Could someone confirm whether it is true that persons belonging to the Vishwamitra gothram may not marry those of the Kaushika gothram
Thank you
Samgeeth
Dear Samgeeth,
We had extensive discussions, more than once, about gotras in this forum. This topic raises its head every once in a while, may be because many TBs think that if they follow the gotra rules strictly, they will be rated as
first class brahmins; but the truth is that almost all TBs today are vaishyas bent upon earning money and amassing wealth, or, Sudras who are in servitude to the govts., and MNCs etc. I would therefore request you to disabuse your mind about this nonsense called gotram.
As to your query, the concept of gotram is a fallacy; it just tells the name of one or sometimes two ṛṣis who were the gurus of the original patriarch of one's lineage. For example if you were living in those hoary days when the gotras were just getting formed, and were a disciple of ṛṣi A, then your sons, grandsons and so on would take the label of "A gotra" and have an abhivādaye of 1,3,5, or even 7 ṛṣis, starting with the name A; the rest of the names would be of others who were illustrious ṛṣis of A's lineage. But supposing that one of your sons, grandsons or someone down the line got gurukulavāsaṃ with another famous ṛṣi B and decides to adopt B's gotram, then he and his successors would become B gotra brahmanas. However we have been fed and brainwashed into believing that all A gotra people are true and direct descendants of ṛṣi A; the fact that people who embraced Vaishnavite sect continued with their original gotra labels was due to this, but they could have very well formed a new Ramanuja gotra or some such thing.
I reproduce below what I wrote in an earlier post on gotram-related doubt in this very forum. (I am unable to locate it; this is from what I saved in my computer.) I feel this should reveal that people of different gotra names, by theory, can be patrilineal and hence come under the "sagotra" defect.
aṅgiras, marīci, atri, vasiṣṭha, pulaha, pulastya, kratu are the mānasaputras of brahma. The geneology of vasiṣṭha is like this:
marīci > kaśyapa > mitra varuṇa > vasiṣṭha > 1. indrapramadi, 2. śakti, 3. maitrāvaruṇa
1. indrapramadi > ābharadvasu > upamanyu
2. śakti > parāśara
3. maitrāvaruṇa > kuṇḍita
If we look at kaśyapa vamśāvali, it shows the following:
marīci > kaśyapa > 1. avatsāra, 2. asita
1. avatsāra > 1a. rebha, 1b. nidruva
2. asita > devala
agastya vaṃśa is :-
kaśyapa > mitrāvaruṇa > agastya > dṛḍhacyuta > idhmavāha
Thus we find that agastya and vasiṣṭha are patrilineal, actually brothers.
viṣṇuvṛddha and harīta gotras also trace back to marīci: marīci > kaśyapa >vivasvān > manu > ikṣvāku ...>yuvanāśva > mandhātā > 1. purukutsa, 2. ambarīṣa
1. purukutsa > trasadasyu > sambhūta > viṣṇuvṛddha
2. ambarīṣa > yuvanāśva > harīta
Now let us see how the pravaras (rishi lineages to be recited in the abhivādaye), gotras and sūtras are all mixed up.
āṅgirasa - ājamīḍa - kāṇva — ājamīḍa gotra — āpastamba sūtra
āṅgirasa - ājamīḍa - kāṇva — gardabha gotra — matsya sūtra
āṅgirasa - kaurava - kāṇva — gardabha gotra — āśvalāyana sūtra
āṅgirasa - gauruvīta - sāṅkṛtya — cāndrāyaṇa gotra — bodhāyana sūtra
sādhya - sāṅkṛtya - gauruvīta — saṃkṛti gotra — āpastamba sūtra
vaiśvāmitra - daivarāta - audala — jābāla gotra — bodhāyana / kātyāyana / laugākṣi gotras
vaiśvāmitra - daivarāta - audala — devarāta gotra — āpastamba sūtra
It will thus be seen that if we have to go by "unrelated" gotras in the patrilineal sense of the term, many gotras would have to be discarded. It is my considered view that the gotras or tribal groups which got absorbed into the Aryan way of living and were granted brahman status, were also bestowed with a certain gotra and a suitable lineage from one of the well-known rishis. That is how we get different gotras for father, son, grandson etc.