JestineLegg9 at 02:49, 17 January 2026

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{{Short description|Occupational community comprising several castes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2015}}
The '''Gurav''' (also spelled '''Gurava''' or '''Guru''') are a traditional service and priestly community, who serve in [[Hinduism|Hindu]] temples to [[Ganesha]], [[Hanuman]], [[Shiva]] and [[Gramadevata]], in [[Karnataka]], [[Maharashtra]], [[Andhra Pradesh]], and other states in western and southern [[India]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Karve |first=Irawati |title=Hindu Society—An Interpretation |publisher=Deccan College |year=1961 |location=Pune |pages=121–122}}</ref> They historically perform religious and temple-related duties, including serving as temple [[priests]] (pujaris), caretakers, [[musicians]], and participants in [[:Category:Hindu rituals|rituals]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Srinivas |first=M. N. |title=Caste in Modern India and Other Essays |publisher=Asia Publishing House |year=1962 |page=73}}</ref>

The other occupations of the gurav include making and selling "leaf-plates", and selling "flower", "Bel leaves" the guravs also play music for patrons. Gurav are also family priests to devadis. the traditional female [[Temple dance|temple dancer]]. The community is composed of several subgroups, including Lingayat Gurav, Saiva Gurav, and Bhavika Gurav, with each subgroup observing distinct ritual practices.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ghurye |first=G. S. |title=Caste and Race in India |publisher=Popular Prakashan |year=1969 |pages=173–174}}</ref>

Maharashtrian Brahmins classify the ''Gurav's as [[Shudras]]'', however, they have historically granted them custodianship of temples.<ref name="bapat" /> In [[Karnataka]], the Gurav community is categorized under "Category-I" of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) list for state-level reservations. This classification provides them access to reservation benefits in education and employment within the state.<ref>{{cite web |title=List of Castes under Category-I |url=https://backwardclasses.karnataka.gov.in/storage/pdf-files/category%20I.pdf |website=Karnataka Backward Classes Welfare Department |publisher=Government of Karnataka |access-date=25 September 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Karnataka State OBC List |url=https://backwardclasses.karnataka.gov.in/storage/pdf-files/OBC%20List.pdf |publisher=Government of Karnataka |access-date=15 September 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Reservation for Backward Classes |url=https://backwardclasses.karnataka.gov.in/english |website=Karnataka Backward Classes Welfare Department |publisher=Government of Karnataka |access-date=25 September 2025}}</ref> In [[Maharashtra]], many Gurav are listed as Other Backward Classes (OBC) under state government notifications,<ref>{{cite web |title=List of Castes under OBC Category in Maharashtra |url=https://bcwelfare.maharashtra.gov.in/sites/default/files/obc_list.pdf |publisher=Government of Maharashtra |access-date=15 September 2025}}</ref> Their identity, roles, and social status reflect a complex interplay of religion, caste, and local traditions.<ref>{{cite book |last=Singh |first=K. S. |title=People of India: Maharashtra, Part 1 |publisher=Anthropological Survey of India |year=2004 |pages=546–548}}</ref>

