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Übersicht

• 2.13.1. Abstammung
• 2.13.2. Geburts-Stände
• 2.13.3. Königliche Abstammung
• 2.13.4. Abstammung aus einer Familie
• 2.13.5. Abstammung aus einer edlen Familie
• 2.13.6. Lebensstadien
• 2.13.7. Lebensstadium
• 2.13.8. Brahmane
• 2.13.9. Ein Brahmane, der alle seine sechs Pflichten erfüllt
• 2.13.10. Weise und gelehrt
• 2.13.11. In den Veden bewandert
• 2.13.12. Lehrer
• 2.13.13. Meister
• 2.13.14. Lehrer des Veda und seiner Erklärung

2.13.1. Abstammung

Colebrooke (1807): "Race or lineage."

¹ गोत्र - gotra n.: Kuhlstall, Sippe väterlicherseits, Clan

"The mass of material on gotra and pravara in the sūtras, the purāṇas and digests is so vast and so full of contradictions that it is almost an impossible task to reduce it to order and coherence. The learned author of the Pravara-mañjarī (which is the leading work on the subject) wrote in despair 'Here, in the parts of sūtras that have been quoted there is a great divergence in the order ( of the names of pravaras ) of the texts of the several sūtrakāras, this being specially so in the text of Aśvalāyana (śrauta )-sūtra. Thus, though divergence is clearly established, yet following the order of the texts of the majority of writers such as Baudhāyana, Āpastamba, and Kātyāyana we shall declare (the rules) about marriage or no marriage '. We have first to understand what gotra in the sūtras and digests means and how it is inter-related to pravara. Among the sūtras that treat of gotra and pravara the śrauta sūtras of Āśvalāyana (Uttaraṣatka VI, khaṇḍas 10-15), Āpastamba (24th praśna) and Baudhāyana (B. I. ed. vol. III pravarādhyāya at end ) are the most important. The Pravaramañjarī (p. 5 ) has a verse to the effect that Baudhāyana's pravarādhyāya is the best on the subject. The Śrautasūtra of Satyāṣādha Hiraṇyakeśi (21st praśna) has a section on this subject, which is the same as Āpastambaśrauta with a few omissions and variations. The Baudhāyanaśrauta-sūtra says ' Viśvāmitra, Jamadagni, Bharadvāja, Gautama, Atri, Vasiṣṭha and Kaśyapa are the seven sages and Agastya is the eighth; the progeny of these eight sages is declared to be gotra '. These seven sages are probably derived from what is stated in the Br. Up. II. 2. 3-4 ( =Śat. Br. XIV. 5.2. 6) where these very seven sages are enumerated as those intended in the śloka 'arvāg-bilaścamasa &c.' quoted there. The same work (Baud, śaruta) states that there are thousands, tens of thousands and arbudas (millions of millions ) of gotras, but the pravaras are only 49. Besides the sūtra works, some purāṇas like the Matsya ( chap. 195-202), the Vāyu (chap. 88 and 99, Anan. ed. ), Skanda III. 2 (Dharmāraṇya kāṇḍa) contain elaborate enumerations of gotras and pravaras. The Mahābhārata sets out at length the subdivisions (such as Madhucchandas, Devarāta) of Viśvāmitragotra in Anuśāsanaparva 4. 49-59. Digests like the Smṛtyarthasāra (pp. 14-17), the Sam. Pr. (pp. 591-680), the Sam. K. ( pp. 637-692 ), the Nirṇayasindhu, the Dharmasindhu, the Bālambhaṭṭī contain a vast material on this topic. There are also special works like the Pravaramañjarī on this topic. The general conception about gotra is that it denotes all persons who trace descent in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor. When a person says 'I am Jamadagni-gotra' he means that he traces his descent from the ancient sage Jamadagni by unbroken male descent. As stated by Baud., cited above, from very ancient times these male founders were supposed to be eight. This enumeration of eight primary gotras seems to have been known to Pāṇini. Patañjali says 'there were eighty thousand sages who observed celibacy. The accepted opinion is that the spread of progeny was due to eight sages including Agastya. The offspring (apatya) of these eight are gotras and others than these are called 'gotrāvayava'. Panini defines gotra for grammatical purposes as 'apatyam pautraprabhṛti gotram' (IV. 1. 162), which means 'the word gotra denotes (in my work on grammar) the progeny (of a sage) beginning with the son's son'. For example, the son of Garga would be called Gārgi, but the grandson would be called Gārgyaḥ and the plural Gargāḥ would denote all descendants of Garga ( downwards from Garga's grand-son ). But this definition is a technical one in grammar and is meant to indicate how derived (taddhita) words are to be formed by means of terminations. Even Pāṇini makes use of this technical sense only in the apatyādhikāra, but elsewhere in his work he uses the word gotra in the popular sense as comprehending all descendants of a common male ancestor. Vide the Kāśikā on Pāṇini II. 4.63, IV. 2. 39 and IV. 3.80. The Sam. Pr. (pp. 591-592) lucidly explains this. That a man belongs to a particular gotra is known by him only from tradition, from his father and other elders or from people about him, just as he knows that he is a brāhmaṇa from the same source. Medhātithi on Manu III. 5. 194 has a very lucid and interesting discussion on this topic. His argument is : just as, though all persons are men, some are called brāhmaṇas, so among brāhmaṇas certain persons are known by immemorial usage ( or convention ) as belonging to certain gotras like Vasiṣṭha and the sūtra-kāras lay down that a certain gotra has certain pravaras; so the word gotra is applied to Vasiṣṭha and other sages by rūḍhi (by convention or long-standing usage). It cannot be supposed that a person called Parāśara was born at a certain time and then his descendants came to be called Parāśaras. In that case the Veda would not be anādi (beginningless), as it is supposed to be, since it mentions Parāśara, Vasiṣṭha &c. So gotra is anādi like the brāhmaṇa caste and the Veda. The word is also secondarily used to denote a person, who is very illustrious on account of his learning, wealth, valour or generosity, who thereby gives a name to his descendants and then becomes the founder of the family. This is laukika gotra. But this is not the meaning of gotras which brāhmaṇas have. The secondary meaning may apply to the word gotra when used in the case of kṣatriyas. The Mit. on Yāj. I. 53 says 'gotra is that which is known from tradition handed down in the family.' Each gotra is associated with one, two, three or five sages (but never four or more than five) that constitute the pravara of that gotra. The gotras are arranged in groups, e. g. there are according to the Āśvalāyana-śrautasūtra four subdivisions of the Vasiṣṭha gaṇa, viz. Upamanyu, Parāśara, Kuṇḍina and Vasiṣṭha (other than the first three). Each of these four again has numerous sub-sections, each being called gotra. So the arrangement is first into gaṇas, then into pakṣas, then into individual gotras. The first has survived in the Bhṛgu and Āṅgirasa gaṇa. According to Baud. the principal eight gotras were divided into pakṣas. The pravara of Upamanyu is Vasiṣṭha, Bharadvasu, Indrapramada; the pravara of the Parāśara gotra is Vasiṣṭha, Śāktya, Pārāśarya; the pravara of the Kuṇḍina gotra is Vasiṣṭha, Maitrāvaruṇa, Kauṇḍinya and the pravara of Vasiṣṭhas other than these three is simply Vasiṣṭha. It is therefore that some define pravara as 'the group of sages that distinguishes the founder (lit. the starter) of one gotra from another'." [Quelle: Kane, Pandurang Vaman <1880-1972>: History of dharmasastra (ancient and mediæval religious and civil law in India). -- 2d ed. --  Poona : Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. -- (Government oriental series. Class B ; no. 6.). -- Vol II, Part I. -- 1974. -- S. 483 -486. -- Dort auf S. 479 - 501 ausführliche, sehr lesenswerte Informationen zu gotra]

Die Sanskritquellen zu gotra sind hervorragend und umfassend zusammengestellt in:

Dharmakośa / ed. by Laxmanashastri Joshi. -- Wai  : Prajna Pathasala Mandala. -- Vol. III. -- Samskarakanda. -- Part I. -- 1959. -- S. 231 - 410.

कुल - kula n.: Herde, Schwarm, Geschlecht, Familie, Wohnung

Abb.: कुलम् । Kolkata - কলকাতা, West Bengal
[Bildquelle: Knile. -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/knile/116026996/. -- Zugriff am 2011-03-13. -- Creative Commons Lizenz (Namensnennung, keine kommerzielle Nutzung, share alike)]

वंश - vaṃśa m.: Bambusrohr, Geschlecht, Sippe, Genealogie

Abb.: वंशः । Kolkata - কলকাতা, West Bengal
[Bildquelle: Matthieu Aubry. -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthieu-aubry/521443244/. -- Zugriff am 2011-03-15. -- Creative Commons Lizenz (Namensnennung, keine kommerzielle Nutzung, share alike)]

2.13.2. Geburts-Stände

Colebrooke (1807): "Tribes or classes. The sacerdotal, &c."

Siehe:

Payer, Alois <1944 - >: Dharmashastra : Einführung und Überblick. -- 4. Sitte und Recht der Stände (varadharma). -- URL: http://www.payer.de/dharmashastra/dharmash04.htm

¹ Brāhmaṇe usw.

चत्वारो वर्णा ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियवश्यशूद्राः ॥

1. Brahmane, Kṣatriya, Vaiśya und Śūdra sind die vier Stände (varṇa),

त्रयो वर्णा द्विजातयो ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियवश्याः ॥

2. Brahmane, Kṣatriya und Vaiśya sind die drei zweimalgeborenen Stände.

Manu I., 87-92

सर्वस्यास्य तु सर्गस्य गुप्त्यर्थं स महाद्युतिः ।
मुखबाहूरुपज्जानां पृथक्कर्माण्यकल्पयत् ॥८७॥

87.* Um aber diese ganze Emanation zu behüten, teilte dieser Großglanzige den aus Mund, Armen, Schenkeln beziehungsweise Füßen Entstandenen je gesonderte Tätigkeiten zu.

Aus Medhātithi: Manubhāṣya z. St. : [S. 42] "»Tätigkeiten«, die sichtbare und unsichtbare Ziele haben" (dṛṣṭādṛṣṭārthāni)

अध्यापनमध्ययनं यजनं याजनं तथा ।
दानं प्रतिग्रहं चैव ब्राह्मणानामकल्पयत् ॥८८॥

88.* Den Brahmanen teilte er Lehren, Studium, Opfern als Opferherr, Opfern in fremdem Auftrag, Geben und Entgegennehmen zu,

प्रजानां रक्षणं दानमिज्याध्ययनमेव च ।
विषयेष्वप्रसक्तिं च क्षत्रियस्य समादिशत् ॥८९॥

89.* Dem Kṣatriya wies er zu: Hüten des Volkes, Geben, Opfer als Opferherr, Studium und Nicht -Anhängen an den Sinnesobjekten.

Aus Medhātithi: Manubhāṣya z. St. : [S, 43] "Hier werden Zustände erwähnt, wie Gesangslaute, die Verlangen nach »Sinnesobjekten« bewirken, »Nicht-Anhängen« daran = dass man dem nicht immer wieder [d.h. häufig] frönt,"

पशूनां रक्षणं दानमिज्याध्ययनमेव च ।
वणिक्पथं कुसीदं च वैश्यस्य कृषिमेव च ॥९०॥

90.* Dem Vaiśya wies er zu: Hüten des Viehs, Geben, Opfern als Opferherr, Studium, Handel, Ausleihen auf Zinsen und Ackerbau ,

Aus Medhātithi: Manubhāṣya z. St. : [S, 43] "vaṇik-patha = Besitzerwerb durch Händlertätigkeit zu Land, zu Wasser usw., das Importieren von nützlichen ausländischen Dingen in das Gebiet des Königs, wo der Händler wohnhaft ist, kusīda = Geldverleih auf Zinsen."

