Govala/Golla and tamil KOvalar tribes

[N. Ganesan]

Excerpts of an Expert's letter. Nice to know that
etymologies of Golla from nonsanskrit sources kindle
interest among academics. [Personal details withdrawn.]

Regards,
N. Ganesan


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[...] I can't add knowledgeably to this long-awaited set of
derivations. My instinct is that the kO- is from a Dravidian root
having to do with mountain/forested uplands inhabited by people not a
part of settled agricultural society. I would guess it is a term which
refers both (but indirectly) to the physical environment as well as a
social assessment category (i.e. a peripheral people with whom the
society of "name-givers" (i.e. somebody called them kOvalar) had
social/political/economic/etc. relationships.

And, of course, not just ONE group, and not just in ONE location, at
ONE time, but repeatedly, over centuries, to a variety of emerging
social groups all around the Deccan from about the Vindhyas south to
TN. Gonds, Kovi, Gollas etc. could have all been labeled similarly by
local dominant groups at different times in history.  While it was
true that they most likely all raised some animals (sheep, goats,
cattle, in mixed proportions to varying degrees and with varying
reliance) it is not the animals to which the kO- refers. Virtually all
peoples of the Deccan raised animals, and, at least as regards
household ownership of animals, none more so than the wealthiest
landowners.  Regarding potential reference to animals, it is most
likely that those kO-peoples, lacking lowland, multicrop land
ownership were in a position to aggregate individual herds (their own
and others) to take them to dry season pastures (in the uplands nearer
to where they resided). In that sense kO- could have been associated
with 'protection' and 'herding' and 'grazing' as well as 'upland' and
'forest'.

In any case, I thoroughly agree it is not only difficult to derive
Golla from Gopala, it is unnecessary. From a social or economic or
political/ideological basis it is unlikely as well: there is not a lot
of evidence for strictly cattle herders amongst any of the kO-people,
at least not enough to label them 'cattle herders'. At best, they
could perhaps have been a relatively unemployed miscellaneous "group"
(occupationally, but not socially) who took the cattle of settled
others to the hills and upland valleys in times of grass shortage or
military unrest.  This is a social/occupational phenomenon
well-attested all over the Deccan in historic times.
[...]
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