Names which may be held to have a totemistic origin occur even in the highest castes.

Thus among the names of eponymous Rishis or saints, Bharadwaj means a lark, Kaushik may be from the _kusha_ grass, Agastya from the _agasti_ flower, Kashyap from _kachhap_, a tortoise; Taittiri from _titar_, a partridge, and so on.

Similarly the origin of other Rishis is attributed to animals, as Rishishringa to an antelope, Mandavya to a frog, and Kanada to an owl.

[91] An inferior Rajput clan, Meshbansi, signifies descendants of the sheep, while the name of the Baghel clan is derived from the tiger (bagh), that of the Kachhwaha clan perhaps from _kachhap_, a tortoise, of the Haihaivansi from the horse, of the Nagvansi from the cobra, and of the Tomara clan from _tomar_, a club.

The Karan or writer caste of Orissa, similarly, have clans derived from the cobra, tortoise and calf, and most of the cultivating and other middle castes have clans with totemistic names.