One of my readers asked me how I arrived at the conclusion that Gautama Buddha was aa Brahmin.
Buddha’s given name Siddhartha Gautama.
He belonged to Sakhya clan, Kshatriya.
But his genealogy as gleaned from Buddhist texts indicate his ancestry goes back to one of the first Rishis after whom the gotra system of Hindu lineage springs from.
The rishi is Gautama and he was a Brahmin .
There is Gauthama gotra among Brahmins.
He was one of the Rig Vedic Rishis.
Hence Buddha’s given name was Gauthama Siddhartha.
His father was Suddodhana and Mother Maya Devi.
His place of birth Lumbini.
Year is placed between 483 BC.
But I am of the view that he could be dated much earlier.
So,by genealogy he belongs to Brahmin Gotra but by disposition his Varna at the time of his birth was Kshatriya.
This illustrates how dispositions decided Varna,loosely translated as Caste now,and geneology decided The Gotra.
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