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BRAHMANA

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 381 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRAHMANA , the See also:

Sanskrit See also:term applied to a See also:body of See also:prose writings appended to the collections (samhita) of Vedic texts, the meaning and See also:ritual application of which they are intended to elucidate, and like them regarded as divinely revealed. From a linguistic point of view, these See also:treatises with their appendages, the more mystic and recondite Aranyakas and the speculative Upanishads, have to be considered as forming the connecting See also:link between the Vedic and the classical Sanskrit. The exact derivation and meaning of the name is somewhat uncertain. Whilst the masculine term brahmana (nom. bdhmanas), the See also:ordinary Sanskrit designation of a See also:man of the Brahmanical See also:caste, is clearly a derivative of See also:brahman (nom. brahma), a See also:common Vedic term for a See also:priest (see BRAHMAN), thus meaning the son or descendant of a Brahman, the neuter word brahmana (nom. bisihmanam) on the other See also:hand, with which we are here concerned, admits of two derivations: either it is derived from the same word brahman, and would then seem to mean'a dictum or observation ascribed to, or intended for the use of, a Brahman, or See also:superintendent priest; or it has rather to be referred to the neuter noun brahman (nom. brahmd), in the sense of " sacred utterance or rite," in which See also:case it might mean a comment on a sacred See also:text, or explanation of a devotional rite, calculated to bring out its spiritual or mystic significance and its bearing on the Brahma, the See also:world-spirit embodied in the sacred See also:writ and ritual. This latter See also:definition seems on the whole the more probable one, and it certainly would See also:fit exactly the See also:character of the writings to which the term relates. It will thus be seen that the term brahmanam applies not only to See also:complete treatises of an exegetic nature, but also to single comments on particular texts or See also:rites of which such a See also:work would be made up. The See also:gradual elaboration of the sacrificial ceremonial, as the all-sufficient expression of religious devotion, and a constantly growing tendency towards theosophic and mystic See also:speculation on the significance of every detail of the ritual, could not fail to create a demand for explanatory treatises of this See also:kind, which, to enhance their See also:practical utility, would naturally See also:deal with the See also:special texts and rites assigned in the ceremonial to the severalclasses of officiating priests. At a subsequent See also:period the demand for instruction in the sacrificial See also:science called into existence a still more practical set of manuals, the so-called Kalpa-sutras, or ceremonial rules, detailing, in succinct aphorisms, the approved course of sacrificial See also:procedure, without reference to the supposed origin or import of the several rites. These manuals are also called Srauta-sutras, treating as they do, like the Brahmanas, of the Srauta rites—i.e. the rites based on the sruti or revelation—requiring at least three sacrificial fires and a number of priests, as distinguished from the grihya (domestic) or smarta (traditional) rites, supposed to be based on the smriti or tradition, which are performed on the See also:house-See also:fire and dealt with in the Gyihya-sutras. The ritual recognizes four See also:principal priests (titvij), each of whom is assisted by three subordinates: viz. the Brahman or superintending priest; the Hotri or reciter of See also:hymns and verses; the Udgatri or chanter; and the Adhvaryu or offerer, who looks after the details of the ceremonial, including the preparation of the offering-ground, the construction of fire-places and altars, the making of oblations and muttering of the prescribed formulae. Whilst the two last priests have assigned to them special liturgical collections of the texts to be used by them, the Samaveda-samhita and Yajurveda-samhita respectively, the Hotri has to deal entirely with hymns and verses taken from the Rigveda-sanzhita, of which they would, however, See also:form only a comparatively small portion. As regards the Brahman, he would doubtless be chosen from one of those other three classes, but would be expected to have made himself thoroughly conversant with the texts and ritual details apper taming to all the officiating priests.

