The early texts indicate that Brahmans were in the habit of forming
connections with the widows of Rajanyas and Vaishyas, even if they
did not take possession of the wives of such men while they were
still alive. [401] The sons of Angiras, one of the great ancestral
sages, were Brahmans as well as Kshatriyas. The descendants of Garga,
another well-known eponymous ancestor, were Kshatriyas by birth but
became Brahmans. Visvamitra was a Kshatriya, who, by the force of
his austerities, compelled Brahma to admit him into the Brahmanical
order, so that he might be on a level with Vasishtha with whom he
had quarrelled. According to a passage in the Mahabharata all castes
become Brahmans when once they have crossed the Gomti on a pilgrimage
to the hermitage of Vasishtha. [402] In more recent times there are
legends of persons created Brahmans by Hindu Rajas. Sir J. Malcolm in
Central India found many low-caste female slaves in Brahman houses, the
owners of which had treated them as belonging to their own caste. [403]
It would appear also that in some cases the caste priests of different
castes have become Brahmans. Thus the Saraswat Brahmans of the Punjab
are the priests of the Khatri caste. They have the same complicated
arrangement of exogamy and hypergamy as the Khatris, and will take
food from that caste. It seems not improbable that they are really
descendants of Khatri priests who have become Brahmans. [404]
Similarly such groups as the Oswal, Srimal and Palliwal Brahmans of
Rajputana, who are priests of the subcastes of Banias of the same
name, may originally have been caste priests and become Brahmans. The
Naramdeo Brahmans, or those living on the Nerbudda River, are said to
be descendants of a Brahman father by a woman of the Naoda or Dhimar
caste; and the Golapurab Brahmans similarly of a Brahman father and
Ahir mother. In many cases, such as the island of Onkar Mandhata in
the Nerbudda in Nimar, and the Mahadeo caves at Pachmarhi, the places
of worship of the non-Aryan tribes have been adopted by Hinduism and
the old mountain or river gods transformed into Hindu deities. At
the same time it is not improbable that the tribal priests of the
old shrines have been admitted into the Brahman caste.