There is some deal of fluidity in varNa in contrast to jAti but brAhmaNa varNa was not fluid to same degree. Given the responsibility, it’s natural that the level scrutiny before one can be a brahman will be greater. It’s just about merit, or more? There is absolutely no escaping the hereditary component as far as “brAhmaNa” is concerned…There is a finite number of gotras from which a brAhmaNa must have obtained patrilineal descent (svIkAra, adoption arrangements) between gotras were accepted. The old texts do emphasize the ARSeya (Of/from a RSi) root of a brAhmaNa - there is no denying this. Having clarified that, let me continue.
When scholarly texts speak of brAhmaNas as priests, it’s important to understand that “priest” has a certain context. Let me clarify this. We are speaking of, broadly, 3 main ritual traditions which were developed by brAhmaNas & where brAhmaNas have exclusive priestly roles
- shrauta (the vedic ritual system, now very rare but oldest and foundational)
- smArta (based on the VAST body of smRti-s including the gRhyasUtra-s (domestic ritual treatises) as well as purANas
- Agamika (In this system, non-brAhmaNas do have ritual roles & may even hold offices but Agamika temples have only brAhmaNas as priests)
Even in the above three systems I mentioned, not ALL brAhmaNas can be “priests”. They would have belong to a given lineage/clan. This prevalence of brAhmaNas as priests may have led some of us to think that to be a priest, one must be a brAhmaNa. But that’s not true. For instance, many of the village temples or even village gods’ shrines in urban temples in TN/AP have only non-brahmin priests. Example: In mAri-amman temples, it is the non-brahmin community called the paNDAram which serves the goddess. Almost exclusively.
So, here too, one observes the same pattern. It is not a brAhmaNa priesthood here but the same logic of lineage/clan applies. Not every “non-brAhmaNa can become a priest. In a draupadi-amman temple or a temple with draupadi shrine, the vanniyar jAti (non-brahmin) is normally the priest. So, if you are looking at “traditional” priesthood, whether it’s a non-temple based priesthood like shrauta/smArta or temple-based like Agamika (brAhmaNas are sole lineage carriers here as far as temple priests are concerned) or the village temples where you can have both brAhmaNa and non-brAhmaNa priests depending on type of god, you can deduce one common strand - “priesthood” as we understand it is not a mere job that we “merit” by our “hard work” or something we choose. It is almost always something you inherit & pass down or at least something you’re “allowed by the deity” to do, rather than pass some purely meritocratic test.