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 general belief, that the Brahmans of the South are not pure Aryans, but are a mixed Aryan and Dravidian race. In the earliest times, the caste division was much less rigid than now, and a person of another caste could become a Brahman by attaining the Brahmanical standard of knowledge, and assuming Brahmanical functions; and, when we see the Nambudiri Brahmans, even at the present day, contracting alliances, informal though they be, with the women of the country, it is not difficult to believe that, on their first arrival, such unions were even more common, and that the children born of them would be recognised as Brahmans, though perhaps regarded as an inferior class. However, those Brahmans, in whose veins mixed blood is supposed to run, are even to this day regarded as lower in the social scale, and are not allowed to mix freely with the pure Brahman community."

Popular traditions allude to wholesale conversions of non-Brahmans into Brahmans. According to such traditions, Rajas used to feed very large numbers of Brahmans (a lakh of Brahmans) in expiation of some sin, or to gain religious merit. To make up this large number, non-Brahmans are said to have been made Brahmans at the bidding of the Rajas. Here and there are found a few sections of Brahmans, whom the more orthodox Brahmans do not recognise as such, though the ordinary members of the community regard them as an inferior class of Brahmans. As an instance may be cited the Marakas of the Mysore Province. Though it is difficult to disprove the claim put forward by these people, some demur to their being regarded as Brahmans.

Between a Brahman of high culture, with fair complexion, and long, narrow nose on the one hand, and a less highly civilised Brahman with dark skin and short broad nose on the other, there is a vast difference, which