The Encyclopedia of World Religions

brahmin S 59

known as the V EDA . Some scholars have identified their ancestors as priests among the Indo-Europe ans. The Indo-Europeans were supposedly ances tors of the people who inhabit north India today, as well as of European peoples such as the English, the French, and the Germans. About 2,000 years ago Hindu lawbooks known as Dharmasastras carefully listed the duties and privileges of brahmins. They also assigned brahmins the highest position in Hindu society, but not every one has agreed. Many records from roughly 2,000 years ago tell about disputes between brahmins and sramanas. Sramanas were wandering ascetics who practiced religions such as B UDDHISM and J AIN ISM . (Ascetics are people who give up pleasures and sometimes even the necessities of life for religious purposes.) A thousand years later brahmins were often the butt of jokes in classical Indian drama. The lawbooks focus specifically on the roles of boys and men. Brahmin men often have other occupations, but according to the lawbooks it is best for them to be priests and to teach the Veda. Public SACRIFICES described in the Veda still occur in India, but they are relatively rare. It is much more common for brahmins to serve as spiritual teach ers for boys, a relationship that the boys are sup posed to remember throughout their lives. Some brahmins serve as priests in temples. In addition, all brahmins are supposed to observe household rituals taught by the Veda. Good examples are the sandhya or twilight rituals addressed mornings and evenings to the god Surya, the sun. In theory the lives of women are limited: They are supposed to obey in turn their fathers, husbands, and sons. In practice some Hindu women have been strong and self-assertive. Although all brahmins belong to the highest varna, it should be stressed that varnas are ritual classes, not economic ones. Brahmins may be the most ritually pure members of Indian society, but some brahmins are extremely poor. At the same time, brahmins have played an enormous role in the government of India. Only 3.5 percent of Indians are brahmins, but at the end of the 20th century brahmins held almost 70 percent of all government jobs.

questions: “Gargi, do not question too much, lest your head fall off” (3.6). In the first centuries C . E . thinkers attempted to systematize the teachings of the Upanishads in short formulas of two or three words. These “aph orisms” are so short that they are almost meaning less without a commentary. The most important collection of these teachings was the Vedanta-Sutra of Badarayana, also known as the Brahma-Sutra. Later, from roughly 500 to 1500, thinkers wrote commentaries on these aphorisms and on the Upa nishads themselves. In doing so, they founded sev eral schools of philosophy known as Vedanta. According to S ANKARA , the best known of the thinkers, brahman has three characteristics: being, consciousness, and bliss. Sankara actually identi fies two levels of brahman. In and of itself, brah man is impersonal. But on a lower level, brahman appears to human beings in the form of a person, that is, as a god. Sankara’s Vedanta is known as Advaita, which means “non-dual.” That is because Sankara teaches that the reality of the world— brahman—and the reality of the human being— atman—are “not two” different realities. Other Vedanta teachers, such as Ramanuja and Madhva, reject Sankara’s impersonal brah man. For them, brahman is simply the personal God, known by various names as V ISHNU , S IVA , and Devi. For Ramanuja, the universe is the body of this God. For Madhva, however, brahman or God is completely different from the atman. In the 20th century Vedanta was the most prominent school of traditional philosophy in India. Many of the most widely recognized philos ophers, but not all, favored Sankara’s views. So did many accounts of brahman written by European and North American scholars. brahmin Also spelled brahman; in H INDUISM , a member of the highest of the four varnas or RITUAL classes. According to tradition, the ideal occupa tion for brahmins is that of the priest ( see CASTE IN H INDUISM ). Brahmins descend from the priests who per formed the sacrifices described in the sacred books