Rajashekhara Dasa
From the book “Chaurasi-kosa Vraja Mandala Parikrama”:
It is said that this is the place where the great sage Gautama Rishi performed penance and presently there is an ashram located here bearing his name. The ISKCON founder-acharya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada belongs to the gotra, or genealogical line from Gautama Rishi. There are forty-nine established gotras that have descended from the eight great sages, the mind-born sons of Lord Brahma including: Gautama, Bharadwaja, Vishvamitra, Jamadagni, Vasishtha, Kashyapa and Atri. Agastya is also generally included in this group. These eight sages are called gotrakarins from whom all the forty-nine gotras (especially of the brahmanas) have evolved. The members of a gotra do not necessarily have to be blood relatives, but could be the descendants of a guru’s pupils, as in the case of Shrila Prabhupada, whose father belonged to the disciplic descendants or gotra of Gautama Rishi. Sanatana and Rupa Goswamis belonged to the Bharadwaja gotra, which indicates that they belonged either to the family or the disciplic succession of Bharadwaja Muni.
