"Gaudasaraswatha" brahmins speaking Konkani

[Frank Conlon]

As suggested in an earlier post today, the 'origins' of the GSBs is a
matter of no great certainty.  Informants confidently told me that their
ancestors had come 'directly from the North, i.e. Kashmir via the
Sarasvati River' while others said that the ancestors had "first gone to
Bengal (Gauda) and hence the name" while the other party said that "Gauda"
merely was a reference to the Panca Gauda division of Brahmans, without
contemplating the necessity of that term since there were no Panca Dravida
Saraswat Brahmans.  Similarities between Konkani and Bengali are held
forth by the second party, but I believe it was the late Professor Katre
of Deccan College who said that the similarities were consisten with
linguistic change at the peripheries of Indo-Aryan languages.  If it
wasn't Professor Katre, it might have been another of the Deccan College
faculty--my memory is not brahanical and it would have been about 40 years
ago.

Frank Conlon

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004, jkirk wrote:

> But wasn't Gauda in Bengal?????? how could it be northern then?
> Joanna K.
>
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