Brahmins (the sons of Brahma, the divines) are the priests of India, and form the highest caste; they are considered as having sprung from the head of Brahma, and, as such, considered holy, inviolable, and the only ones worthy of fulfilling the priestly offices. Their distinctive marks are the jagnapavadan or pu- nal, a shoulder-girdle composed of nine threads long enough to go 108 times around the closed hand, and the kudumi, a small bunch of hair which is left at the back of the head when shaving it. On the forehead, breast, and arms they wear the holy sign of Siva, "=", or, in honor of Vishna, the simple sign kuri, j, on the forehead. They have two rules : the exterior (Ya- man) contains five duties : always to speak the truth ; not to take the life of any creature ; never to steal any thing; to observe the most rigorous chastity; not to marry after the death of their wife. The inner rule (Niyama) also enjoins five duties: to preserve the utmost inward purity; to aim at inward peace; to live in continual penitence and contemplation of the divinity; to acquire the most perfect knowledge of the laws of God, and to make use of that knowl- ed e ■ continually to think of Siva as the highest god. Their occupations consist in reading and teach- ing the Vedas, to officiate in the temples, particular- ly in offering sacrifices, to give alms, to sit in judg- ment, and to act as physicians. Their decisions are in every case final, and disobedience to them is most severely punishable ; the king himself must show them the greatest respect, even when they follow the hum- bles! callings. The life of the Brahmin is divided into four parts: 1st, Brahmachari, or scholar, when the Brahmin, by the application of the punal, is received into the caste, and studies the Vedas; he binds himself
to punctual obedience, continence, purity of heart, and
discretion ; after twelve years he becomes, 2dlv, Gri-
hasthen, when he is appointed priest of a pagoda or of a private family, or else devotes himself to other oc- cupations, principally to agriculture ; in the 3d part he becomes Vanaprasthen, from 40 or 50 years of age to 72. The Brahmin must then leave his home and retire to the woods, there to live as a hermit, laying aside all comforts or mental enjoyments ; he must fast, and wear a dress of bark or of the skin of the black ante- lope, and let his hair and nails grow without ever cut- ting them. He takes only the sacred fire with him, and presides at all festive offerings. In the 4th part the Brahmin becomes Bhikshii or Sannyasi, and is then to devote himself to the contemplation of God, previous to going back to him after death. He there- fore renounces all that belongs to him, and leaves all his goods to his family. His hair is all cut off, his dress consists only of a white cloth, and he receives a brass vessel in which he is to keep some water for the purpose of washing what food he may get; he also re- ceives a stick called dandam, with seven natural knots, to remind him of the seven great saints. lie thus lives on alms, bathes three times every day, and covers his forehead and breast with ashes ; he is in the highest odor of sanctity, and any one who approaches him must respectfully bow before him. After his death, he is buried sitting in a quantity of salt; his head is broken with a cocoanut, and his brains distributed among those present. See Hinduism ; India.
Brahminism. See Hinduism.
Brainerd, David, a celebrated missionary to the Indians, was born at Haddam, Conn., April 20, 1718. From his earliest j'ears be had strong impressions of religion. In 1739 he entered Yale College, where he was distinguished for general propriety and devotion to study. An indiscreet remark that one of the tutors was as "destitute of grace as the chair," led, in 1742, to Brainerd's expulsion. He continued without in- terruption the study of divinity, and, having been li- censed to preach, he received from the Scotch Socie- ty for promoting Christian Knowledge an appointment as their missionary to the Indians. In 1743 he la- bored among a Kaunameek tribe and the Delaware Indians. Receiving ordination in 1744, he settled in Crossweeks, N. J. His Indian interpreter, having been converted, proved a most valuable assistant. Deep impressions were made on his savage hearers, so that it was no uncommon spectacle to see the whole congregation dissolved in tears. In the course of a year not less than seventy-seven Indians were bap- tized, of whom thirty -eight were adults, and maintain- ed a character for Christian consistency. Leaving, this little church under the care of William Tennent, Brainerd repaired, in the summer of 174G, to the Sus- quehanna tribe of Indians, but his previous labors had so much impaired his health that he was obliged to relinquish his work. In July, 1747, he returned to Northampton, where he found a hospitable asylum in the house of Jonathan Edwards, and died there, Octo- ber 9, 1747. Such was the brief but active career of Brainerd the missionary. The love of Christ, and a benevolent desire for the salvation of men, burned in his breast with the ardor of an unquenchable flame. No opposition could daunt, no difficulties overcome his resolution or exhaust his patience. Obstacles that would have cooled the zeal of any ordinary mind proved no discouragement to him. And perhaps no one in the list of the most devoted missionaries that the Church has ever known undertook so great labors and submitted to so severe privations and self-denia] as Brainerd. He was a man of great natural power.i of mind, an acute and penetrating understanding, a fertile imagination, a retentive memory, and no com. mon powers of easy, artless, persuasive eloquence. President Edwards prepared a biography of Brainerd, but the best life is that by Dwight, including Brainerd's Journals (New Haven, 1822). — Sparks, A mer. Bity.