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Jaina Community-A Social Survey
there are 130 Gotras among Jainas but only 24 are chiefly found to be in vogue at present.
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Secondly, there is no fixed rule among the Jainas regarding the number of Gotras to be avoided in contracting a marriage. This depends on customs prevailing in different castes. Among the Paravāras at some places 16 Gotras are avoided and at other places either 8 or 4 or only 2 Gotras are avoided. The Saitavalas are supposed to possess many Gotras of which the names of only 44 Gotras are available at present, but they regulate their marriages by the custom of family surnames, i. e., inter-marriages within the people having the same surname are avoided.89 Among the Padmavati Paravaras there are no Gotras at all and the question of avoiding Gotras does not arise.90
Thirdly, though Gotras refer to names of personages from mythological lists, the word 'Gotra' has sufficiently technical sense according to Jaina tradition. It has its place in the famous Karma Theory, and it occurs in the scriptures as one of the Eight Karmas. According to the scriptures, Gotra signifies the conduct of the soul coming down from generation to generation. There are distinctions of high and low Gotras according as the standard of conduct is high or low. It is this Karma that determines the high or low family for the birth of soul. This is, the technical meaning attached to the term 'Gotra' by Jaina authors. it is surprising to find that hundreds of Jaina Gotras prevalent in the Jaina community are quite different from the above meaning that there are no high or low Gotras and that people are not distinguished as high or low according to their Gotras.92
But
Fourthly, from the history of origin of these Gotras it will be' seen that they are not primordial, they were formed in different times for different reasons and likewise they might probably be discarded in future due to special reasons. There is no underlying principle in the formation of these Gotras. The Agravālas are descendants of Raja Agrasena but instead of following the Gotra of Agrasena, they instituted 18 new Gotras after the names of the princes.93 When the inhabitants of 84 towns were converted to Jainism by Jinasena Acharya, they were named as Khande avās and 84 new Gotras were created out of 84 towns. As the Gotras were named after the towns, the Khandelavalas of each town were formed into a separate new exogamous group.94 Śrī Ratnaprabha
