6. Religion
The Savars worship Bhawāni under various names and also Dūlha Deo, the young bridegroom who was killed by a tiger. He is located in the kitchen of every house in some localities, and this has given rise to the proverb, ‘Jai chūlha, tai Dūlha,’ or ‘There is a Dūlha Deo to every hearth.’ The Savars are considered to be great sorcerers. ‘Sawara ke pānge, Rāwat ke bāndhe,’ or ‘The man bewitched by a Savar and the bullock tied up by a Rāwat (grazier) cannot escape’; and again, ‘Verily the Saonr is a cup of poison.’ Their charms, called Sabari mantras, are especially intended to appease the spirits of persons who have died a violent death. If one of their family was seriously ill they were accustomed formerly to set fire to the forest, so that by burning the small animals and insects which could not escape they might propitiate the angry gods.
7. Occupation
The dress of the Savars is of the scantiest. The women wear khilwān or pith ornaments in the ear, and abstain from wearing nose-rings, a traditional method of deference to the higher castes. The proverb has it, ‘The ornaments of the Sawara are gumchi seeds.’ These are the red and black seeds of Abrus precatorius which are used in weighing gold and silver and are called rati. Women are tattooed and sometimes men also to avoid being pierced with a red-hot iron by the god of death. Tattooing is further said to allay the sexual passion of women, which is eight times more intense than that of men. Their occupations are the collection of jungle produce and cultivation. They are very clever in taking honeycombs: ‘It is the Savar who can drive the black bees from their hive.’ The eastern branch of the caste is more civilised than the Saonras of Bundelkhand, who still sow juāri with a pointed stick, saying that it was the implement given to them by Mahādeo for this purpose. In Saugor and Damoh they employ Brāhmans for marriage ceremonies if they can afford it, but on other occasions their own caste priests. In some places they will take food from most castes but in others from nobody who is not a Savar. Sometimes they admit outsiders and in others the children only of irregular unions; thus a Gond woman kept by a Savar would not be recognised as a member of the caste herself but her children would be Savars. A woman going wrong with an outsider of low caste is permanently excommunicated.
[1] This article is principally based on papers by Munshi Gopīnāth, Naib-Tahsīldār, Sonpur, Mr. Kālūrām Pachorē, Assistant Settlement Officer, Sambalpur, and Mr. Hīra Lāl, Assistant Gazetteer Superintendent.
[2] Archaeological Reports, vol. xvii. pp. 120, 122.
[3] India Census Report (1901), p. 283.
[4] Archaeological Reports, vol. xvii. p. 113.
[5] Crooke’s Tribes and Castes of N.W.P., art Savara.