Part 42

4. Organisation for dacoity

As in the case of the Badhaks the arrangements for a dacoity were carefully organised. Each band had a Jemadar or leader, while the others were called Sipahis or soldiers. A tenth of all the booty taken was given to the Jemadar in return for the provision of the spears, torches and other articles, and of the remainder the Jemadar received two shares and the Sipahis one each. But no novice was permitted to share in the booty or carry a spear until he had participated in two or three successful dacoities; and inasmuch as outsiders, with the exception of the impure Dhers and Mangs, were freely admitted to the Sansia community in return for a small money payment, some such apprenticeship as this was no doubt necessary. If a Sipahi was killed in a dacoity his wife was entitled to a sum of Rs. 350 and half an ordinary share in future dacoities as long as she remained with the gang. The Sansias never pitched their camp in the vicinity of the place in which they contemplated an enterprise, but despatched their scouts to it, themselves remaining some twenty miles distant.

5. Description of a dacoity

The scouts, having prospected the town and determined the house to be exploited, usually that of the leading banker, would then proceed to it in the early morning before business began and ask to purchase some ornaments or change some money; by this request they often induced the banker to bring out his cash chest from the place of security where he was accustomed to deposit it at night, and learnt where it should be looked for. Having picked up as much information as possible, the scouts would purchase some spear-heads, bury them in a neighbouring ravine, and rejoin the main body. The party would arrive at the rendezvous in the evening, and having fitted their spears to bamboo shafts, would enter the town carrying them concealed in a bundle of karbi or the long thick stalks of the large millet, juari. One man was appointed to carry the torch, and the oil to be poured on this had always to be purchased in the town or village where the dacoity was to take place, the use of any other oil being considered most unlucky. The vessel containing the oil was not allowed to touch the earth until its contents had been poured upon the torch, when it was dashed upon the ground. From this time until the completion of the dacoity no one might spit or drink water or relieve himself under penalty of putting a stop to the enterprise. The Jemadar invoked Khandoba, an incarnation of Mahadeo, and said that if by his assistance the box of money was broken at the first or second stroke of the axe, a chain of gold weighing one and a quarter tolas would be made over to him. The party then approached the shop, the roads surrounding it being picketed to guard against a rescue, and the Jemadar, accompanied by four or five men and the torch-bearer, rushed into the shop crying Din, Din. The doors usually gave way under a few heavy blows with the axe, which they wielded with great expertness, and the scout pointed out the location of the money and valuables. Once in possession of the property the torch was extinguished and the whole party made off as rapidly as possible. During their retreat they tried to avoid spearing people who pursued them, first calling out to them to go away. If any member of the party was killed or so desperately wounded that he could not be removed, the others cut off his head and carried it off so as to prevent recognition; a man who was slightly wounded would be carried off by his companions, but if the pursuit became hot and he had to be left, they cut off his head also and took it with them, escaping by this drastic method the risk of his turning approver with the consequent danger of conviction for the rest of the gang. About a mile from the place of the dacoity they stopped and mustered their party, and the Jemadar called out to the god Bhagwan to direct any pursuers in the wrong direction and enable them to reach their families. If any dacoit had ever been killed at this particular town they also called upon his spirit to assist them, promising to offer him a goat or some liquor; and so, throwing down a rupee or two at any temple or stream which they might pass on their way, they came to their families. When about a mile away from the camp they called out 'Cuckoo' to ascertain if any misfortune had occurred during their absence; if they thought all was well they went nearer and imitated the call of the partridge; and finally when close to the encampment made a hissing noise like a snake. On arrival at the camp they at once mounted their ponies and started off, marching fifty or sixty miles a day, for two or three days.

6. Omens

The Sansias never committed a dacoity on moonlight nights, but had five appointed days during the dark half of the month, the seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth and the night of the day on which the new moon was first seen. If they did not meet with a favourable omen on any of these nights, no dacoity was committed that month. The following is a list of omens given by one of the caste: "If we see a cat when we are near the place where we intend to commit a dacoity, or we hear the relations of a dead person lamenting, or hear a person sneeze while cooking his meal, or see a dog run away with a portion of any person's food, or a kite screams while sitting on a tree, or a woman breaks the earthen vessel in which she may have been drawing water, we consider the omens unfavourable. If a person drops his turban or we meet a corpse, or the Jemadar has forgotten to put some bread into his waistbelt, or any dacoit forgets his axe or spear or sees a snake whether dead or alive; these omens are also considered unfavourable and we do not commit the dacoity. Should we see a wolf and any one of us have on a red turban, we take this and tear it into seven pieces and hang each piece upon a separate tree. We then purchase a rupee's worth of liquor and kill a goat, which is cut up into four pieces. Four men pretend that they are wolves and rushing on the four quarters of the meat seize them, imitating the howl of these animals, while the rest of the dacoits pelt them with the entrails; the meat is afterwards cooked and eaten in the name of Bhagwan."

