BRAHMANESIMO. – B. derives from brahmano, just as cristianesimo derives from cristiano; but whereas one who professes the religion of Christ is called cristiano, brahmano is the name given to one who possesses brahman, the sacred-magical formula that has the power to subject the gods to the will of human beings. The word « brahmano » therefore has nothing to do with the worship of the god Brahmā (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 make them capable of veneration and worship. In the Vedic age, the faculty of wielding brahman already belonged to a limited number of brahmaṇṭas, those who aroused brahman, who were the forerunners of the brahmanic or priestly caste, explicitly mentioned in the Rgveda only by the hymn to the Cosmic Man, probably contemporary with the earliest Brāhmaṇa (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 to the present day. Certain rites that consecrate the most important acts of life, the saṃskāra or sacraments, are still celebrated according to the Vedic ceremonial and with the assistance of a brahmano. A DEISMO (v.), the religion of the Aryans settled in the « region of the five rivers » (Punjab), and b. (ca. 1000 B.C.–A.D. 500), which, in another setting, the valley of the Ganges, replaces the omnipotence of the gods with that of sacrificial ceremonies, and Vedic polytheism with pantheistic monism; introduces the caste system and inaugurates the philosophical speculation that would lead to the formation of the six orthodox systems. But this distinction is justified only in part. The germs of b. are already present in the Rgveda, while the « veda of sacrificial formulas » (Yajurveda) forms the link between the two ages. The word « veda », sacred knowledge, strictly designates the four « collections » (saṃhitā) of hymns and formulas that constitute the oldest literary monument of India, regarded as revelation (śruti). But the Brāhmaṇa, the Āraṇyaka and the Upaniṣad (v.) are also revealed doctrines, and therefore Veda in the broad sense. The Vedāṅga, « ancillary 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. in the strict sense, divided into two periods, the age of the Brāhmaṇa (1000–800 B.C.) and that of the Upaniṣad (800–500 B.C.), corresponding to two different ways of attaining supreme salvation: « the way of ritual works » (karma-marga) and the « way of knowledge » (jñāna-marga). A third way, that of love, of devotion to God (bhakti-marga), opened when the conception of Īśvara, the « Lord » who created and governs the world, took the place of brahman, conceived as the Supreme Principle and creator of the gods themselves. Belief in Īśvara already belongs
to Yoga, a most ancient ascetic doctrine dating back to the eighth century B.C. The theory of the avatāra, « descents » or incarnations of a divinity upon earth, subsequently offered the masses, avid for divine love, a way to deify their heroes, and offered the brahmans the opportunity to assimilate non-Aryan cults. Brahmanic tolerance was in fact unlimited, provided that the dogma that the veda was not a human work but revelation was respected. Belief in the avatāra and devotion are the characteristics of Hinduism, the modern phase of the Indian religions, also called neo-brahmanism because, in the religious syncretism from which it originated, the brahmanic element always managed to prevail.
KARMA-MARGA. – Already in the black Yajurveda there are found, intermingled with prayers and formulas, those “ritual explanations” (brāhmaṇa) which were subsequently collected in the liturgical treatises of the same name, the most important of which is the Brāhmaṇa called, on account of its hundred chapters, “of the hundred paths” (Satapatha-brāhmaṇa). Brahmanic religion is centered on sacrifice (yajña), which is no longer understood as intended to win the favor of the gods so that they may grant human beings prosperity on earth and bliss in heaven. These goods are produced by the sacrifice itself, by its mysterious power, which is magical in nature. The gods are summoned to contribute to the sacrificial rite only as instruments; they too made use of sacrifice in order to obtain immortality (Sat. Br., X, 4, 3, 3, 8). The yajña resembles a mechanism, whose constituent parts are represented by the gods, the officiating priests with their implements, the sacred fires, the offerings, and the ritual acts and words. If these parts perform their function exactly, the brahman is produced, the mystical power which the magician-priest knows how to turn to the advantage of the wealthy patron at whose expense the ceremony is performed. In the Rgveda, III, 53, 12, the priestly family of the Viśvāmitra boasts of protecting the Bhārata with its brahman. Sacrifice exists ad aeterno, 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 Mīmāṃsāka, maintain that the sole purpose of revelation was to teach the doctrine of sacrifice.
(phot. Enc. Cati.)
BRAHMANESIMO – Couple of the brahmaṇa caste. Miniature of the seventeenth century – Rome, Pontifical Missionary Ethnological Museum of the Lateran.
