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The Early History of the Gotras

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

A Part from the evidence already discussed, the Sūtra period yields very little information for the study of the gotras. The Buddhist and Jaina canonical works, however, do supply some valuable confirmation of the general picture we have been able to extract from the Brahmanical texts. These canons as we know them now are admittedly late, and for the most part may be taken to reflect the life of a different geographical region from that of the Sūtras. Yet they must contain much genuine tradition of the lifetimes of the respective founders, and it is therefore of considerable interest that the gotra-names recorded agree with the Brahmanical sources. As is well known, the Buddha was a Gautama (see p. 84 ); and since the Gautamas were included in the Āngiras group, he is also on occasion addressed as Āngirasa. In addition, numerous Brahmans appear in the Pali books, with most of the commoner gotra-names.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1947

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References

page 76 note 1 Translators from the Pali have not infrequently given as personal names such forms as “the brahman Vacohagotta”, etc. It should of course be “brahman of the Vaccha (Vātsya) clan”. The translators have at least the excuse that some of the later Pali commentators seem to interpret such names in the same way

page 76 note 2 Ed. Jacobi, , Abh. für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. vii, 1881Google Scholar.

page 77 note 1 Copper-plate grant of saṃvat 1188, Ind. Ant., xix, p. 252.

page 78 note 1 7.96.3.

page 78 note 2 1.45.3.

page 78 note 3 9.97.51.

page 78 note 4 RV. khila 4.9.2, Scheftelowitz, , Die Apokryphen des RV., p. 124Google Scholar. The remainder of the stanza is unfortunately lost.

page 80 note 1 Gṛhya-saṃgraha, , ii, 40, in ZDMG. 35, p. 576Google Scholar. Roth, , Essays on the Veda, p. 120Google Scholar; Müller, , Hist, of Ancient Sansk. Lit., p. 53Google Scholar; Weber, , I St. x.95Google Scholar.

page 80 note 2 RV. 7.33.1.

page 80 note 3 BŚS. 10.11.

page 80 note 4 ĀpŚS. xxiv.12.16.

page 80 note 5 KŚS. xix.6.8.9.

page 80 note 6 ĀŚS. i.5.21.

page 80 note 7 ŚŚS. i.7.3.

page 80 note 8 See Weber, , Indische Studien, x, pp. 89 ff.Google Scholar, for a fuller collection of the relevant passages.

page 81 note 1 Lāṭyāyana, 6.4.13–16; see also Caland, Pañcaviṃśa-brāhmaṇa, trs., p. 414.

page 81 note 2 Loc. cit., p. 92.

page 81 note 3 Schwab, , Altindisches Tieropfer, p. 91Google Scholar; Hillebrandt, , Vedic Mythology, ii, 102Google Scholar; Keith, , Rel. and Phil, of the Veda, p. 165Google Scholar.

page 81 note 4 ŚŚS. 5.16.

page 82 note 1 Hist, of Anc. Sansk. Lit., pp. 403 ff.

page 83 note 1 Oldenberg, , “Über die Liedverfasser des Ṛgveda,” ZDMG., xlii (1888), pp. 119 ff.Google Scholar

page 84 note 1 E.g. Puruṣottama-paṇḍita, , Gotra-pravara-mañjarī, p. 4Google Scholar. But ibid., pp. 126 ff., seems to imply that the prohibition holds good.

page 86 note 1 MS. i.6.1, etc.

page 86 note 2 KS. vii.13; TB. i.1.4.8; ĀpŚS. 5.xi.7; Baudh.ŚS. ii.17 seems to admit a wider range of alternatives (amīṣāṃ tvā devānāṃ…yatharṃi yathāgotram).

page 86 note 3 Taitt.Saṃ. i.5.5, a–m, and i.5.6f–i, m–p. If we denote the Āngirasa verses by a, and the others by x, the arrangement is: a, x; a, a, a; x, x, x, x; a, a, a; x, x, x, x, x; a, a, a.

page 87 note 1 Caland, , “Das Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa in Auswahl,” § 145Google Scholar.

page 89 note 1 Gobhila G.S. i.8.4; Khādira G.S. ii.1.17 (Jāmadagnya-bhṛgus); Āśv. G.S. i.10.20, i.7.8–9; cf. Weber, , Ind. St., x, p. 95Google Scholar.

page 89 note 2 Ś.B. i.7.2.8.

page 89 note 3 The Atharvans, so closely connected in tradition with the other two families, appear nowhere in the pravara lists. The alternative names of the Atharva-veda led Hillebrandt to the theory that the Bhṭgus are to be considered as the clan, and the Atharvans as their priests (Ved. Myth, ii.177). Ātharvana, however, is as common a patronymic in the older period as is Bhārgava, and it seems probable that the two names came to be synonymous. Thus, for example, the Khila-hymn quoted above (p. 25) is ascribed to Subheṣaja Ātharvana, but the pravara contained in it is a Bhārgava pravara.