The Ṛṣi index of the Vedic Anukramaṇī syste the Pravara lists: Toward a Pre-history of the Brahmansm and

Abstract

I have shown (2007, 2008) that a plausible history of Brahman migration to peninsular India from their Vedic homes in the Kuru Pāñcāla area can be constructed from epigraphy and other literature, using the three Vedic markers common to all Brahmans, their śikhā, the style of the traditional male tuft; the Sūtra affiliation, a specific Veda caraṇa followed by a Brahman, and the Gotra lineage, a specific family line stemming from a ṛṣi-singer of the Ṛgveda. My present attempt is to arrive at a prequel to the above, a prehistory of the Brahmans, by conceiving them strictly and neutrally as the corporate agency of the Vedic oral tradition(s) before its transformation into the historical Brahman caste grouping. (...)