एकमेव तु शूद्रस्य प्रभुः कर्म समादिशत् ।
एतेषामेव वर्णानां शुश्रूषामनसूयया ॥९१॥

91.* Nur eine einzige Tätigkeit aber wies der Herr dem Śūdra zu: Gehorsam gegenüber den genannten Ständen, ohne zu murren.

Aus Medhātithi: Manubhāṣya z. St. :  [S, 43] "śuśrūṣā = Bedienung, das Verrichten von Tätigkeiten, die diesen Ständen nützlich sind, wie z.B. Körpermassage, und das Beachten der Wünsche dieser Stände. Dies ist nur die Tätigkeit des Śūdra, die zu einem sichtbaren Ziel [nämlich Lebensunterhalt] führt. Da dieser Vers nicht präskriptiv ist, sondern nur deskriptiver Arthavāda ist, werden durch den Ausdruck »eine einzige Tätigkeit« nicht Geben u.a, verboten. Weiter unten wird die Anweisung für diese Tätigkeiten erfolgen."

ऊर्ध्वं नाभेर्मेध्यतरः पुरुषः परिकीर्तितः ।
तस्मान्मेध्यतमं तस्य मुखमुक्तं स्वयंभुवा ॥९२॥

92.* Oberhalb des Nabels gilt ein Mann als besonders rein deshalb hat der Aus-sich-selbst -Existierende verkündet , dass sein Mund das Allerreinste an ihm sei.

Aus Medhātithi: Manubhāṣya z. St. :  [S, 43] "Bis zu den Fußsohlen ist ein Mann [oder; der Puruṣa] rein, oberhalb des Nabels ist er überaus rein,"

* = Nach Bühlers Meinung Zusatz durch den Endredaktor

Die Definition der sozialen Rolle der einzelnen Varṇas geschieht in den Dharmaśāstras in zweifacher Weise

1. einerseits durch Bezug auf die Regeln der Lebensführung (dharma)
2. andrerseits durch Bezug auf spezifische Erwerbsarten (vṛtti)

Während der zweite Aspekt Varṇas als Erwerbsklassen ausweisen würde, spricht der erste Aspekt dafür, sie als religiös abgesicherte Geburtsstände anzusehen.

»Stand« soll eine Vielheit von Menschen heißen, die innerhalb eines Verbandes wirksam eine ständische Sonderschätzung, - eventuell also auch ständische Sondermonopole in Anspruch nehmen. Stände können entstehen primär, durch eigene ständische Lebensführung, darunter insbesondere durch die Art des Berufs (Lebensführungs- bzw. Berufsstände), sekundär, erbcharismatisch, durch erfolgreiche Prestigeansprüche kraft ständischer Abstammung (Geburtsstände), durch ständische Appropriation von politischen oder hierokratischen Herrengewalten als Monopole (politische bzw. hierokratische Stände). Die geburtsständische Entwicklung ist regelmäßig eine Form der (erblichen) Appropriation von Privilegien an einen Verband oder an qualifizierte Einzelne. Jede feste Appropriation von Chancen, insbesondere [von] Herren[gewalten oder Erwerbs]chancen, neigt dazu, zur Ständebildung zu führen. Jede Ständebildung neigt dazu, zur monopolistischen Appropriation von Herrengewalten und Erwerbschancen zu führen. Während Erwerbsklassen auf dem Boden der marktorientierten Wirtschaft wachsen, entstehen und bestehen Stände vorzugsweise auf dem Boden der monopolistisch leiturgischen oder der feudalen oder der ständisch patrimonialen Bedarfsdeckung von Verbänden. »Ständisch« soll eine Gesellschaft heißen, wenn die soziale Gliederung vorzugsweise nach Ständen, »klassenmäßig«, wenn sie vorzugsweise nach Klassen geschieht. Dem »Stand« steht von den »Klassen« die »soziale« Klasse am nächsten, die »Erwerbsklasse« am fernsten. Stände werden oft ihrem Schwerpunkt nach durch Besitzklassen gebildet. Jede ständische Gesellschaft ist konventional, durch Regeln der Lebensführung, geordnet, schafft daher ökonomisch irrationale Konsumbedingungen und hindert auf diese Art durch monopolistische Appropriationen und durch Ausschaltung der freien Verfügung über die eigene Erwerbsfähigkeit die freie Marktbildung." [Weber, Max <1864 - 1920>: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft : Grundriss der verstehenden Soziologie. -- 5., revidierte Aufl., Studienausgabe. --  Tübingen : Mohr, 1976. -- ISBN: 3-16-538521-1. -- S. 625 f.]

Die Geburtsstände (varṇa) Indiens entsprechen den Geburtsständen Europas:

Abb.: वर्णाः । Darstellung der Ständeeinteilung des europäischen Mittelalters (Holzschnitt des ausgehenden 15. Jahrhunderts)

Beschriftung:

• Priesterstand (~Brahmanen): Tu supplex ora = Du bete flehend!
• Adelsstand (~Kṣatriya): Tu protege = Du schütze!
• Bauernstand (~Vaiśya + Śūdra): Tuque labora = Und Du arbeite!

Die drei Stände tragen die jeweilige Standestracht. Über den - damit als gottgewollt bezeichneten - Ständen thront Christus.

[Bildquelle: Meyer, Werner: Hirsebrei und Hellebarde : auf den. Spuren des mittelalterlichen Lebens in der Schweiz . -- 2. Aufl. -- Olten  [u.a.] : Walter, 1986. -- ISBN: 3-530-56707-8. -- S. 129]

Abb.: वर्णाः । Die drei Stände, Tirol, um 1800
[Bildquelle: Österreichische Geschichte. -- Wien. -- Bd.: Ökonomie und Politik. -- 1995. -- S. 228]

Beschriftung:

Papst: Ich mit meiner Lehr viel Leut zu Gott bekehr.

Kaiser: Ich mit meiner Macht viel Leut und Land an mich gebracht,

Bauer: Ha, ha! wann Gott und ich nichts tät, Ihr beide nichts zu essen hätt.

2.13.3. Königliche Abstammung

Colebrooke (1807): "Sprung from a royal house."

राजबीजिन् - rājabījin m.: mit königlichem Samen, von königlichem Geblüt

Abb.: राजबीजिनी । Die Tochter des Nizam (نظام الملك) von Hyderabad (حیدر آباد)
1890
[Bildquelle: Raja Lala Deen Dayal (1844 - 1905)]

राजवंश्य - rājavaṃśya m.: von königlicher Abstammung

Abb.:राजवाम्श्यः । Junger Prinz und Hofleute, um 1880
[Bildquelle: Raja Lala Deen Dayal (1844 - 1905)]

2.13.4. Abstammung aus einer Familie

Colebrooke (1807): "Sprung from any family."

बीज्य - bījya m. (am Ende von Komposita): aus dem und dem Samen hervorgegangen, von dem und dem stammend

Abb.: गांधीबीज्याः । Kasturba Gandhi (कस्तूरबा गांधी), die Gattin von Mahatma Gandhi mit ihren vier Söhnen, Südafrika, 1902
[Bildquelle: Wikimedia. -- Public domain]

कुलसंभव - kulasaṃbhava m.: aus einer Familie entstanden, aus einer Familie stammend, von ehrbarer Herkunft

Abb.: कुलसंभवाः । Thar - थार, Rajasthan
[Bildquelle: Dylan DeFalco. -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/dylandefalco/746523972/. -- Zugriff am 2011-03-13. -- Creative Commons Lizenz (Namensnennung, keine kommerzielle Nutzung, share alike)]

2.13.5. Abstammung aus einer edlen Familie

Colebrooke (1807): "Of honourable parentage."

कुलीन - kulīna m.: von edler Familie, edel

Abb.: कुलीणाः । Die Nehru-Gandhi-Sippe - गांधी-नेहरू परिवार (unvollständig)
[Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehru-Gandhi_family. -- Zugriff am 2011-03-15]

सभ्य - sabhya m.: zur Versammlung zugelassen, gesellschaftsfähig

Abb.: सभ्याः । Mitglieder eines Panchayat (पंचायत), Tamil Nadu
[Bildquelle: PWRDF. -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/45005153@N07/5395576681/. -- Zugriff am 2011-03-15. -- Creative Commons Lizenz (Namensnennung)]

2.13.6. Lebensstadien

Colebrooke (1807): "The four orders. In succession enumerated : viz. 1st. The religious student, who has received investiture, and is unmarried. 2d. The householder or married man. 3d. The hermit or anchoret. 4th. The mendicant or ascetic."

Vasiṣṭha 7,1-3

1. Es gibt vier Lebensstadien (āśrama):

ब्रह्मचारिगृहस्थवानप्रस्थपरिव्राजकाः ॥२॥

2.

1. brahmacārin = sexuell enthaltsamer Schüler
2. gṛhastha = verheirateter Hausvater
3. vānaprastha = aus dem aktiven Leben zurückgezogener Waldeinsiedler
4. parivrājaka = Erlösung suchender Wanderasket

   [statt parivrājaka wird dieser in vielen Quellen als saṃnyāsin bezeichnet]

तेषां वेदमधीत्य वेदौ वेदान्वाविशीर्णब्रह्मचर्यो यमिच्छेत्तमावसेत् ॥३॥

3. Wenn er ohne die sexuelle Enthaltsamkeit zu brechen einen Veda, zwei Veden oder alle Veden studiert hat, kann er von dem Lebensstadium leben, das er möchte.

