ORIENTAL SERIES.

BRAHMABRAHMAN. 59
make Maha-deva or Rudra to be the creator of Brahma, and
represent Brahma as worshipping the Linga and as acting as
the charioteer of Rudra.
Brahma was the father of Daksha, who is said to have sprung
from his thumb, and he was present at the sacrifice of that
patriarch, which was rudely disturbed by Rudra. Then he had
to humbly submit and appease the offended god. The four
Kumaras, the chief of whom was called Sanat-kumara or by the
patronymic Yaidhatra, were later creations or sons of Brahma.
Brahma is also called Yidhi, Yedhas, Druhina, and SrashW,
'creator;' Dhatn and Yidhatn, 'sustainer;' Pitamaha, 'the
great father ;
'
Lokesa,
*
supreme in heaven *
;
first poet ;
*
'
lord of the world ;
Sanat, i
'
the ancient ;
Paramesh/a,
Adi-kavi, '
the
;
and DruL-ghawa, 'the axe or mallet.'
BRAHMACHARI. The Brahman student. See Brahman.
BRAHMADIKAS.
BRAHMA-GUPTA.
The Prajapatis (q.v.).
An astronomer who composed the
Brahma-gupta Siddhanta in A*D. 628.
BRAHMA-LOKA, See Loka,
BRAHMAN. The first of the four castes ; the sacerdotal
class, the members of which may be, but are not necessarily,
priests. A Brahman is the chief of all created beings ; his person
is inviolate; he is entitled to all honour, and enjoys many
rights and privileges. The Satapatha Brahmana declares that
" there are two kinds of gods ; first the gods, then those who
are Brahmans, and have learnt the Yeda and repeat it : they are
human gods." The chief duty of a Brahman is the study and
teaching of the Yedas, and the performance of sacrifices and
other religious ceremonies ; but in modern times many Brahmans
entirely neglect these duties, and they engage in most of the
occupations of secular life. Under the law of Manu, the life
of a Brahman was divided into four asramas or stages :
1. Brahmacharl. The student, whose duty was to pass his
days in humble and obedient attendance upon his spiritual
preceptor in the study of the Yedas.
2. Onhastha. The householder ; the married man living
with his wife as head of a family engaged in the ordinary duties
of a Brahman, reading and teaching the Yedas, sacrificing and
assisting to sacrifice, bestowing alms and receiving alms.
3. V&naprastha, The anchorite, or " dweller in the woods,*