Brahmanas - Ministry - http://maxpages.com/globalnetwork/Brahmanas

Between about 900 and 700 BC the Brahmanas were written in prose as sacerdotal
commentaries on the four Vedas to guide the practices of the sacrifices and give explanations
often mythical and fanciful for these customs. However, their limited focus of justifying the priestly
actions in the sacrifices restricted the themes of these first attempts at imaginative literature.
Nevertheless they do give us information about the social customs of this period and serve as a
transition from the Vedas to the Aranyakas and the mystical Upanishads.

The caste system based on color (varna) was now established, though not as rigidly as it became
later. The essential difference was between the light-skinned Aryans, who made up the top three
castes of the priestly Brahmins, warrior Kshatriyas, and artisan Vaisyas, and the dark-skinned
Dasas, who were the servant Sudras. Sudras, like women, could not own property, and only
rarely did they rise above service positions. The Vaisyas were the basis of the economic system of
trade, crafts, and farming. The Vaisyas were considered inferior by the Brahmins and Kshatriyas,
and a female was generally not allowed to marry below her caste though it was common for a
male to do so. Even a Brahmin's daughter was not supposed to marry a Kshatriya.

The rivalry for prestige and power was between the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas or rajanyas.
Brahmins often held debates on Brahman and other religious issues. Janaka, a rajanya gained
knowledge and defeated some Brahmins in discussion. So some Brahmins suggested a
symposium on Brahman to prove who was superior, but since Brahmins were expected to be
superior on these issues, Yajnavalkya prudently replied, "We are Brahmins; he is a rajanya. If we
win, whom shall we say that we have defeated? But if he defeats us, they will say a rajanya has
defeated Brahmins; so let us not convene this symposium."10

Kings were consecrated by Vedic rites and ruled with the help of the assembly (sabha) that met
in a hall to administer justice; women were excluded. Ordeals were used, such as making a
suspected thief touch a hot ax to see if his hand burned, which might be the origin of the saying,
"being caught red-handed." Politics and legislation took place in a larger council (samiti). Taxes
were collected to support these institutions and the army.

Each village was administered by a Gramani, a Vaisya who functioned like a mayor with civil
rather than military authority. The Gramani and the royal charioteer (Suta) were considered the
kingmakers. This latter privileged position was not merely the driver of the king but also his chief
advisor and perhaps storyteller as well. The royal priest or Purohito was also supposed to advise
the king in peace and protect him in war. The season of dew after the monsoons ended was
considered the time for "sacking cities," as ambitious kings came into conflict with each other in
wars.

In addition to the discussions of sacerdotal matters, the Brahmanas do contain some stories
meant to explain or rationalize their religious practices. Some of these are quite imaginative, though
the usual pattern is for the hero to discover a rite to perform or a chant to intone which
miraculously solves whatever problem is pressing to give a happy ending.

Wendy O'Flaherty has translated some stories from the Jaiminiya Brahmana illustrating how they
dealt with the fears of death, God, the father, wives, and demonic women; many of these stories
are sexually explicit, indicating that these people were not afraid of discussing their sexuality.
However, since the usual way of handling these fears was to use a sacrificial ritual, the solutions
probably had only limited social and psychological value.

The most famous of these stories and the best in my opinion is the tale of Bhrigu's journey in the
other world. Bhrigu was the son of Varuna and devoted to learning, and he thought that he was
better than the other Brahmins and even better than the gods and his own father. So Varuna
decided to teach him something by stopping his life breaths, causing Bhrigu to enter the world
beyond where he saw someone cut another man to pieces and eat him, a second man eating
another who was screaming, a third eating a man who was silently screaming, another world
where two women were guarding a treasure, a fifth where a stream of blood was guarded by a
naked black man with a club and a stream of butter provided all the desires of golden men in
golden bowls, and a sixth world where flowed five rivers of blue and white lotuses and flowing
honey with wonderful music, celestial nymphs dancing and singing, and a fragrant odor.

When Bhrigu returned, his father Varuna explained to him that the first man represented people
who in ignorance destroy trees, which in turn eat them; the second are those who cook animals
that cry out and in the other world are eaten by them in return; the third are those who ignorantly
cook rice and barley, which scream silently and also eat them in return; the two women are Faith
and non-Faith; the river of blood represents those who squeeze the blood out of a Brahmin, and
the naked black man guarding is Anger; but the true sacrificers are the golden men, who get the
river of butter and the paradise of the five rivers.

To me this myth is a clear warning against the harmful actions of deforestation and meat-eating,
and even the eating of living vegetables is to be done in silent respect. It shows an intuitive
understanding of the principle of karma or the consequences of action as well as the growing
importance of the concept of faith in addition to the usual theme of the sacrifice.

The power of the word is increasing, as the sacrifices were glorified and given power even over
the Vedic gods. Japa or the practice of chanting a mantram like Aum practiced ascetically with
the sacrifices was believed to produce all one's desires. At the same time knowledge was
beginning to be valued. In one exchange mind says that speech merely imitates it, but speech
emphasizes the importance of expression and communication; however, Prajapati decides that
mind is more important even than the word.

This new god, Prajapati, is said to have given birth to both the gods and the demons. The ethical
principle of truth appears as the gods are described as being truthful and the demons as being
false. However, realizing the ways of the world, many complain that the demons grew strong and
rich, just as cattle like salty soil; but by performing the sacrifice the gods attained the whole truth
and triumph, as, analogically I might add, people will eventually realize that cattle as well as salt
ruins the land.

Prajapati not only was the first to sacrifice but was considered the sacrifice itself. He practiced
tapas to create by the heat of his own effort, and this heat was also related to cosmic fire and light
as well as the to the warmth of the body and breath. Another concept of energy associated with
the breath was prana; it also was identified with goodness, as the texts imply that as the life force
it cannot be impure or bad. Prajapati not only created but entered into things as form and name,
giving them order. Eventually Prajapati would be replaced by Brahman, who was identified with
truth and would become the Creator God in the trinity that would include Vishnu, a sun-god who
becomes the Preserver, and Shiva, who is derived from the indigenous Rudra, the Destroyer.
With all the mental activity going on analyzing the rites and their explanation, abstractions were
increasing in the religion.

A judgment after death using a scale to weigh good against evil is described in the Satapatha
Brahmana, an idea which may have been transported from Egypt by merchants. This text
recommends that the one who knows this will balance one's deeds in this world so that in the next
the good deeds will rise, not the evil ones. Belief in repeated lives through reincarnation is
indicated in several passages in the Brahmanas. A beef-eater is punished by being born into a
strange and sinful creature. As knowledge rivaled the value of ritual, this new problem of how to
escape from an endless cycle of rebirth presented itself.

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Page Updated Wed Jan 24, 2001 8:20pm EST