have settled in the low country, some differences have arisen in
the marriage rites "owing to the introduction of Hindu custom, i.e.,
those obtaining among the Sudra castes. Some of the Savaras who are
more Hinduised than others consult their medicine men as to what
day would be most auspicious for a marriage, erect pandals (booths),
dispense with the use of liquor, substituting for it thick jaggery
(crude sugar) water, and hold a festival for two or three days. But
even the most Hinduised Savara has not yet fallen directly into the
hands of the Brahman priest." At the marriage ceremony of some Kapu
Savaras, the bride and bridegroom sit side by side at the auspicious
moment, and partake of boiled rice (korra) from green leaf-cups, the
pair exchanging cups. Before the bridegroom and his party proceed to
their village with the bride, they present the males and females of
her village with a rupee, which is called janjul naglipu, or money paid
for taking away the girl. In another form of Kapu Savara marriage, the
would-be bridegroom and his party proceed, on an auspicious day, to the
house of the selected girl, and offer betel and tobacco, the acceptance
of which is a sign that the match is agreeable to her parents. On a
subsequent day, a small sum of money is paid as the bride-price. On
the wedding day the bride is conducted to the home of the bridegroom,
where the contracting couple are lifted up by two people, who dance
about with them. If the bride attempts to enter the house, she is
caught hold of, and made to pay a small sum of money before she is
permitted to do so. Inside the house, the officiating Desari ties
the ends of the cloths of the bride and bridegroom together, after
the ancestors and invisible spirits have been worshipped.
Of the marriage customs of the Kapu Savaras, the following account
is given in the Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district. "The Kapu
Savaras are taking to menarikam (marriage with the maternal uncle's
daughter), although the hill custom requires a man to marry outside
his village. Their wedding ceremonies bear a distant resemblance to
those among the hill Savaras. Among the Kapu Savaras, the preliminary
arrow and liquor are similarly presented, but the bridegroom goes at
length on an auspicious day with a large party to the bride's house,
and the marriage is marked by his eating out of the same platter with
her, and by much drinking, feasting, and dancing."
Children are named after the day of the week on which they were
born, and nicknames are frequently substituted for the birth
name. Mr. Fawcett records, for example, that a man was called Gylo
because, when a child, he was fond of breaking nuts called gylo, and
smearing himself with their black juice. Another was called Dallo
because, in his youthful days, he was fond of playing about with a
basket (dalli) on his head.
Concerning the death rites, Mr. Fawcett writes as follows. "As soon
as a man, woman, or child dies in a house, a gun, loaded with powder
only, is fired off at the door, or, if plenty of powder is available,
several shots are fired, to frighten away the Kulba (spirit). The
gun used is the ordinary Telugu or Uriya matchlock. Water is poured
over the body while in the house. It is then carried away to the
family burning-ground, which is situated from 30 to 80 yards from the
cluster of houses occupied by the family, and there it is burned. [It
is stated by Mr. S. P. Rice [153] that "the dead man's hands and feet
are tied together, and a bamboo is passed through them. Two men then
carry the corpse, slung in this fashion, to the burning-ground. When
it is reached, two posts are stuck up, and the bamboo, with the
corpse tied to it, is placed crosswise on the posts. Then below the
corpse a fire is lighted. The Savara man is always burnt in the
portion of the ground--one cannot call it a field--which he last
cultivated."] The only wood used for the pyre is that of the mango,
and of Pongamia glabra. Fresh, green branches are cut and used. No
dry wood is used, except a few twigs to light the fire. Were any one
to ask those carrying a body to the burning-ground the name of the
deceased or anything about him, they would be very angry. Guns are
fired while the body is being carried. Everything a man has, his bows
and arrows, his tangi, his dagger, his necklaces, his reaping-hook
for cutting paddy, his axe, some paddy and rice, etc., are burnt with
his body. I have been told in Kolakotta that all a man's money too is
burned, but it is doubtful if it really ever is--a little may be. A
Kolakotta Gomango told me "If we do not burn these things with the
body, the Kulba will come and ask us for them, and trouble us." The
body is burned the day a man dies. The next day, the people of the
family go to the burning-place with water, which they pour over the
embers. The fragments of the bones are then picked out, and buried
about two feet in the ground, and covered over with a miniature hut,
or merely with some thatching grass kept on the place by a few logs
