Gowda (surname)

Gowda (also known as vokkaliga, Kuruba, Gowdru, Gauda, Goud, Gouda or Gonda[1][2]) is a surname native to Karnataka state of India.

Typically, such a head owned land and held political and social sway in the village.

[10] The German Indologist Gustav Oppert opined that the root of ‘Gowda’ is a Dravidian word meaning "mountain".

[11] The term Gowda and its archaic forms in Old Kannada such as Gamunda, Gavunda, Gavuda, Gonda, appear frequently in the inscriptions of Karnataka.

The Epigraphia Carnatica is replete with references to land grants, donations to temples, hero-stones (Veeragallu), stone edicts and copper plates dating back to the age of the Western Ganga Dynasty (est.