"the Saoras say they never practiced human sacrifice. Most Saora
sacrifices, which are also feasts, are made to appease deities or
Kulbas that have done mischief. I will first notice the few which do
not come in this category. (a) The feast to Jalia when mangoes ripen,
already mentioned, is one. In a village where the sun, and not Jalia,
is the chief deity, this feast is made to the sun. Jalia does not
trouble the village, as the Kudung meets him outside it now and
then, and sends him away by means of a sacrifice. [Sacrifices and
offerings of pigs or fowls, rice, and liquor, are also made at the
mahua, hill grain, and red gram festivals.] (b) A small sacrifice,
or an offering of food, is made in some places before a child is
born. About Kolakotta, when a child is born, a fowl or a pound or so
of rice, and a quart of liquor provided by the people of the house,
will be taken by the Kudang to the jungle, and the fowl sacrificed
to Kanni. Blood, liquor, and rice are left in leaf cups for Kanni,
and the rest is eaten. In every paddy field in Kolakotta, when the
paddy is sprouting, a sacrifice is made to Sattira for good crops. A
stick of the tree called in Uriya kendhu, about five or six feet
long, is stuck in the ground. The upper end is sharpened to a point,
on which is impaled a live young pig or a live fowl, and over it an
inverted earthen pot daubed over with white rings. If this sacrifice
is not made, good crops cannot be expected. [It may be noted that
the impaling of live pigs is practiced in the Telugu country.] [155]
When crops ripen, and before the grain is eaten, sacrifice is made
to Lobo (the earth). Lobo Sonnum is the earth deity. If they eat the
grain without performing this sacrifice, it will disagree with them,
and will not germinate properly when sown again. If crops are good,
a goat is killed, if not good, a pig or a fowl. A Kolakotta Saora told
me of another sacrifice, which is partly of a propitiatory nature. If
a tiger or panther kills a person, the Kudang is called, and he,
on the following Sunday, goes through a performance, to prevent
a similar fate overtaking others. Two pigs are killed outside the
village, and every man, woman, and child is made to walk over the
ground whereon the pig's blood is spilled, and the Kudang gives to
each individual some kind of tiger medicine as a charm. The Kudang
communicates with the Kulba of the deceased, and learns the whole
story of how he met his death. In another part of the Saora country,
the above sacrifice is unknown; and, when a person is killed by a tiger
or panther, a buffalo is sacrificed to the Kulba of the deceased three
months afterwards. The feast is begun before dark, and the buffalo
is killed the next morning. No medicine is used. Of sacrifices after
injury is felt, and in order to get rid of it, that for rain may be
noticed first. The Gomango, another important man in the village,
and the Kudang officiate. A pig and a goat are killed outside the
village to Kitung. The blood must flow on the stone. Then liquor and
grain are set forth, and a feast is made. About Kolakotta the belief
in the active malevolence of Kulbas is more noticeable than in other
parts, where deities cause nearly all mischief. Sickness and death are
caused by deities or Kulbas, and it is the Kudang who ascertains which
particular spirit is in possession of, or has hold of any sick person,
and informs him what is to be done in order to drive it away. He
divines in this way usually. He places a small earthen saucer, with
a little oil and lighted wick in it, in the patient's hand. With his
left hand he holds the patient's wrist, and with his right drops from
a leaf cup grains of rice on to the flame. As each grain drops, he
calls out the name of different deities, and Kulbas, and, whichever
spirit is being named as a grain catches fire, is that causing the
sickness. The Kudang is at once in communication with the deity or
Kulba, who informs him what must be done for him, what sacrifice made
before he will go away. There is, in some parts of the Saora country,
another method by which a Kudang divines the cause of sickness. He
holds the patient's hand for a quarter of an hour or so, and goes
off in a trance, in which the deity or Kulba causing the sickness
communicates with the Kudang, and says what must be done to appease
him. The Kudang is generally, if not always, fasting when engaged in
divination. If a deity or Kulba refuses to go away from a sick person,
another more powerful deity or Kulba can be induced to turn him out.
