History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.211

v2.c26.211

In numerous mantras of the Ṛgveda the descendants of well-known sages are denoted by the plural form of the names of those sages. In Ṛg. X. 66. 14 we read 'the Vasiṣṭhas have raised their voices like their father'. In Ṛg. VI. 35. 5 the Bharadvājas are referred to as Āṅgirases. According to Āśv. Śrautasūtra Bharadvāja is a gotra falling under the Aṅgirogaṇa. In the Brāhmaṇa Literature there are ample indications that priestly families had come to be formed into several groups named after their (real or supposed) founders and that such families differed in details of worship according to the group they belonged to. The Tai. Br. (I. 1. 4) prescribes that the consecration (*ādhāna*) of the sacred Vedic fires is to be performed for Bhṛgus or Aṅgirases with the mantra 'bhṛgūṇām (or aṅgirasām) tvādevānām vratapate vratenā-dadhāmi,' that for other brāhmaṇas with the words 'ādityānām tvā devānām vratapate' &c. The Tai. Br. II. 2. 3 speaks of the 'Āṅgirasī prajā' (people of the Aṅgiras group). The Tāṇḍya Brāhmaṇa¹¹¹⁹ prescribes that the camasa (cup) made of udumbara was to be given as *dakṣiṇā* to a sagotra brāhmaṇa.' The Kauṣītaki Br.¹¹²⁰ (25. 15) says that one who has performed the Viśvajit sacrifice (in which everything that the sacrificer owned was gifted away) should stay for a year with a brāhmaṇa of the same gotra. The Ait. Br. (30. 7) contains the story of Aitaśa and his son Abhyagni and it is stated that the Aitaśāyanas Abhyagnis are the most sinful of the Aurvas. In the Kauṣītaki Br. where the same story occurs it is said that the Aitaśāyanas became lowest among Bhṛgus, as they were cursed by their father. According to Baudhāyanaśrauta-sūtra the Aitaśāyanas are a sub-section of Bhṛgugaṇa. Śunaḥśepa, when he was accepted as a son by Viśvāmitra, came to be called Devarāta and the Ait. Br. (33. 5) says that the Kāpileyas and Bābhravas were affiliated to Devarāta. According to Baud. śrauta-sūtra Devarāta and Babhru are sub-sections of Viśvāmitra gotra. Śunaḥśepa is said to have been an Āṅgirasa by birth (Ait. Br. 33. 5).¹¹²¹ So this makes it clear that gotra relationship was by birth in the times of the Ait. Br. (and not from teacher to pupil). In the Upaniṣads the sages when expounding the knowledge of *brahma* addressed their pupils by the gotra names e. g. by the Bhāradvāja, Gārgya, Āśvalāyana, Bhārgava and Kātyāyana gotras in Praśna I. 1, Vaiyāghrapadya and Gautama in Chāndogya V. 14. 1 and V. 16. 1; Gautama and Bharadvāja, Viśvāmitra and Jamadagni, Vasiṣṭha and Kaśyapa in Bṛ. Up. II. 2. 4. All this shows that the system of gotras with several sub-sections was well established in the times of the Brāhmaṇas and the ancient Upaniṣads. But the gotras are in these works referred to in connection with sacrifices or education. There is hardly any distinct reference in these to gotra or sagotra in relation to marriage. In the Lāṭyāyana-śrauta-sūtra¹¹²² VIII. 2. 8 and 10 it is prescribed that one who has given away everything in the Viśvajit sacrifice should stay three nights with niṣādas and may partake of their jungle diet and then again three nights with '*jana*' and then the sūtra gives several views about the meaning of '*jana*' one of which, that of Dhānañjapya, is that '*jana*' means a person with whom (i. e. with whose daughter) marriage is possible while one who is sagotra is called '*samānajana*'. This clearly proves that long before the Lāṭyāyana-śrautasūtra marriage with a sagotra had been forbidden. Besides several of the gṛhya and dharma sūtras prohibit marriage with a sagotra girl. It is impossible to hold that this was a new conception that arose only about the time of these sūtras. Therefore, it must be supposed that prohibition as to sameness of gotra in marriage had its origin long before the period of the sūtras in the times of the Brāhmaṇa works (if not earlier).