Chapter II: Part 2

Braga is the Roman _Bracara Augusta_, capital of the _Callaici Bracarii_, or _Bracarenses_, a tribe who occupied what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. Early in the 5th century it was taken by the Suevi; but about 485 it passed into the hands of the Visigothic conquerors of Spain, whose renunciation of the Arian and Priscillianist heresies, at two synods held here in the 6th century, marks the origin of its ecclesiastical greatness. The archbishops of Braga retain the title of primate of Portugal, and long claimed supremacy over the Spanish church also; but their authority was never accepted throughout Spain. From the Moors, who captured Braga early in the 8th century, the city was retaken in 1040 by Ferdinand I., king of Castile and Leon; and from 1093 to 1147 it was the residence of the Portuguese court.

The administrative district of Braga coincides with the central part of the province of Entre Minho e Douro (q.v.). Pop. (1900) 357,159. Area, 1040 sq. m.

BRAGANZA (_Braganca_), the capital of an administrative district formerly included in the province of Traz-os-Montes, Portugal; situated in the north-eastern extremity of the kingdom, on a branch of the river Sabor, 8 m. S. of the Spanish frontier. Pop. (1900) 5535. Braganza is an episcopal city. It consists of a walled upper town, containing the cathedral college and hospital, and of a lower or modern town. Large tracts of the surrounding country are uncultivated, partly because railway communication is lacking and the roads are bad. Except farming, the chief local industry is silkworm-rearing and the manufacture of silk. The administrative district of Braganza coincides with the eastern part of Traz-os-Montes (q.v.). Pop. (1900) 185,162; area, 2513 sq. m.

The city gave its name to the family of Braganza, members of which were rulers of Portugal from 1640 to 1853, and emperors of Brazil from 1822 to 1889. This family is descended from Alphonso (d. 1461), a natural son of John I., king of Portugal (d. 1433), who was a natural son of King Peter I., and consequently belonged to the Portuguese branch of the Capetian family. Alphonso was made duke of Braganza in 1442, and in 1483 his grandson, Duke Ferdinand II., lost his life through heading an insurrection against King John II. In spite of this Ferdinand's descendants acquired great wealth, and several of them held high office under the kings of Portugal. Duke John I. (d. 1583) married into the royal family, and when King Henry II. died without direct heirs in 1580, he claimed the crown of Portugal in opposition to Philip II. of Spain. John, however, was unsuccessful, but, when the Portuguese threw off the Spanish dominion in 1640, his grandson, John II., duke of Braganza, became king as John IV. In 1807, when Napoleon declared the throne of Portugal vacant, King John VI. fled to Brazil; but he regained his inheritance after the fall of Napoleon in 1814, although he did not return to Europe until 1821, when he left his elder son Peter to govern Brazil. In 1822 a revolution established the independence of Brazil with Peter as emperor. In 1826 Peter became king of Portugal on the death of his father; but he at once resigned the crown to his young daughter Maria, and appointed his brother Miguel to act as regent. Miguel soon declared himself king, but after a stubborn struggle was driven from the country in 1833, after which Maria became queen. Maria married for her second husband Ferdinand (d. 1851), son of Francis, duke of Saxe-Coburg; and when she died in 1853 the main Portuguese branch of the family became extinct. Maria was succeeded by her son Louis I., father of Charles I., who ascended the throne of Portugal in 1889. The empire of Brazil descended on the death of Peter I. to his son Peter II., who was expelled from the country in 1889. When Peter died in 1891 this branch of the family also became extinct in the male line. His only child, Isabella, married Louis Gaston of Orleans, count of Eu. The exiled king, Miguel, founded a branch of the family of Braganza which settled in Bavaria, and various noble families in Portugal are descended from cadets of this house. The title of duke of Braganza is now borne by the eldest son of the king of Portugal.

BRAGG, BRAXTON (1817-1876), American soldier, was born in Warren county, North Carolina, on the 22nd of March 1817. He graduated at the United States military academy in 1837, and as an artillery officer served in the Seminole wars of 1837 and 1841, and under General Taylor in Mexico. For gallant conduct at Fort Brown, Monterey and Buena Vista, he received the brevets of captain, major and lieutenant-colonel. He resigned from the regular army on the 3rd of January 1856, and retired to his plantation in Louisiana. From 1859 to 1861 he was commissioner of the board of public works of the state. When in 1861 the Civil War began, Bragg was made a brigadier-general in the Confederate service, and assigned to command at Pensacola. In February 1862, having meanwhile become major-general, he took up a command in the Army of the Mississippi, and he was present at the battle of Shiloh (April). The vacancy created by the death of Sidney Johnston at that battle was filled by the promotion of Bragg to full general's rank, and he succeeded General Beauregard when that officer retired from the Western command. In the autumn of 1862 he led a bold advance from Eastern Tennessee across Kentucky to Louisville, but after temporary successes he was forced to retire before Buell, and after the battle of Perryville (8th October) retired into Tennessee. Though the material results of his campaign were considerable, he was bitterly censured, and his removal from his command was urged. But the personal favour of Jefferson Davis kept him, as it had placed him, at the head of the central army, and on the 31st of December 1862 and 2nd of January 1863 he fought the indecisive battle of Murfreesboro (or Stone river) against Rosecrans, Buell's successor. In the campaign of 1863 Rosecrans constantly outmanoeuvred the Confederates, and forced them back to the border of Georgia. Bragg, however, inflicted a crushing defeat on his opponent at Chickamauga (September 19-20) and for a time besieged the Union forces in Chattanooga. But enormous forces under Grant were concentrated upon the threatened spot, and the great battle of Chattanooga (November 23-25) ended in the rout of the Confederates. Bragg was now deprived of his command, but President Davis made him his military adviser, and in that capacity he served during 1864. In the autumn of that year he led an inferior force from North Carolina to Georgia to oppose Sherman's march. In February 1865 he joined Johnston, and he was thus included in the surrender of that officer to Sherman. After the war he became chief engineer to the state of Alabama, and supervised improvements in Mobile harbour. He died suddenly at Galveston, Texas, on the 27th of September 1876. General Bragg, in spite of his want of success, was unquestionably a brave and skilful officer. But he was a severe martinet, and rarely in full accord with the senior officers under his orders, the consequent friction often acting unfavourably on the conduct of the operations.

