Guest guest Report post Posted November 16, 2004 Dear JR Team, Can anyone please explain what Gothram means and its significance/relevance ? i asked my brahmin friend & she said that this basically signifies lineage of the 7 or 8 great sages, could'nt explain in detail though. Pls. clarify. rgds Manju Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted November 16, 2004 Dear friend, GOTHRAM is derived from noun GO + rootverb TRA of Sanskrit which means -> Cow + Protect. Earlier, 'Gothram' used to be a place where cattle were protected and reared, usually in hermiatge premises or AASHRAMAs, since dairy products were much useful for YAJNA or fire sacrifice. In simple meaning, A GOTRA is a cattle rearing group, identified with the head of the group, obviously a sage. Naturally, the same group had parents, brothers, sisters, blood relatives and were much similar in activities and culture or customs. Due to scarcity of pasture or climatic abnormalities, the GOTRAs went nomadic, spreading out to different river valleys and other fertile lands where they set up their own GOTRAs, of course named after their leader, a sage. For example, the first known GOTRA, KASHYAPA gotra, split into VASISHTHA, ATRI, JAMADAGNI, BHARADWAJA, VISHWAMITRA, GOUTAMA and so on. Since they were Vedic groups, they excelled in different fields of knowledge and maintained their 'specialization', which came to symbolize the respective GOTRA. On marriage, Gotra of wife and cows she carried with her would change to Gotra of the husband. Thus, GOTRA became a genetic inheritance of cows and knowledge. So, seeing the fraternity among same Gotra, marriage between a pair of same GOTRA was BANNED, perhaps for genetic reasons. Of course, all religions prohibit marriage between brother and sister because of same reasons, whether they knew about DNA or not. So even now, Brahmin families follow the same rule of marrying from other Gotras, except in special cases where, girl/ boy is adopted to other gotra even though born in same gotra. VAISHYA families, in addition to this, do not even marry from maternal Gotras. hope this helps you, yours humbly, KAD , "Manjunath, T \(GE Healthcare\)" <T.Manjunath@g...> wrote: > Dear JR Team, > > Can anyone please explain what Gothram means and its significance/relevance ? > > i asked my brahmin friend & she said that this basically signifies lineage of the > 7 or 8 great sages, could'nt explain in detail though. > > Pls. clarify. > > rgds > Manju Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted November 16, 2004 Dear Kad, thanks for the message, really nice to learn this. rgds manju kadrudra [kadrudra] Wednesday, November 17, 2004 8:35 AM Re: What is Gothram ? Dear friend, GOTHRAM is derived from noun GO + rootverb TRA of Sanskrit which means -> Cow + Protect. Earlier, 'Gothram' used to be a place where cattle were protected and reared, usually in hermiatge premises or AASHRAMAs, since dairy products were much useful for YAJNA or fire sacrifice. In simple meaning, A GOTRA is a cattle rearing group, identified with the head of the group, obviously a sage. Naturally, the same group had parents, brothers, sisters, blood relatives and were much similar in activities and culture or customs. Due to scarcity of pasture or climatic abnormalities, the GOTRAs went nomadic, spreading out to different river valleys and other fertile lands where they set up their own GOTRAs, of course named after their leader, a sage. For example, the first known GOTRA, KASHYAPA gotra, split into VASISHTHA, ATRI, JAMADAGNI, BHARADWAJA, VISHWAMITRA, GOUTAMA and so on. Since they were Vedic groups, they excelled in different fields of knowledge and maintained their 'specialization', which came to symbolize the respective GOTRA. On marriage, Gotra of wife and cows she carried with her would change to Gotra of the husband. Thus, GOTRA became a genetic inheritance of cows and knowledge. So, seeing the fraternity among same Gotra, marriage between a pair of same GOTRA was BANNED, perhaps for genetic reasons. Of course, all religions prohibit marriage between brother and sister because of same reasons, whether they knew about DNA or not. So even now, Brahmin families follow the same rule of marrying from other Gotras, except in special cases where, girl/ boy is adopted to other gotra even though born in same gotra. VAISHYA families, in addition to this, do not even marry from maternal Gotras. hope this helps you, yours humbly, KAD , "Manjunath, T \(GE Healthcare\)" <T.Manjunath@g...> wrote: > Dear JR Team, > > Can anyone please explain what Gothram means and its significance/relevance ? > > i asked my brahmin friend & she said that this basically signifies lineage of the > 7 or 8 great sages, could'nt explain in detail though. > > Pls. clarify. > > rgds > Manju ~! LIFE MEANS STRUGGLE, THE FITTEST WINS SURVIVAL !~ Links Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted November 22, 2004 Hi Manjunath, This is regarding your questions of What is Gothram First it is not Gothram but is Gotra It said that when Brham made this world and after that civilisation start he created some devoted people with different qualities.These all are known as sages like Vashisth,Vishwamitra,kyashayp ,Atri and others.If you see the histroy of these sages they all r known for there different qualities and devotion. When civilisation was building up it is belived that people are known from these sagas.and these sagas are the base of civilisation.It is more towards the way they live worship,devotion towards god. Hope I have answered your question. thx sunil "Manjunath, T (GE Healthcare)" <T.Manjunath wrote: Dear JR Team, Can anyone please explain what Gothram means and its significance/relevance ? i asked my brahmin friend & she said that this basically signifies lineage of the 7 or 8 great sages, could'nt explain in detail though. Pls. clarify. rgds Manju ~! LIFE MEANS STRUGGLE, THE FITTEST WINS SURVIVAL !~ / Meet the all-new My – Try it today! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites