Agnihotra Brahmans are tho remnant of the worshippers of Agni, who still preserve the family fire, but in other respects conform to seine mode of popular Hindu devotion. According to prescribed rule, where a perpetual flame is maintained, it is used to light the lire round which the bride and bridegroom step at the marriage ceremony, and the funeral pile of either ; but the household fire is preserved only by this particular sect-, the Agnihotra, and the great body of the people have nothing of the kind. In this case they distinguish between the sources whence they obtain the kind ling flame according to tho purposes of its appli cation, and the fire of the marriage rite is taken from the hearth of it respectable person, or from a fire lighted on some auspicious occasion ; whilst for the funeral pile any unpolluted fire may be used. It is only necessary to avoid taking it from another pile, or from the abode of an outcast, of a man belonging to the tribe of executioners, of a woman who has lately borne a child, or of any person who is unclean.
The Agnicula was a supposed Scythic race, whom the Brahmans, in order to oppose the Buddhists, formed into a religious confederacy.
Aradhya Brahmans profess the Jangam creed, but adhere to their caste views. They are chiefly in the Canarese country. In other sects of Hindus, the Brahman uniformly take precedence of other castes; but among the Jangam or Vira-Saiva he is degraded beneath all others. Hence there is a per petual feud between the Aradhya Brahman and the Jangams, who (unless at funerals, where all are bound to assist) treat these Brahmans with con tempt (Brown on the Creed and Customs. and Literature of the Jangams, p. 8).
The emigration of the Brahmans to peninsular India appears to have been subsequent to the first great change in their religious system. The reli gion they introduced was probably a rudimental form of Saivaism, with a tendency to the mys tical and mythological system of the Puranas. There is not the least reason to suppose that the Vedic or elementary system was ever known in the Tamil country, either as an indigenous religion or as introduced by the Brahmans.
The Brahmans deeply impressed Alexander by their learning and austerities. One of them, Kalanos by name, was tempted, notwithstanding the reproaches of his brethren, to enter the service of the conqueror. But, falling sick in Persia, Kalanos determined to put an end to his life. Alexander, on hearing of his philosopher's resolve, vainly tried to dissuade him ; then loaded him with jewels, and directed that he should be attended with all honours to the last scene. Dis tributing the costly gifts of his master as he advanced, wearing a garland of flowers, and sing ing hymns, the Brahman mounted a funeral pyre, and perished in the flames.
The Brahmans of the present day are a race of the highest culture, the result of 3000 years of hereditary education and self-restraint, and they have evolved a type of mankind quite distinct from the surrounding population. Even the passing traveller in India marks them out alike from the bronze-cheeked, large-limbed, leisure loving Rajput or warrior caste of Aryan descent, and from the dark-skinned, flat-nosed, thick lipped, low castes of non-Aryan origin, with their short bodies and bullet heads. The bulk of the Brahmans stand apart from both, tall and slim, with finely-modelled lips and nose, fair complexion, high forehead, and slightly cocoanut - shaped skull,—the man of self-centred refinement. He is an example of a class becoming the ruling power in a country, not by force of arms, but by the vigour of hereditary culture and temperance. One race has swept across India after another; dynasties have risen and fallen ; religions have spread them selves over the land, and disappeared. But since the dawn of history, the Brahman has calmly ruled, swaying the minds and receiving the homage of the people, and accepted by foreign nations as the highest type of Indian mankind (Imp. Gaz. vol. iv.).
Brahmanism is the ordinary designation of the Hindu religion at present prevailing. It is accommodating to anything that partakes of idol-worship •, similarly as a Roman would wor ship Isis and Osiris, so a Hindu makes offerings to apotheosized Mahomedans, such as Shaikh Sadu, Ghtizi Mian, and Shaikh Madar in Northern India ; and throughout all India there are mul titudes of figures of local divinities who have been admitted into the Hindu Pantheon as avatars of Vishnu or Siva, the chief gods of the modern Hindus. The Vaisbnava doctrine raises Vishnu to the highest place, and adores his different avatars, together with a multitude of other deities, powers of nature, and mythical persons. The Saiva doctrine places Siva highest in the rank of the gods. The professors of this doctrine number many millions more than the professors of Vishnu ism. Although Siva is the god of destruction, he is also the god of reproduction, considered with respect to the idea, which ever pervades the doctrine of Brahma, namely, that death is but the recommencement of a new life. Vedantism, so named after the Vedanta of Vyasa, has few adherents, consisting of some philosophical Brah mans. Of the thousands of temples in India consecrated to various deities, only one, it is said, is consecrated to this doctrine, in which Brahma is worshipped alone.