BRAHMANISM. — B. derives from brahman, as christianity from Christian, but whereas a Christian is one who professes the religion of Christ, a brahman is one who possesses the brahman, the sacred-magical formula which has the power to subject the gods to the will of men. The word “brahman” therefore has nothing to do with the cult of the god Brahmā (q.v.), a late masculine personification of the abstract idea of brahman, born of the realistic tendency to clothe metaphysical concepts in empirical forms so as to render them susceptible of veneration and worship. In the Greek age the faculty of disposing of the brahman already belonged to a limited number of brahmakrtas, “producers” of the brahman, who are the forerunners of the brahmanical or priestly caste, of which the Rgveda explicitly mentions only the hymn to the Cosmic Man, probably coeval with the earliest Brāhmaṇas (q.v.). Moreover, the word B. designates not only a form of worship and a complex of philosophical-religious doctrines, but also a series of political and social institutions whose elaboration goes back to the priestly caste. Religious conceptions changed over the centuries, but the castes and civil institutions survived down to our own day. Certain rites that consecrate the most important acts of life, the samskāras or sacraments, are still celebrated with Vedic ceremonial and the assistance of a brahman.
A distinction is usually made between Vedism (q.v.), the religion of the Āryans settled in the “land of the five rivers” (Punjab), and B. (c. 1000 B.C.–500 A.D.), which in another region, the Ganges valley, substituted the omnipotence of the gods with that of sacrificial ceremonies, and Vedic polytheism with pantheistic monism; it introduced the caste system and initiated that philosophical speculation which would culminate in the formation of the six orthodox systems. But this distinction is only partly justified. The germs of B. are already in the Rgveda, while the “Veda of sacrificial formulas” (Yajurveda) constitutes the link between the two ages. The word “veda,” sacred science, strictly designates the four “collections” (saṃhitā) of hymns and formulas which constitute the most ancient literary monument of India, consisting of revelation (śruti). But they are revealed doctrines, and hence Veda in a broader sense, also include the Brāhmaṇas, the Āraṇyakas and the Upaniṣads (q.v.). The Vedāṅgas, “auxiliary parts of the veda,” which consist of rules of sacred and profane content, especially liturgical, are the work of the priestly schools.
Our treatment concerns B. properly so called, divided into two periods: the age of the Brāhmaṇas (1000–800 B.C.) and that of the Upaniṣads (800–500 B.C.), which correspond to two different ways of attaining supreme salvation: the “path of ritual works” (karma-mārga) and the “path of knowledge” (jñāna-mārga). A third path, that of love, of devotion to God (bhakti-mārga), opened when to the brahman, conceived as the Supreme Principle, creator even of the gods, succeeded the theistic conception of Īśvara, the “Lord” who has created and governs the world. Faith in Īśvara already belongs to Yoga, an extremely ancient ascetic doctrine dating back to the 8th century B.C. The theory of avatāras, “descents” or incarnations of a divinity upon earth, later offered to the masses hungry for divine love, provided a way of deifying their heroes and gave the brahmans the opportunity to assimilate non-Āryan cults. Brahmanical tolerance was in fact unlimited, provided that the dogma was respected that the Veda was not a human work but a revelation. Belief in avatāras and devotion are the characteristics of Hinduism, the modern phase of Indian religions, also called neo-brahmanism because in the religious syncretism from which it arose the brahmanical element always prevailed.
