The lineages of gurus which have nourished the culture of the land are called Guruparambara. Hindu civilization flourishes and continued because of intervention by strong personalities of various ages. These highly intelligent people who made revolutionary changes and authored voluminous books were so humble that they always said, it is by the grace of guruparambara that they are able accomplish the desired result. They respected their predecessors thus formed a lineage of Gurus. Each of them either contributed to the vast ocean of Hindu literature or became an exemplary spiritual luminary to inspire their students. The continuous flow of these personalities purified the ideas and modified them to be fit to every age. Now Hindu thought stand confidently against the scientific discoveries and assimilating its goodness into its fold without compromising the fundamentals because of the strong foundation given to it by its Gurus.

Many of the Ancient Rishis were described as having lived thousands of years with mythical power. This is to be viewed as a symbolic way of representing them for the purpose of story. As the literary works, are available and their genius are evident there is no reason to deny their historical existence. The successful literary work like Purana and Itihasa are only meant to express the ideals for which historical personalities stood and cannot be criticized for the imaginary figures they have made, for without which they cannot have achieved their success. The Guruparambara come down from Ancient Rishis to Acharyas of medieval period and then to recent Sanyasins and other important personalities of all race, cast and gender.

Every Religious sect in India remembers its long line of Guruparambara coming down from Ancient Rishis to present day predecessors. Advaita guruparambara remembers Narayana, Saki, Vyasa, Suka, Gaudapada, Sankaraka etc. as their early gurus. Nath, Giri, Puru, aranya, Sarasvati are some of the surnames accepted by some ascetic parambaras.

The tradition concept is that every Gotra originated from a Rishi; it has nothing to do with race but to a long line of teachers as Guruparambara. The birthday of Vyasa and Valmiki were celebrated in India by some cast also shows the reverence they give to the learned scholars from the community.