It is, then, to one or other of those three collections of sacred texts and the respective class of priests, that the existing Brahmanas attach themselves. At a later period, when the Atharvan gained See also:

admission to the Vedic See also:canon, a special connexion with the Brahman priest was sometimes claimed, though with scant success, for this See also:fourth collection of hymns and spells, and the comparatively See also:late and unimportant Gopatha-brahmana attached to it. The Udgatri's duties being mainly confined to the chanting of hymns made up of detached See also:groups of verses of the Rigveda, as collected in the Samaveda-samhita, the more important Brahmanas of this sacerdotal class deal chiefly with the various modes of chanting, and the modifications which the verses have to undergo in their musical setting. Moreover, the performance of chants being almost entirely confined to the See also:Soma-See also:sacrifice, it is only a portion, though no doubt the most important portion, of the sacrificial ceremonial that enters into the subject See also:matter of the Samaveda Brahmanas. As regards the Brahmanas of the Rigveda, two of such See also:works have been handed down, the Aitareya and the Kaushitaki (or S'ankhayana)-Brahmanas, which have a large amount of their material in common. But while the former work (transl. into See also:English by M. See also:Haug) is mainly taken up with the Soma-sacrifice, the latter has in addition thereto chapters on the other forms of sacrifice. Being intended for the Hotri's use, both these works treat exclusively of the hymnsand verses recited by that priest and his assistants, either in the form of connected litanies or in detached verses invoking the deities to whom oblations are made, or uttered in response to the See also:solemn hymns chanted by the Udgatris. It is, however, to the Brahmanas and Sutras of the Yajurveda, dealing with the ritual of the real offering-priest, the Adhvaryu, that we have to turn for a connected view of the sacrificial procedure in all its material details. Now, in considering the body of writings connected with this Veda, we are at once confronted by the fact that there are two different See also:schools, an older and a younger one, in which the traditional body of ritualistic matter has been treated in a very different way. For while the younger school, the Vajasaneyins, have made a clear severance between the sacred texts or mantras and the exegetic discussions thereon—as collected in the Vajasaneyi-samhita and the Satapatha-Brahmana (trans. by J. Eggeling, in Sacred Books of the See also:East) respectively—arranged systematically in accordance with the ritual divisions, the older school on the other hand See also:present their materials in a hopelessly jumbled form; for not only is each type of sacrifice not dealt with continuously and in orderly See also:fashion, but See also:short textual sections of mantras are constantly followed immediately by their dogmatic exegesis; the term brdhmana thus applying in their case only to these detached comments and not to the connected See also:series of them.

Thus the most prominent subdivision of the older school, the Taittiriyas, in their Sarnhita, have treated the See also:

main portion of the ceremonial in this promiscuous fashion, and to add to the confusion they have, by way of supplement, put forth a so-called Taittiriya-brahmana, which, so far from being a real Brahmana, merely deals with some additional rites in the same confused mixture of sacrificial formulae and dogmatic explanations. It is not without See also:reason, therefore, that those two schools, the older and the younger, are commonly called the See also:Black (See also:krishna) and the See also:White (sukla) Yajus respectively. Although the ritualistic discussions of the Brahmanas are for the most See also:part of a dry and uninteresting nature to an even greater degree than is often the case with exegetic theological treatises, these works are nevertheless of considerable importance both as regards the See also:history of See also:Indian institutions and as " the See also:oldest body of Indo-See also:European prose, of a generally See also:free, vigorous, See also:simple form, affording valuable glimpses backwards at the See also:primitive See also:condition of unfettered Indo-European talk" (See also:Whitney). Of especial See also:interest in this respect are the numerous myths and legends scattered through these works. From the archaic See also:style in which these mythological tales are usually composed, as well as from the fact that not a few of them are found in Brahmanas of different schools and Vedas, though oft,en with considerable See also:variations, it seems See also:pretty evident that the groundwork of them must go back to times preceding the See also:composition or final redaction of the existing Brahmanas. In the case of some of these legends—as those of Sunah-Sepha, and the fetching of Soma from heaven—we can even see how they have grown out of germs contained in some of the Vedic hymns. If the See also:literary style in which the exegetic discussion of the texts and rites is carried on in the Brahmanas is, as a See also:rule, of a very bald and uninviting nature, it must be See also:borne in mind that these treatises are of a strictly professional and See also:esoteric character, and in no way See also:lay claim to being considered as literary compositions in any sense of the word. And yet, notwithstanding the See also:general emptiness of their ritualistic discussions and mystic speculations, " there are passages in the Brahmanas full of genuine thought and feeling, and most valuable as pictures of See also:life, and as records of See also:early struggles, which have See also:left no trace in the literature of other nations " (M. See also:Miller). The See also:chief interest, however, attaching to the Brahmanas is doubtless their detailed description of the sacrificial See also:system as practised in the later Vedic ages; and the See also:information afforded by them in this respect should be all the more welcome to us, as the history of religious institutions knows of no other sacrificial ceremonial with the details of which we are acquainted to anything like the same extent. An even more complete and minutely detailed view of the sacrificial system is no doubt obtained from the ceremonial manuals, the Kalpa-sutras; but it is just by the speculative discussions of the Brahmanasthe mystic significance and symbolical colouring with which they invest single rites—that we gain a real insight into the nature and gradual development of this truly stupendous system of ritual See also:worship. The sacrificial ritual recognizes two kinds of grauta sacrifices, viz. haviryajnas (See also:meat-offerings), consisting of oblations (ishti) of See also:milk, See also:butter, cereals or flesh, and somayagas or oblations of the juice of the soma plant.