The aranyakic texts, which belong to the first three Vedas, are like the link between the Brāhmaṇas and the Upaniṣads, also called Vedānta, “end of the Veda,” because they are the final product of the Vedic tradition. Through comparisons between the human microcosm and the cosmic macrocosm, the philosophers of the Upaniṣads arrived at a new doctrine: that of the unity of the cosmic principle (brahman) with the subject of knowledge within us, the Self, the ātman. The cosmic powers correspond to the psychophysical powers; but both the former and the latter are manifestations of the immanent divinity, the All-One, which cannot be known because, being the subject, it cannot at the same time be the object of knowledge. The mutual relations between the world and the Absolute, conceived simultaneously as immanent and transcendent, are the subject of the Upaniṣadic speculations. Since princes and kings are also, in the Upaniṣads, teachers of the new doctrine, it was thought that philosophical speculation had begun in the military caste, in antagonism to Brahmanic sacrificial science. But we have insufficient evidence for this. In any case, the credit for its elaboration belongs to the brahmans, authors of the Upaniṣads.
ESCHATOLOGICAL DOCTRINES. - It was once believed that, upon dying, the good ascended to heaven to banquet in the company of Yama beneath leafy trees, while the wicked were plunged into the darkness of deep abysses. No return from the other world to this one was envisaged. But the Brāhmaṇa of a hundred paths speaks of a “new death” in the afterlife, once the religious merit acquired during life has been exhausted. It seeks escape from dying again either in ceremonies of extraordinary power, capable of making sacrifices and good works inexhaustible, or in various notions intended to preserve one from the second death. Belief in death in the beyond and in the dependence of the departed person’s fate on the deeds performed during life constituted the premises of the pan-Indian doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which already appears fully formed in the most ancient Upaniṣad. Life is no longer conceived as a brief journey from birth to death, but as a passage (saṃsāra) from one existence to another through infinite births and deaths, until liberation (mokṣa) from the long travail. With death the psyche dissolves, but the transcendent force of merit and demerit reconnects its elements in a new psychic organism, capable of receiving, in another existence—human or animal—the retribution for its deeds in the form of joy or pain. After a period of uncertainty concerning the means of attaining liberation from rebirth, the authors of the Upaniṣad eventually came to recognize that means in the union of the ātman with brahman, the cosmic principle. Whether, in this theocratic union, the individuality of the liberated person continues to subsist or is lost is a question that was resolved only later by the philosophers of the Vedānta: in the former sense by Rāmānuja (11th–12th century), who seems to have professed the more ancient opinion, and in the latter by Śaṅkara (9th century).
RITES. – Ancient India did not have public worship, as ancient Rome did. The priests performed their services for wealthy private individuals, princes, and kings, celebrating complicated ceremonies called śrauta, that is, founded on revelation, whether periodic or extraordinary. The sacrifice of Soma, which involved the preparation of the sacred beverage and required the use of three sacrificial fires and the presence of sixteen priests, was annual and took place in spring. Among the extraordinary ceremonies were the consecration of a king and the horse sacrifice. The priests officiating at the principal sacrifices are: the Hotar, or invoker, who at the beginning of the ceremony recites the laudatory verses of the Rgveda; the Udgātar, the chanter, who accompanies the rites with song; the Adhvaryu, or performer of the sacrifice, who murmurs exorcisms and prayers intended to ensure the success of the undertaking; and the Brahman, the inspector of the sacrifice, whose duty it is to remedy any possible errors through appropriate expiations. For the completion of the domestic sacrifices, performed by the head of the household, a single fire is sufficient, the domestic fire, which receives obligatory offerings of milk in the morning and evening, and at midday offerings of food for the Mani 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 mention, without describing them, the most important, beginning with the rites of birth, the last of which is the giving of the name. The upanayana, or initiation into the spiritual life, is invested with particular solemnity; it is conferred upon the Aryan castes between the ages of eight and twelve, after which the initiate wears the sacred girdle and takes the name dvija, « twice-born ». The period of discipleship begins, especially arduous for future priests, who must learn the veda by heart, devoting nine or more years to this study. Women and non-Aryan castes are excluded from the upanayana. Once his discipleship is completed, the young man passes through marriage into the state of a householder and assumes its burdensome duties. In old age, the contemplative life is fitting; accordingly, the Brahmanic theory of the āśrama, or « stages » of the perfect life, sanctioned by the code of Manu (v. DHARMA-SĀSTRA), prescribes abandonment of the family and home and retirement to the forest, once one has seen one’s children’s children. This is the third stage, after discipleship and marriage. The fourth is that of « renunciation of everything », in order to devote oneself to a wandering life and live on alms, so as to attain union with the brahman. This theory, whose extent of actual observance is unknown, was an evident compromise between adherence to the Vedic religion, founded on sacrificial rites, and the life of the ascetic.
MYTHOLOGY. — The gods of the Rgveda are personifications of natural phenomena or of the mysterious forces that determine them. The god of the sun is called Sūrya, sun, and the Vedic seer celebrates his splendor and his power; the dawn reddens the sky, dispelling the darkness, and is invoked as Uṣas, the goddess “dawn.” But in the Brā-
(from Th. San Gallo, J. B., Munich BII)
BRAHMS, JOHANNES - Portrait of Olga von Miller-Aichholz.
Ferdinando Belloni Filippi