The Importance of Gotra
The Gotrachara is performed just before the bride is gifted away to the family of the bridegroom. During this ceremony, the Gotra or lineage, parvara and the names of the ancestors of both the families are declared aloud. The names are then written down in a piece of paper and again pronounced loudly. Later, the forty three mantras of the Gotrachara are chanted.
In Scriptures
Even the Ramayana has specific mention of the Gotrachara ceremony in its verse, “Joining the palms of the bride and the bridegroom, both the family priests recited the genealogy of the two families”.
The Gotrachara ceremony is also considered as symbolical of the Lagan Patrika and it is essentially performed to proclaim that both the families belong from good lineages and they can be traced back to the founding sages of humanity. Those families, who cannot trace their Gotras, are said to belong to the Kashyap Gotra i.e. descendants of Sage Kashyap. The Gotrachara is mentioned in the Padhatis, but not in the Grihya Sutras.