Hi,
The word "gotra" means "lineage" in the Sanskrit language. Among those of the Brahmin caste, gotras are reckoned patrilineally. Each gotra takes the name of a famous Rishi or sage who was the patrilineal forebearer of that clan. And each Gotra is addressed by the suffix 'sa' or 'asa' as relevant.
The concept of Gotra was the sociodemographic-cultural coding by Brahma to classify His family, themselves among different groups. At the beginning, these gentes identified themselves by the names of various rishis (Angirasa, Daksha, Himavan, Atri, Gautam, Vishrava, Kashyapa, Bhrigu, Vashista, Kutsa,and Bharadwaja; the first seven of these are often enumerated as Saptarishis). It is to be noted that Vishwamitra was initially a Kshatriya king, who later chose and rose to become an ascetic rishi. Hence the gotra was applied to the grouping stemming from one of these rishis as his descendants.
For more details about, please refer to the links:
http://goo.gl/tsHJP
http://goo.gl/4rNtQ
Answered by
Ravi shastri
at
3:18 PM on March 01, 2013
