The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c15.2

c15.2

There was always, however, even for the worldly Brâhmaṇas, a circumstance which prevented their being entirely merged in the mass of the population, namely, their Brahmanical birth and their belonging in consequence to the Brâhmaṇa caste. The attempt to marry within their own caste and thus prevent a mixing with the lower elements which we showed above from the Jâtakas, would alone have sufficed to erect a barrier between these Brâhmaṇas and the rest of the population.