A pravara is the short list of rishi-ancestors recited after the gotra in Vedic ritual: at sandhya, in the abhivadaye introduction, or in a wedding sankalpa. Most families recite three names. Some recite one, two or five. The remote ancestor usually comes first and the nearest one last. One gotra can have more than one documented form. The form your family recites is the one to write on a marriage biodata.
This finder reads the same pravara file the gotra hubs and the gotra pravara list already use. It was compiled in October 2026 from Wikipedia's Pravaras article (which points at Brough's 1946 paper in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society and Mahadevan's 2011 survey), from the Sri Vaishnava SriPedia gotra page, and from the gana-wise lists in Indica Today's essay on gotras and pravaras. A form is shown only when at least one of those external sources names it. Lines that existed only in older text on this website were dropped. A three-rishi Vasishtha sequence that is often quoted online, and that these sources do not give for Vasishtha itself, is not shown.
Type a gotra or pick one from the list. Common spellings are accepted where the data supports them: Kashyap, Kashyapa and Kasyapa; Bharadwaj and Bharadvaja; Vashishtha, Vasistha and Vasishta; Kaundinya and Koundinya; Vatsa and Srivatsa. Kaushik is kept separate from Vishwamitra. It has its own three rishis (Vishvamitra, Aghamarshana, Kaushika) in Wikipedia and SriPedia. Angiras is not treated as a single pravara: Angirasa opens many lines, and the useful question is which line (Bharadwaj, Gautam, Garg, Kanva, Mudgal, Harita or another) the family belongs to.
The result shows the rishis in recitation order, the count of those rishis, and the source for each form. It shows the gana when the file records one. It links to the gotra hub when a hub exists. Chauhan is labelled as inferred: Chahamana inscriptions give the dynasty the Vatsa gotra, and the rishis shown are the Vatsa pravara, not a Chauhan-only recitation. Families of Chauhan name in other communities may use a different gotra.
Veda, shakha and sutra are not filled in. The file records no sourced Veda for any gotra. Older pages on this site used to state one, and those claims were removed because none of the sources tie a shakha to a gotra. The Veda is a family tradition, passed on by the purohit, and it can differ inside one gotra. The abhivadaye sentence is the same kind of family recitation. The file does not store a ready-made abhivadaye line, so this finder does not invent one. If you need the spoken formula, ask the person who recites it at a wedding.
Pravara is a custom used in matching by some communities, especially where a sankalpa is recited. It is not a rule of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. That Act bars sapinda and other prohibited relationships. It does not bar a shared gotra or a shared pravara-rishi. Two families who share a rishi, such as the five names shared by Vatsa and Jamadagni, may still decide, with their elders, that the match is not for them. That decision is theirs.
Use the gotra finder if you only know a surname. Use this page when you already know the gotra and want the rishi line. Then confirm both with family elders or your purohit before the names go on a biodata or a wedding card. A printed list is a map of what the sources say, not a substitute for the family's own recitation.