Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c13.37

c13.37

**‘Gotra.’** The *Gotra* may be defined as a system of relations based upon community of ancestors. In the earlier stages of the history of the institution, the joint-membership in any given *Gotra* seems to have been determined less on the grounds of mere physical descent than on those of spiritual connection and inheritance. The Vedic mantras, religious traditions, and sacrificial customs which came to be associated with the name of a particular Ṛishi became the property of the *Gotra* in later times. Its physical aspects were strengthened by the connected ceremony of the *pravara* by which Agni had to be invoked under the names of three or five ancestors. Thus a knowledge of ancestors descended from generation to generation and helped to impart a certain degree of stability or definiteness to the genealogical relations of various families. Pāṇini has quite a number of references to the *Gotra* [ii, 4, 58–61, 63–70; iv, 1, 78, 79, 89–94, 98–112, 162–7; iv, 2, 111; iv, 3, 80 and 126]. They give numerous well-known Gotra-names, e.g. Paila, Taulvali, Yāska, Atri, Bhṛigu, Kutsa, Vasishṭha, Gotama, Aṅgiras, Tika, Kitava, Āgastya, Kauṇḍinya, Kuñja, Harita, Śaradvat, Śunaka, Darbha, Droṇa, Parvata.