A long account of a big sacrifice is given by Mr. Fawcett, of which
the following is a summary. The Kudang was a lean individual of about
40 or 45, with a grizzled beard a couple of inches in length. He
had a large bunch of feathers in his hair, and the ordinary Saora
waist-cloth with a tail before and behind. There were tom-toms with
the party. A buffalo was tied up in front of the house, and was to be
sacrificed to a deity who had seized on a young boy, and was giving him
fever. The boy's mother came out with some grain, and other necessaries
for a feed, in a basket on her head. All started, the father of the
boy carrying him, a man dragging the buffalo along, and the Kudang
driving it from behind. As they started, the Kudang shouted out some
gibberish, apparently addressed to the deity, to whom the sacrifice
was to be made. The party halted in the shade of some big trees. They
said that the sacrifice was to the road god, who would go away by the
path after the sacrifice. Having arrived at the place, the woman set
down her basket, the men laid down their axes and the tom-toms, and a
fire was lighted. The buffalo was tied up 20 yards off on the path,
and began to graze. After a quarter of an hour, the father took the
boy in his lap as he sat on the path, and the Kudang's assistant sat
on his left with a tom-tom before him. The Kudang stood before the
father on the path, holding a small new earthen pot in his hand. The
assistant beat the tom-tom at the rate of 150 beats to the minute. The
Kudang held the earthen pot to his mouth, and, looking up to the sun
(it was 9 A.M.), shouted some gibberish into it, and then danced round
and round without leaving his place, throwing up the pot an inch or so,
and catching it with both hands, in perfect time with the tom-tom,
while he chanted gibberish for a quarter of an hour. Occasionally,
he held the pot up to the sun, as if saluting it, shouted into it, and
passed it round the father's head and then round the boy's head, every
motion in time with the tom-tom. The chant over, he put down the pot,
and took up a toy-like bow and arrow. The bow was about two feet long,
through which was fixed an arrow with a large head, so that it could be
pulled only to a certain extent. The arrow was fastened to the string,
so that it could not be detached from the bow. He then stuck a small
wax ball on to the point of the arrow head, and, dancing as before,
went on with his chant accompanied by the tom-tom. Looking up at
the sun, he took aim with the bow, and fired the wax ball at it. He
then fired balls of wax, and afterwards other small balls, which the
Uriyas present said were medicine of some kind, at the boy's head,
stomach, and legs. As each ball struck him, he cried. The Kudang,
still chanting, then went to the buffalo, and fired a wax ball at
its head. He came back to where the father was sitting, and, putting
down the bow, took up two thin pieces of wood a foot long, an inch
wide, and blackened at the ends. The chant ceased for a few moments
while he was changing the bow for the pieces of wood, but, when he
had them in his hands, he went on again with it, dancing round as
before, and striking the two pieces of wood together in time. This
lasted about five minutes, and, in the middle of the dance, he put
an umbrella-like shade on his head. The dance over, he went to the
buffalo, and stroked it all over with the two pieces of wood, first
on the head, then on the body and rump, and the chant ceased. He then
sat in front of the boy, put a handful of common herbs into the earthen
pot, and poured some water into it. Chanting, he bathed the boy's head
with the herbs and water, the father's head, the boy's head again,
and then the buffalo's head, smearing them with the herbs. He blew
into one ear of the boy, and then into the other. The chant ceased,
and he sat on the path. The boy's father got up, and, carrying the
boy, seated him on the ground. Then, with an axe, which was touched
by the sick boy, he went up to the buffalo, and with a blow almost
buried the head of the axe in the buffalo's neck. He screwed the axe
about until he disengaged it, and dealt a second and a third blow
in the same place, and the buffalo fell on its side. When it fell,
the boy's father walked away. As the first blow was given, the Kudang
started up very excited as if suddenly much overcome, holding his arms
slightly raised before him, and staggered about. His assistant rushed
at him, and held him round the body, while he struggled violently as
if striving to get to the bleeding buffalo. He continued struggling
while the boy's father made his three blows on the buffalo's neck. The
father brought him some of the blood in a leaf cup, which he greedily
drank, and was at once quiet. Some water was then given him, and he
seemed to be all right. After a minute or so, he sat on the path with
the tom-tom before him, and, beating it, chanted as before. The boy's
father returned to the buffalo, and, with a few more whacks at it,
stopped its struggles. Some two or three men joined him, and,
with their axes and swords, soon had the buffalo in pieces. All
present, except the Kudang, had a good feed, during which the tom-tom
ceased. After the feed, Kudang went at it again, and kept it up at
intervals for a couple of hours. He once went for 25 minutes at 156
beats to the minute without ceasing.
