GAURA, a designation of one of the two great divisions of the Brahmans or the five Gauras, also to ono of the five, the Brahmans of Bengal proper, who are distinguished again as Varendriya, Rarhiya, Satshati, and Vaidika Brahmans. The two first, from their being settled in the several portions of Gaura, called Varendra and Rath ; the third, as descended from 700 brahmanital families who were settled in Bengal before the introduction of the families from Kanouj, who are said to have been fugitives from Orissa ; the fourth, from their knowledge of the Vedas. The Gaur Brahmans were also classed by Baal Sen, a raja of Bengal about the eleventh century, in three divisions, viz. Kulina, from Kula, a family, the most respectable members of tho community ; Srotriya, those who had d through the established institutions, and =read part of the Vedas ; and Vansaja, merely born Brahmans, possessing neither respectability nor learning.
There are other divisions of Bengal Brahmans of a still inferior description, degraded by acting as priests for the mixed castes, or by some peculi arities of a fanciful and fabulous character.
A Gaur Brahman is one of the five Gaurs now located in Ilindustan, in tho Upper Provinces, throughout the Subah of Dehli to the hill& There are many subdivisions of these Gaur Brahmans, who are ailparently unknown in Bengal, as the Adh Gaur, Kaithal Gaur, Gujar Gaur, Sidh Gaur, and amounting in all to forty-two.
The Gaur Kayasth is one of tho twelve divisions of the Kayastha tribe, who Iwo generally clerks, who aro all over India, many being in the Upper Provinces, where they settled under the patronage of Nasir-ud-Din, son of Balhav, about the 13th century.
Gaur Rajput, one of the 36 royal Rajput races, whose origin is doubtful ; they aro numerous in the N.W. Provinces, divided into three principal branches,—the Ilhat Gaur, the Brahman Gaur, and Chamar Gaur,—names derivdd, Mr. Elliot supposes, from some intercourse with Bhats, Brahmans, and Chaunars.
Gaur-taga is an important tribe of Brahmanical descent in the north-west of India, extending through a great part of Rohilkhand, the Upper Doab, and territory of Dehli. They claim to have been originally invited from Bengal by Raja Janamejaya, king of Hastinapur, for the purpose of exterminating the Takshaka or Snake race, in concert with the raja. Mr. Elliot considers the Takshaka to have been Buddhist Scythians from the north, who invaded India. The Taga have their name, it is said, from the Sanskrit Tyaga, abandoning, as they abandoned their Brahmanical character, by accepting and cultivating the lands granted to them by Janamejaya.—Wilson.