The Sora (alternative names and spellings include Saora, Saura, Savara and Sabara) are a Munda ethnic group from eastern India. They live in southern Odisha and north coastal Andhra Pradesh.
The Soras mainly live in Gajapati, Rayagada and Bargarh districts of Odisha.[2] They are also present in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts. In the census, however, some Soras are classified under Shabar or Lodha, the name for another very different Munda tribe. They inhabit blocks of Gunupur, Padmapur and Gudari. Their highest concentration is found in the Puttasingi area, approximately 25km away from Gunupur NAC. Although, they are close to the assimilation process, yet some interior GPs like Rejingtal, Sagada and Puttasingi have Soras who still retain their traditional tribal customs and traditions.
They are known by various names such as Savara, Sabara, Sora, and Soura. They are concentrated in parts of Gunupur adjoining to the blocks of Gumma, Serango of Gajapati district. The Soras speak Sora, a Munda language. However, written language in Sora is not followed by all. They practice shifting cultivation, with a few gradually taking up settled agriculture.
They are of medium or short stature. The Savara villages consist of houses with mud walls and sedge grass roofs, usually situated in foothills. The adult males dress with a gavancha and the women with saris. They are also sometimes called Lanjia Souras due to their dress pattern of wearing a loin cloth hanging from behind and which could be mistakenly identified as a tail by a stranger.
They are endogamous and the clan, although absent, is related to Birinda, which is exogamous. Families are nuclear although joint or extended families are also found. Marriages are made by bride capture, elopement, and by negotiations.
The Sora people are a dwindling jungle tribe with a distinctive shamanic culture. According to an article in Natural History, "a shaman, usually a woman, serves as an intermediary between the two worlds [of the living and the dead]. During a trance, her soul is said to climb down terrifying precipices to the underworld, leaving her body for the dead to use as their vehicle for communication. One by one the spirits speak through her mouth. Mourners crowd around the shaman, arguing vehemently with the dead, laughing at their jokes, or weeping at their accusations."[3]
History
The Soras were already mentioned under the name of Savaras in Brāhmaṇas, who associate them with the Indo-Aryan Vaidarbhas and non-Indo-Aryan Pulindas. [4]
Graeco-Roman authors later mentioned the Soras, with Pliny calling them the "Suari" and Ptolemy calling them the "Sabarae."[4]
Culture
A Lanjia Saora couple
Instead of clan organization they have their extended families called Birinda, which consists of descendants from a common ancestors of four to five generations. The Soras' religion is very elaborate and deep rooted. They are animist and believe in large number of deities and ancestral spirits. Dance and music constitute part and parcel of their rich aesthetic life.
The Sora family is polygamous. The total household economy revolves around the woman member who is hardworking and who helps her husband in ploughing and harvesting crops in addition to attending household chores exclusively.
The Sora people are the most prevalent practitioners of the podu cultivation system in Srikakulam district. Living high in the hills, they have little level land available and so cannot usually plough. They slash-and-burn forested land, planting millet and pulses between the tree stumps that are left and which limit the effects of erosion. After a couple of years of use, they allow the land to recover by cultivating a different area; in due course, they return to the original plot. In addition to podu, the Sora also construct irrigated terraces where it is feasible and upon those, they grow rice.[5]
Oral Tradition:
The Sora community has a rich depository of oral tradition. Their singers are known as Kin Kin mar, and storytellers are known as Katabirmar. They play Ranai- a local fiddle to sing the song. Their priest Buyang spell the myths of Origin and narratives. Their folklore is enriched with local knowledge. Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi has published a book on Saora Folk literature written by Dr. Mahendra Kumar Mishra, a noted folklorist of India. Cornelia Mallebrein, A German ethnographer has conducted research and study on Id- Tal, the traditional Sora ritual painting. Nowadays, Id-Tal Painting has highly popular esteem in the market across the world.
Education in Saora Language; Government of Odisha has introduced the Saora language in primary schools under Multilingual Education Programme from class I to class V. The eminent teachers from the Sora community have written Sora primers. Enam Gomanga, Philip Sabara, Ghasi Sabara, Injuram Sabara are the eminent writers of Sora Primer guided by Dr. MAhendra Kumar Mishra, Former State Coordinator, MLE program, Odisha Mangei Gomanga, the inventor of Sora script Sora - Sompen in Marichaguda has been used by the Sora people for their ethnic solidarity. Prof Khageswara Mahapatra, an eminent linguist of Odisha had promoted Sora script through his patronization.
Religion
The Soras are highly religious with each and every natural phenomenon attributed to the works of some Gods, deities or spirits of traditional belief. Therefore, the customary law, values, norms are highly respected by all members of the society for the fear of inviting personal or communal harms.
Sora traditional belief is a form of shamanism (Vitebsky 2017). It involves reverences of supernatural entities called the kittung, who are believed to inhabit both natural and human landscapes including forests, mountains, villages, rivers and particular locations. The Sora shamans or the kuran are female priests whose tasks are to fulfill the kittung by performing annual rituals, dances, and offerings.[6]
However, in the last many decades many of the traditional Sora beliefs have been superseded by Christianity that was introduced by missionaries.[6] In many areas the shamanic and animist beliefs are distant memories, and in some areas, particularly around Puttasingh the graveyards of the ancestors have been destroyed.
Social life
Lanjia Sora house at Odisha State Tribal fair, Bhubaneswar
The Sora have a traditional political organization at each village and region, having hereditary post of Gomango (or Gamong; secular head), Buyya (or Buya; religious head), Mondal, Raito, and Barik (messenger). The Soras have made history in pre-British and British period and post independence as a community known for their economic and political integrity.
They practice shifting cultivation and the men hunt. A weekly market, called shandies, is an important role in the society, in the economy and in culture exchanges with other tribes and Western culture.
The folklore of India encompasses the folklore of the Republic of India and the Indian subcontinent. India is an ethnically and religiously diverse country. Given this diversity, it is difficult to generalize the vast folklore of India as a unit.
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Sora is a south Munda language of the Austroasiatic language of the Sora people, an ethnic group of eastern India, mainly in the states of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Sora contains very little formal literature but has an abundance of folk tales and traditions. Most of the knowledge passed down from generation to generation is transmitted orally. Like many languages in eastern India, Sora is listed as 'vulnerable to extinction' by UNESCO. Sora speakers are concentrated in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. The language is endangered according to the International Mother Language Institute (IMLI).
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References
Saora Tales and Songs, Edited by Dr Mahendra Kumar Mishra, Published by Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. 2005, 2018
1 2 Piers Vitebsky, Living Without the Dead: Loss and Redemption in a Jungle Cosmos, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2017 and Delhi: HarperCollins 2018.
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