ORIENTAL SERIES.

60 BRAHMANA.
who, having discharged his duties as a man of the world, has
retired into the forest to devote himself to self-denial in food
and raiment, to mortifications of various kinds, to religious
meditation, and to the strict performance of all ceremonial
duties.
4. Sannyasl. The religious mendicant, who, freed from all
forms and observances, wanders about and subsists on alms,
practising or striving for that condition of mind which, heedless
of the joys and pains, cares and troubles of the flesh, is intent
only upon the deity and final absorption.
The divisions and subdivisions of the Brahman caste are almost
innumerable. It must suffice here to notice the great divisions
of north and south, the Pancha Gauda and the Pancha Dravi^a.
The five divisions of Gauda, or Bengal, are the Brahmans of
i. Kanyakubja, Kanauj ;
2. Saraswata, the north-west, about the
Saraswatl or Sarsuti river; 3. GaucZa; 4. Mithila, ISTorth Bihar;
5. Utkala, Orissa. The Pancha Dravirfa are the Brahmans of
i. Maha-rashfca, the Mahratta country \ 2. Telinga, the Telugu
country ; 3. Dravicfa, the Tamil country ; 4, Karnafa, the Cana-
rese country ; 5. Gurjjara, Guzerat.
BBAHMAJVA. i
Belonging to Brahmans.' Works composed
by and for Brahmans. That part of the Yeda which was intended
for the use and guidance of Brahmans in the use of the hymns
of the Mantra, and therefore of later production ; but the Brah-
man, equally with the Mantra, is held to be $ruti or revealed
word. Excepting its claim to revelation, it is a Hindu Talmud.
The Brahmawa collectively is made up of the different Brahmans,
which are ritualistic and liturgical writings in prose. They con-
tain the details of the Yedic ceremonies, with long explanations
instructions as to the use
of their origin and meaning ; they give
of particular verses and metres ; and they abound with curious
legends, divine and human, in illustration. In them are found
"
the oldest rituals we have, the oldest linguistic explanations,
the oldest traditional narratives, and the oldest philosophical
speculations." As literary productions they are not of a high
order, but some " striking thoughts, bold expressions, sound
reasoning, and curious traditions are found among
the mass of
pedantry and grandiloquence." Each of the Sanhitas or collection
of hymns has its BrahmaTias, and these generally maintain
the essential character of the Yeda to which they belong. Thus