Revision as of 19:55, 18 February 2014

From The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India

By R. V. Russell

Of The Indian Civil Service

Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces

Assisted By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner

Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.

NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh.

NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from a book. During scanning some errors are bound to occur. Some letters get garbled. Footnotes get inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot errors might like to correct them, and shift footnotes gone astray to their rightful place.

Rajput:Gaur, Chamar Gaur

Colonel Tod remarks of this tribe : " The Gaur tribe was once respected in Rajasthan, though it never there attained to any considerable eminence. The ancient kings of Bengal were of this race, and gave their name to the capital, Lakhnauti." This town in Bengal, and the kingdom of which it was the capital, were known as Gauda, and it has been conjectured that the Gaur Brahmans and Rajputs were named after it. Sir H. M. Elliot and Mr. Crooke, however, point out that the home of the Gaur Brahmans and Rajputs and a cultivating caste, ^ Quoted in Mr. Crooke's article on Gaharwar. '^ See art. Rajput, Bundela.

the Gaur Tac^as, is in the centre and west of the United rrovinces, far removed from Bengal ; the Gaur Brahmans now reside principally in the Meerut Division, and between them and Bengal is the home of the Kanaujia Brfdimans. General Cunningham suggests that the country comprised in the present Gonda District round the old town of Sravasti, was formerly known as Gauda, and was hence the origin of the caste name.^ The derivation from Gaur in Bengal is perhaps, however, more probable, as the name was best known in connection with this tract.

The Gaur Rajputs do not make much figure in history. " Repeated mention of them is found in the wars of Prithwi Raj as leaders of considerable renown, one of whom founded a small state in the centre of India. This survived through seven centuries of Mogul domination, till it at length fell a prey indirectly to the successes of the British over the Marathas, when Sindhia in 1809 annihilated the power of the Gaur and took possession of his capital, Supur." " In the United Provinces the Gaur Rajputs are divided into three groups, the Bahman, or Brahman, the Bhat, and the Chamar Gaur. Of these the Chamar Gaur, curiously enough appear to rank the highest, which is accounted for by the following story : When trouble fell upon the Gaur family, one of their ladies, far advanced in pregnane}^ took refuge in a Chamar's house, and was so grateful to him for his disinterested protection that she promised to call her child by his name.

The Bhats and Brahmans, to whom the others fled, do not appear to have shown a like chivalry, and hence, strange as it may appear, the subdivisions called after their name rank below the Chamar Gaur.'* The names of the subsepts indicate that this clan of Rajputs is probably of mixed origin. If the Brahman subsept is descended from Brahmans, it would be only one of several probable cases of Rajput clans originating from this caste. As regards the Bhat subcaste, the Charans or Bhats of Rajputana are admittedly Rajputs, and there is therefore nothing curious in finding a Bhat subsection in a Rajput clan.

What the real origin of the Chamar Gaurs was is difficult to surmise. ^ Quoted in Mr. Crooke's article ^ Rajasthan, i. p. 105. Gaur Brahman. 3 Supplemental Glossary, s.v. VOL. IV 2 G

The Chamar Gaur is now a separate clan, and its members intermarry with the other Gaur Rajputs, affording an instance of the subdivision of clans. In the Central Provinces the greater number of the persons returned as Gaur Rajputs really belong to a group known as Gorai, who are considered to be the descendants of widows or kept women in the Gaur clan, and marry among themselves.

They should really therefore be considered a separate caste, and not members of the Rajput caste proper. In the United Provinces the Gaurs rank with the good Rajput clans. In the Central Provinces the Gaur and Chamar -Gaur clans are returned from most Districts of the Jubbulpore and Nerbudda divisions, and also in considerable numbers from Bhandara.