ब्रह्मचारिन् - brahmacārin m.: zölibatärer Schüler

Abb.: ब्रह्मचारिणः । Veda-Schüler, Karnataka
[Bildquelle: Pradeep Kumbhashi. -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/kpradeep/4224064109/. -- Zugriff am 2011-03-15. -- Creative Commons Lizenz (Namensnennung)]

भिक्षु - bhikṣu m.: Mönch

Abb.: भिक्षू । "Punyaki, a ragini of Bhairava raga, pours water over the hands of a passing mendicant, a sannyasi."
[Bildquelle: Asian Curator at The San Diego Museum of Art. -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/asianartsandiego/4837864899/. -- Zugriff am 2011-03-15. -- Creative Commons Lizenz (Namensnennung, keine kommerzielle Nutzung, keine Bearbeitung)]

Abb.: भिक्षुः । संन्यासमहादीक्षा - saṃnyāsa-mahādīkṣā - Weihe zum Saṃnyāsin
[Bildquelle: His Holiness Bhaktiratna Sadhu Swami Gaurangapada. -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaurangapada/152457427/ . -- Zugriff am 2011-03-15. -- Creative Commons Lizenz (Namensnennung, keine kommerzielle Nutzung, keine Bearbeitung)]

Abb.: Sannyasi’ [samnyāsin] a Saiva [śaivas] mendicant. [Bildquelle: Tashrih al-aqvam, an account of origins and occupations of some of the sects, castes and tribes of India, 1825 / British Library. -- https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/12459195783/in/photostream/. -- Zugriff am 2017-06-01] "§ 31. Religious Devotees and Mendicants (2,755,900): The abdication of worldly position and the relinquishment of all possessions and family ties, in order to pursue an undisturbed course of contemplation preparatory to quitting the present existence, is a proceeding which has been strongly attractive to the higher ranks of the Brāhmanic community almost from the post-Vedic organisation of society upon sacerdotal lines. Indeed, according to the strict theory of duty set forth in the treatises dealing with the Perfect Life, it is incumbent upon every Brāhman thus to break with his former ties as he feels old age creeping over him. Although this injunction is substantially inoperative, there are other considerations which tend to swell the ranks of religious devotees in modern India. Looking only at the lower side of the case, the vast number of popular saints and deities, some universal, others with only local renown, is in itself an inducement to many to earn their living by invoking a blessing in the name of one or other of these objects of veneration upon the households within the area of adoration, receiving in return a handful of meal and a pinch or two of condiments. Life is easily sustained in the tropics upon this frugal diet, whilst the climate affords opportunities for a pleasant nomadic existence, which, if extended as it often is, to the visitation of the chief centres of pilgrimage, brings these classes into contact with their co-religionists from all parts of the country. It is no matter for surprise, therefore, that about one in a hundred of the population has thus taken to the road, leaving little room, accordingly, for the lay mendicant, outside the ranks of the maimed, the halt, the blind and the leper. But whilst the lower grades of the profession are laxly recruited and the members thereof take their calling very lightly, there is in all the principal orders a body formally initiated and put through a course of instruction in certain tenets of doctrine and morality which they are in turn sent forth to inculcate upon the community at large. Abb.: Sadhoos [Sādhu - સાધુ] of Gujarat [ગુજરાત] [Bildquelle: Johnson, William: Photographs of Western India, ca. 1855-1862, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University] Abb.: Byragees [Vairāgī] [Bildquelle: Johnson, William: Photographs of Western India, ca. 1855-1862, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University] Abb.: Gosaee [Gosāīṁ - गोसाईं] Women [Bildquelle: Johnson, William: Photographs of Western India, ca. 1855-1862, DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University] Most of the great orders originated in the South of India. Some are said to have been instituted by the celebrated Śaiva reformer, Śaṅkarācārya [ആദി ശങ്കരൻ, 8. Jhdt], but most attribute their creation to his successor, Rāmānuja [இராமானுசர், 12. Jhdt]. On reaching upper India, however, their constitution and practice were altered by Rāmānanda [रामानन्द, 14. Jhdt.] and Caitanya [চৈতন্য, 1486 - 1533], who mitigated to a considerable extent the exclusiveness of their recruitment and the austerity of their regulations. The object which these bodies were originally formed to promote was the extirpation of Buddhism, a task begun by the great leaders of the Brāhmanical revival. Confined at first to the Brāhman and Kṣatriya, or Rājput [राजपूत], the orders began, in due course, to open their ranks to members of other castes, and then split up into two sections, the celibate, or ascetic, and the domestic. The orders which admitted the lower castes too, were soon subdivided into the exclusive and the catholic branches, as in the case of the Vaiṣṇava [ৱৈষ্ণৱ] of Bengal [বঙ্গ], part of whom came under the levelling influence of Caitanya [চৈতন্য, 1486 - 1533]. The branch which takes to family life forms separate endogamous communities, and judging from the number of women returned under the various titles, excluding certain castes which bear a name also borne by non-ascetic bodies, such subdivisions appear to be in the majority, for there are in the aggregate 90 women to every 100 men. In Bengal [বঙ্গ], indeed, the former are in excess, as they are in the population at large in that province. In upper India, however, there are many large establishments of the nature of monasteries which supply the bulk of the higher grades of itinerant teachers. Even in these, however, the functions of the fraternity are not restricted to religion, for some of the Mahantas [महन्त], or Abbots, as they have been called, have been noted money-lenders on the strength of the funds and endowments of their charge. In former days, too, bodies of these devotees used to be formed into irregular forces, which exhibited in action the same fanatical ferocity as is now associated with the Muslim Ghāzi [غازي] and in the middle of last century with the Sikh Akālī [ਅਕਾਲੀ]. A remnant of one of these bands still survives, it is said, in the Dādūpanthī Nāgā [दादूपंथी नागा] of the State of Jaipur [जयपुर] in Rājputāna [राजपुतान], a country associated to some extent with the expansion of the ascetic movement. It is not proposed to enter here into the doctrinal differences between the various fraternities further than to mention that there is the usual main division of the principal bodies into Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava, with many subdivisions, the latter school being the more modern. Nor, again, is it necessary to set forth in detail the sections of the orders, since being recruited from all classes of the population, regardless of caste or race, they are of no ethnographic importance, and under each head are included members of the Sikh [ਸਿੱਖੀ], Jain [जैन] and Muslim creeds along with those of orthodox Brāhmanism.  It is impossible, indeed, to state accurately the numbers falling under each head, owing to the loose way in which the principal designations are applied. Under the title of Fakir [فقير], for instance, which is specially applicable to Muslim devotees, nearly 450,000 Brāhmanists and Sikhs [ਸਿੱਖੀ] are returned. The Atīt, again, a general title, are given as identical with Gosāvī or Sannyāsī as well as under their own heading. Vairāgī or Bairāgī covers not only the Vaiṣṇava and some of the Daṇḍāsi, but also most of those returning themselves as Bhāva or Sādhu, terms used of Brāhmanic devotees in general. Still more misleading is the return under Jōgī, an order differing from the rest in its origin, and conjecturally not called into existence to combat schism, but itself a heretical order, proscribed by the orthodox, probably on account of its then Jain [जैन] or Buddhist proclivities. It is shown in combination with the Jugi [জুগি], a class of coarse-cotton weavers in eastern Bengal [বঙ্গ] and Assam [অসম], reputed to have come from the south-west, but undoubtedly taking its rise from some religious organisation of the lower classes, and now said to be “assuming the sacred thread en masse”, and contesting its right to wear it against the local Brāhmanity. In upper India, the Jōgī or Yōgī community is divided into those who have a right to the title by profession and initiation and others who have assumed it for the convenience of their calling. The former, of whom there are two main subdivisions, have their monasteries and settled organisation, the latter who are returned in the Panjāb [ਪੰਜਾਬ], Rājputāna [राजपुतान] and Gujarāt [ગુજરાત] under the name also of Rāval [रावल], trade upon the reputation the other Jōgī have acquired for obtaining supernatural powers of divination by dint of contemplation and mental abstraction; consequently, “any rascally beggar who pretends to be able to Tēlī fortunes or to practice astrological or necromantic arts in however small a degree, buys a drum and calls himself a Jōgī”. The 43,000 Muslim returned as Jōgī in the Panjāb [ਪੰਜਾਬ]  and its neighbourhood are thus accounted for. Considering the Dravidian origin of most of the ascetic orders and the traces of the South still preserved in their customs and nomenclature, it is remarkable that hardly any are now found in that part of India, and those chiefly of the lower class. Even the mendicants who there ply their trade in the name of religion hold no reputable position in the community. This is perhaps attributable to the fact that though the genesis of the great orders took place in the south, it was in the north that the need of their propagandist efforts was most pressing." [Quelle: Baines, Athelstane <1847 - 1925>: Ethnography (castes and tribes) / by Athelstane Baines. With a list of the more important works on Indian ethnography by W. Siegling <1880 - 1946>. -- Strassburg : Trübner, 1912. -- 211 S. -- (Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde = Encyclopedia of Indo-Aryan research ; II, 5). -- § 31]

2.13.7. Lebensstadium

Colebrooke (1807): "An order, or religious state. Either of the four above enumerated."

2.13.8. Brahmane

Colebrooke (1807): "A man of the sacerdotal tribe."

Siehe auch:

Amarasiṃha <6./8. Jhdt. n. Chr.>: Nāmaliṅgānuśāsana (Amarakośa) / übersetzt von Alois Payer <1944 - >. -- 2. Dvitīyaṃ kāṇḍam. -- 13. brahmavargaḥ  (Über Brahmanen). -- 1. Vers 1 - 7a. (Abstammung, Stände, Brahmanen). -- Anhang: Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya über Brahmanen (1896).  -- Fassung vom 2017-04-17. --  URL: http://www.payer.de/amarakosa5/amara213aAnhang.htm 

Payer, Alois <1944 - >: Quellenkunde zur indischen Geschichte bis 1858. -- 16. Quellen aus der Zeit des British Raj. -- 5. Zum Beispiel: Brāhman / Thurston, Edgar <1855-1935> ; Rangachari, K.: Castes and tribes of southern India, 1909. -- Fassung vom 2008-06-25. -- http://www.payer.de/quellenkunde/quellen1605.htm

¹ विप्र - vipra m.: "Zitterer", Erregter, Verzückter, Dichter, Sänger, Priester, gelehrter Brahmane

"Vipra seems to mean 'inspired singer' (from vip, 'quiver ') in the Rigveda1 and later.2 More especially in the later texts3 it denotes a 'learned Brahmin.' In the epic style it comes to mean no more than 'Brahmin.' 1 I. 129, 2. 11 ; 162. 7 ; IV. 26. 1, etc. Seven are spoken of in III. 7. 7 ; 31. 5 ; IV. 2, 15, etc. 2 Taittirīya Saṃhita, ii. 5, 9, 1 ; Vājasaneyi Saṃhita, ix. 4 ; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, i. 4, 2, 7, etc. 3 Satapatha Brahmana, iii. 5, 3, 12, etc." [Quelle: MacDonell, Arthur Anthony <1854 - 1930> ; Keith, Arthur Berriedale <1879 - 1944>: Vedic index of names and subjects. -- London . Murray, 1912. -- 2 Bde. -- Bd. 2. -- S. 302]

द्विजाति - dvijāti m.: Zweimalgeborener

Abb.: द्विजातिः सभार्यः । Gujarat (ગુજરાત)-Brahmane mit Gattin
[Bildquelle: Vardapillai, 1837]

Abb.: द्विजातयः । Mumbai - मुम्बई, Maharashtra, 1860
[Bildquelle: Hurrichund Chintamon. -- http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/b/019pho001000s42u04330000.html. -- Zugriff am 2011-04-01]

Abb.: द्विजातयः । Group of Nāramdeo Brāhman men
[Bildquelle: The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India / by R. V. Russel and Rai Bahadur Hira Lāl. -- Vol II. -- London, 1916. -- Nach S. 398]

Abb.: द्विजातिः । Gaṅgāputra-Brāhmaṇa, Varanasi - वाराणसी, Uttar Pradesh
[Bildquelle: The people of India / edited by J. Forbes Watson [1827 - 1892] and John William Kaye [1814 - 1876]. -- London. -- Bd. 2 (1868).  -- Nr. 92]

Abb.: द्विजातिः । Misser Brahmin, Allahabad - इलाहाबाद, Uttar Pradesh
[Bildquelle: The people of India / edited by J. Forbes Watson [1827 - 1892] and John William Kaye [1814 - 1876]. -- London. -- Bd. 2 (1868).  -- Nr. 105a]

अग्रजन्मन् - agrajanman m.: von höchster Geburt

Abb.: अग्रजन्मानौ । Bote (Brahmane) mit Gattin
[Bildquelle: Vardapillai, 1837]

Abb.: अग्रजन्मानः । Brāhman bathing party
[Bildquelle: The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India / by R. V. Russel and Rai Bahadur Hira Lāl. -- Vol II. -- London, 1916. -- Nach S. 384]

Abb.: अग्रजन्मानः । Group of Marātha Brāhman men
[Bildquelle: The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India / by R. V. Russel and Rai Bahadur Hira Lāl. -- Vol II. -- London, 1916. -- Nach S. 392]

