Brahmana

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The Brāhmaṇas (Devanagari: ब्राह्मणं) are part of the Hindu śruti literature. They are commentaries on the four Vedas, detailing the proper performance of rituals.

Each Vedic shakha (school) had its own Brahmana, and it is not known how many of these texts existed during the Mahajanapadas period. A total of 19 Brahmanas are extant at least in their entirety: two associated with the Rigveda, six with the Yajurveda, ten with the Samaveda and one with the Atharvaveda. Additionally, there are a handful of fragmentarily preserved texts. They vary greatly in length; the edition of the Shatapatha Brahmana fills five volumes of the Sacred Books of the East, while the Vamsa Brahmana can be printed on a single page.

The Brahmanas were seminal in the development of later Indian thought and scholarship, including Hindu philosophy, predecessors of Vedanta, law, astronomy, geometry, linguistics (Panini), the concept of Karma, or the stages in life such as brahmacarya, grihastha and eventually, sannyasi. Some Brahmanas contain sections that are Aranyakas or Upanishads in their own right.

The language of the Brahmanas is a separate stage of Vedic Sanskrit, younger than the text of the samhitas (the mantra text of the Vedas proper) but for the most part older than the text of the Sutras. It dates to the Iron Age, or about the 9th, 8th and 7th centuries BC, with some of the younger Brahmanas (such as the Shatapatha Brahmana) overlapping with the Sutra period, dating to about the 6th century BC.^[1] Historically, this corresponds to the emergence of great kingdoms or Mahajanapadas out of the earlier tribal kingdoms during the later Vedic period.

List of Brahmanas

Each Brahmana is associated with one of the four Vedas, and within the tradition of that Veda with a particular shakha or school:

Rigveda

• Shakala shakha: Aitareya Brahmana, rarely also known as Ashvalayana Brahmana (AB)^[2]
• Bashkala shakha: Kaushitaki Brahmana (also called Śāṅkhāyana Brahmana) (KB, ŚānkhB)^[3]

Yajurveda

• In the Black Yajurveda, the Brahmana text is integrated in the samhita.
  • Maitrayani Samhita (MS) and an Aranyaka (= accented Maitr. Up.)
  • (Caraka)Katha Samhita (KS); the Katha school has an additional fragmentary Brahmana (KathB) and Aranyaka (KathA)
  • Kapisthalakatha Samhita (KpS), and a few fragments of its Brahmana
  • Taittiriya Samhita (TS). The Taittiriya school has an additional Taittiriya Brahmana (TB) and Aranyaka (TA) as well as the late Vedic Vadhula Anvakhyana (Br.)
• White Yajurveda
  • Vajasaneyi Madhyandina: Shatapatha Brahmana, Madhyadina recension (SBM)
  • Kanva: Shatapatha Brahmana, Kanva recension (SBK)

Samaveda

• Kauthuma: Tandyamaha or Pañcaviṃśa Brahmana (PB), Śādviṃśa Brahmana (ṢadvB)
• Samavidhana Brahmana
• Arseya Brahmana
• Devatadhyaya or Daivata Brahmana
• Shakdwipiya or Mag Brahman
• Mantra or Chandogya Brahmana (MB)
• Samhitopanisad Brahmana
• Vamsa Brahmana. The text consists of one short chapter, detailing successions of teachers and disciples.^[4]
• Jaiminiya Brahmana (JB)
• Jaiminiya Arseya Brahmana
• Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana (JUB)

Atharvaveda

• Paippalada: Gopatha Brahmana

References

• Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1900). "Brāhmaṇas". A History of Sanskrit Literature. New York: D. Appleton and company. 
• Arthur Berriedale Keith, Rigveda Brahmanas (1920); reprint: Motilal Banarsidass (1998) ISBN 978-8120813595.
• A. C. Banerjea, Studies in the Brāhmaṇas, Motilal Banarsidass (1963)
• E. R. Sreekrishna Sarma, Kauṣītaki-Brāhmaṇa, Wiesbaden (1968, comm. 1976).
• Dumont,P.E. [translations of sections of TB 3 ]. PAPS 92 (1948), 95 (1951), 98 (1954), 101 (1957), 103 (1959), 104 (1960), 105 (1961), 106 (1962), 107 (1963), 108 (1964), 109 (1965), 113 (1969).
• Caland, W. Über das Vadhulasutra; Eine zweite / dritte / vierte Mitteilung über das Vadhulasutra. [= Vadhula Sutra and Brahmana fragments (Anvakhyana)]. Acta Orientalia 1, 3-11; AO II, 142-167; AO IV, 1-41, 161-213; AO VI, 97-241.1922. 1924. 1926. 1928. [= Kleine Schriften, ed. M. WItzel. Stuttgart 1990, pp. 268-541]
• Caland. W. Pancavimsa-Brahmana. The Brahmana of twenty five chapters. (Bibliotheca Indica 255.) Calcutta 1931. Repr. Delhi 1982.
• Bollée, W. B. Sadvinsa-Brahmana. Introd., transl., extracts from the commentaries and notes. Utrecht 1956.
• Bodewitz, H. W. Jaiminiya Brahmana I, 1-65. Translation and commentary with a study of the Agnihotra and Pranagnihotra. Leiden 1973.
• Bodewitz, H. W. The Jyotistoma Ritual. Jaiminiya Brahmana I,66-364. Introduction, translation and commentary. Leiden 1990.
• Gaastra, D. Das Gopatha Brahmana, Leiden 1919
• Bloomfield, M. The Atharvaveda and the Gopatha-Brahmana (Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde II.1.b) Strassburg 1899

External links

• GRETIL etexts