headman of the Gattis is called Gurikāra. The God of the Someswara temple is regarded as the caste deity, and every family has to pay an annual fee of four annas to this temple. Failure to do so would entail excommunication.
Gattu (bank or mound). — An exogamous sept of Dēvānga.
Gaud.— A title of Sādar.
Gauda.— The Gaudas or Gaudos are a large caste of Canarese cultivators and cattle-breeders. " Gauda and Gaudo," Mr. H. A. Stuart writes,*[1] "are really two distinct castes, the former being Canarese and the latter Uriya. Each name is, however, spelt both ways. The two names are, I presume, etymologically the same. The ordinary derivation is from the Sanskrit go, a cow, but Dr. Gustav Oppert contends †[2] that the root of Gauda is a Dravidian word meaning a mountain. Among the Canarese, and to a less extent among the Uriyas also,the word is used in an honorific sense, a custom which is difficult to account for if Dr. Oppert's philology is correct." "Gaudas," Mr. Stuart writes further, ‡ [3]"also called Hālvaklumakkalu (children of the milk class), are very numerously represented in the South Canara district. They have a somewhat elaborate system of caste government. In every village there are two headmen, the Grāma Gauda and the Vattu or Gattu Gauda. For every group of eight or nine villages there is another head called the Māganē Gauda, and for every nine Māganēs there is a yet higher authority called the Kattēmanēyava. The caste is divided into eighteen baris or balis, which are of the usual exogamous character.