KARMA-MĀRGA. — Already in the Black Yajurveda are found, mixed with prayers and formulas, those “ritual explanations” (brāhmaṇa) which were not collected in the homonymous liturgical treatises, the most important of which is the Brāhmaṇa called, from its hundred chapters, “of the hundred paths” (Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa). Brahmanical religion is founded on sacrifice (yajña), which is no longer intended to propitiate the gods so that they may grant men prosperity on earth and beatitude in heaven. These goods are produced by the sacrifice itself, by its mysterious power, which is of a magical nature. The gods are called upon to contribute to the sacrificial rite only as instruments; they themselves also used the sacred formula to obtain immortality (Śat. Br., X, 4, 3, 3, 8). The yajña resembles a mechanism whose parts are the gods, the officiating priests with their instruments, the sacred fires, the offerings, the acts and ritual words. If these parts exactly fulfill their function, the brahman is produced, the mystical power which the magician-priest knows how to turn to the advantage of his wealthy patron, at whose expense the ceremony is performed. In the Rgveda, III, 53, 12, the priestly family of the Viśvāmitras boasts of protecting the Bhāratas with their brahman. The sacrifice exists from eternity and is an emanation of the Father of creatures (Prajāpati), the supreme Being of priestly speculation. The most orthodox theologians of the Vedic age, the Mīmāṃsākas, maintain that the only purpose of revelation was to teach the doctrine of sacrifice.
JÑĀNA-MĀRGA. — But to this source of well-being in this and the other life only the privileged by birth and wealth could draw. To others was open the path of knowledge, which required no other sacrifice than that of oneself in the desire for the Supreme Truths. The muni, “the ecstatic,” who already appears in the Rgveda, X, 126, was usually an innovator, a rival of the brahmans, who, disregarding sacrificial ritual, sought in himself the power to work miracles and confer clairvoyance. This power is tapas, ascetic ardor, aroused by methods among which chastity, fasting and regulation of the breath are pre-eminent. And since moral conduct was an indispensable condition for success in ascetic exercises, ethical precepts arose with asceticism. The conciliatory attitude of the brahmans toward ascetics is shown by the fact that even the Āraṇyakas or “forest treatises,” works of hermits, came to be included in revelation. They substituted for the external cult of sacrificial ceremonies, impossible for those living in solitude, the internal cult of meditation on the symbolic meaning of the rites and on the relations between psychic forces and cosmic forces, seeking by this path to grasp the principle from which all proceed. From these liturgical meditations, thought then rose to metaphysical speculations, which constitute the “arcane doctrine,” the upaniṣad.
Brahmanism – Pair of the Brahman caste. Miniature from the 17th century – Rome, Pontifical Missionary Ethnological Museum of the Lateran.
The **coretici**, who belong to the first three *veda*, act as a link between the Brāhmana and the Upanisad, also called Vedānta, "end of the veda", since they represent the final Vedic product. Through comparisons between the microcosm of man and the macrocosm of the universe, the philosophers of the Upanisad arrive at a new doctrine: that of the unity of the cosmic principle (brahman) with the subject of knowledge within us, the Self, the *ātman*. Cosmic powers correspond to psycho-physical powers; yet both are manifestations of the immanent divinity, the All-One, which is unknowable because, being the subject, it cannot simultaneously be the object of knowledge. The mutual relations between the world and the Absolute, conceived as both immanent and transcendent, are the subject of Upanisadic speculation. Since the teachers of the new doctrine in the Upanisad include princes and kings, it was thought that philosophical speculation had begun in the warrior caste in opposition to the sacrificial science of the Brahmans. However, there is insufficient evidence for this. The credit for elaboration in any case belongs to the Brahmans, who are the authors of the Upanisad.
**Eschatological Doctrines.** – Formerly it was believed that the good, upon dying, ascended to heaven to feast in the company of Yama beneath leafy trees, while the wicked were immersed in the darkness of deep abysses. No return to this world was envisaged. But the *Brāhmaṇa* of the hundred paths speaks of a "second death" beyond the tomb, when the religious merit acquired in life is exhausted. Escape from decline is sought either in extraordinary ceremonies of great power, capable of rendering sacrifices and good works inexhaustible, or in various notions designed to preserve one from the second death. The belief in an afterlife and in the dependence of the deceased’s fate on deeds performed in life formed the premises for the pan-Indian doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which already appears fully formed in the oldest Upanisad. Life is no longer conceived as a brief journey from birth to death, but as a wandering (samsāra) through existence after existence across infinite births and deaths, until liberation (moksa) from this long travail. At death, the psyche dissolves, but the transcendent force of merit and demerit reconnects its elements into a new psychic organism, capable of receiving, in another existence—human or animal—the retribution of deeds in the form of joy or suffering. After a period of uncertainty regarding the means of achieving liberation from rebirth, the authors of the Upanisad ultimately identified this means in the union of the *ātman* with the *brahman*, the cosmic principle. Whether, in this theocracy, the individuality of the liberated continues to exist or is lost is a question resolved only later by the philosophers of the Vedānta. In the first sense by Rāmānuja (11th–12th century), who seems to uphold the oldest opinion, and in the second by Śaṅkara (9th century).
