name is derived by General Cunningham from the Scythian sagar, an axe, in reference to the axe which they carry in their hands. In Sanskrit, sabara or savara means a mountaineer, barbarian, or savage. The tribe has been identified by various authorities with the Suari of Pliny and Sabarai of Ptolemy. "Towards the Ganges," the latter writes, "are the Sabarai, in whose country the diamond is found in great abundance." This diamond producing country is located by Cunningham near Sambalpūr in the Central Provinces. In one of his grants, Nandivarma Pallavamalla, a Pallava king, claims to have released the hostile king of the Sābaras, Udayana by name, and captured his mirror-banner made of peacock's feathers. The Rev. T. Foulkes *[1] identifies the Sābaras of this copper-plate grant with the Savaras of the eastern ghāts. But Dr. E. Hultzsch, who has re-edited the grant, †[2] is of opinion that these Sābaras cannot be identified with the Savaras. The Aitareya Brāhmana of the Rig-vēda makes the Savaras the descendants of the sons of Visvāmitra, who were cursed to become impure by their father for an act of disobedience, while the Rāmayana describes them as having emanated from the body of Vasishta's cow to fight against the sage Visvāmitra.
The language of the Savaras is included by Mr.G. A. Grierson ‡[3] in the Mundā 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 Khariā and Juāng, 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 Kherwāri."
