TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Anthropology > Gopalpur
- According to people in Gopaplur, the Gauda"s grandfather once lived in the ruined house, and ruled 17 villages. Daily he rode his horse through the villages under his control, punishing immodest women, and chastising those who quarrelled or misbehaved.
- The Gauda no longer possess great stores of grain and no longer distributes vast quantities of cloth. Nowadays, people are turned away from the Gauda"s house when they ask for jobs or loans of grain or money.
- The Gauda is active in politics and has had to establish a household in Yadgiri, where he lives for a good part of the year. The Gauda"s wife is unhappy in Gopalpur and presses continually for opportunities to return to the town where there are electric lights, running water and people worth talking to.
- When a man"s field is robbed, he goes to the Gauda"s house to complain. If a man"s wife runs away, he reports to the Gauda. Whatever the Gauda"s faults may be, people regard him as the father of the village. He may not be a great warrior, he may not be a great giver of feasts, but he is a Brahmin and an educated man. He is "our Gauda".
- The truth is that the Gauda is the creation of the people in Gopalpur. He exists, because his existence is necessary to the pattern of life in the village. The basic configuration of the Gauda"s character is the result of training given to the Gauda during his childhood by the people of Gopalpur.
- Gopalpur creates its Gauda because the village has a need for a superior being, one beyond the ordinary. Someone is needed who can deal with the mysterious higher gods. That the life of the Gauda is one of loneliness, misery and fear is of little concern to the men and women who gather around his child.
- The Gauda faces peculiar problems in the modern age. He must send his children to the university in order to prepare them for the government jobs they so earnestly desire. He requires a large income.Since money that is spent upon the education of the Gaud"a schildren cannot be loaned to or used to provide jobs for people in Gopalpur, the Gauda lends relatively little money and holds few ceremonies.
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