BRAHMINS

                                  

                         A Brahmin (also Brahman; Brāhmaṇa)  is a member of the priestly class in the Indian subcontinent. Brahmins belong to the Upper Caste Society. According to ancient Hindu texts including the Manusmṛti, there are four "varnas", or spiritual classes, into which all persons can be divided, based on inherent temperament, and level of spiritual development achieved through many incarnations –
the Brahmins (teachers, scholars and priests),
the Kshatriyas (kings and warriors),
the Vaishyas and Shudras (agriculturists, artisans and merchants), (service providers andlaborers).              
                                  Later, through corruption and misinterpretation of the sacred texts, this originally spiritual classification became a hereditary social system in India. Brahmins were charged with performing religious duties as priests and preaching Dharma (as "one who prays; a devout or religious man; a Brāhman who is well versed in Vedic texts; one versed in sacred knowledge"). The Brahmins held authority over interpretation of Vedic and Puranic spiritual texts like the Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita, and were the teachers of the Vedic period.
                                        
                                Brahmins, adhere to the principles of the Vedas, Manu Smriti, Sanatana Dharma, and can be found in any of the different religions of Hinduism, such as acceptance of the Vedas. Brāhmaṇas have six occupational duties, of which three are compulsory—namely, studying the Vedas, worshiping the Deity and giving charity. By teaching, by inducing others to worship the Deity, and by accepting charity back, the brāhmaṇas receive the necessities of life. This is also confirmed in the Manu-saḿhitā:
  ṣaṇṇāḿ tu karmaṇām asya
  trīṇi karmāṇi jīvikā
  yajanādhyāpane caiva
  viśuddhāc ca pratigrahaḥ
                  A brāhmaṇa cannot take up any professional occupational duty for his livelihood. The śāstras especially stress this, if one claims to be a brāhmaṇa. Brahmins believe in Sarvejanāssukhinobhavaṃtu—Let the entire society be happy and prosperous and Vasudhaiva kuṭuṃbakaṃ—the whole world is one family. Many Brahmins are reformers. Brahmins practice vegetarianism or lacto-vegetarianism which has been a custom since several centuries dating back to B.C. Following this custom is mandatory in brahmin culture. However, some among the Brahmins inhabiting cold regions of Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Nepal, and coastal areas like Bengal, eat fish and are pesco-vegetarians.
                      In 1931 (the last Indian census to record caste), Brahmins accounted for 4.32% of the total population. Even in Uttar Pradesh, where they were most numerous, Brahmins constituted just 12% of the recorded population. In Andhra Pradesh, they formed less than 2%; in Tamil Nadu they formed less than 3%. In Kerala, Nambudiri Brahmins make up 0.7% of the population. In west bengal too the figures stand the same. According to the 2001 census, Brahmins constitute less than 4.1% of the Indian population.

Sampradayas:

                             The three sampradayas (traditions) of Brahmins, especially in South India are the Smarta sampradaya, the Srivaishnava sampradaya and the Madhva sampradaya.


Brahmins in Business:


Infosys, N. R. Narayana Murthy, SHREE BINDUKSHINI Advisory Services(www.bindukshini.com), Nitin Omprakash Bohra, UB Group Vijay Mallya, Dr. Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande, the founder of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT, Jaypee group, The Cognizant, TTK group, TVS and sons, Sundaram group, Air Deccan, Deccan aviations, ICICI bank, AXIS bank, Dhanalakshmi bank, karnataka bank pvt ltd Sanmar group, India cements, Kirloskar group, Camlin products Vicco products, Baidyanath, L&T group Unitech group,Kiran majumdar of Biocon TCS is run by a brahmin, TIME institutions Manipal academy of higher education Punj Llyod constructions, Simplex constructions Agri gold industries, Orchid pharmaceutical industries Kamat group of hotels, Orchid group of hotels, sahara group, ICFAI institute Gammon infratech. kingfisher airlines, indus airways, Jaypee group, uninor communications, vilas rao deshmukh has number of industries in and around maharashtra, Malladi pharmaceuticals, C. K. Prahalad




Brahmins in Sports:


In cricket, major names include Sunil Manohar Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Dilip Balwanth Vengsarkar, Ajit Wadekar, Srinivasan Venkatraghavan, Erapalli Anandrao S Prasanna, Bagawath Subramania Chandrashekhar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Chetan Sharma, Parthasarathy Sharma, Ravi Shastri, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Anjali Vedpathak, Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Ajay Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Murali Kartik, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Subramaniam Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Maneesh Pandey, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Ajit Agarkar, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Sunil Joshi and many more. Other sports names include the world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand, Kirti Azad (cricketer and M.P.), and 1890s national tennis champion Narumanchi Narayanamurthy from Tenali, Andhra Pradesh.


