Note 34 — G

Gaur; Gauda.34—One of the five divisions of the Northern Brâhmans which make up what is known as the Pancha Gauda, as distinguished from the Pancha Dravira or Southern Brâhmans. There has been much controversy as to the origin of the name. The tribal traditions all point to the ruined city of Gaur or Lakhnauti, in Mâlda, which was once the capital of Bengal, whence the story runs that they emigrated to the neighbourhood of Delhi in the time of the Pândavas. By another account they emigrated to Bengal on the invitation of Râja Agarsen, the eponymous founder of Agarwâla Banyas. The objections to this account of their origin are two-fold. In the first place their supposed emigration from east to west reverses the usual course of the Brâhmanical movements, and, secondly, it is difficult to understand how they could have passed through the intervening Brâhmanical tribes, such as the Sarwariya and Kanaujiya. This is not avoided by Mr. Colebrooke’s supposition that Gauda was the name of a division of the country in the neighbourhood of the modern Patna. And still less probable is Sir G. Campbell’s theory, that the name is derived from their residence on the banks of the Ghâghar, a tributary of the Sâraswati, the lost river of the Western India desert. Perhaps the most plausible explanation is that of General Cunningham, who writes:35—“These apparent discrepancies are satisfactorily explained when we learn that Gauda is only a sub-division of Uttara Kosila, and that the ruins of Srâvasti have actually been found in the district of Gauda, which is the Gonda of the Maps. I presume therefore that both the Gauda Brâhmans and the Gauda Tagas must have belonged to this district originally, and not to the mediæval city of Gauda in Bengal. Brâhmans of this name are still numerous in Ajudhya and Jahângîrâbâd, on the right bank of the Ghâghra river, in Gonda, Pâkhapur, and Jaisni, of the Gonda District, and in many parts of the neighbouring division of Gorakhpur.” Our last Census Returns show the Gaur Brâhmans most numerous in the Meerut Division, and in decreasing numbers as we come through Rohilkhand and the lower Ganges-Jumna Duâb.