Brahman
BRAHMAN.
[Source:
Dowson's Classical Dictionary
of Hindu Mythology] The
first of the four castes; the sacerdotal class, the members of which
may be, but are not necessarily, priests. A Brahman is the chief of all
created beings; his person is inviolate; he is entitled to all honour,
and enjoys many rights and privileges. The Satapatha Brahmana declares
that "there are two kinds of gods; first the gods, then those who are
Brahmans, and have learnt the Veda and repeat it: they are human gods." The
chief duty of a Brahman is the study and teaching of the Vedas, and the
performance of sacrifices and other religious ceremonies; but in modern
times many Brahmans entirely neglect these duties, and they engage in
most of the occupations of secular life. Under the law of Manu, the life
of a Brahman was divided into four asramas or stages:
- Brahmachari - The student, whose duty was to pass his
days in humble and obedient attendance upon his spiritual preceptor in the
study of the Vedas.
- Grihasta - The householder; the married man living
with his wife as head of a family engaged in the ordinary duties of a Brahman,
reading and teaching the Vedas, sacrificing and assisting to sacrifice,
bestowing alms and receiving alms.
- Vanaprastha - The anchorite, or "dweller in the woods, "who
having discharged his duties as a man of the world, has retired into the
forest to devote himself to self-denial in food and raiment, to mortifications
of various kinds, to religious meditation, an to the strict performance
of all ceremonial duties.
- Sannyasi - The religious mendicant, who, freed from
all forms and observances, wanders about and subsists on alms, practising
or striving for that condition of mind which, heedless of the joys and
pains, cares and troubles of the flesh, is intent only upon the deity and
final absorption.
The divisions and subdivisions of the Brahman caste are almost innumerable.
It must suffice here to notice the great divisions of north and south, the
Pancha Gauda, and the Pancha Dravida. The five divisions of Gauda, or Bengal,
are the Brahmans of - 1. Kanyakubja, Kanauj; 2. Saraswata, the northwest, about
the Saraswati or Sarsuti river; 3. Gauda; 4. Mithila, North Bihar; 5. Utkala,
Orissa. The Pancha Dravida are the Brahmans of 1. Maharashtra, the Mahratta
country; 2. Telinga, the Telugu country; 3. Dravida, the Tamil country; 4.
Karnata, the Canarese country; 5. Gurjjara, Guzerat.
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Modern
Languages MLLL-4993. Indian Epics. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D.
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Page last updated:
October 16, 2007 12:22 PM
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