The History
Goudas or Gouds belong to the Brahmin caste. Their ancestor was the sage Koundinya .Parashuram also belongs to the lineage of Koundinya and therefore, the Gouda Saraswats of Northern India worship him as their God. Although earlier they had the sacraments of Up-nayan (best owing the eye of wisdom by adorning the sacred thread) and were also allowed to study Vedas, over a period of time, due to some historical reasons, they lost their ‘Brahmin’ status. Now, they enjoy the status of Kshatriyas in some states and of Brahmins in some other states. they are divided into several groups like Gouda Saraswats as Brahmins, Gouda Kshatriyas as Kshatriyas (Soma Kshatriyas and Sahararjuna Kshatriyas) and some even as Jaiswal, Soundi Baniyas also. In some states, they are toddy drawing labourers too. Their deities are Shiva, Vishnu and Adi Shakti (Renuka Devi). Their lineage is traced from Brahma to sage Atri then to sage Koundinya. Koundinya’s descendants were called ‘Pancha Goudas’ (Five Goudas) that is five hermits. Started from sage Atri and popularized by sage Koundinya the clan has spread as many branches across the country.
Continue…
Goudikam or Goudi in Sanskrit means ‘Toddy’. During the times before Adi Shankaracharya, Brahmins use to sacrifice animals during rituals like ‘Yagnas’ and drink toddy. It was called ‘Poorva Meemamsa’ process. According to Rigveda, it was a ritual to please the Gods. The descendants of sage Koundinya who used to adequately supply ‘Goudikam’ for those rituals are only the present day ‘Gouds’. In his bid to reform the religion of Hindus, Adi Shankara rejected the ‘Poorva Meemasa’ and introduced the ‘Uttara Meemamsa’ where only pure vegetarian offerings were made during those kind of rituals. Consequently, the Gouda Brahmins who used to supply goudikam lost their calling. Some of them continued their vocation and supplied goudikam to ‘Shudras’( Shudras form the lowest rung of Hindu ‘Chatur varnasrama’- Echelons of four professions – Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Shudras) and gradually mingled with them. From then the Sanskrit word Goudikam got slowly distorted and with the passage of time became Koudikam….Koulikam…Kallu (toddy) as at present.
More…
Some of them could not forego their profession and identity and settled in northern India as Gouda Saraswat Brahmins. Some others settled in agriculture. The latter are the vokkaliga gowdas of Karnataka. Those pursuing agriculture and grew in stature were still respectfully called with their earlier clan name Gowdas. Thus the epithet Gowda has become a synonym of village chief. This is also corroborated from the period of Mauryas as they had the posts called ‘Gowda’ in their polity. Those were like the munsiff of the village. The word Gowda was also absorbed into Prakrit and from there assumed several connotations like Gavani, Gouni, Goni etc. Gowdru, Gowda are mostly more popular in the state of Karnataka whereas Gavani, Gouni, Goni have become the second part of Telugu initials/surnames; the first part like Soma(ya),Pola (ya), Rudra signify the name of the person. The people belonging to the lineage of Rudra Gouda were called Rudra Goudani ; gradually, it became Rudra Gouni. In some places it became Rudra Gani, Rudra Goni, Rudra Gavuni also. All Goudas may not carry this kind of Gouni/Gani as part of their initials/surname as these have become part of only those who had served as village officers, employees of the king, part of the army or leaders of the army and continued to bequeath them as heritage. Others who had taken up the calling of agriculture, animal husbandry, handicrafts and toddy drawers derived their slightly different initials/surnames depending on their village of habitat etc. If we further probe into the history we would come to know that ‘Gouda’ region was initially a separate kingdom which was merged into the modern state of west Bengal after India won the independence in 1947.
