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Welcome to Brahmin !

Brahmin (also called Brahmana) is a varna in Vedic Hinduism and also a caste of people who are members of it. Members are subdivided into numerous communities known as gotras. Most of the practicing Brahmins adhere to the principles such as acceptance of the Vedas with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means or ways to salvation and realization of the truth are diverse; God is one, but has innumerable names and forms to chant and worship due to our varied perceptions, cultures and languages; that a Brahmin works for the welfare of the entire society and so on. Daily practices of Brahmins include sandhyavandana (prayers to Gayatri and Sun God), prayer to ishtadaiva or ilavelpu (personal God), yoga, non-violence, vegetarianism etc. Everything in the daily life of a Brahmin is a ritual. However, special rituals include marriage, ritual conception and consummation of the wedding, rituals of childbirth, naming ceremony, first feeding ceremony, the child’s first tonsure, upanayana (the sacred-thread ceremony - initiation into vedic learning and ritual), ritual baths, cremation rituals, shraaddha, etc. All of these rituals are very important for a practicing Brahmin.^[1] They are traditionally priests, artists, teachers and technicians.

"Giving a human form to the society, priests and teachers are its expressive face, rulers and warriors its protective arms, traders and farmers its supporting thighs and servants and labourers its transporting feet. To conceive of the world in the human image, the sun and moon are its eyes and mind, water and fire its mouth, air its breath, sky its head, earth its feet, and the ethereal space its body. This world is itself a continuing sacrifice, in which we see all matter and energy evolving into new forms by consuming whatever existed before." Purusha Sukta: (The Hymn of God), Rigveda.^[1]

Therefore, human society comprises four pillars or classes called varnas or colors; the priests/teachers, the rulers and military, themerchants and agriculturists (Vaishyas), and the artisans and laborers (Shudras).

Brahmin priests and teachers (acharya) were engaged in attaining the highest spiritual knowledge (brahmavidya) of Brahman and adhered to different branches (shakhas) of the Vedas. The Brahmin priest is responsible for religious rituals in temples and homes of Hindus and is a person authorized after rigorous training in vedas and sacred]] rituals, and as a liaison between humans and the God. In general, as family vocations and businesses are inherited, priesthood used to be inherited among Brahmin priestly families, as it requires years of practice of vedas from childhood after proper introduction to student life through a religious initiation called upanayana at the age of about five.

Sage Parashurama was an expert in martial arts and trained Karna.^[2]

Some Brahmins were also warriors. Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, son of a Brahmin sage Parashara and a fisher woman Satyavathi, in his Mahabharata, describes several warriors belonging to Brahmin castes/tribes, such as Dronacharya, Kripacharya, Parashurama etc., who were professors in the schools of martial arts and the art of war.