Why does some KeralaHindus not have Gothram?-Forward Answer by Arun Mohan ,Lives in Kerala, India(2016–present)Feb 22
Some Hindus in Kerala don’t believe in Gothram tradition asseen elsewhere; Gothram system isgenerally a concept prevailing among majority of upper caste Hindus in generalacross India. In a simplisticterm, it means lineage or the source of origin of a community/group of people. Traditionally it is a Brahminical concept, i.e., it issomething Brahminical communities originally try to identify with, during theVedic era. Post Vedic era, other upper caste communities also startedidentifying with Gotrams as like Brahmins. As per Hindu belief, Lord Brahma, the Creator, created 7 sages out of his wisdom.So as from his vices, born- Daksha, who became the Prajapati or lord ofuniverse. The daughtersborn to Daksha were married to the 7 sages or Saptarishis who were now giventask to create humans to populate the world. My note- All daughters were NOT married toSapatharshies. Thirteen were married tosage Kashyapa,27 were married to moon God and one daughter Sati was married to God Siva. So these 7 sages started creating humans thro’ their unionswith their wives. Thesechildren now started identifying themselves with lineage of their father, thusformed the Gotras. One essentially featuresof Gotra is its patrilineal lineage. Every Gotras tracks its origin to the sage from which thatgroup of people originated. So it could either one among 7 sages or by their lineage. In this world, the humans could be either of one of the 7gotras. 1. Vasishtthan, 2. Kaasyapan,3. Athri,4. Jamadagni,5.Gauthaman,6. Viswaamithran,7. Bharadwaajan. Apart from these main 7, gotras can be formed by anotherset of immortal humans who were deemed to be great sages by blessings of theGods. These gotras areslightly inferior to the original, but still, it can be also a gotra 1. Deepthimaan,2. Gaalavan,3. Parasuraman,4. Kripan,5.Dronan,6. Vyaaghan, and7. Rishyasrngan. As per belief, these 7 sages are likely to become nextSaptarishis, once this universe we live in gets destroyed and life evolves outof new universe elsewhere. The concept of Gotram in Vedic era, was to understand thesource of knowledge and wisdom. Each Rishi has his own specific domain ofknowledge and he has to transmit that knowledge of his to generations down thelane. So, each gotram wasspecialized with specific knowledge associated with that rishi. So, due to thisbasic concept, Gotra system originally was limited to Brahmin community. Other communities track their origin to different gods anddeities respectively. Forexample, Kshatriyas track their origin not from 7 Rishis, rather mostly fromVedic Gods like Sun, Moon, Fire and Snakes. As belief, the Kshatriya dynasty originated from Manu, the first Human born outof Sun God- Surya Deva. So, the largest chunk of Kshatriyas originated from SunDynasty. Then next setoriginated from Chandra (Moon God) thro’ its relationship with Thara(Stars). But their offspring was Budha (Mercury) who was born in cosmic world,thereby not a Human, rather a celestial being. Budha interestingly married todaughter of Manu- Ila who was a lady at the time of birth, but due to a curse,she became both Man and Lady at the same time (she can change sex at will asshe is both Male and Female). Ila in her female form, had sex with Budha in theearth to have a male human child- Puruvas, thro’ which Chandravamsha dynasty originated. So as Agni - fire god, married a human lady- Sudarshana,daughter of Nila Maharaja and thus founded Agni Dynasty. I will talk about Nagastory later for a specific reason. So Kshyatriyas tracktheir origin to these gods, so naturally they didn’t have a Gotra concept. However post Vedic period,Kshatriyas started asserting their Gotra to claim themselves within higherBrahmanical order. So theystarted associating their dynasties with one among 7 sages thro’ legends andmyths. Vaishyas track theirGotras mostly associated with Vishwakarma and other demi gods. Some of the Vaishayacommunity track their Gotras to Kshayapa primarily because Kshyapa married 13wives, some of them are reptiles, birds, animals etc which bore differentcastes associated with animalistic qualities. Shudras on other hand has no Gotras or any source oforigin, rather mostly born as savages. Irrelevance to Kerala Kerala is one of the very few states in India, that do notpractice the concept of Gotra by some Hindus. If you ask any Malayalees aboutGotrams, they will look clueless to each other. This is primarily because most of the upper caste Hindus(barring Nampoothiris and Kerala iyers ) practises unique system of Matrilineal lineage,by which children inherit mother’s lineage, not fathers. I have written a detailedanswer on this-ArunMohan's answer to What is Sambandham in Kerala? Until 1920s, Kerala’supper caste Hindu society didn’t accept the tradition of marriage, husband-wife concept or evenfatherhood concept due to the unique system of Sambandham traditions, makingthe whole paternal side irrelevant for majority of caste Hindus. Everything is connected to mother’sside and lineage of every male moves via nephews and niece, not own children. This means the very concept of Gotra has no relevance at allas it track origins to paternal lineage, while upper castes in Kerala tracktheir origin thro’ Maternal lineage, not paternal lineage. Even