The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c19.s3.32

c19.s3.32

33. Of course there will have been some priestly specialists, who seem to have been amalgamated in the group of sixteen or seventeen officiants assisting the yajamāna in the classical ritual. But it would seem to me that specialized priesthood was not necessarily characteristic of the bearers of the brahman.