The purpose of this book is to investigate the most important problems connected with the clan-system of the Vedic Brahmans, and to present the textual evidence for the details of that system at the end of the Vedic period. Since the Brahmans have preserved these exogamous clans (gotra) down to the present day, the system here described is not exclusively the concern of Vedic specialists, and the account given should also help to supply an important part of the sociological background for those engaged in the study of other aspects and periods of Indian civilisation.

A lack of awareness of this background has at times led to quaint results. For example, a recent English drama on the life of the Buddha portrayed the infant prince as receiving from his father, as if it had been a baptismal name, the gotraname Gautama. It is true that scholars are not likely to fall into such egregious errors, but parallel misconceptions do arise from time to time. Thus, the Nirukta ascribed to Yāska is generally held to be earlier than Pāṇini: but to add to the argument the fact that Pāṇini ‘actually mentions the formation of the proper name Yāska’ gives no additional support. Pāṇini's rule is concerned simply with the grammatical formation of the gotra-nameYāska, a name which must have been borne by a very large number of individuals. Similarly, the identity of gotra-name is in itself no argument for identifying Kātyāyana the Sūtra-author and Kātyāyana the grammarian, or Patañjali the grammarian and the Patañjali who composed the Yoga-sutras. It might at first sight be suspected that a name like Patañjali has been interpolated into the lists simply to ascribe a well-known author to a gotra; and such a thing may of course have occurred from time to time. But this is unlikely in the present instance. Weber long ago pointed out that the name Patañjali is in some way connected with that of Patamcala Kapya (Ś B); and although he was misled by a corrupt source (i.e., W, p. 152) into ascribing the Patañjalis to the ViŚvāmitra gotra, the occurrence among the Kapis, as expected, of the forms Patañcala, Patañjala and Patañjali, proves the point (pp. 124, 126).