A variant of the ceremonial here described has been given to me by
Mr. G. F. Paddison from the Gunapur hills. A buffalo is tied up to
the door of the house, where the sick person resides. Herbs and rice
in small platters, and a little brass vessel containing toddy, balls
of rice, flowers, and medicine, are brought with a bow and arrow. The
arrow is thicker at the basal end than towards the tip. The narrow
part goes, when shot, through a hole in the bow, too small to allow
of passage of the rest of the arrow. The Beju (wise woman) pours toddy
over the herbs and rice, and daubs the sick person over the forehead,
breasts, stomach, and back. She croons out a long incantation to
the goddess, stopping at intervals to call out "Daru," to attract
her attention. She then takes the bow and arrow, and shoots into the
air. She then stands behind the kneeling patient, and shoots balls
of medicine stuck on the tip of the arrow at her. The construction
of the arrow is such that the balls are dislodged from the tip of the
arrow. The patient is thus shot at all over the body, which is bruised
by the impact of the balls. Afterwards the Beju shoots one or two balls
at the buffalo, which is taken to a path forming the village boundary,
and killed with a tangi (axe). The patient is then daubed with blood
of the buffalo, rice and toddy. A feast concludes the ceremonial.
The following account of a sacrifice to Rathu, who had given fever
to the sister of the celebrant Kudang, is given by Mr. Fawcett. "The
Kudang was squatting, facing west, his fingers in his ears, and
chanting gibberish with continued side-shaking of his head. About
two feet in front of him was an apparatus made of split bamboo. A
young pig had been killed over it, so that the blood was received in a
little leaf cup, and sprinkled over the bamboo work. The Kudang never
ceased his chant for an hour and a half. While he was chanting, some
eight Saoras were cooking the pig with some grain, and having a good
feed. Between the bamboo structure and the Kudang were three little
leaf cups, containing portions of the food for Rathu. A share of the
food was kept for the Kudang, who when he had finished his chant,
got up and ate it. Another performance, for which some dried meat
of a buffalo that had been sacrificed a month previously was used,
I saw on the same day. Three men, a boy, and a baby, were sitting
in the jungle. The men were preparing food, and said that they were
about to do some reverence to the sun, who had caused fever to some
one. Portions of the food were to be set out in leaf cups for the
sun deity."
It is recorded by Mr. Ramamurti Pantulu that, when children are
seriously ill and become emaciated, offerings are made to monkeys and
blood-suckers (lizards), not in the belief that illness is caused by
them, but because the sick child, in its emaciated state, resembles
an attenuated figure of these animals. Accordingly, a blood-sucker
is captured, small toy arrows are tied round its body, and a piece of
cloth is tied on its head. Some drops of liquor are then poured into
its mouth, and it is set at liberty. In negotiating with a monkey,
some rice and other articles of food are placed in small baskets,
called tanurjal, which are suspended from branches of trees in the
jungle. The Savaras frequently attend the markets or fairs held
in the plains at the foot of the ghats to purchase salt and other
luxuries. If a Savara is taken ill at the market or on his return
thence, he attributes the illness to a spirit of the market called
Biradi Sonum. The bulls, which carry the goods of the Hindu merchants
to the market, are supposed to convey this spirit. In propitiating
it, the Savara makes an image of a bull in straw, and, taking it
out of his village, leaves it on the foot-path after a pig has been
sacrificed to it.
"Each group of Savaras," Mr. Ramamurti writes, "is under the government
of two chiefs, one of whom is the Gomong (or great man) and the other,
his colleague in council, is the Boya, who not only discharges, in
conjunction with the Gomong, the duties of magistrate, but also holds
the office of high priest. The offices of these two functionaries are
hereditary, and the rule of primogeniture regulates succession, subject
to the principle that incapable individuals should be excluded. The
presence of these two officers is absolutely necessary on occasions
of marriages and funerals, as well as at harvest festivals. Sales
and mortgages of land and liquor-yielding trees, partition and
other dispositions of property, and divorces are effected in the
council of village elders, presided over by the Gomong and Boya, by
means of long and tedious proceedings involving various religious
ceremonies. All cases of a civil and criminal nature are heard
and disposed of by them. Fines are imposed as a punishment for all
sorts of offences. These invariably consist of liquor and cattle,
the quantity of liquor and the number of animals varying according
to the nature of the offence. The murder of a woman is considered
more heinous than the murder of a man, as woman, being capable of
multiplying the race, is the more useful. A thief, while in the
act of stealing, may be shot dead. It is always the man, and not
the woman, that is punished for adultery. Oaths are administered,
and ordeals prescribed. Until forty or fifty years ago, it is said
that the Savara magistrate had jurisdiction in murder cases. He
was the highest tribunal in the village, the only arbitrator in
all transactions among the villagers. And, if any differences arose
between his men and the inhabitants of a neighbouring village, for
settling which it was necessary that a battle should be fought, the
Gomong became the commander, and, leading his men, contested the cause
with all his might. These officers, though discharging such onerous
and responsible duties, are regarded as in no special degree superior
to others in social position. They enjoy no special privileges, and
receive no fees from the suitors who come up to their court. Except
on occasions of public festivals, over which they preside, they are
content to hold equal rank with the other elders of the village. Each
cultivates his field, and builds his house. His wife brings home fuel
and water, and cooks for his family; his son watches his cattle and
crops. The English officials and the Bissoyis have, however, accorded
to these Savara officers some distinction. When the Governor's
Agent, during his annual tour, invites the Savara elders to bheti
(visit), they make presents of a fowl, sheep, eggs, or a basket of
rice, and receive cloths, necklaces, etc. The Bissoyis exempt them
from personal service, which is demanded from all others." At the
Sankaranthi festival, the Savaras bring loads of firewood, yams
(Dioscorea tubers), pumpkins, etc., as presents for the Bissoyi,
and receive presents from him in return.
