279. Sorake, Sornadu, Swarga

  While travelling from Vitla to Punacha in Bantval Taluk, Dakshina Kannada, you may find an interesting place name usually written as ‘Swarga’ in the descriptive plate of most of the buses. Swarga means heaven, so a village with such an unusual name is bound to create certain amount of curiosity.

However, analysis of related place names like Sorake (Puttur Taluk), Sornadu (Bantval Taluk) is likely to solve this confusion.The village name Swarga apparently was Soraga to begin with, that was transformed in the due course to Swarga due to enthuasism of Sanskrit word lovers.

Sorake, Soraga

Infact both the place names ‘Sorake’ and ‘Soraga’ mean settlement of an ancient Austro-Asiatic tribe called ‘Sora’ people that inhabited parts of ancient Tulunadu. The suffix ke is suffix of Singapur origin and means a settlement in Austro-Asiatic languages. The suffix, ‘–ga’ common in south Indian place namesd, appears to be an evolved form of suffix ‘ke’.

Thus, Sorake means Sora+ke, the village or settlement (ke) of Sora tribes.

Soraga, the village (‘ga’ ) of Sora tribes.

Sornadu or Soranadu: the nāDu (area) of Sora tribes.

Sora, Sabara tribes

Sora tribe is a subgroup of Austro-Asiatic Munda tribes of India, now predominantly found in parts of Orissa,Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra  and Chattisgarh. Sora tribes are also alternately known as Savara or Sabara tribes.In present day Orissa they usually converse in a dialect known as Kui.
 There are also places in Tulunadu connected with Sabara tribes like Sabara-bail (Bantval taluk). The village Sarapadi in Bantval Taluk could have originally been Sorapadi.Similarly, in Shimoga district ‘Soraba’ is name of a Taluk place.,wherein suffix ‘–ba’ (as in place names Kadaba, Perabe,etc) is a spatial indicator. The Shoranur (or Soranur) town in Palakkad district of Kerala is another place bearing the signature of Sora tribes in Southern India.

The presence of ancient place names like Sorandu, Sorake, Soraga ( Swarga) and Sabara-bail in Tulunadu reveal that these tribes inhabited parts of Tulunadu in the antiquity.

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