Lanjia Saora of Orissa

Introduction

Food and Drink

Dress and Ornament

Society

Residence

Religion

Art and Music

The Saora, variously pronounced and spelt as, Sabara, Sa-ara, Saura, Sora etc are one of the 62 tribes of Orissa. These people are mentioned in the great epics and other ancient sanskrit literatures indicating their presence since hoary past on a vast tract of land. Many other Tribal communities have added Savara as suffixs to their ethnic name for e.g. Lodha Savara, Jara Savara, in northern Orissa. Depending on their stages of socio cultural development, they are found to live in the plains and known to the non-tribal neighbours as 'Sa-ara' and Suddha Saora (purified). The community under present discussion live on the hills amidst forest in the Paralakhemundi and Gunupur areas of southern Orissa. The prefix Lanjia(tail) is given due to peculiarity of their dress. The name wear a strip of loin cloth, about six feet long and ten inches broad, around the waist, leaving a short front piece and a longer tail piece hanging. This looks like tail and hence the name. Physically these people confirm to Australoid racial type with short stature, dark brown skin colour, long head, wavy and brown hair, short, low and broad nose. Facial and body hairs are not thick. they speak a dialect of Mundari language ut can communicate in local Oriya language of the neighbours. As per 1991 census they counted 403518 which constitute 6.72% of total tribal population of Orissa, with 1030 females per 1000 males.

Dress and Ornament

The traditional dress of a Saora woman is a waist cloth with gray borders which hardly reaches the knees. The skirt is about three feet in length and two feet in breadth. In winter she covers her upper part of the body with another piece of cloth tied at the back with a knot. The Saora woman uses limited ornaments for decoration of her person. a few necklaces of beads, round wooden plugs for ear lobe perforation, spiral rings of cheap metal in the fingers and toes, little rings in the wings of nose and metal anklets are worn by the woman. All varieties of the ornaments are procured from the local markets.

Residence

The Saora villages, usually small lie hidden in the forest. they build their houses on the slope or foot of the hills, using mud, stone, wood and straw thatch. Walls are plastered with red soil slip and decorated. Houses are mostly single roomed, rectangular in shape on hig plinth but low roof with front verandah. Wealthy persons build bigger houses with spacious verandah and fitted with carved doors. A Saora having more than one wife has to construct separate houses for them. At the time of constructing a new house, rice and wine are ceremonially offered to the earth goddess and pit is dug in which the first pillar is ritually fixed.

Economy

The economic life of the Saoras is based on shifting cultivation (slash and burn) and terraced cultivation, as the terrain is hilly. The food deficit is supplemented by occasional hunting, forest collection. The Saoras land looks picturesque due to the terraces. The terraced fields in which water flows throughout the year are bound by stone boulders and locally called Sarroba, are exclusively meant for paddy cultivation. The upper terraces which are dry and locally called Jyanum are cultivated for millets and pulses. In the green garden around the residential areas the Saoras grow maize tobacco, chilly, some vegetables and fruits.

Traditionally the shifting plots of the hills are distributed on the basis of Birinda or extended families. An individual who has been cultivating a particular plot continues to own it as long as he is capable of cultivating it.

Food and Drink

The principal food of the Saora is rice / millet gruel, vegetables, fruits and occasionally meat. Besides they take vegetables grown in kitchen gardens, and fruits, roots, leaves, tubers and honey collected from forest. No festival is observed and no guest is entertained without non vegetarian food.

Society

The smallest social unit in the Saora society is the family which is mostly of the nuclear type. Generally the family comprises parents and unmarried children. They have no exogamous totemic clan, no phatries and moieties, except the local patrilineal descent groups or lineages called Birinda.

The Saora society has been divided into several sub divisions based on occupation, social status, food habits and many other customs and manners. According to Thurston's (1909) classification the Saora has been divided into two broad classes, i.e. the hill Saora and low country Saora. Under the hill Saora category the following sub-divisions are included

• Sabara, Jati Sabara - The regard themselves as superior and eat the flesh of buffalo but not of the cow

• Arsi, Arisi and Lambo Lanjia - Their occupation is weaving coarse cloths as well as agriculture.

• Laura or Muli - This section makes arrow heads and other iron articles

• Kindal - They make baskets for keeping grains

• Jabu - It is a name among the Saoras of the hill country beyond Kalakote and Puttasingi

• Kumbi - These sections are potters who make earthen pots used for cooking or for hanging up in houses as fetishes of ancestral spirits or certain deities

The low country Saora have been divided into two groups

• Kapu - Cultivator or Pallapu

• Sudho - Good / pure

The Saoras are unique due to the absence of clan or siv organisation, common to most of the tribal societies in the country. Without clan they lack in the complementary institutions of totemism and taboos in matrimonial relationships instead these are extended families called Birindas. Birinda consists of descendants from a common ancestor for four, five generations. Marriage is prohibited within Birinda. The members of a Birinda stand to each other as blood brothers. They participate in Ganwar and Karja ceremonies with their contributions. The Birinda also inherits the property of heirless member. A remarkable feature is that among the Saora a woman from birth to death belongs to her fathers Birinda. Her Birinda membership doesn't change by virtue of her marriage. After her death the members of her own Birinda may claim to perform he funerary rights and Ganwar. Such claims are accepted by her husband's family ungrudgingly. Nevertheless Birinda is not synonymous with clan or Gotra where members living in far off places observe common rules of exogamy. It is interesting that Saoras spend much on various festivals and rituals but not on marriage. Marriage is performed through brief and simple ceremony. Negotiated marriages are fixed between families of equal status outside own Birinda.

Religion

The Saora religion is very complex. Unlike other tribal communities they do not have a fixed supreme deity. In different parts, dufferent deities are supreme. Moreover, there is no standard of Gods. Many new ones are introduced and old ones discarded. The worship both benevolent and malevolent Gods and spirits. The general name for Saora dieties is Sunnum and different deities have names like Labaosum, Rudesum, Krunisum etc. The religious functionary known as Buiya conduct all agriculture related festivals. The shaman or Kudan conducts all other rituals and acts as medicine man. his female counterpart is Kudan boi. The priest post is ascribed where as the shaman status is achieved.

Art and Music

The Lanjia Saora are artistic in nature. Saora mural painting has earned wide appreciation similar to the Worli of Maharashtra. The have elaborate musical instruments like varieties of drums, metal gongs and wind pipes and a split bamboo instrument. The Lanjia Saora people in general have stayed in the natural habitat and now some developmental and social activities are going on to eradicate illness and poverty.