His brother, THOMAS BRAGG (1810-1872), was governor of North Carolina 1855-1859, U.S. senator 1859-1861, and attorney-general in the Confederate cabinet from Nov. 1861 to March 1862.

BRAGI, in Scandinavian mythology, the son of Odin, and god of wisdom, poetry and eloquence. At the Scandinavian sacrificial feasts a horn consecrated to Bragi was used as a drinking-cup by the guests, who then vowed to do some great deed which would be worthy of being immortalized in verse.

BRAHAM, JOHN (c. 1774-1856), English vocalist, was born in London about 1774, of Jewish parentage, his real name being Abraham. His father and mother died when he was quite young. Having received lessons in singing from an Italian artist named Leoni, he made his first appearance in public at Covent Garden theatre on the 21st of April 1787, when he sang "The soldier tired of war's alarms" and "_Ma chere arrive_." On the breaking of his voice, he had to support himself by teaching the pianoforte. In a few years, however, he recovered his voice, which proved to be a tenor of exceptionally pure and rich quality. His second debut was made in 1794 at the Bath concerts, to the conductor of which, Rauzzini, he was indebted for careful training extending over a period of more than two years. In 1796 he reappeared in London at Drury Lane in Storace's opera of _Mahmoud_. Such was his success that he obtained an engagement the next year to appear in the Italian opera house in Gretry's _Azor et Zemire_. He also sang in oratorios and was engaged for the Three Choir festival at Gloucester. With the view of perfecting himself in his art he set out for Italy in the autumn of 1797. On the way he gave some concerts at Paris, which proved so successful that he was induced to remain there for eight months. His career in Italy was one of continuous triumph; he appeared in all the principal opera-houses, singing in Milan, Genoa, Leghorn and Venice. His compass embraced about nineteen notes, his management of the falsetto being perfect. In 1801 he returned to his native country, and appeared once more at Covent Garden in the opera _Chains of the Heart_, by Mazzinghi and Reeve. So great was his popularity that an engagement he had made when abroad to return after a year to Vienna was renounced, and he remained henceforward in England. In 1824 he sang the part of Max in the English version of Weber's _Der Freischutz_, and he was the original Sir Huon in that composer's _Oberon_ in 1826. Braham made two unfortunate speculations on a large scale, one being the purchase of the Colosseum in the Regent's Park in 1831 for L40,000, and the other the erection of the St James's theatre at a cost of L26,000 in 1836. In 1838 he sang the part of William Tell at Drury Lane, and in 1839 the part of Don Giovanni. His last public appearance was at a concert in March 1852. He died on the 17th of February 1856. There is, perhaps, no other case upon record in which a singer of the first rank enjoyed the use of his voice so long; between Braham's first and last public appearances considerably more than sixty years intervened, during forty of which he held the undisputed supremacy alike in opera, oratorio and the concert-room. Braham was the composer of a number of vocal pieces, which being sung by himself had great temporary popularity, though they had little intrinsic merit, and are now deservedly forgotten. A partial exception must be made in favour of "The Death of Nelson," originally written in 1811 as a portion of the opera _The American_; this still keeps its place as a standard popular English song.

BRAHE, PER, COUNT (1602-1680), Swedish soldier and statesman, was born on the island of Rydboholm, near Stockholm, on the 18th of February 1602. He was the grandson of Per Brahe (1520-1590), one of Gustavus I.'s senators, created count of Visingsborg by Eric XIV., known also as the continuator of Peder Svart's chronicle of Gustavus I., and author of _Oeconomia_ (1585), a manual for young noblemen. Per Brahe the younger, after completing his education by several years' travel abroad, became in 1626 chamberlain to Gustavus Adolphus, whose lasting friendship he gained. He fought with distinction in Prussia during the last three years of the Polish War (1626-1629) and also, as colonel of a regiment of horse, in 1630 in Germany. After the death of Gustavus Adolphus in 1632 his military yielded to his political activity. He had been elected president (_Landsmarskalk_) of the diet of 1629, and in the following year was created a senator (_Riksrad_). In 1635 he conducted the negotiations for an armistice with Poland. In 1637-1640 and again in 1648-1654 he was governor-general in Finland, to which country he rendered inestimable services by his wise and provident rule. He reformed the whole administration, introduced a postal system, built ten new towns, improved and developed commerce and agriculture, and very greatly promoted education. In 1640 he opened the university of Abo, of which he was the founder, and first chancellor. After the death of Charles X. in 1660, Brahe, as _rikskansler_ or chancellor of Sweden, became one of the regents of Sweden for the second time (he had held a similar office during the minority of Christina, 1632-1644), and during the difficult year 1660 he had entire control of both foreign and domestic affairs. He died on the 2nd of September 1680, at his castle at Visingsborg, where during his lifetime he had held more than regal pomp.

