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The Early History of the Gotras

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

John Brough
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Extract

There are few aspects of Vedic civilization and history more neglected by modern scholars than the organization of ancient Brahmanical society in exogamous clans. It is, of course, recognized that from the time of the Sūtras to the present day the rule has always been that, as well as marrying within his caste, a Brahman must marry outside his own gotra; but further than this few have cared to inquire. The reason for this neglect is no doubt in part the extraordinary state of textual corruption in which our chief sources, the Pravara-adhyāyas of the Śrauta Sūtras, have come down to us, as well as the suspicion, not altogether justified, that the material contained in them is not truly “historical”, or at least has suffered a considerable amount of “künstliche Behandlung”.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 78 , Issue 1-2 , January 1946 , pp. 32 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1946

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References

page 32 note 1 I have collected all the material available for the textual study of these lists, and hope to be able to publish a full account in the not too distant future.

page 32 note 2 Oldenberg, , “Ueber die Liedverfasser des Ṛigveda,” ZDMG 42, (1888), p. 235 nGoogle Scholar.

page 32 note 2 Gārgya Nārāyaṇa, on Āśv. ŚS. 12.10.1.

page 36 note 1 Gaut. Dh. Sūtra 3.2; Vārāha Gṛ. Sūtra 10.2

page 37 note 1 Vaikhānasa Sūtra 3.2.

page 37 note 2 Yajñavalkya 1.3.53.

page 37 note 3 Viṣṇu-smṛti 24.9.

page 37 note 4 Baudh.Śrauta Sūtra, pravarādhyāya 2.

page 40 note 1 Still more extraordinary is his failure to distinguish between the genuine pravarādhyāya in this MS. and the medieval pravara-nirṇaya which has been appended to it.

page 41 note 1 In particular, 4.1.76 ff. The definitions come at 4.1.162 if.

page 41 note 2 Vasu, , Siddhānta-kaumudī, i, p. 623Google Scholar.

page 42 note 1 Gotrapravara-mañjarī, ed. Rao, P. Chentsal, Mysore, 1900, pp. 141ffGoogle Scholar. So, too, Gārgya Nārāyaṇa, Ct. to Ā&v. ŚT. Śūtra, 12.10.1: vyākaraṇa-ṣmṛtiś cāpy asyā (scil, baudhāyanasya smṛteḥ) na bādhikā sāmānyaviśeṣarūpatvāt tayoḥ.

page 44 note 1 Böhtlingk's interpretation, “Paila heisst sowohl der Vater als auch der Sohn,’ is too narrow.

page 44 note 2 Cf. gaṇa kurvādi, 4.1.151.

page 45 note 1 For a classified account of the patronymics evidenced by Pāṇini, see Theophil Gubler's dissertation “Die Patronymica im Alt-Indischen”, Göttingen, 1903. Gubler, however, has not understood the significance of the terms gotra and yuvan in Panini, and seems to have been unaware of the application of the word gotra except as a term of grammar. He therefore tries to explain the use of gotra-names as a means of distinguishing, by means of the grandfather's name, or that of a famous ancestor, men whose fathers' names were the same (pp. 36–8).