Self Lineage

For kids, what we first teach is to call his/her mother and father, and other relatives. Then they are taught his/her mother's name, father's name, etc. This is for the child to know about his family, to be more specific, the ancestors, or lineage. Normally we know maximum upto our grand father or  great grand father's name. In Hinduism the Veda is divided into 4 branches called Saakha, and each of us follow any one of those. They are Rik, Yajus, Saama, and Atharva. For each of the braanch, there are some rules, which we call Sutra.

Yajus saakha is further divide into Krishna and Sukla.

The sutras are:
Rik - Saankalaayana and Aaswalaayana
Krishna Yajus - Aapasthambha, Hiranyakesi, Bodhaayana, Bhaaradwaaja, Maanava, Vaikhaanasa.
Sukla Yajus - Kaathyaayana
Saama - Masaka or Aarsheya, Laatyaayana, Draahyaayana
Atharva – Vaithaana, Kaushitaki

To identify an individual's lineage we use Gotra. Pravara refers to the rishi's who belong to that Gotra. Some rishis who belong to a Gotra, started new lineage, leading to new Gotra. Hence a rishi's name can appear in more than one Gotra. For each Gotra, the pravara rishis may vary from two to five. So, once a person knows about his lineage, he needs to tell that to elders when wishing them. It starts as "Abhivaadaye...".

It is a sort of self-introduction while wishing our elders. In return they will bless us, which is called Pratyaabivaadanam. It will be like, Aayushmaan Bhava, or Dirgaayushmaan Bhava. In our introduction, we mention our Pravara, Gotra, Sutra, Saakha, Naama. Naama refers to name, which is the leaf of the tree.

Abhivaadaye looks like:

"Abhivaadaye <Rishi's names> [dva | triya | chatur | pancha]Rishiya <Gotra name> Gotrah <Sutra name> Sutrah <Saakha name> saakhadhyaayee <Naama> sarmaanaam aham asmi Bhoh"

Rishi's for a few Gotra's:

Naitruva Kasyapa Gotra: Kasyapa, Avatsara, Naitruva
Kowsika Gotra: Vishwamitra, Agamarshana, Kowsika
Bharadwaja Gotra: Aangirasa, Brahaspatya, Bharadwaja, Upreti
Srivatsa Gotra: Bhargava, Chyavana, Aapnavana, Aurva, Jamadagni
Vadoola Gotra: Bhargava, Vaitavya, Saveedasa

and so, on.

Depending on number of rishi's name, we have, dva, triya, chatur, pancha, which means two, three, four, and five respectively.

An example Abhivaadaye is,

Abhivaadaye Kasyapa, Avatsara, Naitruva triyaarishiya Naitruva Kasyapa Gotrah aapatsamba Sutrah Yajusaakhadhyaayee Neelamega sarmaanaam aham asmi bhoh

I, Neelamegam belonging to Naitruva Kasyapa Gotra, of three rishi's Kasyapa, Avatsara, Naitruva, following aapatsamba Sutra of Yajusaakha of Veda saluting you Your Honour.

Our culture and its importance must be taken to our next generation.

Upper Caste

Since independence people are divided into communities and benefits are given to people those who do not belong to Forward Community. I'm not sure on what basis this system is formed and on what basis they say Backward, Scheduled, etc.

If it was formed based on economic status, they could have given monetory help to those who are financially weak. In case they would have formed based on economic status of majority of people in a particular caste, we find people of so called upper caste are below poverty line till now.

Brahmins are called upper caste, and they are the people who are affected by reservation, etc. TN government gave monetary help to students of backward community. But in reality, most of the Brahmins are below poverty line, and have their livelihood from all sorts of menial jobs. Towards north, Brahmins can be easily found cleaning public toilets, a menial job that the government projects as if it is being done only by Dalits since ages. Fifty per cent of rickshaw-pullers in Delhi’s Patel Nagar are Brahmins.

They argue that Pandits are most rich people. The fact is that now, Pandits are living as refugees in their own land. So, on what basis the government is still giving benefits to dalits, and backward community? The answer is Vote Banks. This is what all political parties look for and support to.

Jayalalitha in her previous term said that she will provide subsidies to Christians for their trip to Jerusalem, as government does for Muslim's Haj. Many of the 108 Divyadesams are not having proper road facility too. But she has no care about those.

At Tamil Nadu's Ranganathaswamy Temple, a priest's monthly salary is Rs 300 (Census Department studies) and a daily allowance of one measure of rice. The government staff at the same temple receive Rs 2,500 plus per month. But all priests in temples belong to upper caste. They have no benefits from the government. But government spends Rs 1,000 crores for salaries of imams in mosques and Rs 200 crores as Haj subsidies. They have a large vote banks while in upper caste it is negligible.

This is called secularism. Jaihind.