of wood, or in the floor of a small hut (thatched roof without walls)
kept specially for the Kulba at the burning-place. An empty egg-shell
(domestic hen's) is broken under foot, and buried with the bones. It
is not uncommon to send pieces of bone, after burning, to relations
at a distance, to allow them also to perform the funeral rites. The
first sacrificial feast, called the Limma, is usually made about
three or four days after the body has been burnt. In some places,
it is said to be made after a longer interval. For the Limma a fowl
is killed at the burning-place, some rice or other grain is cooked,
and, with the fowl, eaten by the people of the family, with the usual
consumption of liquor. Of course, the Kudang (who is the medium of
communication between the spirits of the dead and the living) is on
the spot, and communicates with the Kulba. If the deceased left debts,
he, through the Kudang, tells how they should be settled. Perhaps
the Kulba asks for tobacco and liquor, and these are given to the
Kudang, who keeps the tobacco, and drinks the liquor. After the
Limma, a miniature hut is built for the Kulba over the spot where
the bones are buried. But this is not done in places like Kolakotta,
where there is a special hut set apart for the Kulba. In some parts
of the Saora country, a few logs with grass on the top of them, logs
again on the top to keep the grass in its place, are laid over the
buried fragments of bones, it is said to be for keeping rain off,
or dogs from disturbing the bones. In the evening previous to the
Limma, bitter food--the fruits or leaves of the margosa tree (Melia
Azadirachta)--are eaten. They do not like this bitter food, and partake
of it at no other time. [The same custom, called pithapona, or bitter
food, obtains among the Oriya inhabitants of the plains.] After the
Limma, the Kulba returns to the house of the deceased, but it is
not supposed to remain there always. The second feast to the dead,
also sacrificial, is called the Guar. For this, a buffalo, a large
quantity of grain, and all the necessary elements and accompaniments
of a feast are required. It is a much larger affair than the Limma,
and all the relations, and perhaps the villagers, join in. The evening
before the Guar, there is a small feast in the house for the purpose
of calling together all the previously deceased members of the family,
to be ready for the Guar on the following day. The great feature of
the Guar is the erection of a stone in memory of the deceased. From 50
to 100 yards (sometimes a little more) from the houses occupied by a
family may be seen clusters of stones standing upright in the ground,
nearly always under a tree. Every one of the stones has been put up
at one of these Guar feasts. There is a great deal of drinking and
dancing. The men, armed with all their weapons, with their feathers
in their hair, and adorned with coloured cloths, accompanied by the
women, all dancing as they go, leave the house for the place where
the stones are. Music always accompanies the dancing. At Kolakotta
there is another thatched hut for the Kulba at the stones. The stone
is put up in the deceased's name at about 11 A.M., and at about 2
P.M. a buffalo is killed close to it. The head is cut off with an
axe, and blood is put on the stone. The stones one sees are generally
from 1 1/2 to 4 feet high. There is no connection between the size
of the stone and the importance of the deceased person. As much of
the buffalo meat as is required for the feast is cooked, and eaten
at the spot where the stones are. The uneaten remains are taken away
by the relatives. In the evening the people return to the village,
dancing as they go. The Kolakotta people told me they put up the
stones under trees, so that they can have all their feasting in
the shade. Relations exchange compliments by presenting one another
with a buffalo for the Guar feast, and receive one in return on a
future occasion. The Guar is supposed to give the Kulba considerable
satisfaction, and it does not injure people as it did before. But, as
the Guar does not quite satisfy the Kulba, there is the great biennial
feast to the dead. Every second year (I am still speaking of Kolakotta)
is performed the Karja or biennial feast to the dead, in February
or March, after the crops are cut. All the Kolakotta Saoras join in
this feast, and keep up drinking and dancing for twelve days. During
these days, the Kudangs eat only after sunset. Guns are continually
fired off, and the people give themselves up to sensuality. On the
last day, there is a great slaughter of buffaloes. In front of every
house in which there has been a death in the previous two years, at
least one buffalo, and sometimes two or three, are killed. Last year
(1886) there were said to be at least a thousand buffaloes killed in
Kolakotta on the occasion of the Karja. The buffaloes are killed in the
afternoon. Some grain is cooked in the houses, and, with some liquor,
is given to the Kudangs, who go through a performance of offering the
