Note 5 — Brāhman1

The early texts indicate that Brāhmans were in the habit of forming connections with the widows of Rājanyas and Vaishyas, even if they did not take possession of the wives of such men while they were still alive.5 The sons of Angiras, one of the great ancestral sages, were Brāhmans as well as Kshatriyas. The descendants of Garga, another well-known eponymous ancestor, were Kshatriyas by birth but became Brāhmans. Visvāmitra was a Kshatriya, who, by the force of his austerities, compelled Brahma to admit him into the Brāhmanical order, so that he might be on a level with Vasishtha with whom he had quarrelled. According to a passage in the Mahābhārata all castes become Brāhmans when once they have crossed the Gomti on a pilgrimage to the hermitage of Vasishtha.6 In more recent times there are legends of persons created Brāhmans by Hindu Rājas. Sir J. Malcolm in Central India found many low-caste female slaves in Brāhman houses, the owners of which had treated them as belonging to their own caste.7