Abb.: अग्रजन्मा । Āradhya Brāhman
[Bildquelle: Thurston / Rangachari: Castes and tribes of South India. -- Vol 1 (1909). -- Nach S. 52]

भूदेव - bhūdeva m.: Gott der Erde, Gott auf Erden

Abb.: भूदेवो भूदेवी च । Kanaresischer Brahmane
[Bildquelle: Vardapillai, 1837]

Abb.: भूदेवः । Telugu Brāhman with Rudrākṣa coat
[Bildquelle: Thurston / Rangachari: Castes and tribes of South India. -- Vol 1 (1909). -- Nach S. 318]

Abb.: भूदेवः । Smarta Brāhman (Brahmacarnam) doing Śiva worship
[Bildquelle: Thurston / Rangachari: Castes and tribes of South India. -- Vol 1 (1909). -- Nach S. 322]

Abb.: भूदेवः । Dīkṣitar Brāhman
[Bildquelle: Thurston / Rangachari: Castes and tribes of South India. -- Vol 1 (1909). -- Nach S. 340]

वाडव - vāḍava m.: von einer Stute kommend, zu einer Stute gehörig, Brahmane

Abb.: वादवः सभायः । Brahmane mit Gattin
[Bildquelle: Vardapillai, 1837]

Abb.: वाडवः । Oriya Brāhman
[Bildquelle: Thurston / Rangachari: Castes and tribes of South India. -- Vol 1 (1909). -- Nach S. 386]

Abb.: वाडवः । Konkani Brāhman
[Bildquelle: Thurston / Rangachari: Castes and tribes of South India. -- Vol 1 (1909). -- Nach S. 390]

विप्र - vipra m.: "Zitterer", Erregter, Verzückter, Dichter, Sänger, Priester, gelehrter Brahmane

Abb.: विप्रः सभार्यः । Sringeri (ಶೃಂಗೇರಿ) Brahmane mit Gattin
[Bildquelle: Vardapillai, 1837]

Abb.: विप्रः । Mādhva Brāhman
[Bildquelle: Thurston / Rangachari: Castes and tribes of South India. -- Vol 1 (1909). -- Nach S. 370]

ब्राह्मण - brāhmaṇa m.: "Wahrheitsformulierer" (so nach Paul Thieme), Brahmane

Abb.: ब्राह्मणः सभार्यः । Ländlicher Brahmane
[Bildquelle: Vardapillai, 1837]

Abb.: ब्राह्मण्यः । Brahmaninnen, Dekkan, 1867
[Bildquelle: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/d/019pho001000s42u04327000.html. -- Zugriff am 2011-04-01]

Abb.: ब्राह्मण्यः सपुत्राः । Group of Nāramdeo Brāhman women
[Bildquelle: The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India / by R. V. Russel and Rai Bahadur Hira Lāl. -- Vol II. -- London, 1916. -- Nach S. 398]

Abb.: ब्राह्मण्यम् - brāhmaṇyam - für Brahmanen geeignet: "Use ... Appalams  prepared by Brahmins", Chennai - சென்னை, Tamil Nadu
Appalam - அப்பளம்= dünner frittierter Fladen aus Linsenmehl
[Bildquelle: Neha Viswanathan. -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/nehavish/241373522/. -- Zugriff am 2011-03-13. -- Creative Commons Lizenz (Namensnennung, keine kommerzielle Nutzung, keine Bearbeitung)]

