Brahmana, any of a number of prose commentaries attached to the Vedas, the earliest writings of Hinduism, explaining their significance as used in ritual sacrifices and the symbolic import of the priests’ actions. The word brahmana may mean either the utterance of a Brahman (priest) or an exposition on the meaning of the sacred word; the latter is more commonly accepted by scholars.
The Brahmanas belong to the period 900–700 bce, when the gathering of the sacred hymns into Samhitas (“collections”) had become a major enterprise among Brahmans. They present a digest of accumulated teachings, illustrated by myth and legend, on various matters of ritual and on hidden meanings of the sacred texts. Their principal concern is with the sacrifice, and they are the oldest extant sources for the history of Indian ritual. Appended to the Brahmanas are chapters written in similar language and style, but with a more-philosophical content, which specifically instruct that the matter of these chapters should be taught only in the forest, away from the village. Those later works, called Aranyakas, served as a link between the Brahmanas and the Upanishads, the speculative philosophical texts that constitute the latest genre of Vedic literature.
Of the Brahmanas handed down by the followers of the Rigveda, two have been preserved, the Aitareya Brahmana and the Kaushitaki (or Shankhayana) Brahmana. Discussed in these two works are “the going of the cows” (gavamayana), the 12 days’ rites (dvadashaha), the daily morning and evening sacrifices (agnihotra), the setting up of the sacrificial fire (agnyadhana), the new- and full-moon rites, the four months’ rites, and the rites for the installation of kings.
The Brahmanas of the Samaveda are the Panchavimsha (“of 25 [books]”), the Shadvimsha (“of 26 [books]”), and the Jaiminiya (or Talavakara) Brahmana. They show almost complete accordance in their exposition of the “going of the cows” ceremony, the various soma ceremonies, and the different rites lasting from 1 to 12 days. Also described are the atonements required when mistakes or evil portents have occurred during sacrifices.
The Brahmanas of the Yajurveda were at first inserted at various points in the texts alongside the material on which they commented. That was at variance with the practice followed by the teachers of the Rigveda and the Samaveda, who probably did not wish to upset the arrangement of such a sacred collection and who gathered the expository lectures together as the various Brahmanas. The Yajurveda fell into two separate groups, the Shukla (White) Yajurveda and the Krishna (Black) Yajurveda. The Shatapatha (“of 100 paths”) Brahmana, consisting of 100 lessons, belongs to the Shukla Yajurveda. Ranking next to the Rigveda in importance, that Brahmana survives in two slightly differing versions, the Kanva and the Madhyamdina. Elements more closely connected with domestic ritual are introduced here.
Finally, to the Atharvaveda belongs the comparatively late Gopatha Brahmana. Relating only secondarily to the Samhitas and Brahmanas, it is in part concerned with the role played by the Brahman priest who supervised the sacrifice.