Saora

Abstract

They are an ancient folk who have been mentioned in old mythologies and Sanskrit literatures. Being hardyhighlanders they live in remote mountains of southern Odisha. They are so enterprising that they have tamedrugged mountains by making picturesque terraces with ingenious water management systems for paddycultivation and by raising vast orchards. They are artists by nature who can compose and sing songsinstantly and make beautiful wall paintings (ikons) which have made them famous over the world. Theyworship innumerable gods and spirits and appease them by conducting elaborate andexpensive rituals andceremonies. They are called Saora or Soura. They inhabit a contiguous mountainous territory stretched across Rayagada and Gajapati districts of Southern Odisha which can be called the â Saora countryâ . It is a picturesque land where ranges of hills criss-cross the area, small streams and rivulets flow in all directions and nature with all its endowments present with itsnaked revelations. Here the Saora living since generations have been deriving subsistence from the resourcebases of the hills and forests in multiple ways for satiating their small needs. One of the main modes of livingdevised and adopted by them, is swidden cultivation, a primitive mode of agriculture. A variety of crops,cereals pulses, tubers and plants are grown in the swidden fields with the help of few simple implements, themethods employed being crude, the process - being labour Intensive and the productivity being low.Subsistence living regularly gets supplemented by forest collections and in some cases by wage earning. With the depletion of forest growth and the underwoods, swidden cultivation did not pay dividends and the Saora started preparing terraced fields in the foot hills and gradually ascended the hill slopes, stepwise, converting them into rice fields in an ingenious way. In these days, they have raised cashew orchards in podu ravaged hill slopes from which comes a good part of their income. They have been identified as one among the 13 PVTGs of Odisha and therefore receive special attention fordevelopment and protection from the welfare Government. The cumulative impact of conversion,modernization and development has brought noticeable changes in their archaic life style in present times.This photographic documentation of their life style is a part of the series on 13 PVTGs of Odisha. It is hoped that it will be useful to all who are interested for knowing about the tribal culture of Odisha.