Note 13 — G

Gauda.—The Gaudas or Gaudos are a large caste of Canarese cultivators and cattle-breeders. “Gauda and Gaudo,” Mr. H. A. Stuart writes,13 “are really two distinct castes, the former being Canarese and the latter Uriya. Each name is, however, spelt both ways. The two names are, I presume, etymologically the same. The ordinary derivation is from the Sanskrit go, a cow, but Dr. Gustav Oppert contends14 that the root of Gauda is a Dravidian word meaning a mountain. Among the Canarese, and to a less extent among the Uriyas also, the word is used in an honorific sense, a custom which is difficult to account for if Dr. Oppert’s philology is correct.” “Gaudas,” Mr. Stuart writes further,15 “also called Hālvaklumakkalu (children of the milk class), are very numerously represented in the South Canara district. They have a somewhat elaborate system of caste government. In every village there are two headmen, the Grāma Gauda and the Vattu or Gattu Gauda. For every group of eight or nine villages there is another head called the Māganē Gauda, and for every nine Māganēs there is a yet higher authority called the Kattēmanēyava. The caste is divided into eighteen baris or balis, which are of the usual exogamous character. The names of some of these are as follows: Bangāra (gold), Nandara, Malāra (a bundle of glass bangles, as carried about for sale), Sālu, Hemmana (pride or conceit), Kabru, Gōli (Portulaca oleracea, a pot-herb), Basruvōgaru (basru, belly), Balasanna, and Karmannāya. Marriage is usually adult, and sexual license before marriage with a member of the caste is tolerated, though nominally condemned. The dhārē form of marriage (see Bant) is used, but the bridal pair hold in their joined hands five betel leaves, one areca nut and four annas, and, after the water has been poured, the bridegroom ties a tāli to the neck of the bride. Divorce is permitted freely, and divorced wives and widows can marry again. A widow with children, however, should marry only her late husband’s elder brother. If she marries any one else, the members of her former husband’s family will not even drink water that has been touched by her. They burn their dead. On the third day, the ashes are made into the form of a man, which is cut in two, buried, and a mound made over it. In the house two planks are placed on the ground, and covered with a cloth. On one of these, a vessel containing milk is placed, and on the other a lamp, rice, cocoanut, pumpkin, etc., are deposited. The agnates and some boys go round the plank three times, and afterwards go to the mound, taking with them the various articles in a cloth. Three plantain leaves are spread in front of the mound, and cooked food, etc., placed thereon. Four posts are set up round the mound, and cloths stretched over them, and placed round the sides. On the sixteenth day, sixteen plantain leaves are placed in a row, and one leaf is laid apart. Cakes, cooked fowl’s flesh, toddy and arrack (liquor) are placed on the leaves in small leaf-cups. The assembled agnates then say “We have done everything as we should do, and so our ancestors who have died must take the man who is now dead to their regions. I put the leaf which is apart in the same row with the sixteen leaves.”