question regarding gotram

[Sree Latha Lankipalli]

namasthe,

GOTRAM means what? how actually it originated? if any other details about gotram please help me.

thanks in advance.

sreelatha.

[Subrahmanyam Korada]

नमो विद्वद्भ्यः

गोत्रम्  --

गोत्रम् means ऋषीणां वंशपरंपरा (मिताक्षरा & धर्मसिन्धुः)।

निर्णयसिन्धुः -- 

विवाहः - गोत्रप्रवरनिर्णयः  ----

तत्र गोत्रलक्षणमाह प्रवरमञ्जर्यां बोधायनः - 

विश्वामित्रो जमदग्निर्भरद्वाजो’थ गौतमः ।अत्रिर्वसिष्ठः कश्यप इत्येते सप्तर्षयः । सप्तानामृषीणाम् अगस्त्याष्टमानां यदपत्यं तत् गोत्रमिति ।

What is this सकार - कौण्डिन्यसगोत्रः सुब्रह्मण्यशर्मा अहं भो अभिवादये -

श्राद्धपरिभाषानिर्णयः (निर्णय..) -

मात्स्ये -

सकारेण तु वक्तव्यं गोत्रं सर्वत्र धीमता । सकारः कुतपो ज्ञेयः तस्मात् यत्नेन तं वदेत्।

यथा काश्यपसगोत्रेति।

(the term कुतप has got several meanings - अमरकोश gives the meaning related to ज्योतिषम् only , मेदिनी registers other meanings also . According to मनुस्मृति , three things are important in आब्दिकम् - कुतपकाल is one of them - divide daytime into 15 - the 8 th one is कुतप - one has to perform आब्दिकम् during this time . So here in the above verse, I think, कुतप  , by लक्षणा  means the सकार is as important as कुतपकाल ).

Any origin of this सकार ? 

पराशरसगोत्रस्य वृद्धस्य तु महात्मनः ।

भिक्षोः पञ्चशिखस्याहं शिष्यः परमधार्मिकः॥ इति मोक्षधर्मेषु प्रयोगाच्च ।

If the गोत्रम् is not known ? Say काश्यपसगोत्रः --

हेमाद्रौ चन्द्रिकायां च --

गोत्रस्य त्वपरिज्ञाने काश्यपं गोत्रमुच्यते ।

यस्मादाह श्रुतिस्सर्वाः प्रजाः कश्यपसंभवाः।

यत्तु सत्याषाढः - अथाज्ञातबन्धोः पुरोहितगोत्रेण आचार्यगोत्रेण वेति तत् वैवाहपरम् ।

In Panini  outside अपत्याधिकार it is लौकिकं गोत्रम् - अपत्याधिकारे तु पारिभाषिकं गोत्रम् - ’ अपत्यं पौत्रप्रभृति गोत्रम् (पा सू) etc.

धन्यो’स्मि

 

Dr.Korada Subrahmanyam
Professor of Sanskrit, CALTS,
University of Hyderabad,
Ph:09866110741(M),91-40-23010741(R),040-23133660(O)

Skype Id: Subrahmanyam Korada

Personal Website: www.korada.org

--
निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वरः।। (भ.गी.)
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[Nagaraj Paturi]

Without any dispute with the enlightenment provided by Prof. Korada, let me add the following details with the assumption that the curious youngster must be looking for such information :

 

1. Gotra is an exogamous social group in the sense that a person belonging to (born in) a certain gotra does not marry a person belonging to (born in) the same gotra. Exogamous social grouping is widespread all over the world so much so that it is considered sometimes to be one of the cultural universals. Cultural anthropologists use the word 'clan' to describe/categorize such social groups. This norm of exogamy is based on the idea that persons belonging to the same clan have a common ancestor. Gotra is similar to clan in this respect too. Persons belonging to the same gotra are believed to have a common ancestor. For Brahmins, this common ancestor is a rishi. That is the reason, among Brahmins, gotras are named after a rishi (who is considered to be the common ancestor of all the persons belonging to that gotra )

 

2. Gotra is a patrilineal notion in the sense that the gotra of a male remains the same as at the time of his birth whereas the gotra of a female changes into the gotra of her spouse after her marriage. Most of the clans all over the world are patrilineal only. This is because most of the societies all over the world are patrilineal.

