Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
The language of the Savaras is included by Mr. G. A. Grierson [150]
in the Munda 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 Kharia and Juang, 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 Kherwari."
The Savaras are described by Mr. F. Fawcett [151] 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 give
half 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 sal, 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 ghats, in the plains, the Savara has
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive