so that the name at least can boast great antiquity." [628] As to
the origin of the name Savar, General Cunningham says that it must be
sought for outside the language of the Aryans. "In Sanskrit _savara_
simply means 'a corpse.' From Herodotus, however, we learn that
the Scythian word for an axe was _sagaris_, and as 'g' and 'v' are
interchangeable letters _savar_ is the same word as _sagar_. It seems
therefore not unreasonable to infer that the tribe who were so called
took their name from their habit of carrying axes. Now it is one of the
striking peculiarities of the Savars that they are rarely seen without
an axe in their hands. The peculiarity has been frequently noticed
by all who have seen them." [629] The above opinion of Cunningham,
which is of course highly speculative, is disputed by Mr. Crooke,
who says that "The word Savara, if it be, as some believe, derived
from _sava_ a corpse, comes from the root _sav_ 'to cause to decay,'
and need not necessarily therefore be of non-Aryan origin, while on
the other hand no distinct inference can be drawn from the use of the
axe by the Savars, when it is equally used by various other Dravidian
jungle tribes such as the Korwas, Bhuiyas and the like." [630]
In the classical stories of their origin the first ancestor of the
Savars is sometimes described as a Bhil. The word Savar is mentioned
in several Sanskrit works written between 800 B.C. and A.D. 1200, and
it seems probable that they are a Munda tribe who occupied the tracts
of country which they live in prior to the arrival of the Gonds. The
classical name Savar has been corrupted into various forms. Thus
in the Bundeli dialect '_ava_' changes into '_au_' and a nasal is
sometimes interpolated. _Savar_ has here become Saunr or Saonr. The
addition of 'a' at the end of the word sometimes expresses contempt,
and Savar becomes Savara as Chamar is corrupted into _Chamra_. In the
Uriya country 'v' is changed into 'b' and an aspirate is interpolated,
and thus Savara became Sabra or Sahara, as Gaur has become Gahra. The
word Sahara, Mr. Crooke remarks, [631] has excited speculation as
to its derivation from Arabic, in which Sahara means a wilderness;
and the name of the Savars has accordingly been deduced from the same
source as the great Sahara desert. This is of course incorrect.