Gotras

Gotra (गोत्र) is the line of descent a family traces back to a ṛṣi, passed down from father to child. A person takes their father's gotra, and a family's pravara (प्रवर) is the short chain of ancestor ṛṣis it names when it recites its lineage. Gotras are numberless, but their pravara chains come to only 49. Those are the dots on the rim. Atri's line, for example, is the Ātreya group: Ātreya, Ārcanānasa, Śyāvāśva.

Click a group on the rim to follow its line to the centre. Click a hub to zoom into that root or division, and again to zoom out.

About the chains

The wheel shows one standard form of each pravara chain. Families in different regions and traditions sometimes recite their pravara a little differently, so yours may not match word for word. The wheel keeps the classical grouping, so Gautama and Bharadvāja sit inside the Aṅgiras division.

Some names carry more than one chain. "Kauśika" is one: three groups use the Kuśika name, and the one that ends in Kauśika is Vaiśvāmitra, Āghamarṣaṇa, Kauśika.