More…
With the spate of incursions of Guptas, Palas, Turushks (Turks) and Moguls, the Gouds or Gowdas migrated to Southern part of the country from Gouda kingdom. Fed up by such periodical attacks, they had emigrated through Orissa to south , settled in and spread over Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. The first and the most popular Gouda king of Bengal was Shashanka (630-637 A.D) who had expanded his kingdom up to Chilka lake of Orissa, founded his capital near Karnasuvaram and continued to vanquish Guptas till his death. When Harsha vardhan of Kanauj started attacking , Goudas were again constrained to compulsorily migrate to South India. The present day Malda district of West Bengal was the capital of Gouda-Bengal kingdom. Gurpur was identified as the city of Gouds. The Gouds belonged to the city of Gour of 5th century B.C. Lakshmansen Goud was the king of Pala dynasty which ruled the Bengal country. It was then called as ‘Ashmanabhati’. The Sen kings ruled Bengal till Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji attacked it in 1204 A.D. Rukunuddin Barbak Shah (reigned: 1459–1474) ruled the Gouda kingdom which was a part of then Banga. Ala-ud-din Husain Shah (Bengali: আলাউদ্দিন হোসেন শাহ); reign 1494–1519) was an independent late medieval Sultan of Bengal, who founded the Hussain Shahi dynasty. He became the ruler of Bengal. Once Muslims started invading their region, Gouds migrated through Orissa to Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The eastern Chalukys who belonged to the Soma clan Kshatriyas have ruled parts of Andhra from 7th century A.D to 1189 A.D. with their capital at Vengi near Nidadavolu of Godavari district. Later they shifted it to Rajamahendravaram. Chalukya kings have built several Someshvara, Bhimeshvara temples in Godavari districts. Chalukya Bhima had constructed Bhimeshvara temples in Bhimavaram of West Godavari district and Draksharamam of East Godavari district. From 12th century A.D Chalukya kings have ruled several import parts of South India. In the medieval period, after the 15th century, the most notable rulers were Sardar Sarvai Papanna Goud who ruled Golconda from 1687 to 1724 in Telangana and the queen Tangamma, heir of Kenchan goud (Kenchan Ghar) from Karnataka. Similarly, Kempe Gowda who ruled Kannada country between 1510 and 1570 A.D was a popular king . He is the founder of the renowned city of Benguluru.His descendants ruled important parts of Combined state of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka up to the 18th century. Gouds also worked as valiant soldiers during the regimes of Kakatiyas and Sri Krishna Devaraya. Most notable among them were Rudrama Goud and Kenchana Goud (kanchan Garh is situated on the borders of Rayalaseema and Karnataka). Gouds enjoy the status of Brahmins in certain states and Brahmins and Vysyas in some other states like Gouda Saraswat Brahmins (Goa and Konkan coastal regions), Gouda Khatriyas (Bengal), Soma Khatriyas (Punjab), Surya Kshatriyas (Madhyapradesh) Ganga Kshatriyas (Andhrapradesh, Karnataka), Sahasrarjuna Kshatriyas (andhrapradesh and Northern India). For the last 700 years from the time of last Kakatiya king Pratapa Rudra, they have becom non-vegetarians. According to ‘Gouda Puranam’, they have migrated to Northern, North-Eastern and South India from the doab of Saraswati river.
State-wise gowdas across the country:
- Andhra Pradesh : (Gouda, Goud, Ediga, Shetty balija, Yata, Srisaina, Sahasrarjuna)
- Telangana : (Gouda, Goud)
- Arunachal Pradesh : (Jaiswal, Behat, Kalwar)
- Assam : (Jaiswal, Behat, Suri)
- Bihar : (Behat, Chadurai, Soundik, Sondi, Sonthi, Sundi, Kalar, Dadsena,Jain)
- Chattisgarh : (Deg Sena, Kalar, Sinha, Jaiswal, Sundi, Kosre)
- Goa : (Gouda Saraswat, Kalar, Parpi, Nandari, Bhandari, Patil, Jadar, Mistry)
- Gujarat : (Bouta, Randriya, Vadivala, Kuber, Prahakar, Kalal)
- Haryana : ( Ahluwalia, Kalal)
- Himachal Pradesh : ( Ahluwalia, Kalal)
- Jammu &Kashmir : ( Gouda Saraswat, Ahluwalia, Kalal)
- Jharkhand : ( Jaisar, Chaudhary, Bhagat, Sindik, Jaiswal, Behat, Kalawark, Suri)
- Karnataka : (Ediga, Gowda, Goula Saraswat, Bhilvas, Namdhari, Morasu, Poojari, Shinde)
- Kerala : (Ezhuva, Tiyaya, Bhilava, Vilowars, Jaiswal, Ram, Chouks)
- Madhyapradesh : (Mahajan, Chaudhary, Suryavamshi, Sundi, Malaviya, Kalal, Surdesh Kalal, Jain Kalar, Daharwal, Jaharya, Sahu, Dangerlal)
- Maha Rashtra : ( Kalal, Goud Kalal, Bhandari, Namdhariya, Bhillava, Jainkalar)
- Manipur : ( Jaiswal,Behat, Kalwar)
- Meghalaya : (Jaiswal,Behat, Kalwar)
- Mizoram : ( Jaiswal,Behat, Kalwar)
- Nagaland : ( Jaiswal,Behat, Kalwar)
- Orissa : (Gouda, Sundri, Suniri, Soundik, Ahluwalia, Kalal, Vailya)
- Punjab : (Somavamsi, Chaudhary, Karanwal, Pareta, Mewra, Tak, Yerjiya, Suwalka)
- Rajasthan : (Dhanetwal, Jaiswal, Patwal, Vegra)
- Sikkim : ( Jaiswal, Behat, Kalawar)
- Tripura : ( Jaiswal, Behat, Kalawar)
- Uttarakhand : ( Kalal, Jaiswal)
- Uttar Pradesh : ( Jaiswal, Behat, Kalawar, Chaudhary)
- W.Bengal : ( Gouda, Gour, Kalal, Kalawar, Prasad, Sundhi, Sindir)
- Tamil Nadu : (Nadar, Shehnar, Iwar, Illat, Pilmar, Nadan)
- Delhi, Diu, Daman, Lakshadwwep, Pondichery, Yanam: (Gouda, Jaiswal)
- Srilanka : Durve, Nalvir
- Thailand, Sumatra, Jawa : (Kundhan, Kundin)
Gallery
