The historical Kaundinya was a precocious youth who was acclaimed for his early scholastic accomplishments in his study of the Vedas. He was appointed a royal court scholar during the reign of the Sakya King Suddhodana in Kapilavastu, which was probably in Nepal.

Kaundinya gained further distinction when he was the only one of the court scholars to accurately predict that Prince Siddhartha would become an enlightened Buddha. Kaundinya became one of the five of Siddhartha's original disciples and spent his life traveling around India to spread his master's teachings.

One of my Grandmothers was from clan Kaundinya. I do not know if the sage Kaundinya, who is the family's ancestor, was the same as the Kaundinya of Buddha, but it was a name of one of the clans, or Gotras, going back to probably Vedic times.

Gotra, the ancient word for clan, actually means cowshed or stable. The people at that time counted their wealth in cattle and horses, and likely used the word to denote people belonging to the same bloodline, somewhat similar to the way that pedigree horses have their bloodlines traced back to their sires and dams.

The clan name is used as an identifier when ancient temples are visited to perform religious rites, or when a marriage is being arranged. The priests ask for the star under which you were born, your clan or Gotra, and that of your spouse to be. Among the orthodox, people from the same clan ancestry are not supposed to marry, because no matter how far removed, they are considered as blood relations.

There is another interesting bit of folklore...an origin myth from the Khmer people. Funan, a kingdom in present day Cambodia, had a king who arrived as a travelling brahmin from India, called Kaundinya. Kaundinya married a local princess called Soma, and the kingdom they ruled was called Funan.

Read a story involving Kaundinya called The Hermit and the Hare.

Sources:
Kaundinya - wikipedia
Surangama Sutra
Funan - wikipedia

~Contributed by Shyama Kaundinya