Dictionary:

Brahmanism

  (brä'mə-nĭz'əm) also Brahminism (brä'mĭ-)

1. The religious practices and beliefs of ancient India as reflected in the Vedas.
2. The social and religious system of orthodox Hindus, especially of the Brahmins, based on a caste structure and various forms of pantheism.

English word coined from the Sanskrit term Brāhmaṇa (from which is also derived the anglicization ‘Brahmin’) meaning a member of the Indian priestly caste. The term Brahmanism is best reserved for the early phase in Indian religion (roughly 800 ce to 500 ce) in which ritual sacrifices offered by the priestly caste were the dominant form of orthodox religious practice. The term thus denotes the early form of the religion subsequently known to the West as ‘Hinduism’.

Brahmanism refers to the whole way of life associated with the Brahman caste in Hindu India (see Brahmans). Specifically, Brahmanism is a development of earlier Vedism (see Vedism), which was the religion of the Indo-European Aryans who entered India in the second millennium BCE. Brahmanism, like Vedism, reveres the ancient rituals and sacred texts or śruti (see śruti)—the Vedas (see Vedas) and the Brāhmaṇas, Upaniṣads, and Āraṇyakas (see Brāhmaṇas, Upaniṣads, and Āraṇyakas) that grew out of them—but it also places a great deal of trust in the myths contained in less sacred texts or smṛti (see smṛti) such as the epics, the Mahābhārata (see Mahābhārata) and the Rāmāyaṇa (see Rāmāyaṇa), the Purāṇas (see Purāṇas), and various books of Hindu law.

The noun has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: the religious and social system of orthodox Hinduism
  Synonym: Brahminism

Meaning #2: the religious beliefs of ancient India as prescribed in the sacred Vedas and Brahmanas and Upanishads
  Synonym: Brahminism

Brahmanism or Brahminism may refer to:

• historical Vedic Brahmanism, in particular in opposition to Shramana traditions^[1]
• current Brahminical Hinduism, the religion of the Hindu Brahmin caste^[2]
• current ritualist Shrauta traditions

Notes

1. ^ S. Cromwell Crawford, review of L. M. Joshi, Brahmanism, Buddhism and Hinduism, Philosophy East and West (1972): "Alongside Brahmanism was the non-Aryan Shramanic culture with its roots going back to prehistoric times."
2. ^ the OED defines the term as "The principles and practice of the Brahmins." the term is derived from the word Brāhmaṇa (anglicized as Brahmin), and was introduced in 1816 as Brahmenism by George S. Faber (OED).

See also

• Vedic priesthood
• Vedic schools
• Astika
• Mimamsa
• Kalpa (ritual)
• Anti-Brahmanism

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