== Function ==
Both Gurav women and men perform the traditional occupations of their community.<ref>{{cite book |title=Water and Womanhood: Religious Meanings of Rivers in Maharashtra |first=Anne |last=Feldhaus |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-19509-283-7 |page=171 |url= |via=|url-access= }}</ref> They are neither cultivators nor village officers but rather providers of a service deemed necessary for the functioning of the village, as with [[artisan]]s.{{efn|In the state of Maharashtra, the traditional village service providers are known as ''[[Bara Balutedar|balutedhar]]s'' and the system by which they are paid as ''balute''. There are commonly twelve such groups of people, although it may be more or less, and they include occupations such as carpenters, cobblers, potters and oil-pressers. They are distinct from the cultivators and the officers among the village people.<ref name="bapat">{{cite book |chapter=Gurav |first=Jayant Bhalachandra |last=Bapat |title=South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka |editor1-first=Peter J. |editor1-last=Claus |editor2-first=Sarah |editor2-last=Diamond |editor3-first=Margaret Ann |editor3-last=Mills |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-41593-919-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ienxrTPHzzwC&pg=PA272 |pages=272–274}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |chapter=The Saturday Oilpressers: The Bene Israel in the Konkan |first=Brenda Joseph |last=Ness |title=Charisma and Commitment in South Asian History: Essays Presented to Stanley Wolpert |editor-first=Roger D. |editor-last=Long |publisher=Orient Blackswan |year=2004 |isbn=978-8-12502-641-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tUAVk84xBGUC&pg=PA101}}</ref> The terms of payment of ''balute'' differ from those of the [[jajmani system]].<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Caste as a Political Tool |first=Marie-Caroline |last=Saglio-Yatzimirsky |title=From Stigma to Assertion: Untouchability, Identity and Politics in Early and Modern India |editor1-first=Mikael |editor1-last=Aktor |editor2-first=Robert |editor2-last=Deliège |publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-8-76350-775-2 |page=208 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gQVeBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA208}}</ref>}} They traditionally serve as priests, maintainers and managers in temples devoted to [[Shiva]], mostly in the southern states of [[Andhra Pradesh]], Karnataka and Maharashtra. Some act in a role similar to [[shaman]]s, being intermediaries between the temple idol and the soliciting believer, and serve as priests in village temples. Their other traditional roles are also connected to Shaivite worship, such as musicianship and the sale both of [[leaf plate]]s and symbolic flowers.<ref name="bapat" /> Local testimony suggests that the Gurav also act in a religious capacity outside temple grounds: at [[harvest]] time in the [[Maval|Mawal]] region, they are called upon to provide a symbolic sprinkling of water at threshing grounds<ref>{{cite book |title=The Social and the Symbolic |editor1-first=Bernard |editor1-last=Bel |editor2-first=Jan |editor2-last=Brouwer |editor3-first=Biswajit |editor3-last=Das |editor4-first=Vibodh |editor4-last=Parthasarathi |editor5-first=Guy |editor5-last=Poitevin |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2007 |isbn=978-8-13210-117-8 |pages=269–270 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a7yGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA269}}</ref>

== Composition ==
The Bhavika,{{efn|The Bhavika Gurav are also known as ''Konkani Gurav''.<ref name="bapat" />}} [[Lingayatism|Lingayat]] and Saiva are the most prominent among the distinct [[endogamy|endogamous]] castes that comprise the Gurav. These groups are in turn subdivided; for example, the Saiva Gurav have Nagari, Nilakantha and Swayambhu as subcastes, while the Lingayat Gurav are split into the ''Hugara'', ''Jira'' and ''Malgara''.<ref name="bapat" />

=== Bhavika Gurav ===
The Bhavika Guravs are concentrated mainly in the Konkan region. They traditionally serve as priests at shrines of village deities (Grāmadevatās), which are often simple structures located on the outskirts of villages. Historically, most members were not literate and had little formal education or ritual training. They are generally associated with the ''[[Kunbi]]-caste'' and, in some cases, perform [[animal sacrifices]] during local folk festivals.<ref name="bapat" />

=== Lingayat Gurav ===
The Lingayat Gurav are found mainly in the Konkan region and on the borders between [[Maharashtra]] and [[Karnataka]]. They do not know from which caste they originate but claim to have migrated to their present regions from Karnataka when they suffered persecution after the death of [[Basavanna]], the founder of Lingayat. They are strict vegetarians and believe their high degree of devotion to Shiva makes them superior to other Gurav subgroups. It is this zeal that also causes them to disdain being grouped with other castes.<ref name="bapat" /> Lingayat Gurav are split into the ''Hugara'', ''Jira'' and ''Malgara''.<ref name="bapat" />

=== Shaiva Gurav ===
According to Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat, a Hindu priest and academic,<ref>{{cite web |title=Jayant Bhalchandra Bapa |publisher=D. K. Printworld |url=http://www.dkprintworld.com/abouttheauthor.php?userId=703 |accessdate=2015-04-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418075501/http://www.dkprintworld.com/abouttheauthor.php?userId=703 |archive-date=18 April 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> although the Lingayat Gurav believe themselves to be superior among the various Gurav subgroups, it is the Shaiva Gurav who are most respected by the people of Maharashtra. As they belongs to Shaiva category. The members of this sub-community perform a sacred thread ceremony in accordance with Shaiva traditions.<ref name="bapat" />