though today Kerala has moved to standard familyculture and indeed became more patriarchal society, majority of the family lawconcept among caste Hindus are still matrilineal. For example, a child’s caste among so-called uppercaste Hindus is determined by mother’s caste, not father’s caste and allcustoms associated with mother’s family is imbibed to children, not father’sside. When I say this, don’t be under expectation, almost allHindus follow Matrilineal customs, as only erstwhile upper castes Hindus followit, while majority of so-called lower castes were historically patrilineal. But the very basic concept of Gotram is more of upper caste concept,not lower caste. So they lower castes never had Gothram at very first place. Which communities do haveGothram? Two communities in Kerala do have Gothram tradition Nampoothiris:- Being a Vedic society that practisesoriginal Vedic traditions. So, they do have a Gotra, majority being Bharadwajin general. But Nampoothiris have a problem. One the eldermember of the family marry a Nampoothiri lady. Rest no other man in thefamily were allowed to marry Namboothiri ladies. This means only one set offamily members have a clear lineage, rest don’t require. Due to which, its relative less value even among Nampoothiris. They usethis only to define who all can become Yajnadipatis (Master sacrificer) or maxfor some marriage purposes. For no other reasons, they don’t requirethis Gothra concept Ambalavasi- Not Ambalavasis have Gotram. Some among them follows Brahminicalconcepts and they also define a Gothram, but interesting they mostly associatewith Vishwamitram Gothra concept which is very rare across India. This is limited mostly to Pushpaka communities, rather others. Again,like Nampoothiris, it has very limited value in society, at best checked formarriages Nairs The biggest upper caste community in Kerala are Nairs. Nairsare not single caste community, rather an umbrella term to define more than 200 sub castes of similarconcepts. Nairs don’t have a gothra,but by basic definition, Nairs believe they hail from Naga dynasty, ie they are descendants of Vasuki,the snake king. Vasuki is son of Kadru and Kashyapa, thus Vasuki by conceptbelongs to Kshayapagotram. But the problem is that, Vasuki and entire Naga(Snake dynasty) don’t consider as lineage of Kashyap, rather they identifythro’ their mother- Kadru- Naga Mata. Snake Dynasty by belief is Matrilineal,so they too have mother’s lineage as primary form. Due to this, Naga dynastyoriginates thro’ Kadru, not Kshayapa. This belief has ingrained in minds of Nairs, where they don’tsee anything associated with Father’s side, rather always see their lineagethro’ Mother. So, despite ofbeing Naga dynasty, they don’t acknowledge them as Kshayapa gotram So what about otherswithout Gothram Well, in Kerala tradition, all upper caste communities areidentified socially thro’ their Maternal dwelling unit called Tharavad. Themother’s original home is called Tharavad (Thaiveedu as its original known,meaning Mother’s House) Since lineage is identified through’ Mother, her originalhome is what defined as Tharavad and every member of that family associate withthat socially. For ritualistic purposes, every single Hindu in Kerala isassociated with the Birth star they were born into. In Kerala system, Birth star (JanmaNakshtram) has a very important role. The presiding star at horizon when onetakes birth is defined as Birth star (there are 27 stars and each star hascertain time period when it appears on the horizon which is calculated as perPanchangam). Due to this belief, every Hospital and medical staff have tomandatory record the time of birth (which existed even in past when deliverieswere done by midwives) and birth star will be determined. My note- For nairs, thereis no thithi, star is considered for auspicious and in auspicious purposes(Bali Tharpanam) 27 Nakshtras and itsposition in Zodiac sign This birth star will be quoted for any poojas or rituals inany Kerala temples. No one will ask for any gotra, rather birth stars arealways checked in Kerala temple. To do any pooja, one must say their Birthstar. Even Birthdays in Kerala are calculated on basis of Birth star occurrencein respective Malayalam month, so that there is no fixed date as such. Forexample, if I was born in Anizham star during the month of Kumbham, my Birthdaywill be always on Anizham star day in Malayalam month of Kumbham. The Kings of Travancore were always addressed thro’ theirBirth star basis, like Swati Thirunal (denoting Swathi/Chothi star) or RevathiThirunal or Pooyam Thirunal or Vishakam Thirunal. Once someone dies, the birth star reference will end andreplaced with the concept of Death star (the star at horizon when someonedied). So for all anniversaries, all funeral related rites, its Death star(Adhiyanakshatram) is quoted. So in Kerala context, we talk Mother’s house name (Tharavad)+ Birth Star (Janma Nakshtram) as primary method of identifying one persontraditionally, not Gothra. My note- I found some good information in this answerappeared in Quora. Of course for one or two members there can be nothing in thisanswer. Their opinions are theirs. Sometimes one member may copy paste pageswith irrelevantmatter or same matter asresponse. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/23288509.870770.1754717270012%40mail.yahoo.com.