"BRAHMAN. This is written Brahmana, but the final a is dropped in conversation. It is the designation of the highest of the Hindu castes, whom it is usual to call the priestly class. Their duties, according to Menu, are (1) Performances of holy sacrifices; (2) assisting at the performance of such by others ; (3) reading the Vedas ; (4) teaching the Vedas; (5) making gifts; (6) accepting gifts. If any of these means of existence failed, they were permitted to resort to certain trading occupations, being restricted, however, as to the articles in which they might trade. But now-a-days Brahmans employed in sacerdotal functions are considered to be in a degraded position. The author of the Gita says, 'The prescribed duties of the Brahmans are peace, self-restraint, zeal, purity, patience, rectitude, wisdom, learning, and theology' (Gita, p. 130). The word Brahman, according to Weber, means drawing forth, as well in a physical sense 'producing,' 'creating,' as in a spiritual sense 'lifting up,' 'elevating,' 'strengthening' (Weber). The Maha-brahman of Hindustan, who performs funeral ceremonies, is deemed so unclean that other Brahmans will not touch him. Gunga-putra or Ghat Brahman is a byword ; and the Panda or temple priests, the Barna Brahmans who conduct the worship of the lower castes, the Gyawal and Prayagwal who rule over the ceremonies connected with pilgrimages to Gya and Allahabad, the Ojhas exercising the vocation of wizards, the Dayabagya, the Ganak, and the Jaudi Brahmans who cast horoscopes and predict events, are all looked upon by other Brahmans as lower classes. Menu writes in high-flown terms (Instit. chaps, ii. iii. vii. viii. ix.) of the sacred character of the Brahman learned in the Vedas, but comments with an equal severity on the unlearned of this class. There are ten great divisions of Brahmans, viz. five Gaur, the Kanya-Kubhya, Saraswat, Gaur, Maithala, and Utkala ; and five Dravidian, viz. Dravida, Telinga, Karnata, Maharashtra, and Gurjara. These have many subdivisions. The Gaur tribe, for instance, has 56 branches ; the Kanoujia are divided into Sarwaria, Sanaudha, Jijhotia, and Bhunhar, and these again have subdivisions. Some of the subdivisions' names are taken from the district to which they originally belonged, others are named from their sects, or literary acquirements. The Chaturji of Bengal are so named from their acquaintance with the four Vedas, Chaturpadhya. The Chuckerbutty of Bengal are the Chakravarti, meaning a prince or ruler. Smartta is the name of a religious sect of Brahmans founded by Sankaracharya, whose expositions of the principle of unity, according to the Vedanta doctrine, they professedly follow. Siva is held by them in especial honour. Brahmans are also recognised as of three classes, viz. Loukik or secular; Vaidik or theologian; and Bhikuk, whose sole means of support is the alms obtained by begging. The Brahman as a distinct class seems to be first mentioned in the Atharva Veda, the oldest of the Vedas. They were known before the great war between the Kaurava and Pandava, but were seemingly in humble positions. Arjuna disguised himself as a Brahman when he competed at the Swayamvara of Draupadi, and won her, as he hit the golden fish with his arrow after all the rajas had failed. Draupadi became the wife of the five Pandu brothers. The great bulk of the Brahmans of India are admissibly of Aryan origin, tall, robust men, and light yellow in colour. In the Tamil and Telugu countries of Southern India, the recognised Brahmans are all undoubtedly of the same stock. Some of them can converse in Sanskrit, although they use the vernacular language of the district in which they reside, and are styled Dravida, Kerala, and Karnatica, etc., with reference to the language of their district. Brahmanical tribes are as much separated as are other castes. Some of them may eat together, but they do not intermarry ; and the first approach at union is seemingly to be with the Konkan, Mahratta, and Gujerat Brahmans, amongst whom the influence of European knowledge has had more effect than upon any of all the other races in India. Good seed has fallen there on a good soil ; and from a body of mendicants, these have become active, powerful, and useful men. There are Brahmans in the hills north of the Panjab, in the extreme N.W. of India, occupying both the valley of Kashmir and the hills immediately to the west and south of it. Kashmir itself is a Brahman country, all its people, though long since converted to Mahomedanism, having been of the Brahmanical race. The educated class there, who maintained their own tenets and are still very numerous, are known as pandits, and form quite an aristocracy. They are all educated, are exceedingly clever, and are an excessive and somewhat oppressive bureaucracy, which has ruled Kashmir under every successive government, and has sent out colonies to seek their livelihood in Northern India. The features of the Kashmir Brahmans proclaim them to be one of the highest and purest races in the world. They are of quite high Aryan type, very fair, handsome, with chiselled features. In many the nose is high and slightly aquiline, but not Jewish ; but in others the nose is straight. Their brow is a little more raised and their nose more arched than in the Greek statues. The ordinary Kashmiri has a strong athletic figure, but none of them are martial ; and the Brahmans in these respects correspond, they rule by the brain and pen. They have a greater refinement and regularity of feature than the Afghans and others of a rougher type, with, however, a less manly-looking physique, a colour less ruddy, and more induced to a somewhat sallow fairness. The Kashmir Brahmans eat meat, and are excluded by the Indian Brahmans alike from the five Gaur and from the five Dravid, and form a separate Brahmanical class, being more secular than the priestly Brahmans of Hindustan and the Dekhan, than whom they are altogether looser in their observances. Kashmiri pandits are known all over N. India as a very clever and energetic race of office-seekers ; as a body, they excel in acuteness the same number of any other race with whom they come in contact. Almost all the secular pandits use the Persian character freely. They are perfectly versatile, and, serving abroad, will mount a horse, gird on a sword, and assume at a push a semi-military air. The lower classes of Kashmir have long since been converted to Mahomedanism, but they seem to be ethnologically identical with the Brahmans ; and tradition asserts that they are of the same race. Campbell. The Brahmans of Kashmir are regarded by those of Bengal as of an inferior order, and the agricultural Brahmans on the Saraswati banks are similarly regarded. Brahmans are numerous in Kamaon and Garhwal, where education is more advanced and the Nagri character used. People of Brahmanical origin, approximating to the Panjabi, but in language, habits, manners, and dress quite different from the Kashmiri, dwell in the hills between Kashmir and the Panjab, but they have abandoned the Hindu religion, and are now partly Sikhs and in part Mahomedanss. Their language is a dialect of the Panjabi. They are good soldiers. Mr. Campell thinks that the Brahmans of the frontier hills are even handsomer than the Kashmiri, the people, in general of these hills being the handsomest human race. Bamba dwell in the hill frontier beyond the Jhelum. They are of Brahmanical origin, but now profess Mahomedanism. On the eastern side of the Jhelum the hills are shared with other races by a numerous tribe of Sikhs, converts from Brahmanism. Their Brahman ancestors became converts to the Sikh religion before it became a political power, and entirely threw off their Hinduism. They are very useful soldiers and servants. There are some Brahmans at the foot of the N.W. Himalaya. They are not found beyond the Indus, but are pretty numerous in part of the Rawal Pindi district. South of the Salt Range, in the plains, the Rajput and Jat occupy the country. But there are villages of agricultural Brahmans in the fertile plains under the hills in the districts of Sealkote, Goordaspur, and in the valleys of the broken country between Hushearpur and Kangra, and in parts of the Umballa district and the adjoining Simla hills. They are not numerous near the source of the Saraswati ; but lower down its course, in the somewhat desolate countries of Marwar and Jeysulmir, where the lands are moist, the Brahmans are still numerous, and are good cultivators, and claim to have occupied the country before the Jats and Rajputs became dominant. In Central India, the town of Palli seems to be a Brahmanical centre. The Marwari or Saraswati Brahmans form a considerable portion of the most industrious of the cultivators in Malwa. The Saraswati Brahmans seem to have kept much to the tenets of their forefathers. They are called in the south, Kashastale Brahmans. The oldest of the Brahmanical race are the people of the upper hills in the western Himalayas, who date from a time anterior to Hinduism. The Kashmiri were a civilised and literary Brahmanical people not yet fully Hindu. The Saraswati Brahmans were the earliest, most simple, and pure Hindus of Vedic faith ; and those of the Gauges and the rest of India are in various phases of modern Hinduism. There are ten classes of Saraswati Brahmans, who are supposed to come from the N.W. of India. In the Panjab, Sind, and countries about the Saraswati, having been superseded by other races, there are few Brahmans, except in the eastern part of those tracts, where they are industrious cultivators, and claim to be the ancient occupants of the country. Hindustan. The main country of the Brahmans is that part of Hindustan lying between the Vindhya on the one side, and the Himalaya on the north, from the longitude of Kanouj and Lucknow to near the frontiers of Bengal, with a large segment of more especially Rajput country cut out of the centre of this tract. The Brahmans of Hindustan are generally good-sized, and, on the whole, well-looking men, with good features, not particularly fair. They are not of the high Aryan type. The greater number are quite illiterate. The priests and pandits have never adopted The Persian writing character. They are not very clever, have little social position, but serve humbly as soldiers and servants about courts and jails. From the Gulcheter down to Delhi, and in the country about Dehli, there are Brahman villages, quite industrious and intelligent, the women working as well as the men ; but Brahmans do out form a large proportion of the agricultural population. They were kind to and protected fugitives during the mutiny. Some of toe the less pure agricultural Brahmans of these parts are called Tuga or Gaur Tuga. All the Dehli country is occupied by Gaur Brahmans. South of Dehli, in the Jaipur country, Brahmans are numerous; and in the Saharunpur districts there are a good many Brahmans following secular pursuits, besides the priests of Hurdwar. About Benares and the greater part of Behar are a numerous class of Brahmans called Bahman or Bhaban, or, according to Sir H. elliot, Bhoonhar, to which the raja of Benares and all the great landholders of Behar belong. Brahmans are many in the Banda district, and numerous in Baghelcund or Rewah, and there they condescend to very menial vocations, and groomed most of the horses on the Jubbulpur road. In the proper Brahman country, some of them affect the Rajput prejudice against actually holding the plough, though performing other agricultural labour, and take the names of Dobi, Tewari, and Chaubi, i.e. men with a knowledge of two, three, and four Yedas, and are considered to be of very high caste. Between the Ganges and the Gogra, as we recede from the Ganges, the population becomes more Rajput than Brahman, but there are many Brahmans about Ajodiah, the old Oudh. Beyond the Gogra is a numerous Brahman population, humble, not soldiers. Thence to the north of the Gogra and Ganges, all the way to Tirhut, there are many Brahmans. South of the Gogra, and thence across the Ganges into the Arrah district (Bojpur), runs the Rajput dominions. The Tuga Gaur Brahmans seem to be identical with the Bhuinhar, and the Bengali Tagores (properly Thakur) may be an offshoot from them. Like the Bhuinhar, the regular Brahmans repudiate all connection with them ; and Mr. Beames even says there seems no reason for supposing them to be anything but low Aryans. Bengal. The Brahmans of Bengal are numerous. They claim for themselves a northern origin, but they differ much from the Hindustan Brahmans in language, dress, and habits. They are fairer and larger than the mass of the Bengali population, and some are fine-looking men in size and feature. They are largely employed as clerks and accountants, in learned professions, merchants and bankers, sharing the scriptory work with Kayasths. They are acute and intellectually capable, but not energetic. In Bengal about nine per cent of the Hindu prisoners in jails are Brahmans. They will not put their hands to the plough, are aristocratic, but altogether unwarlike and effeminate, and in mercantile business are not equal to the Marwari. They are not numerous in Eastern Bengal. There are many in Orissa and in the Urya portion of the Ganiam district. Many of the Urya Brahmans are cultivators and traders, and are stated to be also brick-makers and bricklayers. In Gujerat, the Brahmans are numerous, and are employed in public offices and in trade. In the Peninsula, the Brahmans are numerous from Damaun to Goa, and from Bombay to Nagpur and the Wain Ganga, that is, all through the Mahratta country. They principally trace their got or clan from Kasyapa, the first Rishi. There are two classes intermixing here, the Konkani Brahman and the Mahratta Brahman. Mahratta Brahmans are a highly intellectual race, and have been distinguished as accountants and clerks. Some of them, as Peshwas, put aside the descendants of Sivaji, ruled over the greater part of India, and took the command of Mahratta armies. The Mahratta or Deshasth Brahmans are dark, swarthy men, much shorter than the Konkani Brahman, often squat, with large, coarse features, large lips, and becoming in advancing life unwieldy. The men are not good-looking, and the women are decidedly plain. The men are largely engaged in public offices as accountants and clerks. They are stolid men, inactive, and of sedentary habits, with literary tastes, and may be justly proud of their poets. The Konkani or Konkanistha Brahmans belong to that small strip of land lying between the Syhadri mountains and the Indian Ocean. They are all fair men, not large, but with lithe and agile frames, and decidedly of Aryan descent. They are good-looking, though in this respect inferior to the Afghan and Rajput races; and their women are fair and have pleasing countenances, with good figures, but even by their own relations are not considered to be equal to other of the women of India, amongst whom the fair Jewesses of Western India may be quoted. The race were agricultural until the British became supreme. The men are ready to move abroad in search of employment, and are met with amongst the Mahratta nation, throughout Berar, and are largely employed in the various public offices as accountants, clerks, in the educational department, and in mercantile houses. They are not military nor agricultural, nor do they engage in trade. The Konkan Brahman has a pleasant expression, is easily moved to laughter, much enjoys a joke, and is of an active turn of mind. They are easily distinguishable by the peculiarly large turbans which they wear. Konkani and Mahratta Brahmans eat together, but do not intermarry. They do not marry in their own tribe or got ; but the Mahratta Brahman will marry his mother's sister's daughter, and the Konkani Brahman will not marry a relative unless very remotely related. The Mahratta or Deshasth Brahman is a reserved man, little inclined to seek friendships, and rarely seen to laugh. They at one time filled almost every office under the Peshwa and under the British, and even in Madras till the middle of the 19th century the revenue accounts were kept in Mahrati by these Brahmans ; and in their own country they were zamindars, deshmookhs, and deshpandi, and almost all the village accountants were Deshasth Brahmans. Both these castes have to compete for employment with the writers known as Purbhu (Prabahu), of which there are two classes, the Patri Purbhu and the Kayasth Purbhu. Canara, Mysore. Mr. (Sir George) Campbell mentions (pp. 74, 130) that in the N. Canara district, in the high hilly country above and about the ghats, and on the adjoining parts of Mysore, there is a large population of Brahmans, industrious and thriving cultivators and landowners. Most of these are called Haiga Brahmans, and the culture of the betel-nut is their especial pursuit. They are very fair, with large eyes and aquiline noses. In the Nagar district of Mysore they are very numerous, not very literary or highly educated, but devoted to agriculture. In South Canara and the Tuluva country are many Brahmans, who do much cultivation ; and all down the west coast to the extreme south of India, the country is said to have been extensively colonized by Brahmans led from Calpee by Parasarama. They have been, from political and hostile circumstances, much removed from Malabar, but they are very numerous in Travancore and Cochin ; and in the Palghat valley they are numerous, and are industrious and good cultivators. Travancore. On the south-west coast the chief class of Brahmans are the Namburi, who have some very peculiar customs, but they principally engage in priestly offices. The Namburi Brahmans resemble the Nair and the Hindu population of the S.W. coast, but are fair. Brahmans are scattered through Telingana and through the Tamil country, all tall, fair, and portly men ; are aristocratic, do not engage in any menial avocation, but restrict themselves to priestly offices, to clerking in Government establishments ; but in these the Sudra Naidu or Naik of Telingana, and the Mudali and Pillay Sudra of Tamil districts, and Vaisya Chettyar, East Indians and Portuguese, descendants of Europeans, largely compete with them. Mr. (Sir George) Campbell, pp. 57-67. In the festival of Bhaubij, on the 2d day of the month Kartik, the wives of all Brahmans, whether of the Saiva or Vaishnava sects, worship their husbands, standing before them, sacrificing with the lamp and ghi, and pouring rice over their heads. In Canarese-speaking countries the Brahmans are largely employed as accountants and office clerks. They are much disliked by the Vira-Saiva lingaets. A village of lingaets near Kaladgi abstained from digging a well in their village, to avoid attracting Brahmans amongst them. Among the population of Southern India, out of a total population of about 32 millions, over one million belong to the Brahman caste, 547,027 males and 548,418 females. In 1871, of the 547,027 male Brahmans in the Madras Presidency, 332,934 were occupied as follows : Professional Government Civil Service 8,887   Military or Police service 747   Learned Professions 18,499   Minor 55,504 Domestic Personal service 19,584 Commercial Traders 12,910   Conveyors  969 Agricultural Cultivators 132,443 Industrial Dress 165   Food 1,778   Metals 20   Construction 55   Books 40   Household goods 16   Combustibles 11 Indefinite and Unproductive Labourers 5,384   Property 64,545   Unproductive 15,529   Others 1,898 Over 24 per cent, are agriculturists, and over 11 per cent are classed as deriving income from property. In the southern districts, especially, a large proportion of the Brahmans Brahmans are agriculturists. In Tinnevelly over 40 per cen, of them come under this head. But as a rule those Brahmans go not in it work with their own hands in agricultural pursuits, and employ labourers to till the ground. In the northern districts and Tanjore the Brahman landowners figure chiefly as owners of land, and as deriving their income from property. Avocations and Customs.