Could only Brahmans conduct Vedic rituals?
October 11, 2011 11:18 AM Subscribe
During the Vedic period in India, before the Upanishads, were the Brahmans the only ones who could conduct rituals and sacrifices to the gods?
Oops, Brahman isn't a god, it's the supreme reality.
posted by goethean at 11:44 AM on October 11, 2011
posted by goethean at 11:44 AM on October 11, 2011
Brahman is not an incorrect term; from AL Basham's Wonder that was India:
See also Romila Thapar's history of early India, "Sacrificial rites tended to increase the power of the priest, without whom the sacrifice could not take place, and of the raja who possessed the wealth it required."
posted by villanelles at dawn at 12:52 PM on October 11, 2011
"Often in the Rg Veda we read of a mysterious entity called brahman; in some contexts brahman is the magical power in the sacred utterance (mantra), but often it has a wider connotation, and implies a sort of supernatural electricity, known to students of primitive religion as mana. The possessor of brahman, bu a common process of secondary word formation in Sanskrit, became known as brahamana, the tribal priest and magician."Earlier in that same section the author speculates about "small domestic sacrifices, performed by the head of the house," but all the other examples I can find are performed by the priest class on behalf of the rich and powerful, with the possible exception of self-sacrifice, which apparently was a bit of a thing in the medieval Deccan.
See also Romila Thapar's history of early India, "Sacrificial rites tended to increase the power of the priest, without whom the sacrifice could not take place, and of the raja who possessed the wealth it required."
posted by villanelles at dawn at 12:52 PM on October 11, 2011
Yes, Brahmin priests were the only one of the four varnas (castes) who could perform the sacrifices and conduct rituals. People of the Kshatriya and Vaisya varnas could be only the beneficiaries, and the Shudras and untouchables were completely out of the loop.
To be more specific, you're asking about the Śrauta priests and the purohitas.
From the wikipedia page on the Vedic priesthood, in the section about purohitas: "The requirements of the fully developed ritual were rigorous enough that only professional priests could perform them adequately. Thus, whereas in the earliest times, the true sacrificer, or intended beneficiary of the rite, might have been a direct participant, in Vedic times he was only a sponsor, the yajamāna, with the hotṛ or brahman taking his stead in the ritual."
hal_c_on is incorrect: rishis are completely separate from Brahmins and purohitas; they were the contributors to the composition of the Vedas. They were considered to be seers rather than composers: the Vedas are said to be apaurashaya, meaning "uncreated by man".
posted by Specklet at 5:58 PM on October 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
To be more specific, you're asking about the Śrauta priests and the purohitas.
From the wikipedia page on the Vedic priesthood, in the section about purohitas: "The requirements of the fully developed ritual were rigorous enough that only professional priests could perform them adequately. Thus, whereas in the earliest times, the true sacrificer, or intended beneficiary of the rite, might have been a direct participant, in Vedic times he was only a sponsor, the yajamāna, with the hotṛ or brahman taking his stead in the ritual."
hal_c_on is incorrect: rishis are completely separate from Brahmins and purohitas; they were the contributors to the composition of the Vedas. They were considered to be seers rather than composers: the Vedas are said to be apaurashaya, meaning "uncreated by man".
posted by Specklet at 5:58 PM on October 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
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See also Brahma.
posted by goethean at 11:44 AM on October 11, 2011