What is "kuruba"

Kuruba (also known as Kuruba Gowda, Gowda, Kuruma and Kurumbar) is a Hindu caste whose traditional occupation was that of shepherding and farming. The community hails from Karnataka in India. They are known by different names such as Dhangar, Hatkar and Telwar Lingayat in Maharashtra.

Some sources connect them to Pala, the shepherd dynasty of the Ahirs and suggest that Kuruba is a Dravidian name for Ahir. But this relation is contested by R.E. Enthoven on the grounds that the Ahirs are spread over a large area of Kutch, Kathiawad, Khandesh, Central Provinces, Central India, Bengal and North Western Provinces but everywhere they are known as Ahir only then how they came to be known by a different name Kuruba in Karnataka.