Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c9.s4.4

c9.s4.4

An inscription of 1425 A.D. speaks of four out of the five classes of Drāviḍa Brāhmaṇas as Kannaḍiga, Tamiḷa, Teḷuṅga and Iāḷa (i.e. Lāṭa=Gurjara).¹ Now these social groups of the Brāhmaṇas were developed out of the principal linguistic subdivisions of the people of South India. On the analogy of the above divisions, the North Indian Brāhmaṇas were also divided into five groups under the general name of Gauḍa. The *Śabdakalpadruma*, s. v. Gauḍa, quotes the following verse from the *Skanda Purāṇa*: