[Advaita-l] About Satyakama

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Sat, 25 Jun 2016, Shashwata Shastri via Advaita-l wrote:

> Lord Shankara on his commentary of Chandogya represented Satyakama's 
> mother as a wife of a Brahmin. How come a wife of a Brahmin never had 
> the chance to know about her husband's clan?

My wife probably doesn't know my gotra or would have to think about it a 
bit before answering.  I have to know it for sandhya, puja etc. but for 
her it is an interesting bit of trivia that's all.

> Moreover she doesn't even know about her own family status!

She was married young, her husband died at an early age and as it was not 
personally that important she never bothered to find out.  Seems 
plausible.

> How did lord Shankara concluded that 
> she was a wife of a Brahmin? In means of what logic and proofs?
>

Well Satyakama wants to become a brahmachari and do vedadhyayana.  He 
knows he is going to need to be able to say his gotra in order to do.
Jabala as well may not know the details but she understands the importance 
of knowing.  So obviously they are not outsiders to Vedic culture.



-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>