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Dhatterwal, (also Dhatrawal, Dhatarwal or Dhetarwal), is Jat gotra .
The Jat people are a traditionally agricultural community native to the Indian subcontinent, comprising what is today Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region, Delhi, Rajputana, and the western Gangetic Plain in late medieval times. Primarily of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths, they now live mostly in the Indian states of Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh.
In Hindu culture, the term gotra is commonly considered to be equivalent to clan. It broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor or patriline. Generally the gotra forms an exogamous unit, with the marriage within the same gotra being prohibited by custom, being regarded as incest. The name of the gotra can be used as a surname, but it is different from a surname and is strictly maintained because of its importance in marriages among Hindus, especially among the higher castes. Pāṇini defines gotra for grammatical purposes as apatyam pautraprabhrti gotram, which means "the word gotra denotes the progeny beginning with the son's son." When a person says "I am Vipparla-gotra", he means that he traces his descent from the ancient sage Vipparla by unbroken male descent.