—Among the earliest functions of the Indian priestly tribe was that of Purohita, or house-priest attached to a princely household. But their character and avocations have altered with changing circumstances. The descriptions in the Vedas show us a primitive race of shepherds and husbandmen praying to the gods for the safety of their flocks and crops, but as the Arians came into India they seem to have risen above manual labour; and Menu (iii. 165, iv. 5) even denounces agriculture as absolutely degrading. There are, however, in Orissa numerous Brahmans who cultivate vegetables, but they are stigmatized as yam-growers, also lokik or worldly Brahmans; also brick-makers and bricklayers. In the Himalaya, in Chamba and near Dalhousie, they are shepherds. In Kangra, the Doab, and Benares, Brahmans guide the plough. In Central India there are peasant Brahmans; and in Southern India Brahmans are to be seen as betel-leaf growers and fishermen; while throughout the Tamil and Telugu countries they are to be found as blacksmiths and goldsmiths, who wear the sacred thread, and refuse precedence to the recognised Brahmans; and in Ceylon the descendants of an imported race, the Goi Bamano, are cultivators. Almost every Indian province contains two or more distinct classes of Brahmans, descendants of different immigrations. The Chamba Brahman shepherds are a fierce, stalwart race, very fair, and their women singularly handsome. In the Simla hills the Brahman population consists indiscriminately of shepherds, husbandmen, day-labourers, cooks, and menials. In the inner hills they marry the widows of their elder brothers, like the lower castes of Orissa, and sell their daughters into a slavery faintly disguised by the name of concubinage. The Patiala Brahmans engage as day-labourers and are palanquin-bearers. Bishnuvi cultivators and graziers are numerous in Dhat; some in Chore and in Oomerkote, Dharnas, and Mitti. In Benares and the districts along the Ganges to the southward, a large peasant population claim the title of Brahman ; and their claim was recognised by the native governments exempting them from capital punishment. The Buinhar or Babhan of Behar, a peasant Brahman, number three-fourths of the whole Brahman population of the Bhagulpur district. They resemble the ordinary husbandmen. There have been at times large manufactures of Brahmans by rulers. Some princes have imported Brahmans from distant localities, and other princes have raised lower castes to the dignity of Brahmans. Jeypore has a class of ploughing Brahmans, as regards whom a tradition relates that a warlike prince required a vast concourse of priests to give dignity to his sacrifice, and accordingly created five tribes of Brahmans out of the surrounding populations. They migrated into Oudh, where also in one of the Brahmanical families, who derive their origin from a prince whose self-importance would not allow him to offer sacrifice until be had 125.000 priests in attendance, and who accordingly invested the common people of the country with the sacral thread. In Behar the mass of the peasant Brahmans attribute their origin to a manufacture of a hundred thousand priests in prehistoric times. In Malabaar, Parasurama made the whole fisherman population into Brahmans. They claim a very exalted rank. The Konkani Brahmans also are descendants of a fisher race; and to the present day the casting of a net and the catching of a fish form part of their wedding ceremonial. Adisur, the founder of the Sen dynasty, brought from Kanouj five Sagnic Brahmans of the tribes or gotra, Sanhila, Kashyapa, Vatsa, Saverna, and Bharudwaja. Several Sudra families, Ghose. Bhose, Dutt, Guha, Mittra, etc., accompanied them, and these take the position of Kulin Kayasths. In the reign of Bullal Sen, about 284 years before the Mahomedan invasion, all these Kulin Brahmans and Kulin Sudras had greatly increased, and, though degenerated in learning, they arrogated to themselves a position above all the Sapta-sala or aboriginal Brahmans; and Bullal Sen ennobled those Brahmans by giving to them the title of Kulin. The Kulin Brahman subsequently consented to marry the daughters of the aboriginal Brahman, who eagerly seek alliances with the Kulin; and the Kulin have taken advantage of this, and have established a scale of fees for condescending to accept a daughter of an inferior. They marry gold. Of the Kayasths who came from Kanouj, Bhose, Ghose, and Mittra were ennobled by Bullal Singh into Kulin Kayasths, and are still in Bengal. The Dass, Day, Dutt, Guha, Kar, Paulit, Sen, and Sing hold a second rank. Kulin Brahman women are married with difficulty, and generally to aged men. In 1868 there were 11 Kulin men in Hoogly and 1 in Burdwan, each of whom had contracted 50 to 80 marriages; 24 in Hoogly and 12 in Bardwan, who had contracted from 20 to 50 marriages; and 48 in Hoogly and 20 in Bardwan, who had contracted between 10 and 20 marriages. Kulinism is thus a great polygamic institution, and a few Kulin women nave become prostitutes. In 1867 the abolition of this polygamy was contemplated, and will doubtless soon be carried out (C'al. Rev. May 1868). Agnihotra Brahmans are the remnant of the worshippers of Agni, who still preserve the family fire, but in other respects conform to some mode of popular Hindu devotion. According to prescribed rule, where a perpetual flame is maintained, it is used to light the fire round which the bride and bridegroom step at the marriage ceremony, and the funeral pile of either ; but the household fire is preserved only by this particular sect, the Agnihotra, and the great body of the people have nothing of the kind. In this case they distinguish between the sources whence they obtain the kindling flame according to the purposes of its application, and the fire of the marriage rite is taken from the hearth of a respectable person, or from a fire lighted on some auspicious occasion ; whilst for the funeral pile any unpolluted fire may be used. It is only necessary to avoid taking it from another pile, or from the abode of an outcast, of a man belonging to the tribe of executioners, of a woman who has lately borne a child, or of any person who is unclean. The Agnicula was a supposed Scythic race, whom the Brahmans, in order to oppose the Buddhists, formed into a religious confederacy. Aradhya Brahmans profess the Jangam creed, but adhere to their caste views. They are chiefly in the Canarese country. In other sects of Hindus, the Brahman uniformly take precedence of other castes; but among the Jangam or Vira-Saiva he is degraded beneath all others. Hence there is a perpetual feud between the Aradhya Brahman and the Jangams, who (unless at funerals, where all are bound to assist) treat these Brahmans with contempt (Brown on the Creed and Customs and Literature of the Jangams, p. 8). The emigration of the Brahmans to peninsular India appears to have been subsequent to the first great change in their religious system. The religion they introduced was probably a rudirnental form of Saivaism, with a tendency to the mystical and mythological system of the Puranas. There is not the least reason to suppose that the Vedic or elementary system was ever known in the Tamil country, either as an indigenous religion or as introduced by the Brahmans. The Brahmans deeply impressed Alexander by their learning and austerities. One of them, Kalanos by name, was tempted, notwithstanding the reproaches of his brethren, to enter the service of the conqueror. But, falling sick in Persia, Kalanos determined to put an end to his life. Alexander, on hearing of his philosopher's resolve, vainly tried to dissuade him ; then loaded him with jewels, and directed that he should be attended with all honours to the last scene. Distributing the costly gifts of his master as he advanced, wearing a garland of flowers, and singing hymns, the Brahman mounted a funeral pyre, and perished in the flames. The Brahmans of the present day are a race of the highest culture, the result of 3000 years of hereditary education and self-restraint, and they have evolved a type of mankind quite distinct from the surrounding population. Even the passing traveller in India marks them out alike from the bronze-cheeked, large-limbed, leisure-loving Rajput or warrior caste of Aryan descent, and from the dark-skinned, flat-nosed, thick-lipped, low castes of non-Aryan origin, with their short bodies and bullet heads. The bulk of the Brahmans stand apart from both, tall and slim, with finely-modelled lips and nose, fair complexion, high forehead, and slightly cocoanut-shaped skull,—the man of self-centred refinement. He is an example of a class becoming the ruling power in a country, not by force of arms, but by the vigour of hereditary culture and temperance. One race has swept across India after another; dynasties have risen and fallen ; religions have spread themselves over the land, and disappeared. But since the dawn of history, the Brahman has calmly ruled, swaying the minds and receiving the homage of the people, and accepted by foreign nations as the highest type of Indian mankind (Imp. Gaz. vol. iv.). Brahmanism is the ordinary designation of the Hindu religion at present prevailing. It is accommodating to anything that partakes of idol-worship; similarly as a Roman would worship Isis and Osiris, so a Hindu makes offerings to apotheosized Mahomedans, such as Shaikh Sadu, Ghazi Mian, and Shaikh Madar in Northern India ; and throughout all India there are multitudes of figures of local divinities who have been admitted into the Hindu Pantheon as avatars of Vishnu or Siva, the chief gods of the modern Hindus. The Vaishnava doctrine raises Vishnu to the highest place, and adores his different avatars, together with a multitude of other deities, powers of nature, and mythical persons. The Saiva doctrine places Siva highest in the rank of the gods. The professors of this doctrine number many millions more than the professors of Vishnuism. Although Siva is the god of destruction, he is also the god of reproduction, considered with respect to the idea, which ever pervades the doctrine of Brahma, namely, that death is but the recommencement of a new life. Vedantism, so named after the Vedanta of Vyasa, has few adherents, consisting of some philosophical Brahmans. Of the thousands of temples in India consecrated to various deities, only one, it is said, is consecrated to this doctrine, in which Brahma is worshipped alone. Various ceremonies are attendant upon Hindu boys between infancy and the age of eight years. After that age, and before a Brahman lad is fifteen, it is imperative upon him to receive the poita, yadnupavita, zonar, janavi, or jhandiam, the sacred thread, which the Brahmans in their secret ceremonies call Yadnupavita. In the investiture, the priest offers a burnt sacrifice, and worships the salagrama, repeating a number of prayers. The boy's white garments are then taken off, and he is dressed in yellow or red, and a cloth is brought over his head, that no Sudra may see his face; after which he takes in his right hand a branch of the vilva, Aegle marmelos, and a piece of cloth in the form of a pocket, and places the branch on his shoulder, with shoes on feet and umbrella in hand. A poita of three threads, made of the fibres of the suru, to which a piece of deer's skin is fastened, is suspended from the boy's left shoulder, falling under his right arm, during the reading of the incantations or invocations. The father of the boy then repeats certain formulas, and in a low voice pronounces three times, the Gaitri, O'm! Bhurbhuvassuvāhā, O'm! Tatsa vit'hru varennyām, B'hargo devāsyā dhimahi dhiyo yonaha pracho dayath. O'm! earth, air, and heaven, O'm ! 'Let us meditate on the adorable light of the divine Sun (Savitri), may it guide our intellects.' After this prayer the suru poita is taken off, and the real poita, or sacred thread, put on. The receiving of the poita is considered as the second birth of a Hindu, who is from that time denominated 'dwija' or twice-born. A Brahman boy cannot be married till he has received the poita. The sacred thread must be made by a religious Brahman. It consists of three strings, each ninety-six hat'h (forty-eight yards), which are twisted together; it is then folded into three, and again twisted; these a second time folded into the same number, and tied at each end in knots. It is worn over the left shoulder (next the skin, extending half-way down the right thigh) by the Brahman, Kshatriya, and Vaisya castes. The first are usually invested with it at eight years of age, the second at eleven, and the Vaisya at twelve The period may, from especial causes, be deferred ; but it is indispensable that it should be received, or the parties resisting it become outcast?. An individual is not fully a member of this class until he have assumed this emblem. It is like the Roman lad's assumption of the toga virilis. A Kulin Brahman can marry as many wives as he likes; but there are certain Brahmans in Bengal who find the greatest difficulty in getting married to even one wife. These are the Bangshaja Brahmans of the Shrotriya class. While a Kulin Brahman gets for every wife that he marries a handsome bribe, a Bangshaja Shrotriya Brahman has to pay down a large sum of money to the father of the girl whose hand he seeks to obtain. The consequence is that, owing to their poverty, numbers of Bangshaja Shrotriya Brahmans never get married at all. To remedy this evil, in Eastern Bengal, when in any village the number of unmarried Shrotriya becomes inconveniently large, one of the ghatak of the place—those under-servants of Bidhata who take a prominent part in all marriages—goes to Shrihatta in Sylhet. There, with the assistance of his agents in the district, and by means whether fair or foul, he procures a number of girls, to whom he holds out the prospect of a pleasant settlement in life. The girls may not all be Brahman girls, some of them may be of the Chandal caste, and others may be young widows; but whatever may be their caste, character, and antecedents, they are huddled together in a boat, often fifteen or sixteen in number, and taken to the ghat of the Shrotriya village. The faces of the old Shrotriya bachelors become lighted up with joy, when they hear of the arrival of the hymeneal boat. The sensation which these highly-favoured boats create in Eastern Bengal, is infinitely greater than that produced in Calcutta by the orange-boats of Sylhet, or the mango boats of Malda. The Bangshaja bachelors besiege the boat in numbers. Each one selects a girl according to his taste, a bargain is struck with the ghatak, and the celebration of the rites of marriage, according to the forms prescribed in the Shastras, soon follows. The plain-looking girl, for whom no Shrotriya may have a fancy, is employed as a maid servant either of the ghatak himself, or of any other who may stand in need of her services. The influence on India of the Brahman races has been great. They developed a noble language and literature. They were the priests and the philosophers of their race ; also the lawgivers, administrators, men of science, and poets. They have brought the mass of the backward races into the social and religious organization of Hinduism. They wrote the Vedas, Brahmanas, Sutras, and Upanishads, meaning the science of God and his identity with the soul; the Aranyakas, or tracts for the forest recluse; and the more recent Puranas, or traditions. The six Darsana, or schools of philosophy—Sankhya, Yoga, (3, 4) Vedanta,(5) Nyaya, and (6) Vaiseshika—originated from them. They treated philosophy as a branch of religion. They had also a circle of the sciences, the Science of Language. Panini, B.C. 350, was the founder of Sanskrit grammar. Under every dynasty and government in India, Brahmans have held the highest executive offices alike in the civil executive and in the political administration of the country, for, until the middle of the nineteenth century, all learning and science centred in them. The introduction into India, by the British, of the western forms of education, and the system of grants-in-aid to schools, however, have permitted, particularly in the south of India, all the Sudra and Vaisya races to compete with the Brahmans, who are being largely displaced from their former exclusive position, though they are still a great power in the state. There is no being more aristocratic in his ideas than the secular Brahman or priest, who deems the bare name a passport to respect. The Kulin Brahman of Bengal piques himself upon his title of nobility, granted by the last Hindu king of Kanouj (whence they migrated to Bengal), and in virtue of which his alliance in matrimony is courted. But although Menu has imposed obligations towards the Brahman little short of adoration, these are limited by him to the learned in the Vedas: he classes an unlearned Brahman with an elephant made of wood, or an antelope of leather, —nullities save in name. Owing to the segregation which all the Hindu races practise, Brahmans have never formed a compact body, and their influence and power have been local. Learned Brahmans are much respected. At festivals, weddings, and feasts for the dead, they are invited to the houses of the wealthy, are feasted, treated with honour, and on their departure receive gifts of value, dresses, gold and silver vessels, ornaments of numerous kinds, food, and also money. A man of learning often takes one or more of his scholars to such assemblies, both to enhance his own reputation and to accustom them to respectable society; and the students also obtain a share of the presents. From gifts of this kind the larger number both of teachers and students in the Hindu schools of learning are supported, their food procured, and their house accommodation provided. Tolas, or native colleges of this kind, are scattered all over the province of Bengal, and one or more may be found in all the great villages. The Zillah of Bardwan, for example, though not particularly celebrated for learning, contained, a few years ago, 190 Sanskrit schools and 1350 students. Some places are more celebrated as seats of learning than others. In North India, for instance, Nuddea, Santipur, Tirhut, and above all Benares, contain a large number of colleges. In South India they are chiefly found in the provinces of Tanjore and Madura. These schools are divided into three classes,—those wherein general literature is studied, the schools of law, and those of philosophy. In the first the subject-matter of study embraces grammar, lexicology, poetical works, and rhetoric. According to Bunsen, Brahmans have systematically adulterated and adjusted the early history of India (iii. 513). Brahmans were acquainted with the Talmud; and Sir W. Jones thought that Genesis ii. 21, 23 is referred to in the form of Siva and Parvati, known as Ardhanesvari, of which the right hand half is Siva and on the left hand Parvati.—Brown on the Jangams; Bunsen's Egypt, iii. 613; Chow-Chow, p. 44: Mullen's Hindu Philosophy, pp. 10, 11 ; Coleman's Mythology, p. 154; Calcutta Review, May 1868; Tod's Rajasthan, i. p. 512 ; Taylor, Mackenzie MSS. Bhagavad-Gita ; Sir George Campbell's Ethnology; Bowring's Ethnology in B. As Soc. Jo.; Darwinism in Morals, p. 279; Hunters Orissa; Imp. Gaz.; Moor's Pantheon; Weber's Indian Literature; Wilsons's Glossary." [Quelle: Balfour, Edward <1813-1889>: Cyclopædia of India and of eastern and southern Asia, commercial, industrial and scientific: products of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, useful arts and manufactures / ed. by Edward Balfour. -- 3rd ed. -- London: Quaritch. -- Vol. 1. -- 1885. -- S. 429 - 436]

