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Tribes in Ancient India c39: Chapter XXXV. The Śavaras

Tribes in Ancient India c39

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Chapter XXXV. The Śavaras

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The Śavaras or Śabaras referred to in both the Great Epics were a non-Aryan tribe. The earliest mention of them is to be found in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (VII, 18), where it is stated that the elder sons of Viśvāmitra were cursed to become progenitors of such servile races as Andhras, Puṇḍras, Śavaras, Pulindas and Mūtibas.¹ The implication of this passage seems to be that the Śavaras were a non-Aryan people dwelling somewhere in the Dakṣiṇāpatha. The *Matsya* and *Vāyu Purāṇas* definitely locate theni in the south, describing them as Dakṣiṇāpathavāsinaḥ.² The *Mahābhārata* (XII, 207, 42) also places them in the Deccan along with the Andhras and Pulindas:—

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¹ Roth, *Zur Litteratur und Geschichte des Weda*, p. 133.

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² *Matsya P.*, 144, 46–8; *Vāyu P.*, 45, 126.

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*Dakṣiṇāpathajanmānaḥ sarve naravarāndhrakāḥ*
*Guhāḥ Pulindāḥ Śavarāś Cucukā Madrakaiḥ* (?) *saha.*

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Ptolemy³ mentions a country called Sabarai which is generally held to be identical with the region inhabited by the Śavaras. Cunningham identifies the Sabarai of Ptolemy with Pliny's Suari, and further identifies both with the aboriginal Śavaras or Suars, a wild race who lived in the woods and jungles without any fixed habitations, and whose country extended as far southward as the Pennār river. These Śavaras or Suars are only a single branch of a widely spread race found in large numbers to the south-west of Gwalior and Marwar and S. Rajputana where they are known as Surrius.⁴

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³ McCrindle: *Ptolemy's Ancient India*, Ed. S. N. Majumdar, p. 173.

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⁴ *Ibid.*, p. 173.

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The *Rāmāyaṇa* story of the Śavara women who were deeply attached to Rāmacandra also seems to indicate that the Śavaras were a wild tribe inhabiting the forest regions of the south.⁵

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⁵ See *Rāmāyaṇa*, I, 1, 55 sq. (Cf. *Rām.*, III, 77, 6 sq.)

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