Manava Dharmashastra 3.99

3.99

prāsaṅgiko'titherayamupadeśaḥ | bhojanārthyetatkulīno'muṣya putro'smīti na nivedayenna kathayet | sve kulagotre ātmīya’ ‘kulaṃ’ pitṛpitāmahādyabhijano, ‘gotraṃ’ gargabhārgavādi, nāmadheyaṃ vā | ‘gotraskhalitaṃ’ nāmāntaravivakṣāyāṃ yannāmāntaramudāhriyate taducyate | adhyayanamapi smṛtyantarapratiṣiddhaṃ, tadapi na nivedyam | asyārthavādaḥ | bhojanārthaṃ—‘bhojanaṃ lipsa prakhyātakulajātitvā’dityanenārthena hetunā kulagotre śaṃsankathayanvāntāśī, vāntamudgīrṇamaśnāti nigiratītyevamucyate budhaiḥ |

A Brāhmaṇa should not advertise his family and Gotra for the purpose of obtaining a meal. Bragging about these, for the purpose of obtaining a meal, he comes to be called a “feeder on filth” by the wise.—(109)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
This verse contains an advice offered, by the way, to the guest.

Seeking for food, he shall not say—‘I belong to such and such a family, I am the son of so and son; in this fashion he shall not advertise his ‘family or gotra.’ The ‘family’ consists of his father, grandfather, and so forth;—‘gotra’—may stand either for such Ṛṣi-names as ‘Garga,’ ‘Bhārgava,’ etc.; or for one’s name. That the term ‘gotra’ means name also is shown by such usage as ‘mistake in names,’ ‘gotraskhalita’ which term is used in the event of a man pronouncing a name other than the one he intended to pronounce.

His ‘learning’ also he should not advertise; as this also has been prohibited in another Smṛti.

The Text adds a declamatory, assertion:—‘For the purpose of obtaining a meal’—i.e., with the motive that by advertising my family and gotra I shall succeed in obtaining a meal, if one brags about these—family and gotra,—he is called by the wise ‘Vāntāśin,’ ‘feeder-on filth,’—he who swallows what has been vomitted.—(109)