food to the Kulbas, and a man's or a woman's cloth, according as the
deceased is a male or female, is at this time given to the Kudang for
the Kulba of each deceased person, and of course the Kudang keeps the
offerings. The Kudang then tells the Kulba to begone, and trouble the
inmates no more. The house people, too, sometimes say to the Kulba
'We have now done quite enough for you: we have given you buffaloes,
liquor, food, and cloths; now you must go'. At about 8 P.M., the house
is set fire to, and burnt. Every house, in which there has been a death
within the last two years, is on this occasion burnt. After this,
the Kulba gives no more trouble, and does not come to reside in the
new hut that is built on the site of the burnt one. It never hurts
grown people, but may cause some infantile diseases, and is easily
driven away by a small sacrifice. In other parts of the Saora country,
the funeral rites and ceremonies are somewhat different to what they
are in Kolakotta. The burning of bodies, and burning of the fragments
of the bones, is the same everywhere in the Saora country. In one
village the Saoras said the bones were buried until another person
died, when the first man's bones were dug up and thrown away, and the
last person's bones put in their place. Perhaps they did not correctly
convey what they meant. I once saw a gaily ornamented hut, evidently
quite new, near a burning-place. Rude figures of birds and red rags
were tied to five bamboos, which were sticking up in the air about
8 feet above the hut, one at each corner, and one in the centre,
and the bamboos were split, and notched for ornament. The hut was
about 4 1/2 feet square, on a platform three feet high. There were
no walls, but only four pillars, one at each corner, and inside
a loft just as in a Saora's hut. A very communicative Saora said
he built the hut for his brother after he had performed the Limma,
and had buried the bones in the raised platform in the centre of the
hut. He readily went inside, and showed what he kept there for the
use of his dead brother's Kulba. On the loft were baskets of grain,
a bottle of oil for his body, a brush to sweep the hut; in fact
everything the Kulba wanted. Generally, where it is the custom to
have a hut for the Kulba, such hut is furnished with food, tobacco,
and liquor. The Kulba is still a Saora, though a spiritual one. In a
village two miles from that in which I saw the gaily ornamented hut,
no hut of any kind is built for the Kulba; the bones are merely covered
with grass. Weapons, ornaments, etc., are rarely burned with a body
outside the Kolakotta villages. In some places, perhaps one weapon,
or a few ornaments will be burned with it. In some places the Limma
and Guar feasts are combined, and in other places (and this is most
common) the Guar and Karja are combined, but there is no burning
of houses. In some places this is performed if crops are good. One
often sees, placed against the upright stones to the dead, pieces
of ploughs for male Kulbas, and baskets for sifting grain for female
Kulbas. I once came across some hundreds of Saoras performing the Guar
Karja. Dancing, with music, fantastically dressed, and brandishing
their weapons, they returned from putting up the stones to the village,
and proceeded to hack to pieces with their axes the buffaloes that
had been slaughtered--a disgusting sight. After dark, many of the
feasters passed my camp on their way home, some carrying legs and other
large pieces of the sacrificed buffaloes, others trying to dance in a
drunken way, swinging their weapons. During my last visit to Kolakotta,
I witnessed a kind of combination of the Limma and Guar (an uncommon
arrangement there) made owing to peculiar circumstances. A deceased
Saora left no family, and his relatives thought it advisable to get
through his Limma and Guar without delay, so as to run no risk of the
non-performance of these feasts. He had been dead about a month. The
Limma was performed one day, the feast calling together the deceased
ancestors the same evening; and the Guar on the following day. Part of
the Limma was performed in a house. Three men, and a female Kudang sat
in a row; in front of them there was an inverted pot on the ground,
and around it were small leaf cups containing portions of food. All
chanted together, keeping excellent time. Some food in a little leaf
cup was held near the earthen pot, and now and then, as they sang,
passed round it. Some liquor was poured on the food in the leaf cup,
and put on one side for the Kulba. The men drank liquor from the leaf
cups which had been passed round the earthen pot. After some silence
there was a long chant, to call together all spirits of ancestors
who had died violent deaths, and request them to receive the spirit
of the deceased among them; and portions of food and liquor were put
aside for them. Then came another long chant, calling on the Kulbas
of all ancestors to come, and receive the deceased and not to be
angry with him."
