I have written articles on the Gotra, the Hindu System of tracing Lineage, with a List of Brahmin Gotras and Brahmin Surnames in India.
I have also published Vaisya and Kshatriya Surnames.
Shiva, Image credit.www. stephen Knapp.com
Often I receive mails and calls to verify whether a Gotra belongings to Brahmins and I have been replying.
I shall be writing a Post on How to identify Brahmin Gotra.
In the course of answering these questions I was struck by one fact.
That there is No Shiva Gotra is not found among Brahmins, despite Shiva being considered as a Brahmin because of Function and Vishnu as Kshatriya because of the same yard stick, that of protecting us.
And Subrahmanya is considered as the best among the best of Brahmins-Su+Brahmanya.
One does not find Rama and Krishna Gotras among Hindu community.
I have written on this, explaining the reason.
Then why Shiva is left out, even though He is described as a Brahmin?
1.Shiva is truly a Ayonija, never born of a womb.He appears from nowhere and disappears.
He does not have progeny ,like Rama or Krishna.
2.The term Brahmin denotes one who realizes Brahman by self efforts.
Shiva being Para Brahman Himself, He need not realize.
He is without attributes, Nirguna.
Hence to belong to a Brahmin Gora he should have realized Brahman which is not the case with Him.
Hence no Shiva Gotra among Brahmins.
In comparison between Rama and Krishna. while Rama was aware of Himself as Brahman occasionally, Krishna was all the time aware of it and He, like Shiva did not need to Realize Himself.
And Krishna’s Children were killed and He was left with no progeny, consequent to Gandhari’s Curse.
However Shiva Gotra is found among communities other than Brahmins for it had been a practice to denote Shiva as the Father when one is unable to trace the ancestry.
Anoter intersting point to note is that though Viswamitra was not a Brahmin by birth we find Viswamitra Gotra among Brahmins indicating that caste is by disposition and character and not by birth.
Inputs with authentic sources welcome.
Ramani Sir ! Since the times of Manu, this great idea that every BRAHMIN should have minimum four wives of which the chief/main wife will be from amoung the Brahmin caste and the other three can be from the Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra community was / is being propagated for getting the best quality of progeny for the good of the society (Like the proposal for having a Semen Bank of Nobel Laureates). So to maintain purity and also prevent inbreeding various conditions were followed in which the Pravaram was very beneficial. Even though this was strictly followed for Brahmins to preserve GENETIC PURITY, other communities broadly follow either SHIVA GOTRA if they are Shaivites or VISHNU GOTRA if they are vaishnavites. But Lots of Non Brahmins also follow the GOTRAS of Maharishis too.
In the case of Vishwamitra, when he was utterly defeated by the BRAHMA TEJOBHALAM of Brahmarishi Vasishta, he concluded “DIK BHALAM KSHATRIYA BALAM BRAHMATEJO BHALAM BALAM” i.e Conquering every one in all the directions by Kshatriya is Strenght, BUT THE REAL STRENGTH IS BRAHMA TEJAS.
After he was proclaimed BRAHMARISHI (VASISHTAR VAYALALA BRAHMARISHi) his Gotra was added both as VISHWAMITRA GOTRA OR KAUSHIKA GOTRA. But No matching will be done between Vasishta and vishwamitra gotram for marriage purposes.
Rama and Krishna are not part of Brahmin gotra…. they are considered under Kshatriya
I have mentioned in the Post that while Shiva gotra is not found among the Brahmin Community and is found in the other communities, Krishna and Rama are not found in any community.I am aware that they belong to Kashatriya Varna.I have dealt with this aspect in detail in my post Why Rama Krishna Gotra is not found.Regds
Please stop all these nonsense. I had chance to look into some documents of last century and also discussion with elder people who were more than eighty years old. There were two variations. Among TAMIL Brahmins if during the time of marriage in olden days when matching of horoscopes was not in vogue if bride and bridegroom belong to the same Gothra then either Shiva or Vishnu Gothra with three pravarans– SRI Rama Sharma and Lakshmi Sambasivam Meenakshi etc.,The other one is adopting Either Kaushika or Bharathwaja Gothra with pravarams mentioned earlier. Everyone including Girijans(Matanga Gothra) had Gothras which has been lost now. Hence there is no necessity for vivisection.
dear sir,let me write my opinion abt the word ‘brahmin’.A person who is in search of the truth(para brahmam) is brahmina.Not a person who has already realised what it is.B,cos once he has realised then he doesn’t come under ant caste sector like brahmina,kshathriya…etc.He is beyond all these attributes.thanking u for giving ur permission to express my view.thanks once more.Dr.raghavan/Kerala
You are right and I have stated this in many articles.Regds
Great Salute to Sri. Venkataramanan, for enlightening us on these subjects. I, more specifically treat you as GURU, in real terms, the one who makes his subjects to initiate thinking on these intrinsic subjects. You have made us to understand on various such informations in the past. Thank you. With warm regards .
Regards.