Sagotra: Meaning in Sanskrit and the Purāṇas

Sagotra · sa-gotra, “one of the same gotra”

Grammar: masculine noun and adjective; sa (with, the same) and gotra (lineage): “one of the same gotra”.

Meaning: a kinsman who shares one’s gotra (lineage).

In the scriptures:

In the kośa (the lexicon) of the words for human beings, Sagotra, Bāndhava, Jñāti, Bandhu and Svajana are given as words of one meaning (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 364).
In Pushkara‘s teaching on āśauca, for asapiṇḍas of one family purity comes in three nights, and for those of the same gotra by a bath alone. The sapiṇḍa relation ends in the seventh generation and the samānodaka relation in the fourteenth; by some views, the samānodaka relation ends when the births and names are no longer remembered, and after that only sagotratva, the sharing of the gotra, remains. For unmarried women the father’s gotra is their gotra; for married women, the husband’s (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 158).
In the cremation rite, the body is bathed, covered with a new cloth, worshipped with flowers and taken to the cremation ground; then a sagotra lifts the body and places it on the pyre. After the burning, the relatives, uttering the name and gotra of the departed, each give one offering of water (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 158).
In the teaching on vivāha, one must not marry a maiden of the same gotra and pravara (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 154).
Among the heirs of one who has no son, the gotrajas, those born in the gotra, come after the brothers’ sons and before the other kin. Among the kinds of sons, the kshetraja is the son born of one’s wife by a sagotra man or by others (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 256).

Related terms: Gotra · Sapiṇḍa · Samānodaka · Bāndhava · Jñāti · Bandhu · Svajana · Āśauca

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