It would appear that the explanation of this curious ceremony must be that the Sansias thought the appearance of the wolf to be an omen that one of them would furnish a meal for him. The turban is venerated on account of its close association with the head, a sacred part of the body among Hindus, and in this case it probably served as a substituted offering for the head, while its red colour represented blood; and the mimic rite of the goat being devoured by men pretending to be wolves fulfilled the omen which portended that the wolves would be provided with a meal, and hence averted the necessity of one of the band being really devoured. In somewhat analogous fashion the Gonds and Baigas placate or drive away a tiger who has killed a man in order to prevent him from obtaining further victims. Some similar idea apparently underlay the omen of the dog running away with food. Perhaps the portent of hearing the kite scream on a tree also meant that he looked on them with a prescient eye as a future meal. On the other hand, meeting a corpse and seeing a snake are commonly considered to be lucky omens, and their inclusion in this list is curious. The passage continues: "Among our favourable omens are meeting a woman selling milk; or a person carrying a basket of grain or a bag of money; or if we see a calf sucking its mother, or meet a person with a vessel of water, or a marriage procession; or if any person finds a rupee that he has lost; or we meet a bearer carrying fish or a pig or a blue-jay; if any of these occur near our camp on the day we contemplate a dacoity, we proceed forthwith to commit it and consider that these signs assure us a good booty. If a Fakir begs from us while we are on our way to the place of dacoity we cannot give him anything." Another Sansia said: "We think it very favourable if, when on the way to commit a dacoity we hear or see the jackal; it is as good as gold and silver to us; also if we hear the bray of the ass in a village we consider it to be lucky."

7. Ordeals

The following is a description given by a Sansia of their ordeals: If a Jemadar suspects a Sipahi of secreting plunder a panchayat is assembled, the members of which receive five rupees from both parties. Seven pipal leaves are laid upon his hand and bound round with thread, and upon these a heated iron tawa or plate is set; he is then ordered to walk seven paces and put the plate down upon seven thorns; should he be able to do so he is pronounced innocent, but if he is burnt by the plate and throws it down he is considered guilty. Another ordeal is by fixing arrows, two of which are shot off at once from one bow, one in the name of Bhagwan (god), and the other in the name of the panchayat; the place being on the bank of the river. The arrow that flies the farthest is stuck upright into the ground; upon which a man carrying a long bamboo walks up to his breast in the water and the suspected person is desired to join him. One of the panchayat then claps his hands seven times and runs off to pick up the arrow; at this instant the suspected person is obliged to put his head under water, and if he can hold his breath until the other returns to the bank with the arrow and has again clapped his hands seven times he is pronounced innocent. If he cannot do so he is declared guilty and punished. A third form of ordeal was as follows: The Jemadar and the gang assemble under a pipal tree, and after knocking off the neck of an earthen pitcher they kill a goat and collect its blood in the pitcher, and put some glass bangles in it. Four lines are drawn on the pitcher with vermilion (representing blood), and it is placed under a tree and 1 1/4 seers of gur (sugar) are tied up in a piece of cloth 1 1/4 cubits in length and hung on to a branch of the tree. The Jemadar then says, 'I will forgive any person who has not secreted more than fifteen or twenty rupees, but whoever has stolen more than that sum shall be punished.' The Jemadar dips his finger in the pitcher of blood, and afterwards touches the sugar and calls out loudly, 'If I have embezzled any money may Bhagwan punish me'; and each dacoit in turn pronounces the same sentence. No one who is guilty will do this but at once makes his confession. The oath pronounced on 1 1/4 seers of sugar tied up in 1 1/4 cubits of cloth was considered the most solemn and binding which a Sansia could take.

8. Sansias at the present time

At present, Mr. Kennedy states, the Sansias travel about in gangs of varying strength with their families, bullocks, sheep, goats and dogs. The last mentioned of these animals are usually small mongrels with a terrier strain, mostly stolen or bred from types dishonestly obtained during their peregrinations. Dacoity is still the crime which they most affect, and they also break into houses and steal cattle. Men usually have a necklace of red coral and gold beads round the neck, from which is suspended a square piece of silver or gold bearing an effigy of a man on horseback. This represents either the deity Ramdeo Pir or one of the wearer's ancestors, and is venerated as a charm. They are very quarrelsome, and their drinking-bouts in camp usually end in a free fight, in which they also beat their women, and the affray not infrequently results in the death of one of the combatants. When this happens the slayer makes restitution to the relatives by defraying the expenses of a fresh drinking-bout. During the daytime men are seldom to be found in the encampment, as they are in the habit of hiding in the ditches and jungle, where the women take them their food; at night they return to their tents, but are off again at dawn.

