Research work · 2010
Pañca Gauḍa and Pañca Drāviḍa: Contested borders of a traditional classification
Madhav M. Deshpande
Studia Orientalia Electronica
Abstract
1. HISTORY OF THE EXPRESSIONS: PANCA GAUḌA/DRĀVIḌA The classification of the Brahmins of India into two groups, i.e. Five Gauḍa brahmins (panca-gauḍa) and Five Drāviḍa brahmins (panca-drāviḍa) is found in the Sahyādrikhaṇḍa section of the Skandapurāṇa and is approximately a thousand years old. The first five are Brahmins found in India, north of the Vindhya mountains, while the latter five are said to be found to the south of the Vindhyas. Traditionally, the five Gauḍa brahmins include the following types: Sārasvata, Kānyakubja, Gauḍa, Maithila, and Utkala. The five Drāviḍa brahmins include the following types: Gurjara, Mahārāṣtra, Tailaṅga, Karnāṭaka, and Drāviḍa. It is clear that the terms gauḍa and drāviḍa are each used in two meanings. They, in a narrow sense, refer to a sub-group, i.e. the brahmins of Bengal (gauḍa) and Tamilnadu (drāviḍa), and yet the same terms are used in the broader sense to refer to the two groups, i.e. the northern and the southern. Additionally, the identification of Gauḍa with Bengal also poses certain significant problems, 1 since the brahmins calling themselves Gauḍa are found to be more numerous in the region near Delhi. The classification presents numerous issues which are not yet clearly dealt with in the available research, and in my paper I would like to make a beginning to deal with some of these issues. C.V. Vaidya (1920: 87) refers to the Buland Shahar Gazetteer in connection with the term gauḍa. Evidently, this Gazetteer refers to a copper-plate, found in the village of Indur near Anoop Shahar, dated to 465 ad and contains a mention of a Gauḍa brahmin. This would take the earliest use of the term gauḍa referring to a brahmin to the fifth century ad Vaidya himself, however, disagrees with 1 In commentaries on Dharmaśāstra, typically a Gauḍa author is a Bengali brahmin author, cf. Nirṇayasindhu, p. 288, passim. In such references, the Gauḍa (= Bengali) authors are distinguished from Maithila authors, cf. ibid. p. 376, 452. Often the views of these Gauḍa authors are contrasted with the views of the Dākṣiṇātya authors, cf. ibid. p. 499, 547, 551. On different interpretations of Dharmaśāstra passages in north and south, see Trautmann 1981: 238 ff. For more historical information on gauḍa, see Law 1973: 270–274.