His brother, NILS BRAHE (1604-1632), also served with distinction under Gustavus Adolphus. He took part in the siege and capture of Riga in 1621, served with distinction in Poland (1626-1627) and assisted in the defence of Stralsund in 1628. In 1630 he accompanied Gustavus into Germany, and in 1631 was appointed colonel of "the yellow regiment," the king's world-renowned life-guards, at the head of which he captured the castle of Wurzburg on the 8th of October 1631. He took part in the long duel between Gustavus and Wallenstein round Nuremberg as general of infantry, and commanded the left wing at Lutzen (November 6, 1632), where he was the only Swedish general officer present. At the very beginning of the fight he was mortally wounded. The king regarded Brahe as the best general in the Swedish army after Lennart Torstensen.

A direct descendant of Nils, MAGNUS BRAHE (1790-1844), fought in the campaign of 1813-14, under the crown prince Bernadotte, with whom, after his accession to the throne as Charles XIV., he was in high favour. He became marshal of the kingdom, and, especially from 1828 onwards, exercised a preponderant influence in public affairs.

See Martin Veibull, _Sveriges Storhetstid_, vol. iv. (Stockholm,
1881); _Letters to Axel Oxenstjerna_ (Swed.) 1832-1851 (Stockholm,
1890); Petrus Nordmann, _Per Brahe_ (Helsingfors, 1904). (R. N. B.)

BRAHE, TYCHO (1546-1601), Danish astronomer, was born on the 14th of December 1546 at the family seat of Knudstrup in Scania, then a Danish province. Of noble family, he was early adopted by his uncle, Jorgen Brahe, who sent him, in April 1559, to study philosophy and rhetoric at Copenhagen. The punctual occurrence at the predicted time, August 21st, 1560, of a total solar eclipse led him to regard astronomy as "something divine"; he purchased the _Ephemerides_ of Johann Stadius (3rd ed., 1570), and the works of Ptolemy in Latin, and gained some insight into the theory of the planets. Entered as a law-student at the university of Leipzig in 1562, he nevertheless secretly prosecuted celestial studies, and began continuous observations with a globe, a pair of compasses and a "cross-staff." He quitted Leipzig on the 17th of May 1565, but his uncle dying a month later, he repaired to Wittenberg, and thence to Rostock, where, in 1566, he lost his nose in a duel, and substituted an artificial one made of a copper alloy. In 1569 he matriculated at Augsburg, and devoted himself to chemistry for two years (1570-1572). On his return to Denmark, in 1571, he was permitted by his maternal uncle, Steno Belle, to instal a laboratory at his castle of Herritzvad, near Knudstrup; and there, on the 11th of November 1572, he caught sight of the famous "new star" in Cassiopeia. He diligently measured its position, and printed an account of his observations in a tract entitled _De Nova Stella_ (Copenhagen, 1573), a facsimile of which was produced in 1901, as a tercentenary tribute to the author's memory.

Tycho's marriage with a peasant-girl in 1573 somewhat strained his family relations. He delivered lectures in Copenhagen by royal command in 1574; and in 1575 travelled through Germany to Venice. The execution of his design to settle at Basel was, however, anticipated by the munificence of Frederick II., king of Denmark, who bestowed upon him for life the island of Hveen in the Sound, together with a pension of 500 thalers, a canonry in the cathedral of Roskilde, and the income of an estate in Norway. The first stone of the magnificent observatory of Uraniborg was laid on the 8th of August 1576; it received the finest procurable instrumental outfit; and was the scene, during twenty-one years, of Tycho's labours in systematically collecting materials--the first made available since the Alexandrian epoch--for the correction of astronomical theories. James VI. of Scotland, afterwards James I. of England, visited him at Uraniborg on the 20th of March 1590. But by that time his fortunes were on the wane; for Frederick II. died in 1588, and his successor, Christian IV., was less tolerant of Tycho's arrogant and insubordinate behaviour. His pension and fief having been withdrawn, he sailed for Rostock in June 1597, and re-commenced observing before the close of the year, in the castle of Wandsbeck near Hamburg. He spent the following winter at Wittenberg, and reached Prague in June 1599, well assured of favour and protection from the emperor Rudolph II. That monarch, accordingly, assigned him the castle of Benatky for his residence, with a pension of 3000 florins; his great instruments were moved thither from Hveen, and Johannes Kepler joined him there in January 1600. But this phase of renewed prosperity was brief. After eleven days' illness, Tycho Brahe died on the 24th of October 1601, at Benatky, and was buried in the Teynkirche, Prague.

Tycho's principal work, entitled _Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmata_ (2 vols., Prague, 1602-1603) was edited by Kepler. The first volume treated of the motions of the sun and moon, and gave the places of 777 fixed stars (this number was increased to 1005 by Kepler in 1627 in the "Rudolphine Tables"). The second, which had been privately printed at Uraniborg in 1588 with the heading _De Mundi Aetherei recentioribus Phaenomenis_, was mainly concerned with the comet of 1577, demonstrated by Tycho from its insensible parallax to be no terrestrial exhalation, as commonly supposed, but a body traversing planetary space. It included, besides, an account of the Tychonic plan of the cosmos, in which a _via media_ was sought between the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems. The earth retained its immobility; but the five planets were made to revolve round the sun, which, with its entire cortege, annually circuited the earth, the sphere of the fixed stars performing meanwhile, as of old, its all-inclusive diurnal rotation (see ASTRONOMY: _History_). Under the heading _Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica_, Tycho published at Wandsbeck, in 1598, a description of his instruments, together with an autobiographical account of his career and discoveries, including the memorable one of the moon's "variation" (see MOON). The book was reprinted at Nuremberg in 1602 (cf. Hasselberg, _Vierteljahrsschrift Astr. Ges._ xxxix. iii. 180). His _Epistolae Astronomicae_, printed at Uraniborg in 1596 with a portrait engraved by Geyn of Amsterdam in 1586, were embodied in a complete edition of his works issued at Frankfort in 1648. Tycho vastly improved the art of astronomical observation. He constructed a table of refractions, allowed for instrumental inaccuracies, and eliminated by averaging accidental errors. He, moreover, corrected the received value of nearly every astronomical quantity; but the theoretical purpose towards which his practical reform was directed, was foiled by his premature death.