"§ 24. Brāhmans (14,893,300)· Considering that the participation of a Brāhman is essential to the validity of all ceremonies of a social character amongst the great majority of the community which takes its religious title from this order, it is not surprising that the latter should occupy the first place in the returns both as to numbers and dispersion. In every part of India, except the eastern and western frontiers and the hills of the Central Belt, the Brāhman is found in very considerable numbers, and tradition, which in this case, at all events, is corroborated by the evidence of physiognomy, nomenclature and custom, is almost unanimous in pointing to the upper Gangetic region as the place of origin. From this nucleus Brāhmans found their way in very early days across Rājputāna [राजपुतान] and Mālvā [माळवा] to the west coast of Gujarāt [ગુજરાત]. In the south of the Peninsula, the earliest appearance of this class was probably not much earlier than the Christian era, and for the next eight or nine centuries the supply seems to have been plentiful and constant. The Brāhmans of lower Bengal [বঙ্গ] trace their origin back to the 10th century, when a considerable colony was imported by the reigning sovereign from upper India and acclimatised in the north and west of the present Province. Orissa [ଓଡ଼ିଶା] received, or produced, its stock a little later, but there seems some reason to think that there was an earlier strain which had become extinct, or had degenerated below the standard exacted by the dynasty which had established itself on the coast.  The frequent invasions of upper India from the north-west during the ten first centuries of the Christian era are credited with the dispersal of large bodies of Brāhmans from Rājputāna [राजपुतान] and the Madhyadeśa [मध्यदेश], some of whom took refuge in the seclusion of the Nepāl [नेपाल] valley, others in the west Dekkan [dakṣiṇa]; others, again, fled by sea through Sindh [سنڌ] or Kathiavad [કાઠીયાવાડ] to various settlements along the west coast. Amongst the latter were at least three Brāhman communities who have preserved a credible tradition of their northern origin. The Brāhman was never organised into a tribe upon a territorial basis, but was, from the beginning, parasitic upon other classes of the community. In Vedic times he was part and parcel of the fortunes of the Chief, his patron. In later times, as the tribes settled, multiplied and expanded, he attached himself to the landed classes, his principal clients, for “unde vivent oratores si defecerint aratores? ["Wovon könnten Prediger leben, wenn es keine Landwirte gäbe?"]’’ Still later, again, he was liable, according to numerous traditions current amongst the Brāhmans of to day, to be imported in large bodies to a distant Court on the invitation, not always declinable, of the pious ruler. When, moreover, there is taken into consideration the incorporation into the Brāhmanic order of local communities and of priests and exorcists of the wild tribes accepting Brāhmanism, the capricious exercise of the powers of Brāhmanification arrogated to themselves by sundry of the Chieftains, and the results of left-handed unions with the daughters of the land, the extent to which the Brāhman is scattered far and wide is no matter for surprise.  The land, however, where they first became a consolidated body and established the hierarchy they have since dominated, is still that in which their numbers are both absolutely and relatively the greatest. Between the Jamnā [यमुना] and the Ghogra [घाघरा], roughly speaking, there are about 4,800,000 Brāhmans. Of the vast population of Bengal [বঙ্গ], 2,900,000 are of that order; these two Provinces, therefore, account for more than half the total number.  Brāhmans abound, too, relatively to the population, in Rājputāna [राजपुतान], and Madras [மதராஸ்], Bombay [मुंबई] and the Panjāb [ਪੰਜਾਬ] each contain between a million and a quarter. The distribution over these large areas is not, of course, even.  Orissa [ଓଡ଼ିଶା] and Bihār [बिहार] stand out above the rest of Bengal [বঙ্গ], except for a few places in the centre of the Province. Further up the Ganges, Oudh [अवध] surpasses the sister Province of Agra [आगरा] in the relative number of its Brāhmans, and it is worth noting that Gonda [गोण्डा], the traditional seat of the Gaur [gauḍa] section of Brāhmans still maintains its preeminence. The prevalence of Brāhmans along the eastern bank of the Jamnā [यमुना] extends also for some distance to the west in both Rājputāna [राजपुतान] and the Panjāb [ਪੰਜਾਬ] . In the former tract there is a large settlement in the so-called desert States of the north and west, but in Sindh [سنڌ] and towards the domain of the Balūch [بلوچ] and Paṭhān [پٹھان], scarcely any are to be found. In the Panjāb [ਪੰਜਾਬ] , the greatest relative prevalence of the sacerdotal element is found in the outer-Himālaya, where Brāhmanism reigns in unwonted vigour. In the west of India, the Brāhman is well represented on the wealthy plains of Gujarāt [ગુજરાત], and holds a strong position throughout the Dekkan [dakṣiṇa]. In the Dravidian tracts, his numbers are fairly evenly distributed over the main linguistic divisions. § 25. In spite of the unique and universally recognised position the Brāhmans hold in the estimation of the multitude, they have never formed themselves into a single and homogenous body. Their very dispersal over the length and breadth of the continent, in communities different in origin, speaking different languages and eating different food, makes such cohesion impracticable. It has, indeed, had the effect of making them perhaps the most heterogeneous collection of minute and independent subdivisions that ever bore a common designation. Possibly, too, the absence of territorial settlement to which reference was made above, lends greater weight and permanence to a subdivision based on considerations other than those connected with landed property, and has promoted, accordingly, the stricter observance of caste separatism. However this may be, the main lines of distribution are geographical, beginning with the ancient partition of the Brāhmanic order into the five Gauḍa, or Northern sections, and the five Drāviḍa, of the South. To the former belong the Gauṛ [दौड], from Gonda [गोण्डा] in Oudh [अवध], the Kanaujia [कन्नौजिया], of the Central Doāb [दोआब], the Sārasvata [सारस्वत] of the upper Jamnā [यमुना], the Maithila [मैथिल], of Tirhūt [तिरहुत], and the Utkala [ଉତ୍କଲ] of Orissa [ଓଡ଼ିଶା]. South of the Vindhya [विन्‍ध्य] come the Mahārāṣṭra [महाराष्ट्र], of the Dekkan [dakṣiṇa], the Karṇāṭa [ಕರ್ನಾಟ], of Mysore [ಮೈಸೂರು] and the neighbourhood, the Āndhra [ఆంధ్ర] of Telingāna [తెలంగాణ] and the Drāviḍa [திராவிட] of the Tamil country [தமிழ் நாடு]. Added to these are the Gurjara [गुर्जर / ગુર્જર] of the west, who, curiously enough, though grouped amongst the southerners, are all northern in their origin. Except in the case of the three first mentioned, these divisions are of little practical significance in the everyday life of the present time, since they are severally partitioned into numerous main subdivisions, each of which is in turn, again, minutely split up into a still greater number of separate endogamous communities. The majority of the larger castes thus constituted have a territorial origin, generally well to the north of where they are now settled, except, of course, amongst those still occupying the traditional centres of Brāhmanism, such as the Gaur [दौड], Kanaujia [कन्नौजिया] and Sārasvata [सारस्वत]. Subordinate to these are the local offshoots, which are very generally attributable to schism on points of ceremonial or food, and, in the Drāviḍa [திராவிட] country, to sectarian or doctrinal disagreement. From time to time, too, the scheme has to be expanded to admit some new recruits from outside the fold, who are usually placed low down on the scale, though not irrevocably doomed to remain there, if circumstances turn out favourable to their advancement. Throughout the local community, the rank of each subdivision relatively to the rest is fixed by a convention effectively backed by the public verdict; but this graduation is not necessarily recognised at a distance or where a different language is spoken.  In every linguistic group, moreover, there are certain classes which, though called Brāhmans by the public, and enlisted to perform some of the ceremonial functions of the Brāhman, are either not recognised by other Brāhmans, or are relegated by them to a degraded position, inferior, in reality, to that to which many of the non-Brāhman castes are admitted.  The acme of subdivision in combination with ceremonial exclusiveness, is probably reached among the Kanaujia  [कन्नौजिया], of whom it is said in their native Province, "Three Kanaujia  [कन्नौजिया], thirteen cooking-fires”. The Gurjara [गुर्जर / ગુર્જર] Brāhmans, again, are popularly credited with 84 divisions, but this being a popular expression of multitude in general, the number actually found, viz. 79, may be taken as fairly correct, especially as all the larger items in that lengthy list have their respective sub-castes.  The Brāhmans of the Dekkan [dakṣiṇa] are perhaps as little split up into sections as any, but on the coast-strip of the Konkan [कोंकण] the subdivision is more minute, owing, probably, to the foreign strain introduced from time to time. The Brāhmans of Bengal [বঙ্গ] and Madras [மதராஸ்], where the system is of later introduction, hide a complicated interior under a comparatively small number of main divisions, especially in the latter, where caste has been affected by the doctrinal schisms of which the clouth since the days of Śaṅkarācārya [ശങ്കരാചാര്യർ, 8. Jhdt.] and Rāmānuja [இராமானுசர், 11. Jhdt.], has been prolific. § 26. It was stated above that the subdivision of Brāhman communities is often traceable to differences in regard to food and ceremonial. These, in turn, depend to a great extent upon function and the means of livelihood accessible. Strictly speaking, the Brāhman, as pointed out earlier in this work, is by origin a functional order, but with the expansion of the Ārya population in post-Vedic times and the growth of the Brāhmanic community beyond the need of the layman for its specific ministrations, great latitude had to be allowed, no doubt, from a very early period. In the present day, within the fairly wide limits which he himself has set, the Brāhman is represented in a large proportion of what may be called the upper and middle class occupations of India. But whichever of these he may take up, his inherent qualities are unabated, and he is still entitled to the homage of the rest of the community, and remains the accredited intermediary between man and the supernatural. In the latter capacity his bare living is assured to him without need to work for it, because in all formal rites such as those connected with birth, marriage, death, expiation or thanksgiving, the provision of a meal for a certain number of Brāhmans is an essential and costly feature. In the more prosperous parts of the country, accordingly, there is usually a plentiful supply of Brāhmans of whom it has been said that “they exist only to be fed”. On every side are to be found subdivisions which, in the eyes of their compeers, have fallen from grace by participating in the feasts of wealthy but impure clients. In another direction there are instances on record where the number of local Brāhmans available for a ceremony of this sort not being equivalent to the aspirations of the Chieftain interested in it, the quorum has been made up by him by a special creation out of such lower material as was at hand. Service at a temple, it should be noted, is not undertaken by the better class of Brāhman, as it is held to be degrading, and left, accordingly, to those low in station. In several cases the claim to be accounted a Brāhman rests entirely upon the performance of those duties. The inference drawn from this estimation of temple service is that the divinities in question are those of the non-Ārya, incorporated from time to time into the Brāhmanic pantheon, as the community which reverenced them was brought to adopt the social system of the higher race. It is probable that the distinction drawn between the acceptance of offerings by a Brāhman in requital for specific services and those made to him on general grounds has its root in the same tradition; for whilst to the donor offerings of any kind to a Brāhman are held to be productive of spiritual merit, only one of the lower class of the order will accept gifts for exorcising evil spirits, averting the baleful influences of an eclipse or certain combinations of stars, reciting the appropriate texts for pilgrims at a bathing place, or helping at a funeral, and the like offices. The secular pursuits affected by the Brāhman vary considerably according to whether the caste is settled in the locality in large numbers, whether the tract is prospering, or whether the Brāhman first came into it as a pioneer and colonist or as a propagandist or an exile from another centre. Political employment has been congenial to the Brāhman from the time when the Purohita, or family sacrificer, was treated by the Rājan as his confidential adviser in the Sūkta period, and the caste has continued to throw up from time to time men who have been distinguished for their administration of Native States. The great chance of the Brāhman came, of course, under the Pēśvā [पेशवे] rule, when the whole of the military organisation built up by the Marāṭhās [मराठा] fell to the disposal of the Citpāvan [चित्पावन] Brāhman of the Konkan [कोंकण]; and for seventy years or more, the Dekkan [dakṣiṇa] was dominated from Poona [पुणे], and the whole of the administration was conducted by the local and the coast Brāhman. Even in the present day, the Marāṭhā Brāhman [मराठा ब्राह्मण / ಮರಾಠಾ ಬ್ರಾಹ್ಮಣ] has almost a monopoly of clerical employment throughout the Dekkan [dakṣiṇa], Konkan [कोंकण] and Karnatic [ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ], and with the traditions of former supremacy to encourage him, he stands quite in the van of his order in intelligence and general ability. In some other parts of the country the Brāhman is the only class besides the trader who can read and write to any practical purpose, and he thus becomes, of course, the scribe, if not the official accountant, of the village community. Even in the tracts where a serious rival is found in a professional writing class, the Brāhman usually has a share in the State appointments to which the “literary proletariat” of India look mainly for their subsistence. Of the learned professions, Law and Instruction are the more attractive to this caste. A few take up the lower branches of Engineering, and still fewer the practice of Medicine, a following which is to a great extent barred to them by reason of caste-scruples in regard to the surgical training involved. In commerce they have not made their way beyond the universal venture in lending money to their neighbours, to which every Indian capitalist, according to his resources, is inclined. The Brāhman shares, also, the general aspiration to own land, either as an investment or as a possession honorific in the eyes of the lay world. Wherever they have settled in large masses, as in the Gangetic Doāb [दोआब] and Oudh [अवध], or in compact local colonies, which probably preceded their advance as a sacerdotal body, they have taken to cultivation on the same lines as the ordinary peasantry, except that they but very rarely put their hand to the plough, though they go as far as standing upon the crossbar of the harrow to lend their weight to that operation. Owing to this caste-imposed restriction, probably, it may be noted that wherever the Brāhman has settled otherwise than as a part of a large general community, he is the centre of a well-defined system of predial servitude, his land being cultivated for him by hereditary serfs of undoubtedly Dasyu descent. This is the case with the Māsthān [ମାସ୍ଥାନ / માસ્થાન] of Orissa [ଓଡ଼ିଶା] and Gujarāt [ગુજરાત], and with the Haiga or Havīka [ಹವೀಕ] of Kanara [ಕೆನರಾ], and the Nambūtiri [നമ്പൂതിരി] of the Malabar [മലബാര്‍] coast, all of whom have settled in fertile country. Where the pressure of circumstances is very severe, as in the desert States of Rājputāna [राजपुतान], the Brāhman cultivator not only does the whole of his own work, including ploughing, but even sells his labour to other more fortunate occupants. A military career may appear to be somewhat alien to the traditions and inclinations of a sacerdotal class, nevertheless in the vicinity of the Ganges [गंगा] it has proved by no means unattractive to the Brāhman peasantry. The Bhūīnhār [भूइंहार], or Bābhan [बाभन], of the south eastern parts of the upper valley, are credited by some with Brāhman ancestry, which endowed them with enough of the Kṣatriya qualities to enable them to push forward in advance of the main body of their race, and to hold against the Kōl, or other previous possessor, the land they still occupy. The nickname of Pandy, again, bestowed upon the rebel troops collectively by the British soldier, is no other than Pāṇḍē [पाण्डे] or Pāṁṛē, the title of the subdivision of the Kanaujia [कन्नौजिया] Brāhmans from which a high proportion of the recruits of this caste were then enlisted. Since 1857 it has been found that minute caste-scruples as to diet and contact are incompatible with the exigencies of modern field service, whilst the personal sanctity of the Brāhman private is apt to turn out inimical to the due observance of regimental discipline. Amongst the Muhiāl Brāhmans of the Panjāb [ਪੰਜਾਬ] , therefore, the pride of caste has given way before the taste for the profession of arms, and the would-be recruit of this community drops his Brāhmanhood when enlisting, and is enrolled under some other designation. In former days, when, as under the Pēśvas [पेशवे], Brāhmans were themselves at the head of the forces, and not in subordination to the foreigner, and when war was carried out on very different lines from those of to-day, commanders of this caste acquitted themselves worthily, and showed both resource and courage in the field." [Quelle: Baines, Athelstane <1847 - 1925>: Ethnography (castes and tribes) / by Athelstane Baines. With a list of the more important works on Indian ethnography by W. Siegling <1880 - 1946>. -- Strassburg : Trübner, 1912. -- 211 S. -- (Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde = Encyclopedia of Indo-Aryan research ; II, 5). -- § 24 - § 26]

