01:2001:2001:20Uttarakhand set to offer 'gotra tourism'

DEHRADUN: Interested in knowing your ‘gotra’ (clan lineage)? The Uttarakhand government is now rolling out a plan to offer ‘ gotra tourism’ packages to tourists. Announcing the plan a few days ago, CM Trivendra Singh Rawat said that the idea is to encourage visitors to come to the Himalayan state to update their family records and also visit places associated with the sages after whom the principal gotras are named.According to belief, the saptarishis — seven sages — Kashyap, Atri, Vashishtha, Vishwamitra, Gautam, Jamadagni and Bharadwaj —were the originators of the gotras. The CM said that the tourism department will develop the places associated with the seven sages who are said to have meditated in Dev bhoomi, the Uttarakhand Himalayas. In addition, logos will be developed for each gotra so that “people can identify with their gotras in a better manner.”The state tourism department has also chalked out a scheme to digitalise the ‘bahi’ or lineage records which are kept by priests who are known as ‘teerth purohits.’ Some of these purohits are based in the char dham destinations — Kedarnath , Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri — although the majority of them are in Haridwar which has around 2,500 teerth purohits who have been maintaining family genealogies of lakhs of families since the past few centuries.Speaking to TOI, secretary tourism Dilip Jawalkar said that “we intend to put the details of family genealogies online so that people can get to know about their family history and feel motivated to come to Uttarakhand to get it updated on frequent basis.” He added that “our officers are also in consultation with priests, research scholars and experts to trace the stories of the saints from whom all the major gotras have evolved.” He pointed out that “the project was still in its initial phase and the basic homework was being done.”Meanwhile, Purshottam Sharma, head of Ganga Sabha , the body representing the teerth purohits in Haridwar, said, “For at least the past four centuries, people from as far as Sindh, which is now in Pakistan, have been coming to us to maintain their family records. Even when there were no proper roads or bridges, people covered long distances to update family records. We have been been performing our duty diligently. If now the state government wants to help, it should first provide better infrastructure at pilgrimage sites so that people do not encounter difficulties while travelling to these places.”