2
2
.
.
2
2
B
B
e
e
c
c
o
o
m
m
i
i
n
n
g
g
B
B
a
a
b
b
a
a
;
;
B
B
h
h
a
a
r
r
a
a
d
d
v
v
ā
ā
j
j
a
a
9
9
9
9
But Haraldsson (1997:127,119) notes the testimony of early devotees that many
persons from Puttaparthi and the surrounding villages were not so easily won
over, even going to the extent of throwing stones at him whenever he passed them
in the religious processions his devotees would organize. Thus, whilst Sathya Sai
Baba eventually did gain respectability in his home town, his identity as Shirdi Sai
Baba did not figure prominently in this—at least not in the early stages of his mis-
sion, in which, as we will see in the next section, this identity was most promi-
nent. By all accounts, this was no simple, calculated, claim to fame.
Sathya Sai Baba’s claim to be born in the gotra of the sage Bharadvāja also pre-
sents us with something of an initial mystery. Swallow (1982:128) and Babb
(1986:163) both follow Sathya Sai Baba’s official biographer Kasturi (1969:47) in
interpreting this reference to be an affiliation with ‘the Spiritual Lineage of Bha-
radwaja’. But, whilst, as we will see, they are not necessarily wrong in this, the
concept of gotra originally referred to biological, rather than spiritual descent
9
,
and something of this sense persists into recent times—P.V.Kane (1968-:2.484)
writes that: ‘When a person says ‘I am Jamadagni-gotra’ he means that he traces
his decent from the ancient sage Jamadagni by unbroken male descent’. David
Bowen (1985:485) correctly states that a gotra is defined as an ‘exogamous group
within a caste descended from some male ancestor’, but his application of this fact
to Sathya Sai Baba’s claim also proves to be somewhat misleading. Bowen
(1985:139-140) notes the fact that, by birth, ‘Baba’s lineage was not of the ritually
most exalted, the priestly, caste
10
, and writes that:
Bharadwaj, one of the revered seven sages of Hindu mythology… is …one of the au-
thors of the Vedic hymns…. Two of his daughters became intimately related to Vedic
gods…. His own father, Brhaspati, was divine—supreme deity of intellectual pow-
ers, priest and teacher of the gods…. By a single deft allusion, therefore, Sathya Sai
Baba laid claim to a lineage for himself of the most exalted order.
But all the ṛṣis are highly exalted figures—most of them of divine parentage—and
thousands, if not millions, of persons trace their descent from Bharadvāja. Whilst
Swallow (1982:136) similarly suggests that the above-mentioned claim ‘establishes
Sathya Sai Baba in a line of spiritual succession in a Brahman gotra, thus indirectly
asserting his Brahman status despite his non-Brahman origins’, we must note that
9
NB For an introduction to the gotra-system see p.V.Kane, History of Dharmashastra, II, Part 1
(1968-), pp.479ff. For some further details of the origins and development of the gotras, see D.D.
Kosambi (2002), pp.98ff.
10
NB Bowen does note, however, that ‘A wrong attribution of priestly rank to the family has been
made by some [cf., e.g., the assertion of Bharati (1981a) quoted p.77 above].
1
1
0
0
0
0
2
2
.
.
S
S
T
T
U
U
D
D
I
I
E
E
S
S
O
O
F
F
S
S
A
A
T
T
H
H
Y
Y
A
A
S
S
A
A
I
I
B
B
A
A
B
B
A
A
this concept is not limited to the Brahmin (priestly) caste, being intended to regu-
late the marriage alliances of all castes
11
. At an early stage the gotra system did
come to be monopolized by Brahmins, who were perhaps the only caste suffi-
ciently interested or able to, memorize records of the details of such. And it was
often the case that kṣatriya (warrior) and vaiśya (merchant) castes were merely
enjoined to adopt the gotra of their family priest. But the concept applied to these
other castes nonetheless.
H.H.Risley (1903:86) notes of one group of kṣatriyas employing the gotras:
The “Gotras,” unlike those of the Brāhmans, do not indicate that a family included
in any one of them is the descendent of the particular Rishi whose name it bears, but
the member of the Gotra claim to be merely disciples of the eponymous Rishi.
This is the type of understanding that we saw Babb and Swallow presenting above,
but it certainly cannot be said that the kṣatriyas here are claiming the status of
Brahmins. Even in some cases in which lower castes (who previously had not em-
ployed the gotra system) specifically claim biological affiliation with a Brahmin
gotra, they evidently do not understand this as a claim to Brahmin status—
although such claims no doubt did enhance their general social standing
12
.
Swallow (1982:125) and Babb (1986:163,n4) refer to the encyclopaedic ethnog-
raphy of Thurston and Rangachari (1909:4.247ff.) in noting respectively that
Sathya Sai Baba’s caste, the Rājus, ‘say they are Ksatriyas’ and that some of them
‘have adopted the Brahmanical gotra system’. But they make little light of this in-
formation, Babb concluding that ‘the relevance of this to Sathya Sai Baba’s claim is
not clear’. Had they dug a little deeper into this source, however, they would have
discovered that Thurston and Rangachari (1909:1.223,224) list ‘Bharadwāja’ as a
gotra of the ‘Bhatrāzus’, also known as the ‘Bhatrājus’, and generally known as the
‘Rāzus’—a name which is said to come from their being ‘the offspring of a Ksha-
triya
13
female by a Vaisya male’. Further information clearly aligns Sathya Sai
Baba with this caste, rather than the caste of Rājus (a.k.a. Rāzus
14
) to which Babb
and Swallow refer. Thurston and Rangachari (1909:1.223) note the Bhaṭrājus
[bhaṭrājulu in Telugu] to be a Telugu speaking caste of ‘musicians and ballad-
reciters’, and this accords with Swallow’s (1982:127) observation that, according to
11
This, and the following, comes from Kane Vol.II, Part 1 (1968-), pp.493-494. WIDTH
12
See, e.g., John Michener (1982), pp.81-82.
13
The linkage here is presumably through the Sanskrit term rājā, “king”. NB On the Bhaṭrājus, see
also http://www.bhatrajuvedika.com/bhatraju_clan.html [16-7-2007]
14
NB ‘z’ and ‘j’ seem to be used interchangeably in many instances by Thurston and Rangachari,
presumably due to the fact that they sound (and in some Indian scripts look) similar.