Savaras or Sabaras referred to in both the epics were a non-Aryan tribe. The earliest mention of them is to be found in the Aitareya Brahmana where it is stated that the elder sons of Vishwamitra were cursed to become progenitors of such servile races as Andhras, Pundras, Savaras, Pulindasand Mutibas. The implication of this passage seems to be that the Savaras were a non-Aryan people dwelling somewhere in the Daksinapatha. The Matsya Purana and Vayu Purana definitely locate them in the south, describing them as Daksinapathavasinah. The Mahabharata also places them in the Deccan along with the Andhras and Pulindas.

Historians have mentioned a country called Sabarai which is generally held to be identical with the region inhabited by the Savaras. Some historians have identified the Sabarai with Suari, and has further identified both with the aboriginal Savaras 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 Pennar River. These Savaras 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 south Rajputana where they are known as Surrius.

The Ramayana story of the Savara women who were deeply attached to Ramachandra also seems to indicate that the Savaris were a wild tribe inhabiting the forest regions of the south.

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