What is the origin of Brahmins?

Answer 1

The word Brahmin connotes thing which is "Brahma' who is a Hindu god who created this universe. The knowledge which was held in creation of the universe is called "Brahmmah". And the keeper of this knowledge is called a "Brahmin".

Thus a Brahmin is the keeper of knowledge ,--the knowledge which relates to origin of universe, or call it, the theory of interconnection of actions and events in this Universe. One can notice, how the Concept of 'Brahmm', further connotes about the ability of it's keeper, the Brahmin, in speaking about a future event. That is a Brahmin, a person able to speak about Future.

The one who acquired this sphisticated knowledge of future-telling was called a Brahmin. In its original sense, the knowledge was resting of the theories of Action, the Karma, and thereby evolution of Ethics from it, the Dharma. In modern equivalent terms , this was like study in Psychology and Social Psychology. Notice that with the help of knowledge of Psychology, a pychologist attempts to 'predict' the consequences of conduct of a person. That is how the actual knowledge of the Brahmmah worked.

In the Vedic Religion, there is no definite distinction between the Good and the Evil. It is infact one such thing which makes the Vedic religion starkly different from the Abrahmic faiths. Therefore the Vedic Faith is , in study of religions across the world, also referred to as Dharmic Faith.

In Dharmic faiths, the Good and Evil are decided based upon Karma. For example, Ravan despite his huge knowledge and respect and devotion to Lord Shiva, stole away (kidnapped) Ram's wife Sita. Now, it is among these vacillating values and action that the legend hails the killing of Ravan by Ram, but also mentioning at one point that after arrowing down Ravan, Ram ordered his brother Lakshman to sit by Ravan to respectfully beg the latter to impart knowledge of "raaj paath" (Political Science and Public Administration) from the learned Scholar. (Refer J.L. Nehru's special mention of this episode in his book 'The Discovery of India')

THAT IS the reverence and worth of a Brahmin, which Ravan was.

Actions decide one's position as Good(meaning ,a publicly acceptable thing ) and Bad (meaning, a publicly reject-able thing).

Owing to this ever-shifting nature of Good and Evil, and a complex means to conclude the Good and Evil, that is, the understanding of Dharma, the Vedic people had tremendous dependence on the special acquirer of the knowledge, the Brahmins.

Vedas were the documents of brahmins.

In the original sense,The Brahmin 'class' of people , thus, came with its own sets of duty towards common people . That was about imparting knowledge, helping the common people to distinct between Good and Evil, to help him with his day-today conduct, a good practice personal behaviour, to inform common man about future of his personal conduct, etc. The brahmins were thus respected by those same common people, for their altruism, austere conduct, renunciation, high knowledge.