Besides cultivating, the Savaras collect Bauhinia leaves, and sell
them to traders for making leaf platters. The leaves of the jel-adda
tree (Bauhinia purpurea) are believed to be particularly appreciated
by the Savara spirits, and offerings made to them should be placed
in cups made thereof. The Savaras also collect various articles of
minor forest produce, honey and wax. They know how to distil liquor
from the flowers of the mahua (Bassia latifolia). The process of
distillation has been thus described. [156] "The flowers are soaked
in water for three or four days, and are then boiled with water in an
earthenware chatty. Over the top of this is placed another chatty,
mouth downwards, the join between the two being made air-tight by
being tied round with a bit of cloth, and luted with clay. From a
hole made in the upper chatty, a hollow bamboo leads to a third pot,
specially made for the purpose, which is globular, and has no opening
except that into which the bamboo pipe leads. This last is kept cool
by pouring water constantly over it, and the distillate is forced
into it through the bamboo, and there condenses."
In a report on his tour through the Savara country in 1863, the Agent
to the Governor of Madras reported as follows. "At Gunapur I heard
great complaints of the thievish habits of the Soura tribes on the
hills dividing Gunapur from Pedda Kimedy. They are not dacoits, but
very expert burglers, if the term can be applied to digging a hole
in the night through a mud wall. If discovered and hard pressed,
they do not hesitate to discharge their arrows, which they do with
unerring aim, and always with fatal result. Three or four murders
have been perpetrated by these people in this way since the country
has been under our management. I arranged with the Superintendent of
Police to station a party of the Armed Reserve in the ghaut leading
to Soura country. One or two cases of seizure and conviction will
suffice to put a check to the crime."
It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district, that
"in 1864 trouble occurred with the Savaras. One of their headmen
having been improperly arrested by the police of Pottasingi, they
effected a rescue, killed the Inspector and four constables, and
burnt down the station-house. The Raja of Jeypore was requested to use
his influence to procure the arrest of the offenders, and eventually
twenty-four were captured, of whom nine were transported for life,
and five were sentenced to death, and hanged at Jalteru, at the foot
of the ghat to Pottasingi. Government presented the Raja with a rifle
and other gifts in acknowledgment of his assistance. The country did
not immediately calm down, however, and, in 1865, a body of police,
who were sent to establish a post in the hills, were attacked,
and forced to beat a retreat down the ghat. A large force was then
assembled, and, after a brief but harassing campaign, the post was
firmly occupied in January, 1866. Three of the ringleaders of this
rising were transported for life. The hill Savaras remained timid
and suspicious for some years afterwards, and, as late as 1874,
the reports mention it as a notable fact that they were beginning to
frequent markets on the plains, and that the low-country people no
longer feared to trust themselves above the ghats."
In 1905, Government approved the following proposals for the
improvement of education among the Savaras and other hill tribes in
the Ganjam and Vizagapatam Agencies, so far as Government schools
are concerned:--
(1) That instruction to the hill tribes should be given orally
through the medium of their own mother tongue, and that, when a Savara
knows both Uriya and Telugu, it would be advantageous to educate him
in Uriya;
(2) That evening classes be opened whenever possible, the buildings in
which they are held being also used for night schools for adults who
should receive oral instruction, and that magic-lantern exhibitions
might be arranged for occasionally, to make the classes attractive;
(3) That concessions, if any, in the matter of grants admissible to
Savaras, Khonds, etc., under the Grant-in-aid Code, be extended to
the pupils of the above communities that attend schools in the plains;
(4) That an itinerating agency, who could go round and look after the
work of the agency schools, be established and that, in the selection
of hill school establishments, preference be given to men educated
in the hill schools;
(5) That some suitable form of manual occupation be introduced,
wherever possible, into the day's work, and the schools be supplied
with the requisite tools, and that increased grants be given for
anything original.
