Govala/Golla and tamil KOvalar tribes

[N. Ganesan]

Few years ago, Prof. Peter J. Claus, an anthropologist from
California asked me how to explain the name of the
herding caste name, "Golla". Gollas are found in all Indian
region including the Deccan, Bihar, ... That time I did not
have an answer to the Tulu expert, P. J. Claus who has
written fieldwork regarding the yAdhavization phenomenon
happening among various Golla tribes/castes.

Online Tamil lexicon entry:
*kOvalar* = 1) men of the sylvan tract, 2) herdsmen

There are 100s of references for "kOvalar" as
herdsmen in Sangam poetry and Alvar/NAyanmAr bhakti corpus.
An example:
kuRuntokai - "pal An2 kOvalar"
tEvAram - "kollaivAyk kuruntu ocittuk kuzalum Utum kOvalan2um"
(Krishna is the cowherd called Kovalan here.)

In old times, Gollas were called "Govalas", usually
rendered in English as Goalas. An example:
Sir. Herbert Hope Risley, The People of India, 1908, Calcutta,
p. 28:
"In Bihar or the United Provinces the casteless tribes,
Kols, Korwas, Mundas, and the like, who have not yet entered
the Brahminical system, occupy the lowest place ... Then
come the vermin-eating Musahars and the leather-dressing
Chamars. This fisher castes, Bauri, Bind and Kewat, are
a trifle higher in the scale; the pastoral *Goala*, the
cultivating Kurmi, and the group of cognate castes from
whose hands a Brahmin may take water follow in due order,
and from them we pass to the trading Khatris, the
landholding Babhans, and the upper crust of Hindu society."

Obviously, tamil "kOvalar" > Govala (=Goala) > Golla.

Regards,
N. Ganesan





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