It is stated [154] that, in the east of Gunupur, the Savaras commit
much cattle theft, partly, it is said, because custom enjoins big
periodical sacrifices of cattle to their deceased ancestors. In
connection with the Guar festival, Mr. Ramamurti Pantulu writes that
well-to-do individuals offer each one or two animals, while, among
the poorer members of the community, four or five subscribe small sums
for the purchase of a buffalo, and a goat. "There are," he continues,
"special portions of the sacrificed animals, which should, according
to custom, be presented to those that carried the dead bodies to
the grave, as well as to the Boya and Gomong. If a man is hanged,
a string is suspended in the house on the occasion of the Guar, so
that the spirit may descend along it. If a man dies of wounds caused
by a knife or iron weapon, a piece of iron or an arrow is thrust into
a rice-pot to represent the deceased." I gather further that, when a
Savara dies after a protracted illness, a pot is suspended by a string
from the roof of the house. On the ground is placed a pot, supported on
three stones. The pots are smeared with turmeric paste, and contain a
brass box, chillies, rice, onions, and salt. They are regarded as very
sacred, and it is believed that the ancestors sometimes visit them.
Concerning the religion of the Savaras, Mr. Fawcett notes that their
name for deity is Sonnum or Sunnam, and describes the following:--
(1) Jalia. In some places thought to be male, and in others female. The
most widely known, very malevolent, always going about from one Saora
village to another causing illness or death; in some places said to eat
people. Almost every illness that ends in death in three or four days
is attributed to Jalia's malevolence. When mangoes ripen, and before
they are eaten cooked (though they may be eaten raw), a sacrifice of
goats, with the usual drinking and dancing, is made to this deity. In
some villages, in the present year (1887), there were built for
the first time, temples--square thatched places without walls--in
the villages. The reason given for building in the villages was that
Jalia had come into them. Usually erections are outside villages, and
sacrifice is made there, in order that Jalia may be there appeased, and
go away. But sometimes he will come to a village, and, if he does, it
is advisable to make him comfortable. One of these newly built temples
was about four feet square, thatched on the top, with no walls, just
like the hut for departed spirits. A Saora went inside, and showed
us the articles kept for Jalia's use and amusement. There were two
new cloths in a bamboo box, two brushes of feathers to be held in the
hand when dancing, oil for the body, a small looking-glass, a bell,
and a lamp. On the posts were some red spots. Goats are killed close
by the temple, and the blood is poured on the floor of the platform
thereof. There are a few villages, in or near which there are no
Jalia erections, the people saying that Jalia does not trouble them,
or that they do not know him. In one village where there was none,
the Saoras said there had been one, but they got tired of Jalia,
and made a large sacrifice with numerous goats and fowls, burnt his
temple, and drove him out. Jalia is fond of tobacco. Near one village
is an upright stone in front of a little Jalia temple, by a path-side,
for passers-by to leave the ends of their cheroots on for Jalia.
(2) Kitung. In some parts there is a story that this deity produced
all the Saoras in Orissa, and brought them with all the animals of
the jungles to the Saora country. In some places, a stone outside the
village represents this deity, and on it sacrifices are made on certain
occasions to appease this deity. The stone is not worshipped. There
are also groves sacred to this deity. The Uriyas in the Saora hills
also have certain sacred groves, in which the axe is never used.
(3) Rathu. Gives pains in the neck.