See J.L.E. Dreyer's _Tycho Brahe_ (Edinburgh, 1890), which gives full
and authentic information regarding his life and work. Also Gassendi's
_Vita_ (Paris, 1654); _Lebensbeschreibung_, collected from various
Danish sources, and translated into German by Philander von der
Weistritz (Copenhagen and Leipzig, 1756); _Tyge Brahe_, by F.R. Friis
(Copenhagen, 1871); _Prager Tychoniana_, collected by Dr F.I.
Studnicka (Prague, 1901), a description of the scanty Tychonian relics
which survived the Thirty Years' War and are still preserved at
Prague. (A. M. C.)

BRAHMAN, a Sanskrit noun-stem which, differently accented, yields in the two nominatives _Brahma_ (neut.) and _Brahma_ (masc.), the names of two deities which occupy prominent places in the orthodox system of Hindu belief. Brahma (n.) is the designation generally applied to the Supreme Soul (_paramatman_), or impersonal, all-embracing divine essence, the original source and ultimate goal of all that exists; Brahma (m.), on the other hand, is only one of the three hypostases of that divinity whose creative activity he represents, as distinguished from its preservative and destructive aspects, ever apparent in life and nature, and represented by the gods Vishnu and Siva respectively. The history of the two cognate names reflects in some measure the development of Indian religious speculation generally.

The neuter term _brahma_ is used in the _Rigveda_ both in the abstract sense of "devotion, worship," and in the concrete sense of "devotional rite, prayer, hymn." The spirit of Vedic worship is pervaded by a devout belief in the efficacy of invocation and sacrificial offering. The earnest and well-expressed prayer or hymn of praise cannot fail to draw the divine power to the worshipper and make it yield to his supplication; whilst offerings, so far from being mere acts of devotion calculated to give pleasure to the god, constitute the very food and drink which render him vigorous and capable of battling with the enemies of his mortal friend. It is this intrinsic power of fervent invocation and worship which found an early expression in the term _brahma_; and its independent existence as an active moral principle in shaping the destinies of man became recognized in the Vedic pantheon in the conception of a god _Brihaspati_ or _Brahmanaspati_, "lord of prayer or devotion," the divine priest and the guardian of the pious worshipper. By a natural extension of the original meaning, the term _brahma_, in the sense of sacred utterance, was subsequently likewise applied to the whole body of sacred writ, the _tri-vidya_ or "triple lore" of the Veda; whilst it also came to be commonly used as the abstract designation of the priestly function and the Brahmanical order generally, in the same way as the term _kshatra_, "sway, rule," came to denote the aggregate of functions and individuals of the Kshatriyas or Rajanyas, the nobility or military class.

The universal belief in the efficacy of invocation as an indispensable adjunct to sacrifices and religious rites generally, could not fail to engender and maintain in the minds of the people feelings of profound esteem and reverence towards those who possessed the divine gift of inspired utterance, as well as for those who had acquired an intimate knowledge of the approved forms of ritual worship. A common designation of the priest is brahman (nom. _brahma_), originally denoting, it would seem, "one who prays, a worshipper," perhaps also "the composer of a hymn" (_brahman_, n.); and the same term came subsequently to be used not only for one of the sacerdotal order generally, but also, and more commonly, as the designation of a special class of priests who officiated as superintendents during sacrificial performances, the complicated nature of which required the co-operation of a whole staff of priests, and who accordingly were expected to possess a competent knowledge of the entire course of ritual procedure, including the correct form and mystic import of the sacred texts to be repeated or chanted by the several priests. The Brahman priest (_brahma_) being thus the recognized head of the sacerdotal order (_brahma_), which itself is the visible embodiment of sacred writ and the devotional spirit pervading it (_brahma_), the complete realization of theocratic aspirations required but a single step, which was indeed taken in the theosophic speculations of the later Vedic poets and the authors of the Brahmanas (q.v.), viz. the recognition of this abstract notion of the Brahma as the highest cosmic principle and its identification with the pantheistic conception of an all-pervading, self-existent spiritual substance, the primary source of the universe; and subsequently coupled therewith the personification of its creative energy in the form of Brahma, the divine representative of the earthly priest, who was made to take the place of the earlier conception of _Prajapati_, "the lord of creatures" (see BRAHMANISM). By this means the very name of this god expressed the essential oneness of his nature with that of the divine spirit as whose manifestation he was to be considered. In the later Vedic writings, especially the Brahmanas, however, Prajapati still maintains throughout his position as the paramount personal deity; and Brahma, in his divine capacity, is rather identified with Brihaspati, the priest of the gods. Moreover, the exact relationship between Prajapati and the Brahma (n.) is hardly as yet defined with sufficient precision; it is rather one of simple identification: in the beginning the Brahma was the All, and Prajapati is the Brahma. It is only in the institutes of Manu, where we find the system of castes propounded in its complete development, that Brahma has his definite place assigned to him in the cosmogony. According to this work, the universe, before undiscerned, was made discernible in the beginning by the sole, self-existent lord Brahma (n.). He, desirous of producing different beings from his own self, created the waters by his own thought, and placed in them a seed which developed into a golden egg; therein was born Brahma (m.), the parent of all the worlds; and thus "that which is the undiscrete Cause, eternal, which is and is not, from it issued that male who is called in the world Brahma." Having dwelt in that egg for a year, that lord spontaneously by his own thought split that egg in two; and from the two halves he fashioned the heaven and the earth, and in the middle, the sky, and the eight regions (the points of the compass), and the perpetual place of the waters. This theory of Brahma being born from a golden egg is, however, a mere adaptation of the Vedic conception of _Hiranya-garbha_ ("golden embryo"), who is represented as the supreme god in a hymn of the tenth (and last) book of the _Rigveda_. Another still later myth, which occurs in the epic poems, makes Brahma be born from a lotus which grew out of the navel of the god Vishnu whilst floating on the primordial waters. In artistic representations, Brahma usually appears as a bearded man of red colour with four heads crowned with a pointed, tiara-like head-dress, and four hands holding his sceptre, or a sacrificial spoon, a bundle of leaves representing the Veda, a bottle of water of the Ganges, and a string of beads or his bow Parivita. His vehicle (_vahana_) is a goose or swan (_hamsa_), whence he is also called _Hamsavhana_; and his consort is Sarasvati, the goddess of learning.