Phoenix-squares

The setting up, by a householder, of a set of three sacrificial fires of his own constitutes the first ceremony of the former class, the Agny-adhana (or (?) Agny-adheya). The first of the three fires laid down is the garhapatya, or house-holder's fire, so called because, though not taken from his ordinary house-fire, but as a rule specially produced by See also:

friction, it serves for cooking the sacrificial See also:food, and thus, as it were, represents the domestic fire. From it the other two fires, the Bnavaniya, or offering fire, and the dakshinagni, or See also:southern fire,used for certain special purposes, are taken. The principal other ceremonies of this class are the new and full See also:moon offerings, the oblations made at the commencement of the three seasons, the offering of first-fruits, the See also:animal sacrifice, and the Agnihotra, or daily See also:morning and evening See also:oblation of milk, which, however, is also included amongst the grihya, or domestic rites, as having to be performed daily on the domestic fire by the householder who keeps no See also:regular set of sacrificial fires. Of a far more complicated nature than these offerings are the Soma-sacrifices, which, besides the simpler ceremonies of this class, such as the Agnishtoma or " Praise of See also:Agni," also include See also:great See also:state functions, such as the Rajasuya or See also:consecration of a See also:king, and the Asvamedha or See also:horse-sacrifice, which, in addition to the sacrificial rites, have a considerable amount of extraneous, often highly interesting, ceremonial connected with them, which makes them seem to partake largely of the nature of public festivals. Whilst the oblations of Soma-juice, made thrice on each offering-See also:day, amidst chants and recitations, constitute the central'rites of those services, their ritual also requires numerous single oblations of the ishti kind, including at least three animal offerings, and in some cases the immolation of many hecatombs of victims. Moreover, a necessary preliminary to every Soma-sacrifice is the construction, in five layers, of a special fire-See also:altar of large dimensions, consisting of thousands of bricks, formed and baked on the spot, to each, or each See also:group, of which a special symbolic meaning is attached. The See also:building of this altar is spread over a whole See also:year, during which period the sacrificer has to carry about the sacrificial fire in an earthen See also:pan for at least some See also:time each day, until it is finally deposited on the completed altar to serve as the offering-fire for the Soma oblations. The altar itself is constructed in the form of a See also:bird, because Soma was supposed to have been brought down from See also:heaven by the See also:metre Gayatri which had assumed the form of an See also:eagle. Whilst the Soma-sacrifice has been thus See also:developed by the Brahmanas in an extraordinary degree, its essential identity with the Avestan Haoma-cult shows that its origin goes back at all events to the Indo-Iranian period. Among the symbolic conceits in which the authors of the Brahmanas so freely indulge, there is one overshadowing all others—if indeed they do not all more or less enter into it—which may be considered as the sum and substance of these speculations, and the esoteric See also:doctrine of the sacrifice, involved by the Brahmanical ritualists. This is what may conveniently be called the Prajapati theory, by which the " See also:Lord of Creatures," the efficient cause of the universe, is identified with both the sacrifice (yajna) and the sacrificer (yajamana).

