I have done a few threads on केवलाङ्गिरस-s & केवलभार्गव-s in general as well as particular sub-groups among them. But since this may be of interest to a few, I will do a thread particularly on the हरित-उपगण, which consists of a number of गोत्र-s including हरित-गोत्र. https://twitter.com/psaninfotech/status/1265738450105499656

So, there are a few in the ancestry of श्री-रामचन्द्, who became ऋषि-s: युवनश्व-2 (2 since there was an earlier युवनश्व but that isn’t relevant), his son मन्धाता, his son पुरुकुत्स & his son त्रसदस्यु, among others.

Now their becoming ऋषि-s didn’t alter the fact that they were क्षत्रिय-s. But they also became adopted into the आङ्गिरस-s by the grace of the then आङ्गिरस-ब्राह्मण-s.

We call these ऋषि-s of क्षत्रिय origin “क्षत्रोप्त ब्राह्मण-s”: ब्राह्मण-s with क्षत्र nature. These ऋषि-s possessed both ब्रह्म & क्षत्र तेजस्. Now, a natural question that arises is why हरिश्चन्द्र, सागर, भगीरथ, दिलीप, रघु, अज, दशरथ & राम are all known as क्षत्रिय-s only.

The answer lies in the fact that not long after the time of मन्धाता, this “unstable state” of possessing both ब्रह्मत्वम् & क्षत्रत्वम् would dissociate into purely ब्राह्मण & क्षत्रिय lines. What happened exactly?

Before going further, a disclaimer:

Obviously, some of this is based on rather reasonable extrapolation & common sense, etc as, unfortunately, our scriptures do not spell it out.

So, we return to the question: How did the ब्रह्मक्षत्रिय line eventually dissociate into properly ब्राह्मण & क्षत्रिय lineages?

The thing to note is that there were multiple branches for some of the names we mentioned above: युवनश्व-2, मन्धाता & पुरुकुत्स. What do I mean?

So, for example, मन्धाता had other sons besides पुरुकुत्स & each of these other sons had their own sons & so on, forming distinct patrlilines. One such son was अम्बरीश, a brother of पुरुकुत्स.

अम्बरीश had a son, युवनश्व-3, who was named after अम्बरीश’s paternal grandfather, युवनश्व-2 (see above). युवनश्व-3 then had a son, हरित. This हरित is the ancestor of all the हरित-s.

Whether हरित officially chose to found a ब्राह्मण lineage in his name or his patrilineal descendants chose to identify themselves as हरित-s; we cannot be conclusive on that. However, it is clear that the हरित-s ceased to be ब्रह्मक्षत्रिय-s & became full, आङ्गिरस-ब्राह्मण-s.

The हरित-s hold either one of the following combinations of 3 ऋषि-s for the प्रवर.

1. अङ्गिरस्-अम्बरीश-युवनश्व (युवनश्व-3)
2. मन्धाता-अम्बरीश-युवनश्

Now, how exactly do we understand the हरित-s?

Many people would think that “हरित” is essentially a गोत्र. However, हरित is firstly an उपगण aa explained in the 1st tweet. What does this mean?

Now, the गोत्र-s of all ब्राह्मण-s number in the hundreds. They all can be traced to any one of the following 7 ऋषि-s:

1. अङ्गिरस्
2. भृगु
3. वसिष्ठ
4. अत्रि
5. विश्वामित्र
6. कश्यप
7. अगस्त्य

The most basic level of ancestry for a ब्राह्मण is the root-ऋषि. So, here we see अङ्गिरस्. All of the descendants of अङ्गिरस् can be grouped into a total of 3 गण-s:

1. भारद्वाज-s
2. गोतम-s
3. केवलाङ्गिरस-s

1. भारद्वाज गण consists of descendants of अङ्गिरस् via his biological son, बृहस्पति & grandson, भरद्वाज.

2. गोतम गण consists of descendants of अङ्गिरस् via his biological descendant, गोतम, though there are many divergences about who is between अङ्गिरस् & गोतम, or after गोतम.

3. केवलाङ्गिरस-s: A variety of non-biological descendants of अङ्गिरस्, who were originally सूर्यवंशी or चन्द्रवंशी क्षत्रिय-s but became आङ्गिरस-ब्राह्मण-s under exceptional circumstances.

The केवलाङ्गिरस गण accepts the primordial अङ्गिरस् as their ancestor. They do not trace via the biological sons of अङ्गिरस् but via their own biological ancestors, who had become “spiritual sons” of अङ्गिरस्-ऋषि.

Since these आङ्गिरस-s deem *only* अङ्गिरस् as their ancestor & not the biological descendants of अङ्गिरस् (such as बृहस्पति, भरद्वाज, गोतम, etc), they are known as केवलाङ्गिरस-s (केवल-“only”).

Within this केवलाङ्गिरस गण, there are several उपगण-s: हरित, विष्णुवृद्ध, मौद्गल्य, etc.

Within each of these उपगण-s, there is a number of गोत्र-s. Within the हरित उपगण, there are several गोत्र-s, depending on which text you follow.

According to बोधायन for example, some of these गोत्र-s in हरित-उपगण are: हरित, कौत्स, दार्भ्य, नैमिश्रय, etc. Eventually हरित would give rise to various patrilines: That is, his multiple sons each have multiple sons; each of these grandsons have multiple sons & so on.

Now, at some point in one or more of these patrilines, someone wanted to identify themselves primarily as descendants of हरित. But in another patriline, there was a great sage & ritualist called दर्भ्य & his descendants wanted an even more distinct identity.

However, all these various गोत्र-s trace their ancestry to हरित & would use one of the two प्रवर-s mentioned above. None of these different हरित-गोत्र-s could have married each other.

So, our speculation is that some of these individual गोत्र names may have died off & coalesced into the functionally more useful “हरित-गोत्र”, which is actually the हरित-उपगण. //End