from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. Any of several ancient Hindu religious prose texts that explain the relationship of the Vedas to the sacrificial ceremonies.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- proper n. Any of several ancient Hindu religious prose texts that explain the relationship of the Vedas to the sacrificial ceremonies.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One of the prose portions of the Vedas, which contain injunctions for the performance of sacrifices, and explain their origin and the occasions on which the mantras had to be used, sometimes adding illustrations and legends, and sometimes mystical and philosophical speculations.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. prose works attached to the Samhitas instructing the bahmins to perform the very elaborate sacrificial rituals
He is called a Brahmana in whom are truth, gifts, abstention from injury to others, compassion, shame, benevolence,  and penance.
The ordinances declare that the Brahmana is the foremost of all creatures.
Whether he does or does not achieve anything else, if he devotes himself to the study of the Vedas, he becomes (by that) known as a Brahmana or the friend of all creatures.
He only who performeth the Agnihotra and hath his senses under control, is called a Brahmana! '
For these and other reasons, a Brahmana is the adored of the virtuous.
As a Brahmana is the foremost of all bipeds, a cow, the foremost of all quadrupeds, a protector, the foremost of all superiors, so is the son the foremost of all objects, agreeable to the touch.
The killing of a Brahmana is the highest sin, and there is no expiation for it.
Do that, O Brahmana, which is proper to be done towards either that tiger among the Kurus, viz.,
The period during which they continued this ritualistic development is known as the Brahmana period.
The Brahmana is the foremost of all two-legged beings.