04-27-2004, 07:08 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-rajesh_g+Apr 26 2004, 02:13 AM-->QUOTE(rajesh_g @ Apr 26 2004, 02:13 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> My family is from North India - Vrindavan and rumour has it from somewhere in Haryana before that. I have been told that I belong to Kashyapa gotra. How would that relate to the Iyers ? Does it mean that Iyers belonging to Kasshyapa gotra are related to me ? <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Technically gotras are inherited with the male line. Thus everyone gets their father's gotra. The wife makes her offering with the husband's gotra in a rite. So, technically all people sharing a gotra should have descended from a common male ancestor throughout India.
In practice there are many variations on this theme:
1) There have been people who cheated in the past especially to acquire entry into higher castes.
2) If a person becomes an honorary kshatriya or honorary vaishya, they may tentively adopt their brAhmana guru's pravara for the duration of a ritual (some time they retain it if they do only 1 major ritual).
3) If a person is being made into an honorary brAhmaNa, he is usually assigned the kAshyapa gotra without a specific lineage.
4) Because of these events in the past the gotras approximately but not always indicate common ancestory and this usually holds good only amongst brAhmaNas.
The brAhmaNas in order to ensure people entering their previlaged ranks used gotra and pravara as a potent device. In many orthodox brahmin families a secret mantra is transmitted father to son during the thread ceremony to ensure memory of the founding fathers. In marriages families had to give their gotra lineage and list their ancestor till at least 7 generations. This was also used to avoid intermarrying within a lineage shared for 7 generations. Orthodox brahmins and several other hindus avoid marriage within the same gotra very scrupulously (or sharing a 7 generation connection).
These days such practices seem to be eroding in the cosmopolitan urban population.
<<Sri Vatsasa gotram,
(which is pancha rishiyam, Bhargava,
Syaavana, AApnavaana, Owrva, Jaamadaghn)>>
Correctly pronounced shri vatsa
bhArgava, chAyvana, ApnavAna, aurva, jAmadagnya is the pravara
They are bhArgavas, descendents of bhR^igu, just like gAlava who is also a branch of the bhArgava clan.
Technically gotras are inherited with the male line. Thus everyone gets their father's gotra. The wife makes her offering with the husband's gotra in a rite. So, technically all people sharing a gotra should have descended from a common male ancestor throughout India.
In practice there are many variations on this theme:
1) There have been people who cheated in the past especially to acquire entry into higher castes.
2) If a person becomes an honorary kshatriya or honorary vaishya, they may tentively adopt their brAhmana guru's pravara for the duration of a ritual (some time they retain it if they do only 1 major ritual).
3) If a person is being made into an honorary brAhmaNa, he is usually assigned the kAshyapa gotra without a specific lineage.
4) Because of these events in the past the gotras approximately but not always indicate common ancestory and this usually holds good only amongst brAhmaNas.
The brAhmaNas in order to ensure people entering their previlaged ranks used gotra and pravara as a potent device. In many orthodox brahmin families a secret mantra is transmitted father to son during the thread ceremony to ensure memory of the founding fathers. In marriages families had to give their gotra lineage and list their ancestor till at least 7 generations. This was also used to avoid intermarrying within a lineage shared for 7 generations. Orthodox brahmins and several other hindus avoid marriage within the same gotra very scrupulously (or sharing a 7 generation connection).
These days such practices seem to be eroding in the cosmopolitan urban population.
<<Sri Vatsasa gotram,
(which is pancha rishiyam, Bhargava,
Syaavana, AApnavaana, Owrva, Jaamadaghn)>>
Correctly pronounced shri vatsa
bhArgava, chAyvana, ApnavAna, aurva, jAmadagnya is the pravara
They are bhArgavas, descendents of bhR^igu, just like gAlava who is also a branch of the bhArgava clan.