Gotra, what is that???

I went to a temple as usual, but the unusual thing this time was, he asked me about my gotra. Heard that word earlier but never paid attention, in fact i never paid attention to religion and caste as well. Didn't knew about caste and all till 10th.

I want to write more on this, so what i will do is copy paste some matter from:
http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/nov/03akd.htm

The matter is:
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Some villagers decreed that a married couple are siblings only because they hail from the same gotra! And they ordered that a. the woman abort her foetus since she is not married to her husband, and b. give up some land that she claims to have inherited.

The latter demand clearly proves the incredibly mercenary nature of this panchayat that literally forced the couple, on fear of social boycott, mayhem or even death, to obey its diktat.

It needs to be asked what on earth the government is doing that it can allow this bunch of mercenaries to target an innocent couple.

This is landgrabbing at its worst, naked robbery under the guise of custom or tradition.

To hell with such tradition if its only purpose is to make the strong stronger against the weak, if their purpose is to allow some cruel people to gang up against people for some obscurantist reason to wreak havoc in people's lives.

India is a trillion times better off without such Jurassic age laws.

And what is this gotra business? What is a gotra? A claimed mythological descent from a rishi, who probably never existed except in the imagination of those who had nothing better to do but dream up such lineal claims only to pump up their self importance. Gotra claims are as ludicrous as Pakistani nuclear smuggler A Q Khan, claming that he was a lineal descendant of Mahmud of Ghazni!

Since such claims are impossible to prove or disprove, one really loses nothing by making them. Which is also why any educated person takes them with a platter of salt. Similarly, a gotra is nothing more than a fanciful claim: it can be amusing (like how we all find astrology amusing) but no one can or should take it seriously. And for some village elders to decide that because of a common gotra, a couple cannot marry and are siblings is nonsense at its worst.
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I enquired from quite a lot of people around. People say, everyone is descendant of some rishi which is known by the birth time. But doing something just on the basis of Gotra is not foolish but superstitious. Feeling that if we don't do something as per the customs and traditions, then something bad will happen.
The basis of classification for Gotra is different for different castes. It is rishis in Brahmins , while it is different in other caste in Hindu religion. Usually Brahmins are too adamant on working as per Gotra, ignoring all other facts.
But, i really respect Hindu religion and for me it is more scientific that just following of tradition. Lot of facts, if seen from the scientific point of view seem logical, but are illogical, if we consider it just as a tradition.
So, Gotra, must be having a scientific angle to it, still unknown to me. I really feel that somewhere, somebody must have given scientific explanation to this. Let's wait for comments on this... !!!!!!!

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Some details on Sagothra Vivaha. ( I am not an expert. These are my openion, based on my exploration over times).

As they say, history has to be read in the past.

There are 22 main gothras and including sub gothras the total may go up to 90 gothras, shared by Brahmin, Kshatriya & Vaishyas.

All these Gohtras have originated from the name of the ancestor or Guru. All these saints were spread across historic india (from Egypt to China).

Each Guru had an Ashram(Most of the time on bank of a River) and people around the areas use to be referred wrt the Guru or Gothra.

Now coming to sagothra vivaha.

As per geeta/vedanta, man is the only jeev with uncontrolled carnal desires or Kama. All other animals and trees have definite mating periods.

Kama is the first of arishadvarga and leads to krodha, lobha, moha,mada & Matsara.

They never wanted the kama to spoil the serenity of the Ashrama and inhabitants. Also, they wanted to establish harmony with the other Ashrams. So they prohibited the sagotra vivaha.

Science encourages the marriges with most contrasting genetics. If you look at, in olden days, these group of people had differrent genetics and appearance. Ex : Nagas from eastern states with more of chinese look. South indians with more of dark texture, where as north indians with fair complexion. Also, Yavans of persia. Gandhars from todyays Afghanistan, Kashmiris and Nepalese so on and so fourth.

As per Manusmriti, the best and only form of Vivaha for brahmin's is Deva vivaha. i.e

1) The marriage acceptable to parents (both side), elders and Guru's.
2) Without any matreialistic gains (So, no dowry).
3) for the benefit of individuals, for social and spiritual benefits.

Please follow the same. If you feel you can have sagotra vivaha and satisfy the above rules, you can proceed.

R u bent on sagothra vivaha? If so, why?. Just to override the rules? or for some materialistic gains? or driven by lust?.

However, not advisable.