Sub caste of Yadav in Maharashtra
Gavli (also spelled as Gawli or Gavali ) (
Marathi : गवळी) is a
Hindu caste found in the
Indian states of
Maharashtra and
Madhya pradesh .
[1]
[2] They a part of the
Golla community.
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
Gavli are distributed all over Maharashtra. Although Reginald Edward has classified Gawlis as sub-caste of many different castes
Ahir Gawli (sub-caste of famous
Yadav caste of North India) whereas Hanbar Gawli, Singaji Gawli and
Lingayat Gawli are different from
Yadav-Ahir Gawli . Along with
Maratha and
Kunbis ,
Ahir Gawlis are considered one of the allied castes of
Maratha caste and have been included in the
Maratha Regiment in the past.
[13]
Etymology
The name Gavli may have been derived from gay, meaning
cow .
[15]
[16]
Origin
The
Yadav (Gavli) community claims descent from the Great
Yadav families to one of which lord
Krishna the eighth incarnation of
Vishnu belonged.
[17] The whole of the
North India ,
Gujarat and
Deccan were ruled by the Kings of the
Yadav families . They have kept up their
Kshatriya caste traditions, customs and occupations. They have given considerable recruits to the government and included in the
Maratha regiments .
Relationship with Deccan Yadavas
The hill of Devagiri, the capital of Yadavas
The word Yāḍava is formed from yāḍu and yāḍu means Sheep or Goat in
Tamil . In the
Deccan region , the original worshippers of pastoralist god
Vitthal – the
Gollas and
Kurubas of
Andhra Pradesh and
Karnataka and Gawlis and
Dhangars of
Maharashtra , especially southern Maharashtra – are continued to be called "Yāḍavas". Similar to them, several royal families who enhanced the magnificence of Vitthal's worship are called "Yādavas". The difference here is "ḍ" and "d", where "Yāḍavas" represents
Dravidian version and "Yādavas" is the
Sanskritized version of it. Linguistically this difference is subtle, and so "Yāḍavas" became "Yādavas", i.e., most of these royal dynasties arose from pastoralist groups and took the name Yādava in order to raise their status by connecting themselves with
Krishna 's clan,
Yadu dynasty of the
Puranas . They elevated their traditional pastoralist god (
Vitthal ) into a form of
Vishnu -
Krishna and accorded high prestige to his worship.
The
Seuna Yadava dynasty, which ruled present-day Maharashtra and north Karnataka, arose out of the valorous deeds of
Dridhaprahara , founder of the dynasty, who protected cattle. According to the traditional sources,
Devagiri , the capital of Seuna Yadavas, was founded by a king who was a
Golla /Gavli.
[20] The idea that the Seunas were a Gavli dynasty survives to this day in folk traditions of the
Nashik -
Khandesh area, where they are traditionally called "Gavli Kings". During the reign of Seuna Yadavas and their rival
Hoysala Yadavas , the temple of
Vitthal at
Pandharpur , under their purview, grew from a small pastoral deity site to a major temple complex.
Notable people
References
^ Malhotra, K. C. (March 1982).
"Ecology of a pastoral caste: Gavli Dhangars of peninsular India" (PDF) . Human Ecology . 10 (1): 107–143.
doi :
10.1007/BF01531107 .
S2CID
154253698 .
^ Mehta, B. H. (1994).
Gonds of the Central Indian Highlands . Vol. II. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. pp. 568–569.
^ Saraswati, Baidyanath (1998).
The Cultural Dimension of Ecology . Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.
ISBN
978-81-246-0102-0 .
^ Tribes, Karnataka (India) Legislature Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled.
Report . Karnataka Legislature Secretariat.
^ Commission, Third Karnataka Backward Classes (1990).
The Justice-journey of the Karnataka Backward Classes . Government of Karnataka.
^
Karnataka State Gazetteer: Shimoga . Director of Print., Stationery and Publications at the Government Press. 1975.
^ General, India Office of the Registrar (1962).
Census of India, 1961 . Manager of Publications.
^
Maharashtra State Gazetteers: Buldhana . Director of Government Printing, Stationery and Publications, Maharashtra State, 1976. 1976. p. 224.
^ Singh, K. S.; India, Anthropological Survey of (1998).
India's Communities . Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-563354-2 .
^ Constable, Philip (2001).
"The Marginalization of a Dalit Martial Race in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Western India" . The Journal of Asian Studies . 60 (2): 439–478.
doi :
10.2307/2659700 .
JSTOR
2659700 .
PMID
18268829 .
S2CID
40219522 . Retrieved 2020-11-28 .
^ Singh, K. S. (1998).
India's Communities . Anthropological Survey of India. p. 988.
ISBN
978-0-19-563354-2 .
^ Ghurye, Govind Sadashiv (1969).
Caste and Race in India . Popular Prakashan. p. 32.
ISBN
978-81-7154-205-5 .
^ commission, Great Britain Indian statutory (1930). Report of the Indian Statutory Commission .. . H. M. Stationery Office. p. 461.
^ Müller, Friedrich Max; Kultur-Referat, Germany (West) Botschaft India (1976).
German Scholars on India: Contributions to Indian Studies . Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office.
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