The origin of this theory goes back to the later Vedic hymns. In the so-called Purusha-sukta (Rigv. x. 9o) in which the supreme spirit is conceived of as the See also:

person or man (purusha), See also:born in the beginning, and consisting of "whatever See also:bath been and whatever shall be," the creation of the visible and invisible universe is represented as originating from an " all-offered " (See also:holocaust) sacrifice in which the Purusha himself forms the offering-material (havis), or, as we might say, the victim. In thi primeval, or rather timeless because ever-proceeding, sacrifice, Time itself, in the shape of its unit the year, is made to take its part, inasmuch as the three seasons—spring, summer and autumn—of which it consists, constitute the See also:ghee (clarified butter), the offering-See also:fuel and the oblation respectively. These speculations may be said to have formed the See also:foundation on which the theory of the sacrifice, as propounded in the Brahmanas, has been reared. Prajapatiwho (probably for practical considerations, as better representing the sacrificer, the earthly ruler, or " lord of the creatures ") here takes the See also:place of the Purusha, the world-man or all-embracing personality—is offered up anew in every sacrifice; and inasmuch as the very dismemberment of the lord of creatures, which took place at that archtypal sacrifice, was in itself the creation of the universe, so every sacrifice is also a repetition of that first creative See also:act. Thus the periodical sacrifice is nothing else than a microcosmic See also:representation of the ever-proceeding destruction and renewal of all See also:cosmic life and matter. The ritualistic theologians, however, go an important step further by identifying Prajapati with the performer, or See also:patron, of the sacrifice, the sacrificer; every sacrifice thus becoming invested—in addition to its cosmic significance—with the mystic See also:power of regenerating the sacrificer by cleansing him of all See also:guilt and securing for him a seat in the eternal abodes. Whilst forming the central feature of the ritualistic symbolism, this triad—Prajapati, sacrifice (oblation, victim), sacrificer—is extended in various ways. An important See also:collateral See also:identification is that of Prajapati (and the sacrificer) with Agni, the See also:god of fire, embodied not only in the offering-fire, but also in the sacred Soma-altar, the technical name of which is agni. For this reason the altar, as representative of the universe, is built in five layers, representing See also:earth, See also:air and heaven, and the intermediate regions; and in the centre of the altar-site, below the first layer, on a circular See also:gold See also:plate (the See also:sun), a small See also:golden man (purusha) is laid down with his See also:face looking upwards. This is Prajapati, and the sacrificer, who when regenerated will pass upwards through the three worlds to the realms of See also:light, naturally perforated bricks being for this purpose placed in the See also:middle of the three principal altar-layers.

One of the fourteen sections of the atapathabrahmana, the tenth, called Agni-rahasya or " the See also:

mystery of Agni (the god and altar)," is entirely devoted to this feature of the sacrificial symbolism. Similarly the sacrificer, as the human representatiye of the Lord of Creatures, is identified with Soma (as the supreme oblation), with Time, and finally with See also:Death: by the sacrificer thus becoming Death himself, the See also:fell god ceases to have power over him and he is assured of See also:everlasting life. And now we get the Supreme Lord in his last aspect; See also:nay, his one true and real aspect, in which the sacrificer, on shuffling off this mortal coil, will himself come to share—that of pure intellectuality, pure spirituality—he is Mind: such is the ultimate source of being, the one Self, the Purusha, the Brahman. As the sum See also:total of the See also:wisdom propounded in the mystery of Agni, the searcher after truth is exhorted to meditate on that Self, made up of intelligence, endowed with a body of spirit, a form of light, and of an ethereal nature; holding sway over all the regions and pervading this All, being itself speechless and devoid of See also:mental states; and by so doing he shall gain the assurance that " even as a See also:grain of See also:rice, or the smallest granule of See also:millet, so is the golden Purusha in my See also:heart; even as a smokeless light, it is greater than the See also:sky, greater than the See also:ether, greater than the earth, greater than all existing things;—that Self of the Spirit is my Self; on passing away from hence, I shall obtain that Self. And, verily, whosoever has this See also:trust, for him there is no uncertainty." (J.

End of Article: BRAHMANA

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