Mostly literate and educated, the Maharashtrian members of the Shaiva Gurav developed a [[sanskritisation|myth of origin]] in the early 19th century and prefer to call themselves ''Shaiva''. Their self-published research, in the form of a clan history known as a ''jatipurana'', proposes a lineal connection with the sage [[Dadhichi]] through his son Sudarsana and thus a status. The legend says that Sudarsana was stripped of certain Vedic powers by an offended Shiva but was also granted the right to perform the [[Puja (Hinduism)|puja]] rituals. The claims of the community to Brahminhood were accepted both by a ''sankaracharya'' (a respected authority and arbitrator of the Hindu faith) and [[British India|colonial]] law courts but are not accepted in general Maharashtrian society, In Maharashtra Shaiva Gurav offer the first daily puja to almost all Ganesha Temples and Shiva Temples.<ref name="bapat" />

== Socio-economic status ==
Brahmins classify the Gurav's as shudras but grant them custodianships of the shiva temples.<ref name="bapat" /> The sociologist [[M. N. Srinivas]] noted this peculiarity of low-status Brahminhood in particular regarding the Tapodhan of Gujarat.<ref>{{cite book |title=India: Social Structure |first=M. N. |last=Srinivas |authorlink=M. N. Srinivas |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=1980 |isbn=978-1-41282-619-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WIfuf2aWnj8C&pg=PA6 |page=6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The First Spring: The Golden Age of India |first=Abraham |last=Eraly |authorlink=Abraham Eraly |publisher=Penguin Books India |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-67008-478-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=te1sqTzTxD8C&pg=PA286 |page=286}}</ref> In Maharashtra they are considered to be a [[Shaiva]] community in the [[Hinduism|Hindu]] ritual ranking system known as ''[[Varna (Hinduism)|varna]]''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Intersections: Socio-cultural Trends in Maharashtra |first=Meera |last=Kosambi |publisher=Orient Blackswan |year=2000 |isbn=978-8-12501-878-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XU8dmAiaZSgC&pg=PA39 |page=39}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Experience of Hinduism: Essays on Religion in Maharashtra |editor1-first=Eleanor |editor1-last=Zelliot |editor1-link=Eleanor Zelliot |editor2-first=Maxine |editor2-last=Berntsen |publisher=SUNY Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-88706-662-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7PDr-QF4YmYC&pg=PA343 |page=343}}</ref>

It is probable that the Gurav were less, that's why considered among the various ''[[Bara Balutedar|balutedhar]]'' communities. <ref>{{cite journal |title=Exploitation or Function in the Interpretation of Jajmani |first=Henry |last=Orenstein |journal=Southwestern Journal of Anthropology |volume=18 |issue=4 |year=1962 |pages=302–316 |jstor=3628985 }}</ref> They are not among those groups who have noticeably suffered historically from the effects of social degradation or lack of access to opportunity, although in Maharashtra they are listed among the [[Other Backward Class]]es under India's [[Reservation in India|system of positive discrimination]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Identifying 'Backwardness' in Maharashtra |first=S. M. |last=Dahiwale |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=35 |issue=37 |date=9 September 2000 |pages=3293–3297 |jstor=4409712 }}</ref>

== References ==
'''Notes'''
{{notelist}}
'''Citations'''
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*{{cite journal |title=The Jātipurāṇas of the Gurava Temple Priests of Maharashtra |first=Jayant Bhalchandra |last=Bapat |journal=International Journal of Hindu Studies |volume=5 |issue=1 |date=April 2001 |pages=45–90 |jstor=20106748 }}
{{Social groups of Maharashtra}}

[[Category:Social groups of Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Priestly castes]]
[[Category:Shamans]]
[[Category:Shudra castes]]
[[Category:Other Backward Classes]]

Gurav - Revision history

JestineLegg9 at 02:49, 17 January 2026