One could hardly expect that a colourless deity of this description, so completely the product of priestly speculation, could ever have found a place in the hearts of the people generally, And indeed, whilst in theoretic theology Brahma has retained his traditional place and function down to our own days, his practical cult has at all times remained extremely limited, the only temple dedicated to the worship of this god being found at Pushkar (Pokhar) near Ajmir in Rajputana. On the other hand, his divine substratum, the impersonal Brahma, the world-spirit, the one and only reality, remains to this day the ultimate element of the religious belief of intelligent India of whatever sect. Being devoid of all attributes, it can be the object only of meditation, not of practical devotional rites; and philosophy can only attempt to characterize it in general and vague terms, as in the favourite formula which makes it to be _sachchidananda_, i.e. being (_sat_), thinking (_chit_), and bliss (_ananda_). (J. E.)

BRAHMANA, the Sanskrit term applied to a body of prose writings appended to the collections (_samhita_) of Vedic texts, the meaning and ritual application of which they are intended to elucidate, and like them regarded as divinely revealed. From a linguistic point of view, these treatises with their appendages, the more mystic and recondite Aranyakas and the speculative Upanishads, have to be considered as forming the connecting link between the Vedic and the classical Sanskrit. The exact derivation and meaning of the name is somewhat uncertain. Whilst the masculine term _brahmana_ (nom. _brahmanas_), the ordinary Sanskrit designation of a man of the Brahmanical caste, is clearly a derivative of _brahman_ (nom. _brahma_), a common Vedic term for a priest (see BRAHMAN), thus meaning the son or descendant of a Brahman, the neuter word _brahman_ (nom. _brahmanam_) on the other hand, with which we are here concerned, admits of two derivations: either it is derived from the same word _brahman_, and would then seem to mean a _dictum_ or observation ascribed to, or intended for the use of, a Brahman, or superintendent priest; or it has rather to be referred to the neuter noun _brahman_ (nom. _brahma_), in the sense of "sacred utterance or rite," in which case it might mean a comment on a sacred text, or explanation of a devotional rite, calculated to bring out its spiritual or mystic significance and its bearing on the Brahma, the world-spirit embodied in the sacred writ and ritual. This latter definition seems on the whole the more probable one, and it certainly would fit exactly the character of the writings to which the term relates. It will thus be seen that the term _brahmanam_ applies not only to complete treatises of an exegetic nature, but also to single comments on particular texts or rites of which such a work would be made up.

The gradual elaboration of the sacrificial ceremonial, as the all-sufficient expression of religious devotion, and a constantly growing tendency towards theosophic and mystic speculation on the significance of every detail of the ritual, could not fail to create a demand for explanatory treatises of this kind, which, to enhance their practical utility, would naturally deal with the special texts and rites assigned in the ceremonial to the several classes of officiating priests. At a subsequent period the demand for instruction in the sacrificial science called into existence a still more practical set of manuals, the so-called _Kalpa-sutras_, or ceremonial rules, detailing, in succinct aphorisms, the approved course of sacrificial procedure, without reference to the supposed origin or import of the several rites. These manuals are also called _Srauta-sutras_, treating as they do, like the Brahmanas, of the Srauta rites--i.e. the rites based on the _sruti_ or revelation--requiring at least three sacrificial fires and a number of priests, as distinguished from the _grihya_ (domestic) or _smarta_ (traditional) rites, supposed to be based on the _smriti_ or tradition, which are performed on the house-fire and dealt with in the _Grihya-sutras_.

