Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The religious practices and beliefs of ancient India as reflected in the Vedas.
  • noun The social and religious system of orthodox Hindus, especially of the Brahmins, based on a caste structure and various forms of pantheism.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The religion or system of doctrines of the Brahmans; the social system of ancient India, with the Brahmans as leading caste. Also Brahminism.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The religion or system of doctrines of the Brahmans; the religion of Brahma.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun The principles and religious practice of the Brahmins, aspects of Hinduism as practiced by the Brahmin caste of India.
  • proper noun Historical Vedic ritualism, contrasted with Shramana traditions.
  • proper noun The conduct or attitudes ascribed to the social or cultural elite within a given society.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the religious and social system of orthodox Hinduism
  • noun the religious beliefs of ancient India as prescribed in the sacred Vedas and Brahmanas and Upanishads

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Built from brahmin, which is an anglicization of Sanskrit brāhmaṇa (or vernacular variants thereof). Introduced in 1816 as Brahmenism by George S. Faber (OED). Current spelling variants are Brahminism besides Brahmanism.

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