Gurav

The Gurav are an occupational community comprising several castes. They are among the traditional service providers found in villages, for whom they act in a priest role, and are found in several states of India. It derives from the Sanskrit plural of guru. The etymology and genealogy for the title Gurav can be derived from the Kannada word Gorava meaning a 'Shaiva mendicant'. While known as Gurav in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, they are also called Gorava in Karnataka and in Gujarat. Both Gurav women and men perform the traditional occupations of their community. They are neither cultivators nor village officers but rather providers of a service deemed necessary for the functioning of the village, as with artisans. 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 shamans, being intermediaries between the temple idol and the soliciting believer, and others also serve as priests to the families of the temple dancers. Their other traditional roles are also connected to Shaivite worship, such as musicianship and the sale both of leaf plates and symbolic flowers. Local testimony suggests that the Gurav also act in a religious capacity outside temple grounds: at harvest time in the Mawal region, they are called upon to provide a symbolic sprinkling of water at threshing grounds The Bhavika, Lingayat and Saiva are the most prominent among the distinct 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. The Bhavika Gurav are found mainly in the Konkan region of Maharashtra and comprise mostly members drawn from the Kunbi caste. Most of them are literate or formally educated even in their own rituals, and the temples that they serve are very rudimentary in style.