Brahmanas

The Brahmanas are a collection of Indian books. The books give more information on the Vedas, the four holiest books of the Hindu religion.

The Brahmanas give instructions on the proper performance of rituals. They also explain the original symbolic meanings.

Each Vedic shakha (school) has its own Brahmana. Many Brahmana texts existed in ancient India. Most of these have been lost.

Brahmanas Media

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  A 17th-century manuscript page of Sadvimsha Brahmana, a Pañcaviṃśa-Brāhmaṇa supplement (Sanskrit, Devanagari). It is found embedded in the Samaveda.

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  "haviryajna done by a Nambudiri in Kerala"[1]

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  Page from the Aitareya Brahmana.

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  Hindu rituals

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  The Vedas are scriptures of Hinduism. They consist of four layers of texts: samhita, brahmana, aranyaka and upanishads (they also have Vedangas such as above, and appendices to these main layer of texts). The samhitas are dated to between 1500 and 1000 BCE. The Brahmanas and Aranyaka texts are probably from about 1100 to 700 BCE, while the Upanishads from about 900 to 200 BCE.

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  Page from the Samaveda samhita and brahmanam.

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  Page form the Mimamsa sutra of Jaiminimi, who also recorded the Jaiminiya Brahmana and other works.

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  Extract from a 13th-century manuscript of the Shatapatha Brahmana (Khanda 14).

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  The samhita layers of the Vedas were composed between 1500 to 1000 BCE. These were orally transmitted for centuries, and likely written down sometime around the start of the common era. The above manuscript page is from the Taittiriya Samhita, in Devanagari script, Sanskrit language. This 19th-century document is shaped in the form of a palm leaf manuscript reminiscent of the heritage.*The image is a part of endangered manuscripts preservation programme supported by Arcadia, a digitization initiative by Chinmaya International Foundation, with archival support provided by the British Library. This is a photo of the 2D historic manuscript.

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  Atharva-Veda samhita page.