 

3. Gotra has a greater significance in the Vedic tradition because of the significance for the notions of pitr devas, pitr loka etc. , rituals such as shraaddha karmas etc., notions of benefits accrued by the pitr devatas of a gotra by the puNya karmas of a person born in that gotra and so on. As such, identity of a person for all Vedic lifestyle and Vedic ritual purposes is centred around that person's gotra only.

 

4. In India, many non-Brahmin castes maintain the memory of a clan-like social group and invariably borrow the word gotra from the brahmanical vocabulary to describe their clan identity. For example, during temple worship, during marriage rituals etc., whenever gotra is required to be mentioned as part of Vedic rituals, all Hindus mention their 'clan' name as the gotra name, though these names are not usually the names of any rishis.    

--

Prof.Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad-500044

[Ajit Gargeshwari]

In general, gotra denotes any person who traces descent in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor. Panini defines gotra for grammatical purposes as apatyaṃ pautra-prabhr̥ti gotram (IV. 1. 162), which means 'the word gotra denotes the progeny (of a sage) beginning with the son's son. Gotra is an exogamous (septs) patrilineal sibship whose members trace their descent to a common ancestor.  “The early Brahminical system of Gotra and Pravara”, Brough, John, Cambridge, 1953

In Atharva Veda, it referred to a clan. All are believed to have descended from one or the other of the Rishis who lent their names to the various Gotras. Thus, Gotra signifies one family or one’s lineage

When a person says ' I am Kashypasa-gotra' he means that he traces his descent from the ancient sage Kashyapa by unbroken male descent. According to the BaudhÃyana srauta-sutra Visvamitra, Jamadagni, Bharadvaja, Gautama, Atri, Vasishtha, Kashyapa and Agastya are 8 sages; the progeny of these eight sages is declared to be gotras. This enumeration of eight primary gotras seems to have been known to Panini. The offspring (apatya) of these eight are gotras and others than these are called ' gotrasvayava '.

The gotras are arranged in groups, there are according to the Asvalayana Srautasutra four subdivisions of the Vasishtha gana, viz. Upamanyu, Parashara, Kundina and Vasishtha other than the first three. Each of these four again has numerous sub-sections, each being called gotra. So the arrangement is first into ganas, then into pakshas, then into individual gotras. The first has survived in the Bhrigu and Ängirasa gana. According to Baud, the principal eight gotras were divided into pakshas. The pravara of Upamanyu is Vasishtha, Bharadvasu, Indrapramada; the pravara of the Parâshara gotra is Vasishtha, Shâktya, Pârâsharya; the pravara of the Kundina gotra is Vasishtha, Maitrâvaruna, Kaundinya and the pravara of Vasishthas other than these three is simply Vasishtha. It is therefore that some define pravara as the group of sages that distinguishes the founder (lit. the starter) of one gotra from another.

There are two kinds of pravaras, 1) sishya-prasishya-rishi-parampara, and 2) putrparampara. Gotrapravaras can be ekarsheya, dwarsheya, triarsheya, pancharsheya, saptarsheya, and up to 19 rishis. Kashyapasa gotra has at least two distinct pravaras in Andhra Pradesh: one with three sages (triarsheya pravara) and the other with seven sages (saptarsheya pravara). This pravara may be either sishya-prasishya-rishi-parampara or putraparampara.

​The following books or articles and a few more are available on gotras​

​1. Gotra Pravara Manjari of Purushottama Bhatta translated by James Brouch and published by Cambridge University Press
2. Max-Muller - History-of-ancient-Sanskrit-literature-and - the-Brahmans-Max-Muller
3. Hindu Exgamy by S. V. Karandikar
4. History of Mediaeval Hindu India, Vol-2 by C. V. Vaidya. This contains an eight page note on the subject.
5. History of Sanskrit Literature by C. V. Vaidya. This contains another note on the subject.
6. A paper presented by K. Rangachari at the Third Oriental Conference at Madras
7. A paper presented by C. V. Vaidya at the First oriental Conference at Pune​

Regards
Ajit Gargeshwari
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः।
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे।।2.20।।

On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 3:44 PM, Sree Latha Lankipalli <sreela...@gmail.com> wrote:

--

[asawari bapat]

Mahabarata, Shantiparva says,

मूलगौत्राणि चत्वारि समुत्पन्नानि भारत।

अङ्गिराः कश्यपश्चैव वसिष्ठो भृगुरेव च।।

कर्मतोSन्यानि गोत्राणि समुत्पन्नानि भारत।

नामधेयानि तपसा तानि च ग्रहणं सताम्।।

By deeds the other seers included in the list of Gotra are,

विश्वामित्रो जमदग्निर्भरद्वाजोSथ गौतमः।

अत्रिर्वसिष्ठ कश्यप इत्येते सप्त ऋषयः।।

एतेषां सप्तानां ऋषीणामगस्त्याष्टमानां यदपत्यं तद्गोत्रमित्याचक्षते।

[Venkata Sriram]

Namaste,

shri.kavyakantha ganapati muni worked on this concept and wrote a short book on this called "gOtra-pravara-nirNayaH".

