Caste and Race in India c7.17

c7.17

Whether marriage among the Brahmins was hemmed in by endogamous restrictions is not quite clear from the literature of this age. According to tradition, Chyavana and Śyāvāśva, two Vedic sages, married Kshatriya girls. On the other hand, the importance of pure descent was appreciated in so far as stress was laid on being a descendant of a Rishi. In the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, Kavasha is taunted with being the son of a female slave and in the Pañchaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa Vatsa is represented as having cleared himself of a similar charge.