Source: TW
The hiraNyakeshin-s are a branch of the taittirIyaka-s. Of the several distinctive features they have are special mantra.
E.g. this mantra for success of v3 in trade, where a bit of each object of trade is offered the deities in the fire.
यद् वो देवाः प्रप्रणं चराम
देवा धनेन धनम् इच्छमानाः ।
तस्मिन्त् सोमो रुचम् आदधात्व्
अग्निर् इन्द्रो बृहस्पतिर् ईशानश् च ।
स्वाहा ॥
If, O gods, we trade, O gods, wishing by wealth to acquire [further] wealth,
may Soma confer splendor on that [ wish], Agni, Indra, Brhaspati and Iśāna too. svāhā.
In the actual deployment soma is substituted by all the following deva-s one by one and oblations are made.
Other notable features include the their own little mantra-saMhitA & mantra-s with atharvanic connections. Thus, the hiraNyakeshin-s are special aspect of the AV-taittirIyaka connection mentioned below that needs a more detailed study.
The 2nd sūkta of AV-S occurs in 1.26 if AV-P. So paippalāda didn’t place both next to each other. Also paippalāda has an extra mantra- yat tanūjam yad agnijam… However both contain the mantra “sarūpā nāma te mātā”. The readings in atharvan are identical. TB has single variant
Today, TMK they are seen only in minute communities in mahArAShTra & drAvida which appear to be part of the same old migration. The chitpavan v1s I’ve met seemed to be evenly divided between AshvalAyana RV & hiraNyakeshin KYV. But a lele I knew in passing was a h’keshin. In TN hiraNyakeshin-s are a small group of the smArta v1s. But I also met a chitpavan who made a peculiar claim of back migrating from TN to the ko~NkaNa. He went by the name Khare – I have no clue how veridical his claim is.
The lore says that they’re recent migrants from Kaveri to Konkan and were accepted as kin by other chitpavans. Nasik for North MH based Chitpavans are RV Asvalayana (my maternal side) whereas southern ones are more likely to be Hiranyakeshi (paternal)
But it is interesting to see that this lore is not a peculiar claim of his. He even claimed that in the early modern period, there were khare-s who could speak draviDa.