Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c11.s2.17

c11.s2.17

The designation of Buddha as Gotamides is usually traced to this, that the dignity of purohita may have lain in the case of the Sakyas in the hands of the Gautama-race.* As is well known, according to the Brahmanical custom of offering at the Pravara ceremony, instead of the naming of the ancestors of the person making the offering, in case the latter is not a Brahman, the naming of the ancestors of his purohita must or can take place (Weber, “ Indische Studien,” x, 73, 79; Hillebrandt, “ Das Altindische Neu- und Vollmondsopfer,” S. 81, A. 1). But from the usage of calling upon the Agni as the Agni who has served the Gotama, in the case of the offering of a man who has a Gautama as purohit, to the designation of the man himself and his whole house as “descendants of the Gotama,” seems to me far too wide a step for us to be able to accept that mode of explanation without hesitation. Here there may be fictions and expressions of caste-rivalry at play, which to lay bare even by conjecture the materials at present at our disposal do not suffice.