(4) Dharma Boja, Lankan (above), Ayungang (the sun). The first name is,
I think, of Uriya origin, and the last the real Saora name. There is
an idea in the Kolakotta country that it causes all births. This deity
is not altogether beneficent, and causes sickness, and may be driven
away by sacrifices. In some villages, this deity is almost the only
one known. A Saora once told me, on my pointing to Venus and asking
what it was, that the stars are the children of the sun and moon, and
one day the sun said he would eat them all up. Woman-like, the moon
protested against the destruction of her progeny, but was obliged to
give in. She, however, managed to hide Venus while the others were
being devoured. Venus was the only planet he knew. In some parts,
the sun is not a deity.
(5) Kanni. Very malevolent. Lives in big trees, so they are never
cut in groves which this deity is supposed to haunt. I frequently
saw a Saora youth of about 20, who was supposed to be possessed by
this deity. He was an idiot, who had fits. Numerous buffaloes had
been sacrificed to Kanni, to induce that deity to leave the youth,
but to no purpose.
"There are many hill deities known in certain localities--Derema,
supposed to be on the Deodangar hill, the highest in the neighbourhood,
Khistu, Kinchinyung, Ilda, Lobo, Kondho, Balu, Baradong, etc. These
deities of the hills are little removed from the spirits of the
deceased Saoras. [Mr. Ramamurti Pantulu refers to two hills, one at
Gayaba called Jum-tang Baru, or eat cow hill, and the other about
eight miles from Parlakimedi, called Media Baru. At the former, a cow
or bull is sacrificed, because a Kuttung once ate the flesh of a cow
there; at the latter the spirits require only milk and liquor. This
is peculiar, as the Savaras generally hold milk in abhorrence.]"
"There is invariably one fetish, and generally there are several
fetishes in every Saora house. In some villages, where the sun is the
chief deity (and causes most mischief), there are fetishes of the sun
god; in another village, fetishes of Jalia, Kitung, etc. I once saw
six Jalia fetishes, and three other fetishes in one house. There are
also, especially about Kolakotta, Kulba fetishes in houses. The fetish
is generally an empty earthen pot, about nine inches in diameter,
slung from the roof. The Kudang slings it up. On certain occasions,
offerings are made to the deity or Kulba represented by the fetish
on the floor underneath it. Rude pictures, too, are sometimes
fetishes. The fetish to the sun is generally ornamented with a rude
pattern daubed in white on the outside. In the village of Bori in the
Vizagapatam Agency, offerings are made to the sun fetish when a member
of the household gets pains in the legs or arms, and the fetish is
said on such occasion to descend of itself to the floor. Sacrifices
are sometimes made inside houses, under the fetishes, sometimes at
the door, and blood put on the ground underneath the fetish."
It is noted by Mr. Ramamurti Pantulu that "the Kittungs are ten
in number, and are said to be all brothers. Their names are Bhima,
Rama, Jodepulu, Peda, Rung-rung, Tumanna, Garsada, Jaganta, Mutta,
and Tete. On some occasions, ten figures of men, representing the
Kittungs, are drawn on the walls of a house. Figures of horses and
elephants, the sun, moon and stars, are also drawn below them. The
Boya is also represented. When a woman is childless, or when her
children die frequently, she takes a vow that the Kittungpurpur
ceremony shall be celebrated, if a child is born to her, and grows
in a healthy state. If this comes to pass, a young pig is purchased,
and marked for sacrifice. It is fattened, and allowed to grow till
the child reaches the age of twelve, when the ceremony is performed.
The Madras Museum possesses a series of wooden votive offerings
which were found stacked in a structure, which has been described to
me as resembling a pigeon-cot. The offerings consisted of a lizard
(Varanus), paroquet, monkey, peacock, human figures, dagger, gun,
sword, pick-axe, and musical horn. The Savaras would not sell them
to the district officer, but parted with them on the understanding
that they would be worshipped by the Government.
I gather that, at the sale or transfer of land, the spirits are invoked
by the Boya, and, after the distribution of liquor, the seller or
mortgager holds a pipal (Ficus religiosa) leaf with a lighted wick
in it in his hand, while the purchaser or mortgagee holds another
leaf without a wick. The latter covers the palm of the former with
his leaf, and the terms of the transaction are then announced.