2.13.9. Ein Brahmane, der alle seine sechs Pflichten erfüllt

Colebrooke (1807): "One, practising the six allowed acts. Sacrifice, study, benefaction ; assisting to sacrifice, teaching, accepting alms."

षट्कर्मन्  - ṣaṭkarman m.: seine sechs Tätigkeiten erfüllend:

1. अध्यापन - adhyāpana n.: Lehren
2. अध्ययन - adhyayana n.: Studium
3. यजन - yajana n.: Opfern als Opferherr
4. याजन - yājana n.: Opfern in fremdem Auftrag
5. दान - dāna n.: Geben
6. प्रतिग्रह - Entgegennehmen von Gaben

(Manu I, 88. Siehe oben)

2.13.10. Weise und gelehrt

Colebrooke (1807): "Wise or learned. Some disjoint the two last terms as signifying provident."

पण्डित - paṇḍita m.: Gelehrter

Abb.: पण्डितः । Satyavrat Śāstrī - सत्यव्रत शास्त्री (1930 - )
[Bildquelle: Wikipedia. -- Public domain]

Abb.: पण्डिताः । Delhi, 1863
[Bildquelle: Shepherd and Robertson. -- http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/b/019pho000015s10u00050000.html. -- Zugriff am 2011-04-01] 

कवि - kavi m.: Dichter

Abb.: कविः । Rabindranath Tagore - রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর (1861 - 1941)
[Bildquelle: Wikipedia. -- Public domain]

धीमन्त् - dhīmant m.: Gedankenreicher, Geistvoller

Abb.: धीमान् । Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan సర్వేపల్లి రాధాకృష్ణ (1888 – 1975)
[Bildquelle: Wikipedia. -- Public domain]

कृतिन् - kṛtin m.: dessen Taten besonders sind, Kundiger, Geschickter

Abb.: कृतिनी । Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi - इंदिरा प्रियदर्शिनी गांधी (1917 - 1984)
[Bildquelle: Wikipedia. -- Public domain]

2.13.11. In den Veden bewandert

Colebrooke (1807): "A priest conversant with scripture."

2.13.12. Lehrer

Colebrooke (1807): "A teacher."

Abb.: Paṇḍit und Sanskritschüler, Agra - आगरा, Uttar Pradesh, 1871
[Bildquelle: Simon Matthew Edwin Kempson. -- http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/a/019pho001000s46u04698000.html. -- Zugriff am 2011-04-01]

2.13.13. Meister

Colebrooke (1807): "A spiritual parent. Either the natural father, or the spiritual preceptor."

¹ niṣeka m.: Ritus (saṃskāra) bei der Zeugung

2.13.14. Lehrer des Veda und seiner Erklärung

Colebrooke (1807): "An instructor in the holy writ."

Abb.: आचार्यः । East Bengal, 1860er-Jahre
[Bildquelle: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/a/019pho000000124u00012000.html. -- Zugriff am 2011-04-ö01]

Zu brahmavarga. -- 2. Vers 7b - 31b (Brahmanen: Opfer, Vedastudium, Gaben)