The Bundelkhand Savars have been so long separated from the others that
they have sometimes forgotten their identity and consider themselves as
a subtribe of Gonds, though the better informed repudiate this. They
may be regarded as a separate endogamous group. The eastern branch
have two main divisions called Laria and Uriya, or those belonging to
Chhattisgarh and Sambalpur respectively. A third division known as the
Kalapithia or 'Black Backs' are found in Orissa, and are employed
to drag the car of Jagannath. These on account of their sacred
occupation consider themselves superior to the others, abstain from
fowls and liquor, and sometimes wear the sacred thread. The Larias are
the lowest subdivision. Marriage is regulated by exogamous septs or
_bargas_. The northern Savars say that they have 52 of these, 52 being
a number frequently adopted to express the highest possible magnitude,
as if no more could be imagined. The Uriya Savars say they have 80
_bargas_. Besides the prohibition of marriage within the same _barga_,
the union of first cousins is sometimes forbidden. Among the Uriya
Savars each _barga_ has the two further divisions of Joria and Khuntia,
the Jorias being those who bury or burn their dead near a _jor_ or
brook, and the Khuntias those who bury or burn them near a _khunt_ or
old tree. Jorias and Khuntias of the same _barga_ cannot intermarry,
but in the case of some other subdivisions of the _barga_, as between
those who eat rice at one festival in the year and those eating it
at two, marriage is allowed between members of the two subdivisions,
thus splitting the exogamous group into two. The names of the _bargas_
are usually totemistic, and the following are some examples: Badaiya,
the carpenter bird; Bagh, the tiger; Bagula, the heron; Bahra, a
cook; Bhatia, a _brinjal_ or egg-plant; Bisi, the scorpion; Basantia,
the trunk of the cotton tree; Hathia, an elephant; Jancher, a tree
(this _barga_ is divided into Bada and Kachcha, the Bada worshipping
the tree and the Kachcha a branch of it, and marriage between the
two subdivisions is allowed); Jharia (this _barga_ keeps a lock of
a child's hair unshaved for four or five years after its birth);
Juadi, a gambler; Karsa, a deer; Khairaiya, the _khair_ or catechu
tree; Lodhi, born from the caste of that name (in Saugor); Markam,
the name of a Gond sept; Rajhans, a swan; Suriya Bansia, from the sun
(members of this _barga_ feed the caste-fellows on the occasion of a
solar eclipse and throw away their earthen pots); Silgainya from _sil_,
a slate; and Tiparia from _tipari_, a basket (these two septs are
divided into Kachcha and Pakka groups which can marry with each other);
Sona, gold (a member of this sept does not wear gold ornaments until
he has given a feast and a caste-fellow has placed one on his person).