This can be found in the below link.  This is taken from the 5th volume of "Complete Works of Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni".  

///

http://www.scribd.com/doc/113278466/Vol-5-The-Book-of-Aphorisms-Part-1-Sutragranthamala-by-Kavyakantha-Ganapati-Muni

//

regs,

sriram

[sunil bhattacharjya]

For the criterion of ensuring exogamous relations, there has to be a separation of seven generations and I understand that Manu also says the same. The genetic laws of Mendel seems to corroborate this.

Regards,

[Sree Latha Lankipalli]

thank so much for all the scholars. got information. thank you very much.

sreelatha.

[Dipak Bhattacharya]

20 2 15

The authentic list of Gotras will be found in the final chapter of the Baudhāyana-Śrautasūtra.

An updated list will be found in Puruṣottama-Paṇḍita’s Gotrapravaramañjarī. This was critically edited and translated into English with a detailed Introduction by J.Brough and published by the Cambridge University Press in 1953.

According to the Śāstras the Gotras are families of sages known as founders of the gotras and hence these are exogamous groups. The Baudhāyana ŚS rules that one should not marry into one’s own gotra which was considered incest in Hindu society.

The Indian Constitution does not recognize Gotra exogamy. The Government regard steps taken by Panchayets against intra-gotra marriage as criminal act.

Dipak Bhattacharya

On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 3:44 PM, Sree Latha Lankipalli <sreela...@gmail.com> wrote:

--

[Nityanand Misra]

In addition to marriage with a Sagotra, marriage with a Sapiṇḍa is also not allowed by Śāstra.

As per Yājñavalkya (YS 1.3.2)

अविप्लुतब्रह्मचर्यो लक्षण्यां स्त्रियमुद्वहेत्।

अनन्यपूर्विकां कान्तामसपिण्डां यवीयसीम्॥

https://archive.org/stream/YajnavalkyaSmritiWithThreeCommentaries/yajnavalkya_smriti_three_comm#page/n51/mode/2up

And as per Manu (MS 3.5)

असपिण्डा च या मातुरसगोत्रा च या पितुः।

सा प्रशस्ता द्विजातीनां दारकर्मणि मैथुने॥

https://archive.org/stream/manusmriti/manusmriti_six_commentaries#page/n299/mode/2up

Despite this, there are some communities in India which traditionally allowed marriages with Sapiṇḍa. It is for this reason that the Hindu Marriage Act has an exception clause.

http://bokakhat.gov.in/pdf/The_hindu_marriage_act.pdf

A Sapinda relationship as per the Hindu Marriage Act is

(f)(i)"Sapinda relationship" with reference to any person extends as far as the third generation(inclusive) in the line of ascent through the mother, and the fifth (inclusive) in the line of ascent through the father, the line being traced upwards in each case from the person concerned, who is to be counted as the first generation;

(ii) two persons are said to be "sapinda" of each other if one is a lineal ascendant of the other within the limits of sapinda relationship, or if they have a common lineal ascendant who is within the limits of sapinda relationship with reference to each of them;

As per the same act, oen of the conditions of marriage is

(v) the parties are not sapindas of each other, unless the custom or usage governing each of them permits of a marriage between the two;

[Nagaraj Paturi]

The Indian Constitution does not recognize Gotra exogamy. The Government regard steps taken by Panchayets against intra-gotra marriage as criminal act.

 

-------What was considered as criminal act was 'killing' but not the norm of exogamy.

 

Indian constitution allows local village or caste panchayats to settle disputes as long as such dispute settlements do not lead to acts that come in the way of fundamental rights of the Indian citizens. In the case of Manoj- Babli honour killing case, the judgement was focussed on killing of the citizens but not on the validity of the exogamy norm.

--
निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वरः।। (भ.गी.)
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--

Prof.Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad-500044