The ritual recognizes four principal priests (_ritvij_), each of whom is assisted by three subordinates: viz. the _Brahman_ or superintending priest; the _Hotri_ or reciter of hymns and verses; the _Udgatri_ or chanter; and the _Adhvaryu_ or offerer, who looks after the details of the ceremonial, including the preparation of the offering-ground, the construction of fire-places and altars, the making of oblations and muttering of the prescribed formulae. Whilst the two last priests have assigned to them special liturgical collections of the texts to be used by them, the _Samaveda-samhita_ and _Yajurveda-samhita_ respectively, the Hotri has to deal entirely with hymns and verses taken from the _Rigveda-samhita_, of which they would, however, form only a comparatively small portion. As regards the Brahman, he would doubtless be chosen from one of those other three classes, but would be expected to have made himself thoroughly conversant with the texts and ritual details appertaining to all the officiating priests. It is, then, to one or other of those three collections of sacred texts and the respective class of priests, that the existing Brahmanas attach themselves. At a later period, when the Atharvan gained admission to the Vedic canon, a special connexion with the Brahman priest was sometimes claimed, though with scant success, for this fourth collection of hymns and spells, and the comparatively late and unimportant Gopatha-brahmana attached to it.

The Udgatri's duties being mainly confined to the chanting of hymns made up of detached groups of verses of the _Rigveda_, as collected in the Samaveda-samhita, the more important Brahmanas of this sacerdotal class deal chiefly with the various modes of chanting, and the modifications which the verses have to undergo in their musical setting. Moreover, the performance of chants being almost entirely confined to the Soma-sacrifice, it is only a portion, though no doubt the most important portion, of the sacrificial ceremonial that enters into the subject matter of the Samaveda Brahmamas.

As regards the Brahmanas of the _Rigveda_, two of such works have been handed down, the _Aitareya_ and the _Kaushitaki_ (or _Sankhayana)-Brahmanas_, which have a large amount of their material in common. But while the former work (transl. into English by M. Haug) is mainly taken up with the Soma-sacrifice, the latter has in addition thereto chapters on the other forms of sacrifice. Being intended for the Hotri's use, both these works treat exclusively of the hymns and verses recited by that priest and his assistants, either in the form of connected litanies or in detached verses invoking the deities to whom oblations are made, or uttered in response to the solemn hymns chanted by the Udgatris.

It is, however, to the Brahmanas and Sutras of the _Yajurveda_, dealing with the ritual of the real offering-priest, the Adhvaryu, that we have to turn for a connected view of the sacrificial procedure in all its material details. Now, in considering the body of writings connected with this Veda, we are at once confronted by the fact that there are two different schools, an older and a younger one, in which the traditional body of ritualistic matter has been treated in a very different way. For while the younger school, the _Vajasaneyins_, have made a clear severance between the sacred texts or mantras and the exegetic discussions thereon--as collected in the _Vajasaneyi-samhita_ and the _Satapatha-Brahmana_ (trans. by J. Eggeling, in _Sacred Books of the East_) respectively--arranged systematically in accordance with the ritual divisions, the older school on the other hand present their materials in a hopelessly jumbled form; for not only is each type of sacrifice not dealt with continuously and in orderly fashion, but short textual sections of mantras are constantly followed immediately by their dogmatic exegesis; the term _brahmana_ thus applying in their case only to these detached comments and not to the connected series of them. Thus the most prominent subdivision of the older school, the _Taittiriyas_, in their _Samhita_, have treated the main portion of the ceremonial in this promiscuous fashion, and to add to the confusion they have, by way of supplement, put forth a so-called _Taittiriya-brahmana_, which, so far from being a real Brahmana, merely deals with some additional rites in the same confused mixture of sacrificial formulae and dogmatic explanations. It is not without reason, therefore, that those two schools, the older and the younger, are commonly called the Black (_krishna_) and the White (_sukla_) Yajus respectively.

Although the ritualistic discussions of the Brahmanas are for the most part of a dry and uninteresting nature to an even greater degree than is often the case with exegetic theological treatises, these works are nevertheless of considerable importance both as regards the history of Indian institutions and as "the oldest body of Indo-European prose, of a generally free, vigorous, simple form, affording valuable glimpses backwards at the primitive condition of unfettered Indo-European talk" (Whitney). Of especial interest in this respect are the numerous myths and legends scattered through these works. From the archaic style in which these mythological tales are usually composed, as well as from the fact that not a few of them are found in Brahmanas of different schools and Vedas, though often with considerable variations, it seems pretty evident that the groundwork of them must go back to times preceding the composition or final redaction of the existing Brahmanas. In the case of some of these legends--as those of Sunah-Sepha, and the fetching of Soma from heaven--we can even see how they have grown out of germs contained in some of the Vedic hymns. If the literary style in which the exegetic discussion of the texts and rites is carried on in the Brahmanas is, as a rule, of a very bald and uninviting nature, it must be borne in mind that these treatises are of a strictly professional and esoteric character, and in no way lay claim to being considered as literary compositions in any sense of the word. And yet, notwithstanding the general emptiness of their ritualistic discussions and mystic speculations, "there are passages in the Brahmanas full of genuine thought and feeling, and most valuable as pictures of life, and as records of early struggles, which have left no trace in the literature of other nations" (M. Muller).

The chief interest, however, attaching to the Brahmanas is doubtless their detailed description of the sacrificial system as practised in the later Vedic ages; and the information afforded by them in this respect should be all the more welcome to us, as the history of religious institutions knows of no other sacrificial ceremonial with the details of which we are acquainted to anything like the same extent. An even more complete and minutely detailed view of the sacrificial system is no doubt obtained from the ceremonial manuals, the Kalpa-sutras; but it is just by the speculative discussions of the Brahmanas--the mystic significance and symbolical colouring with which they invest single rites--that we gain a real insight into the nature and gradual development of this truly stupendous system of ritual worship.