**Rites.** – Ancient India did not have, as did ancient Rome, a public cult. Priests offered their services to wealthy private individuals, princes, and kings, performing elaborate ceremonies called *śrauta*, i.e., based on revelation, whether periodic or extraordinary. The annual spring sacrifice of Soma was one such rite; it involved the preparation of the sacred drink and required the use of three sacrificial fires and the presence of sixteen priests. Among the extraordinary ceremonies are the consecration of a king and the horse sacrifice. The officiating priests in major sacrifices are: the *Hotar* or invoker, who at the beginning of the ceremony recites the laudatory verses of the *Ṛgveda*; the *Udgātṛ*, the chanter, who accompanies the rites with song; the *Adhvaryu* or executor of the sacrifice, who murmurs exorcisms and prayers to ensure the success of the rite; and the *Brahman*, the overseer of the sacrifice, whose duty is to correct any errors through appropriate expiations. For the completion of domestic sacrifices, performed by the father of the family, a single fire suffices—the domestic hearth—which receives obligatory offerings of milk in the morning and evening, and at midday, food offerings for the *Manes* and all the gods. The principal sacraments or *saṃskāra*, which consecrate the passage from one condition of life to another, number about ten, but it will suffice to recall, without describing them, the most important, beginning with birth rites, the last of which is the imposition of the name. The *upāyanaya* or initiation into spiritual life holds particular solemnity; it is conferred upon the Aryan castes between the ages of eight and twelve, after which the initiate wears the sacred thread and takes the name *dvija*, "twice-born." The period of studentship begins, particularly arduous for future priests, who must memorize the *veda*, dedicating nine or more years to this study. Women and non-Aryan castes are excluded from the *upāyanaya*. Upon completing their studies, the young man passes, through marriage, into the state of householder and assumes its onerous duties. Old age is suited to contemplative life; hence the Brahmanic theory of the *āśrama* or "stages" of the perfect life, codified in the *Manusmṛti* (v. Dharmaśāstra), prescribes abandoning family and home and retiring to the forest once one has seen the children of one’s children. This is the third stage, following studentship and marriage. The fourth is that of "renunciation of all things" to live as a wandering ascetic, begging alms in order to attain union with the *brahman*. This theory, whose actual practice is uncertain, was evidently a compromise between the observance of Vedic religion, founded on sacrificial rites, and the life of the ascetic.
**Mythology.** – The gods of the *Ṛgveda* are personifications of natural phenomena or the mysterious forces that determine them. The sun god is called Sūrya, "sun," and the Vedic seer celebrates his splendor and power; the reddening dawn, driving away the darkness, is invoked as Uṣas, the goddess of the dawn. But in the *Brāhmaṇa*, Vedic deities are overshadowed by others that were secondary in the Ṛgvedic age. Prajāpati is a god mentioned only once in the *Ṛgveda*, and in a passage perhaps interpolated. In the *Brāhmaṇa*, he is identified with sacrifice and made the father of the gods. Indra, Agni, and Soma continue to be venerated. Viṣṇu, a minor solar deity, and Rudra, under the euphemistic name of Śiva, "the auspicious one," prepare to assume, in neo-Brahmanism, supremacy over all the gods. With them is associated Brahmā in a "trinity" (*trimūrti*) dating from the 5th century and having nothing to do with the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. According to the *Mahābhārata*, the three deities are three forms of Prajāpati.