09-05-2006, 02:23 AM
Quote:What is the common practice? i.e. do we commonly find people of different varnas from same gotra/pravar? e.g. Kshatriys and Brahmins from lets say Shandilya, Gotama, Kashyap gotras?
Quote:Also I have heard some gotra names - especialy from some Vaishyas - which don't sound like Rishi names, like 'Goyal', 'Mittal' etc. Whats the reason? Are these gotra names, or actual gotras are something else but forgotten?[/QUOTE]
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Dear Bodhi, these are difficult questions. As the most attention was towards static = not changing Gotra-Pravara developments, we do not know too much.
Brahma and KShatra interchanged their functions more easily.
A glimpse can be caught perhaps, by the word Khattrî, of which the origin is KShatriya, but the profession became VaNij Vaishya.
There is more work needed to entangle the intricacies.
Names like Goyal and Mittal may come from individuals or some characteristics shared by the descendants. These are rather Kula than Gotra names. These Kulas do remember their Gotracharyas, even Shâkhâ, etc. Is this a sign that these Kulas once had RShi ancestry? I do not know. Bit it seems that indian society was more dynamic than is believed by some these days.
A person born as son of a professing Vipra, but himself not engaged in his profession, is merely in name a Vipra. If he starts a business or agriculture, and after him his descendants, where does he stand? As a descendant of one, he may count himself as a Vipra, but as an active VaNij he is within the Vaishya VarNa.
Indian society was complex, with multilevel dynamics. Like the indian mind having no problem functioning in western societies, while playing with Nirâkâra and Sâkara levels criss-crossed by Shaiva-vaiShNava-GâNapata-Shâktya concepts and rituals. This is probably too hard for many non-Indians.
The standard books are written by the last or their faithful indigenous followers who obstruct (other) Indians to tell their side or obstructing them to search for forgotten or rare phenomena, keeping respect.