The sacrificial ritual recognizes two kinds of _srauta_ sacrifices, viz. _haviryajnas_ (meat-offerings), consisting of oblations (_ishti_) of milk, butter, cereals or flesh, and _somayagas_ or oblations of the juice of the soma plant. The setting up, by a householder, of a set of three sacrificial fires of his own constitutes the first ceremony of the former class, the _Agny-adhana_ (or (?) _Agny-adheya_). The first of the three fires laid down is the _garhapatya_, or householder's fire, so called because, though not taken from his ordinary house-fire, but as a rule specially produced by friction, it serves for cooking the sacrificial food, and thus, as it were, represents the domestic fire. From it the other two fires, the _anavaniya_, or offering fire, and the _dakshinagni_, or southern fire, used for certain special purposes, are taken. The principal other ceremonies of this class are the new and full moon offerings, the oblations made at the commencement of the three seasons, the offering of first-fruits, the animal sacrifice, and the _Agnihotra_, or daily morning and evening oblation of milk, which, however, is also included amongst the _grihya_, or domestic rites, as having to be performed daily on the domestic fire by the householder who keeps no regular set of sacrificial fires.

Of a far more complicated nature than these offerings are the Soma-sacrifices, which, besides the simpler ceremonies of this class, such as the _Agnishtoma_ or "Praise of Agni," also include great state functions, such as the _Rajasuya_ or consecration of a king, and the _Asvamedha_ or horse-sacrifice, which, in addition to the sacrificial rites, have a considerable amount of extraneous, often highly interesting, ceremonial connected with them, which makes them seem to partake largely of the nature of public festivals. Whilst the oblations of Soma-juice, made thrice on each offering-day, amidst chants and recitations, constitute the central rites of those services, their ritual also requires numerous single oblations of the _ishti_ kind, including at least three animal offerings, and in some cases the immolation of many hecatombs of victims. Moreover, a necessary preliminary to every Soma-sacrifice is the construction, in five layers, of a special fire-altar of large dimensions, consisting of thousands of bricks, formed and baked on the spot, to each, or each group, of which a special symbolic meaning is attached. The building of this altar is spread over a whole year, during which period the sacrificer has to carry about the sacrificial fire in an earthen pan for at least some time each day, until it is finally deposited on the completed altar to serve as the offering-fire for the Soma oblations. The altar itself is constructed in the form of a bird, because Soma was supposed to have been brought down from heaven by the metre Gayatri which had assumed the form of an eagle. Whilst the Soma-sacrifice has been thus developed by the Brahmanas in an extraordinary degree, its essential identity with the Avestan Haoma-cult shows that its origin goes back at all events to the Indo-Iranian period.

Among the symbolic conceits in which the authors of the Brahmanas so freely indulge, there is one overshadowing all others--if indeed they do not all more or less enter into it--which may be considered as the sum and substance of these speculations, and the esoteric doctrine of the sacrifice, involved by the Brahmanical ritualists. This is what may conveniently be called the Prajapati theory, by which the "Lord of Creatures," the efficient cause of the universe, is identified with both the sacrifice (_yajna_) and the sacrificer (_yajamana_). The origin of this theory goes back to the later Vedic hymns. In the so-called Purusha-sukta (_Rigv._ x. 90) in which the supreme spirit is conceived of as _the_ person or man (_purusha_), born in the beginning, and consisting of "whatever hath been and whatever shall be," the creation of the visible and invisible universe is represented as originating from an "all-offered" (holocaust) sacrifice in which the Purusha himself forms the offering-material (_havis_), or, as we might say, the victim. In this primeval, or rather timeless because ever-proceeding, sacrifice, time itself, in the shape of its unit the year, is made to take its part, inasmuch as the three seasons--spring, summer and autumn--of which it consists, constitute the ghee (clarified butter), the offering-fuel and the oblation respectively. These speculations may be said to have formed the foundation on which the theory of the sacrifice, as propounded in the Brahmanas, has been reared. Prajapati--who (probably for practical considerations, as better representing the sacrificer, the earthly ruler, or "lord of the creatures") here takes the place of the Purusha, the world-man or all-embracing personality--is offered up anew in every sacrifice; and inasmuch as the very dismemberment of the lord of creatures, which took place at that archtypal sacrifice, was in itself the creation of the universe, so every sacrifice is also a repetition of that first creative act. Thus the periodical sacrifice is nothing else than a microcosmic representation of the ever-proceeding destruction and renewal of all cosmic life and matter. The ritualistic theologians, however, go an important step further by identifying Prajapati with the performer, or patron, of the sacrifice, the sacrificer; every sacrifice thus becoming invested--in addition to its cosmic significance--with the mystic power of regenerating the sacrificer by cleansing him of all guilt and securing for him a seat in the eternal abodes.