Sansia, Uria

1. The caste and its subdivisions

Sansia, Uria. --A caste of masons and navvies of the Uriya country. The Sansias are really a branch of the great migratory Ud or Odde caste of earth-workers, whose name has been corrupted into various forms. Thus in Chanda they are known as Wadewar or Waddar. The term Uria is here a corruption of Odde, and it is the one by which the caste prefer to be known, but they are generally called Sansia by outsiders. The caste sometimes class the Sansias as a subcaste of Urias, the others being Benatia Urias and Khandait Urias. Since the Uriya tract has been transferred to Bengal, and subsequently to Bihar and Orissa, there remain only about 1000 Sansias in the Chhattisgarh Districts and States. Although it is possible that the name of the caste may have been derived from some past connection, the Sansias of the Uriya country have at present no affinities with the outcaste and criminal tribe of Sansis or Sansias of northern India. They enjoy a fairly high position in Sarnbalpur, and Brahmans will take water from them.

They are divided into two subcastes, the Benetia and Khandait. The Benetia are the higher and look down on the Khandaits, because, it is said, these latter have accepted service as foot-soldiers, and this is considered a menial occupation. Perhaps in the households of the Uriya Rajas the tribal militia had also to perform personal services, and this may have been considered derogatory., In Orissa, on the other hand, the Khandaits have become landholders and occupy a high position next to Rajputs. The Benetia Sansias practise hypergamy with the Khandait Sansias, taking their daughters in marriage, but not giving daughters to them. When a Benetia is marrying a Khandait girl his party will not take food with the bride's relatives, but only partake of some sugar and curds and depart with the bride. The Sansias have totemistic exogamous septs, usually derived from the names of sacred objects, as Kachhap, tortoise, Sankh, the conch-shell, Tulsi, basil, and so on.

2. Marriage customs

Girls are married between seven and ten, and after she is twelve years old a girl cannot go through the proper ceremony, but can only be wedded by a simple rite used for widows, in which vermilion is rubbed on her forehead and some grains of rice stuck on it. The marriage procession, as described by Mr. Rama Prasad Bohidar, is a gorgeous affair: "The drummers, all drunk, head the procession, beating their drums to the tune set by the piper. Next in order are placed dancing-boys between two rows of lights carried on poles adorned with festoons of paper flowers. Rockets and fireworks have their proper share in the procession, and last of all comes the bridegroom in his wedding apparel, mounted on a horse. His person is studded with various kinds of gold necklaces borrowed for the occasion, and the fingers of his right hand are covered with rings. Bangles and chains of silver shine on his wrists and arms. His forehead is beautifully painted with ground sandalwood divided in the centre by a streak of vermilion. His head carries a crown of palm-leaves overlaid with bright paper of various colours. A network of malti flowers hangs loosely from the head over the back and covers a portion of the loins of the steed. The eyes are painted with collyrium and the feet with red dye. The lips and teeth are also reddened by the betel-leaf, which the bridegroom chews in profusion. A silk cloth does the work of a belt, in which is fixed a dagger on the right side." Here the red colour which predominates in the bridegroom's decorations is lucky for the reasons given in the article on Lakhera; the blacking of the eyes is also considered to keep off evil spirits; betel-leaf is itself a powerful agent of magic and averter of spirits, and to the same end the bridegroom carries iron in the shape of the dagger. The ceremony is of the customary Uriya type. On the seventh day of the wedding the husband and wife go to the river and bathe, throwing away the sacred threads worn at the time of marriage, and also those which have been tied round their wrists. On returning home the wife piles up seven brass vessels and seven stools one above the other and the husband kicks them over, this being repeated seven times. The husband then washes his teeth with water brought from the river, breaks the vessel containing the water in the bride's house, and runs away, while the women of her family throw pailfuls of coloured water over him. On the ninth day the bride comes and smears a mixture of curds and sugar on the forehead of each member of the bridegroom's family, probably as a sign of her admission to their clan, and returns home. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted.

