History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.208

v2.c26.208

The word gotra in the Ṛg. means 'cow-stable' or 'herd of cows' in a few passages (I. 51. 3, II. 17. 1, III. 39. 4, III. 43. 7, IX. 86. 23, X. 48. 2, X. 120. 8). By a natural metaphor 'gotra' was applied to a cloud (in which waters are pent up as cows in a cow-stable) or to a cloud demon and also to a mountain range or peak which conceals water-yielding clouds. Vide Ṛg. II. 23. 3 (where Bṛhaspati's car is styled 'gotrabhid'), Ṛg. X. 103. 7 (=Tai. S. IV. 6. 4. 2, Atharva-veda V. 2. 8. and Vāj. S. 17. 39), Ṛg. VI. 17. 2, X. 103. 6. In some of these verses it is possible to take 'gotra' in the sense of 'fort'. In some cases 'gotra' probably means only "assemblage' (samūha) e. g. Ṛg. II. 23. 18, VI. 65. 5. From this last sense of 'assemblage' the transition to the meaning of 'a group of persons' is both easy and quick. There is no positive instance of the word 'gotra' being unchallengeably used in the sense 'descendants of a common patriarchal ancestor' in the Ṛgveda; but the conception underlying the idea of gotra was, it is plain, quite familiar even in the age of the Ṛgveda. In the Atharvaveda V. 21. 3¹¹¹⁸ the word 'viśvagotryaḥ' (belonging to all families) occurs. Here the word 'gotra' clearly means 'a group of men connected together' (by blood). The Kauśika sūtra IV. 2 quotes a mantra in which gotra undoubtedly means 'a group of persons'.