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The '''Gurav''' are an occupational community comprising several [[Caste in India|castes]]. They are among the traditional service providers found in villages, for whom they act in a priestly role, and are found in several [[states of India]].{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}

It derives from the [[Sanskrit]] plural of ''[[guru]]''. While known as ''Gurav'' in [[Madhya Pradesh]] and [[Maharashtra]], they are also called ''Gorava'' in [[Karnataka]] and ''Tapodhan Brahmin'' in [[Gujarat]].<ref name="bapat" />

== 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, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Some act in a role similar to [[shaman]]s, being intermediaries between the temple idol and the soliciting believer, and others also serve as priests to the families of the [[temple dancer]]s. 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 Gurav are found mainly in the [[Konkan]] region of Maharashtra and comprise mostly members drawn from the [[Kunbi]] caste. Few are literate or formally educated even in their own rituals, and the temples that they serve are very rudimentary in style. During folk festivals, members of this community often perform animal sacrifices in honour of the village deities whose shrines they serve.<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 [[Basava]], the founder of their sect. 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" />

=== 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 Brahmin category. The members of this sub-community perform a sacred thread ceremony in accordance with Brahmin 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 Brahmin''. 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 [[Brahmin]] 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 Brahmin Gurav offers the first daily puja. to almost all Ganesha Tempel and Shiva Tempel. <ref name="bapat" />

== Socio-economic status ==
In areas other than Maharashtra, the Brahmin status of the Gurav is commonly accepted but they are nonetheless considered to be of a low rank in the social structure.<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 [[Brahmin]] 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 are among the less well-paid among the various ''[[Bara Balutedar|balutedhar]]'' communities, perhaps because the product of their labours, being mostly intangible, is less apparent than that of, say, the carpenters and blacksmiths.<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 |page=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 }}

[[Category:Brahmin communities of Andhra Pradesh]]
[[Category:Brahmin communities of Karnataka]]
[[Category:Brahmin communities of Madhya Pradesh]]
[[Category:Social groups of Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Priestly castes]]
[[Category:Shamans]]
[[Category:Shudra castes]]
[[Category:Other Backward Classes]]
[[Category:Brahmin communities of Gujarat]]

Gurav - Revision history

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