3. Religion and worship of ancestors

The caste worship Viswakarma, the celestial architect, and on four principal festivals they revere their trade-implements and the book on architecture, by which they work. At Dasahra a pumpkin is offered to these articles in lieu of a goat. They observe the shraddh ceremony, and first make two offerings to the spirits of ancestors who have died a violent death or have committed suicide, and to those of relatives who died unmarried, for fear lest these unclean and malignant spirits should seize and defile the offerings to the beneficent ancestors. Thereafter pindas or sacrificial cakes are offered to three male and three female ancestors both on the father's and mother's side, twelve cakes being offered in all. The Sansias eat the flesh of clean animals, but the consumption of liquor is strictly forbidden, on pain, it is said, of permanent exclusion from caste.

4. Occupation

In Sambalpur the caste are usually stone-workers, making cups, mortars, images of idols and other articles. They also build tanks and wander from place to place for this purpose in large companies. It is related that on one occasion they came to dig a tank in Drug, and the Raja of that place, while watching their work, took a fancy to one of the Odnis, as their women were called, and wanted her to marry him. But as she was already married, and was a virtuous woman, she refused. The Raja persisted in his demand, on which the whole body of Sansias from Chhattisgarh, numbering, it is said, nine lakhs of persons, left their work and proceeded to Wararbandh, near Raj-Nandgaon. Here they dug the great tank of Wararbandh in one night to obtain a supply of water for themselves. But the Raja followed them, and as they could not resist him by force, the woman whom he was pursuing burnt herself alive, and thus earned undying fame in the caste. This legend is perpetuated in the Odni Git, a popular folk-song in Chhattisgarh. But it is a traditional story of the Sansias in connection with large tanks, and in another version the scene is laid in Gujarat.

Savar

List of Paragraphs

1. Distribution and historical notices. 2. Tribal legends. 3. Tribal subdivisions. 4. Marriage. 5. Death ceremonies. 6. Religion. 7. Occupation.

1. Distribution and historical notices

Savar, Sawara, Savara, Saonr, Sahra (and several other variations. In Bundelkhand the Savars, there called Saonrs, are frequently known by the honorific title of Rawat).--A primitive tribe numbering about 70,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, and principally found in the Chhattisgarh Districts and those of Saugor and Damoh. The eastern branch of the tribe belongs chiefly to the Uriya country. The Savars are found in large numbers in the Madras Districts of Ganjam and Vizagapatam and in Orissa. They also live in the Bundelkhand Districts of the United Provinces. The total number of Savars enumerated in India in 1911 was 600,000, of which the Bundelkhand Districts contained about 100,000 and the Uriya country the remainder. The two branches of the tribe are thus separated by a wide expanse of territory. As regards this peculiarity of distribution General Cunningham says: "Indeed there seems good reason to believe that the Savaras were formerly the dominant branch of the great Kolarian family, and that their power lasted down to a comparatively late period, when they were pushed aside by other Kolarian tribes in the north and east, and by the Gonds in the south. In the Saugor District I was informed that the Savaras had formerly fought with the Gonds and that the latter had conquered them by treacherously making them drunk." Similarly Cunningham notices that the zamindar of Suarmar in Raipur, which name is derived from Savar, is a Gond. A difference of opinion has existed as to whether the Savars were Kolarian or Dravidian so far as their language was concerned, Colonel Dalton adopting the latter view and other authorities the former and correct one. In the Central Provinces the Savars have lost their own language and speak the Aryan Hindi or Uriya vernacular current around them. But in Madras they still retain their original speech, which is classified by Sir G. Grierson as Mundari or Kolarian. He says: "The most southerly forms of Munda speech are those spoken by the Savars and Gadabas of the north-east of Madras. The former have been identified with the Suari of Pliny and the Sabarae of Ptolemy. A wild tribe of the same name is mentioned in Sanskrit literature, even so far back as in late Vedic times, as inhabiting the Deccan, so that the name at least can boast great antiquity." As to the origin of the name Savar, General Cunningham says that it must be sought for outside the language of the Aryans. "In Sanskrit savara simply means 'a corpse.' From Herodotus, however, we learn that the Scythian word for an axe was sagaris, and as 'g' and 'v' are interchangeable letters savar is the same word as sagar. It seems therefore not unreasonable to infer that the tribe who were so called took their name from their habit of carrying axes. Now it is one of the striking peculiarities of the Savars that they are rarely seen without an axe in their hands. The peculiarity has been frequently noticed by all who have seen them." The above opinion of Cunningham, which is of course highly speculative, is disputed by Mr. Crooke, who says that "The word Savara, if it be, as some believe, derived from sava a corpse, comes from the root sav 'to cause to decay,' and need not necessarily therefore be of non-Aryan origin, while on the other hand no distinct inference can be drawn from the use of the axe by the Savars, when it is equally used by various other Dravidian jungle tribes such as the Korwas, Bhuiyas and the like." In the classical stories of their origin the first ancestor of the Savars is sometimes described as a Bhil. The word Savar is mentioned in several Sanskrit works written between 800 B.C. and A.D. 1200, and it seems probable that they are a Munda tribe who occupied the tracts of country which they live in prior to the arrival of the Gonds. The classical name Savar has been corrupted into various forms. Thus in the Bundeli dialect 'ava' changes into 'au' and a nasal is sometimes interpolated. Savar has here become Saunr or Saonr. The addition of 'a' at the end of the word sometimes expresses contempt, and Savar becomes Savara as Chamar is corrupted into Chamra. In the Uriya country 'v' is changed into 'b' and an aspirate is interpolated, and thus Savara became Sabra or Sahara, as Gaur has become Gahra. The word Sahara, Mr. Crooke remarks, has excited speculation as to its derivation from Arabic, in which Sahara means a wilderness; and the name of the Savars has accordingly been deduced from the same source as the great Sahara desert. This is of course incorrect.

