Gochara names

Source: TW

5 gocharas

The Gocaras are Śiva, Jyoti, Šikha and Savitra. Each is subdivided in accordance with the division between the disciplines [of the Brahmacarin, Grhastha, Vanaprastha and Bhiksu)…. Persons carry the name of the Gocara of those who have initiated them, while the religious regimes of the [four] disciplines [adopted within each] are a matter of personal choice. These names [ending in -siva, -jyotis, etc.] are proper to brahmins. The names of Ksatriyas [, Vaisyas] and [Śūdras] are distinguished by the [ending] -gana, while all women are required to have names [ending] in-sakti.

The fifth gocara is completely forgottten even in scholarly writings: Vyoma.

Ādiśaivas are referred to those born in the five gocaras but it appears that they have all taken Śiva now.

jyotirgocarīs

I was just hypothesizing the same (aggressive proselytization by Śivagocarīs). The negative branding of Jyotifgocarīs (the only other group which dominated Saiddhāntika discourse due to the blessed memory of Sadyojyoti) in a Saiddhāntika text points to such proselytization. It’s otherwise odd and goes against the general command to honor all of Śiva’s devotees—doubly so for Ācāryas/Sādhakas.

An added angle may be the fact that asidharavrata was practised only by jyotirgocarīs and with a puritanical cleaning up of the Siddhānta, their legacy was sought to be (wrongly) undermined.

The others may have simply failed to make their mark. I don’t even know where to start with the Vyomagocarīs.

The loss of the Urdhvasrotas gochara-s has indeed been a mystery to me. However, we do have sadyojyotis, who some believe was from Kashmir. We have the curious gAyatrI-shiva and vyoma-shiva which combine other gochara names with the ubiquitous shiva suffix. We have king shaMkara-gaNa. - MT