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Balinese Brahmana all claim descent from the mythical Wau Rauh, the highest priest of Majapahit, who in coming to Bali took wives from the various castes. His descendants established themselves at various places in Bali and founded the Brahmanic clans we find today, from the purer Kamenuh, to the Keniten, Gelgel, Natiba, Mas, Kayusunia, Andapan, and so forth (1937).
This talk of clans confuses two distinct principles. Kamenuh and Keniten are the Isubcastes' of Dutch ethnography based on the ideology of the origins of Brahmana types. Gelgel Brahmanas likewise fall into one of these ranked types, but they also are localized by their ancestral temple and perhaps distinguished by certain special duties, such as, providing religious mentors for the raja's line. It so distinguished, a particular local Brahmana group might come to epitomize its subcaste, or to conceive of itself as an independent subcaste with its own temple.

Brahmana traditions also provide a model for role differentiation in the houseyard. A proper Brahmana gria contains its religious specialist (pedanda) who often weds an equal wife. This istri pedanda assists him in ceremonial tasks and in caring for esoteric texts; she is his consort in representing the religious nature of the gria. Some grias produce an excess of women whose high rank inhibits finding a suitable spouse. As their fecundity wanes, these Brahmana elder virgins (detua) perform special ceremonial services for the gods. An Archipelago-Sanskrit stava recited daily by Brahmana priests of the Siwa sect expresses the interrelation of the essence of the descent group, its specialist priests, and the universal forces of Brahma:

Brahma is the manifestation of the Brahman, Brahma is a manifestation of Siva, heroic; He is known as Siva or the Eternal Siva, the Base of Siva's world.
Brahma is the Ruler of creatures in this world, known as the Lord of the Twice Born, the Diffuser of splendor. He is Siva Who possesses wisdom of all realities, perfect in yoga, manifested in the world.
The Diffuser of splendor, Siva's abode, His words are perfect sacred formulas;
He is present in the gods, a Master of yoga, (He is) Brahma, Visnu and Mahesvara.
Worship of Siva, yoga of Holy Water, is the base of the whole world;
it destroys all obstacles; it renders powerless all diseases.
(He is) the First, the Lord of the Twice Born, Siva, He is Brahma, standing in front;
embodied in all the gods, the God Who is both Sun and Moon.