Savara.--A name, denoting hill-men, adopted by Male Kudiyas.
Savu (death).--A sub-division of Mala.
Sayakkaran.--An occupational term, meaning a dyer, returned, at times
of census, by Tamil dyers.
Sayumpadai Tangi.--The name, meaning supporter of the vanquished army,
of a section of Kallans.
Sedan.--A synonym of Devanga. At times of census, Seda Dasi has been
returned by Devanga dancing-girls in the Madura district. The following
legend of Savadamma, the goddess of the weaver caste in Coimbatore, is
narrated by Bishop Whitehead. [157] "Once upon a time, when there was
fierce conflict between the men and the rakshasas, the men, who were
getting defeated, applied for help to the god Siva, who sent his wife
Parvati as an avatar or incarnation into the world to help them. The
avatar enabled them to defeat the rakshasas, and, as the weaver caste
were in the forefront of the battle, she became the goddess of the
weavers, and was known in consequence as Savadamman, a corruption of
Sedar Amman, Sedan being a title of the weavers. It is said that her
original home was in the north of India, near the Himalayas."
Segidi.--The Segidis are a Telugu caste of toddy sellers and distillers
of arrack, who are found mainly in Ganjam and Vizagapatam.
For the purposes of the Madras Abkari Act, toddy means fermented or
unfermented juice drawn from a cocoanut, palmyra, date, or any other
kind of palm-tree. It is laid down, in the Madras Excise Manual, that
"unfermented toddy is not subject to any taxation, but it must be
drawn in pots freshly coated internally with lime. Lime is prescribed
as the substance with which the interior of pots or other receptacles
in which sweet toddy is drawn should be coated, as it checks the
fermentation of the toddy coming in contact with it; but this effect
cannot be secured unless the internal lime coating of the toddy pot
or vessel is thorough, and is renewed every time that the pot is
emptied of its contents." It is noted by Bishop Caldwell [158] that
"it is the unfermented juice of the palmyra (and other palms) which
is used as food. When allowed to ferment, which it will do before
midday, if left to itself, it is changed into a sweet intoxicating
drink called kal or toddy." Pietro Della Valle records [159] that
he stayed on board till nightfall, "entertaining with conversation
and drinking tari, a liquor which is drawn from the cocoanut trees,
of a whitish colour, a little turbid, and of a somewhat rough taste,
though with a blending in sweetness, and not unpalatable, something
like one of our vini piccanti. It will also intoxicate, like wine,
if drunk over freely." Writing in 1673, Fryer [160] describes the
Natives as "singing and roaring all night long; being drunk with toddy,
the wine of the Cocoe."
Arrack is a spirituous liquor distilled from the fermented sap of
various palms. In some parts of the Madras Presidency, arrack vendors
consider it unlucky to set their measures upside down. Some time ago,
the Excise Commissioner informs me, the Excise department had some
aluminium measures made for measuring arrack in liquor shops. It was
found that the arrack corroded the aluminium, and the measures soon
leaked. The shopkeepers were told to turn their measures upside down,
in order that they might drain. This they refused to do, as it would
bring bad luck to their shop. New measures with round bottoms were
evolved, which would not stand up. But the shopkeepers began to use
rings of india-rubber from soda-water bottles, to make them stand. An
endeavour has since been made to induce them to keep their measures
inverted by hanging them on pegs, so that they will drain without
being turned upside down. The case illustrates well how important a
knowledge of the superstitions of the people is in the administration
of their affairs.
The Segidis do not draw the liquor from the palm-tree themselves,
but purchase it from the toddy-drawing castes, the Yatas and Gamallas.
They have a caste headman, called Kulampedda, who settles disputes
with the assistance of a council. Like other Telugu castes, they have
intiperulu or house names, which are strictly exogamous. Girls are
married either before or after puberty. The custom of menarikam is
practiced, in accordance with which a man marries his maternal aunt's
daughter. A Brahman officiates at marriages, except the remarriage
of widows. When a widow is remarried, the caste-men assemble, and the
Kulampedda ties the sathamanam (marriage badge) on the bride's neck.
The dead are usually cremated, and the washerman of the village
assists the chief mourner in igniting the pyre. A Satani conducts
the funeral ceremonies.
The Segidis worship various village deities, and perantalammas,
or women who killed themselves during their husbands' lives or on
their death.