Whilst forming the central feature of the ritualistic symbolism, this triad--Prajapati, sacrifice (oblation, victim), sacrificer--is extended in various ways. An important collateral identification is that of Prajapati (and the sacrificer) with Agni, the god of fire, embodied not only in the offering-fire, but also in the sacred Soma-altar, the technical name of which is _agni_. For this reason the altar, as representative of the universe, is built in five layers, representing earth, air and heaven, and the intermediate regions; and in the centre of the altar-site, below the first layer, on a circular gold plate (the sun), a small golden man (_purusha_) is laid down with his face looking upwards. This is Prajapati, and the sacrificer, who when regenerated will pass upwards through the three worlds to the realms of light, naturally perforated bricks being for this purpose placed in the middle of the three principal altar-layers. One of the fourteen sections of the Satapatha-brahmana, the tenth, called _Agni-rahasya_ or "the mystery of Agni (the god and altar)," is entirely devoted to this feature of the sacrificial symbolism. Similarly the sacrificer, as the human representatiye of the Lord of Creatures, is identified with Soma (as the supreme oblation), with Time, and finally with Death: by the sacrificer thus becoming Death himself, the fell god ceases to have power over him and he is assured of everlasting life. And now we get the Supreme Lord in his last aspect; nay, his one true and real aspect, in which the sacrificer, on shuffling off this mortal coil, will himself come to share--that of pure intellectuality, pure spirituality--he is Mind: such is the ultimate source of being, the one Self, the Purusha, the Brahman. As the sum total of the wisdom propounded in the mystery of Agni, the searcher after truth is exhorted to meditate on that Self, made up of intelligence, endowed with a body of spirit, a form of light, and of an ethereal nature; holding sway over all the regions and pervading this All, being itself speechless and devoid of mental states; and by so doing he shall gain the assurance that "even as a grain of rice, or the smallest granule of millet, so is the golden Purusha in my heart; even as a smokeless light, it is greater than the sky, greater than the ether, greater than the earth, greater than all existing things;--that Self of the Spirit is my Self; on passing away from hence, I shall obtain that Self. And, verily, whosoever has this trust, for him there is no uncertainty." (J. E.)

BRAHMANISM, a term commonly used to denote a system of religious institutions originated and elaborated by the _Brahmans_, the sacerdotal and, from an early period, the dominant caste of the Hindu community (see BRAHMAN). In like manner, as the language of the Aryan Hindus has undergone continual processes of modification and dialectic division, so their religious belief has passed through various stages of development broadly distinguished from one another by certain prominent features. The earliest phases of religious thought in India of which a clear idea can now be formed are exhibited in a body of writings, looked upon by later generations in the light of sacred writ, under the collective name of _Veda_ ("knowledge") or _Sruti_ ("revelation"). The Hindu scriptures consist of four separate collections, or _Samhitas_, of sacred texts, or _mantras_, including hymns, incantations and sacrificial forms of prayer, viz. the _Rich_ (nom. sing. _rik_) or _Rigveda_, the _Saman_ or _Samaveda_, the _Yajus_ or _Yajurveda_, and the _Atharvan_ or _Atharvaveda_. Each of these four text-books has attached to it a body of prose writings, called _Brahmanas_ (see BRAHMANA), intended to explain the ceremonial application of the texts and the origin and import of the sacrificial rites for which these were supposed to have been composed. Usually attached to these works, and in some cases to the Samhitas, are two kinds of appendages, the Aranyakas and Upanishads, the former of which deal generally with the more recondite rites, while the latter are taken up chiefly with speculations on the problems of the universe and the religious aims of man--subjects often touched upon in the earlier writings, but here dealt with in a more mature and systematic way. Two of the _Samhitas_, the _Saman_ and the _Yajus_, owing their existence to purely ritual purposes, and being, besides, the one almost entirely, the other partly, composed of verses taken from the _Rigveda_, are only of secondary importance for our present inquiry. The hymns of the _Rigveda_ constitute the earliest lyrical effusions of the Aryan settlers in India which have been handed down to posterity. They are certainly not all equally old; on the contrary they evidently represent the literary activity of many generations of bards, though their relative age cannot as yet be determined with anything like certainty. The tenth (and last) book of the collection, however, at any rate has all the characteristics of a later appendage, and in language and spirit many of its hymns approach very nearly to the level of the contents of the _Atharvan_. Of the latter collection about one-sixth is found also in the _Rigveda_, and especially in the tenth book; the larger portion peculiar to it, though including no doubt some older pieces, appears to owe its origin to an age not long anterior to the composition of the _Brahmanas_.

The state of religious thought among the ancient bards, as reflected in the hymns of the _Rigveda_, is that of a worship of the grand and striking phenomena of nature regarded in the light of personal conscious beings, endowed with a power beyond the control of man, though not insensible to his praises and actions. It is a nature worship purer than that met with in any other polytheistic form of belief we are acquainted with--a mythology still comparatively little affected by those systematizing tendencies which, in a less simple and primitive state of thought, lead to the construction of a well-ordered pantheon and a regular organization of divine government. To the mind of the early Vedic worshipper the various departments of the surrounding nature are not as yet clearly defined, and the functions which he assigns to their divine representatives continually flow into one another. Nor has he yet learned to care to determine the relative worth and position of the objects of his adoration; but the temporary influence of the phenomenon to which he addresses his praises bears too strongly upon his mind to allow him for the time to consider the claims of rival powers to which at other times he is wont to look up with equal feelings of awe and reverence. It is this immediateness of impulse under which the human mind in its infancy strives to give utterance to its emotions that imparts to many of its outpourings the ring of monotheistic fervour.

The generic name given to these impersonations, viz. _deva_ ("the shining ones"), points to the conclusion, sufficiently justified by the nature of the more prominent objects of Vedic adoration as well as by common natural occurrences, that it was the striking phenomena of light which first and most powerfully swayed the Aryan mind. In the primitive worship of the manifold phenomena of nature it is not, of course, so much their physical aspect that impresses the human heart as the moral and intellectual forces which are supposed to move and animate them. The attributes and relations of some of the Vedic deities, in accordance with the nature of the objects they represent, partake in a high degree of this spiritual element; but it is not improbable that in an earlier phase of Aryan worship the religious conceptions were pervaded by it to a still greater and more general extent, and that the Vedic belief, though retaining many of the primitive features, has on the whole assumed a more sensuous and anthropomorphic character. This latter element is especially predominant in the attributes and imagery applied by the Vedic poets to _Indra_, the god of the atmospheric region, the favourite figure in their pantheon.