2. Tribal legends

Various stories of the origin of the Savars are given in Sanskrit literature. In the Aitareya Brahmana they are spoken of as the descendants of Vishwamitra, while in the Mahabharat they are said to have been created by Kamdhenu, Vasishtha's wonder-working cow, in order to repel the aggression of Vishwamitra. Local tradition traces their origin to the celebrated Seori of the Ramayana, who is supposed to have lived somewhere near the present Seorinarayan in the Bilaspur District and to have given her name to this place. Ramchandra in his wanderings met her there, ate the plums which she had gathered for him after tasting each one herself, and out of regard for her devotion permitted her name to precede his own of Narayan in that given to the locality. Another story makes one Jara Savar their original ancestor, who was said to have shot Krishna in the form of a deer. Another states that they were created for carrying stones for the construction of the great temple at Puri and for dragging the car of Jagannath, which they still do at the present time. Yet another connecting them with the temple of Jagannath states that their ancestor was an old Bhil hermit called Sawar, who lived in Karod, two miles from Seorinarayan. The god Jagannath had at this time appeared in Seorinarayan and the old Sawar used to worship him. The king of Orissa had built the great temple at Puri and wished to install Jagannath in it, and he sent a Brahman to fetch him from Seorinarayan, but nobody knew where he was except the old hermit Sawar. The Brahman besought him in vain to be allowed to see the god and even went so far as to marry his daughter, and finally the old man consented to take him blindfold to the place. The Brahman, however, tied some mustard seeds in a corner of his cloth and made a hole in it so that they dropped out one by one on the way. After some time they grew up and served to guide him to the spot. This story of the mustard seeds of course finds a place in the folklore of many nations. The Brahman then went to Seorinarayan alone and begged the god to go to Puri. Jagannath consented, and assuming the form of a log of wood floated down the Mahanadi to Puri, where he was taken out and placed in the temple. A carpenter agreed to carve the god's image out of the log of wood on condition that the temple should be shut up for six months while the work was going on. But some curious people opened the door before the time and the work could not proceed, and thus the image of the god is only half carved out of the wood up to the present day. As a consolation to the old man the god ordained that the place should bear the hermit's name before his own as Seorinarayan. Lastly the Saonrs of Bundelkhand have the following tradition. In the beginning of creation Mahadeo wished to teach the people how to cultivate the ground, and so he made a plough and took out his bull Nandi to yoke to it But there was dense forest on the earth, so he created a being whom he called Savar and gave him an axe to clear the forest. In the meantime Mahadeo went away to get another bullock. The Savar after clearing the forest felt very hungry, and finding nothing else to eat killed Nandi and ate his flesh on a teak leaf. And for this reason the young teak leaves when rubbed give out sap which is the colour of blood to the present day. After some time Mahadeo returned, and finding the forest well cleared was pleased with the Savar, and as a reward endowed him with the knowledge of all edible and medicinal roots and fruits of the forest. But on looking round for Nandi he found him lying dead with some of his flesh cut off. The Savar pleaded ignorance, but Mahadeo sprinkled a little nectar on Nandi, who came to life again and told what had happened. Then Mahadeo was enraged with the Savar and said, 'You shall remain a barbarian and dwell for ever in poverty in the jungles without enough to eat.' And accordingly this has always been the condition of the Savar's descendants.