Brahmins in Science:

        Scientists from the Brahmin fold include Varahamihira, Brahmagupta, Nobel laureates Sir C. V. Raman and his nephew Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, bhaskaracharya, agricultural scientist M. S. Swaminathan, Prof. A. K. Joshi (molecular plant breeder), ethno-sociologist M. N. Srinivas, and mathematicians Srinivasa Ramanujan, Shakuntala Devi and C. P. Ramanujam. Raja Ramanna, who was instrumental in making India a nuclear weapons state, was also a Brahmin. PVN Acharya (1924–1993), of the Prativadi Bhayankara family, received his PhD in Biochemistry with highest honors from the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and published papers with his professor, the famous French scientist Edgar Lederer. As a student in Paris and later as a biochemist in Madison, Wisconsin, PV Narasimh Acharya conducted groundbreaking work in tuberculosis and was the first scientist to discover that "irreparable DNA damage" is caused by low-dose ionizing radiation, environmental pollutants and the food additives nitrites and nitrates, and that such damage to the DNA is a causal factor in premature aging and cancer. Prior to pursuing his doctorates at the Sorbonne, PVN Acharya graduated from Benares Hindu University, where he studied Oil Technology, and worked at the Shri Ram Institute for Industrial Research and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (New Delhi), where he developed commercial applications for castor oil including detergents and synthetic materials, including Nylon products.

Military :

                     Medieval Hindu kings such as King Porus of the Punjab, Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya, also called Hemu, who had established 'Hindu Raj' in North India after defeating Akbar's forces at Agra and Delhi, and had his coronation or Rajyabhishake at Purana Quila in Delhi on 7 October 1556, after winning 22 battles continuously, without losing any, was a Bhargava and Dhusar Brahmin.
Several chiefs of the Indian Army have been brahmins, including General Arun S. Vaidya, General Krishnaswamy Sundarji, General T.N. Raina, General Bipin Chandra Joshi, General Sundararajan Padmanabhan, General V. N. Sharma.
                   In the Indian Air Force too, brahmins have reached the apex rank of Air Chief. Among these are Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee, Air Chief Marshal Swaroop Krishan Kaul, Air Chief Marshal Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy, and Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi. India's first and only cosmonaut, Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, is also a brahmin.
In the Indian Navy, Admiral A. K. Chaterji, and Admiral J. G. Nadkarni are brahmins who rose to the heights of their service. Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla, a Kashmiri Pandit, commander of the INS Khukri received the Maha Vir Chakra during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, for his gallantry at the helm of his stricken ship.

  Brahmins in Politics:

             During the Indian independence movement, many Brahmins were at the forefront of the struggle for freedom and later Indian politics, including Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya (also called Hemu), Mangal Pandey, Nana Sahib Peshwa, Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, Tatya Tope, Baikuntha Shukla, Chandrashekar Azad, Yogendra Shukla, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, Adyakrantikarak Vasudev Balvant Phadke, Chaphekar Brothers, Anant Kanhere, Vinayak Deshapande, Vishwanath Vaishampayan, Sri Satyanarayana Shukla, Basawon Singh (Sinha), Pandit Bhola Shukla, Balgangadhar Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Rajguru, Ramprasad Bismil, Chandrashekhar Azad, Vanchinathan, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Ganesh Damodar Savarkar, Prativadi Bhayankara Venkatacharya ("Bhayankarachari"), Tanguturi Prakasam, C. Rajagopalachari, R.V.Krishna Iyer,Laxmi Raman Acharya, Sri Krishna Sinha, Gobind Ballabh Pant, Kamalapati Tripathi, Sheel Bhadra Yajee, Ravishankar Shukla, Kailashnath Katju, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, Motilal Nehru, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and others. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India and Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, the first Vice President of India, were also Brahmins. Communist leaders like E. M. S. Namboodiripad, Hiren Mukherjee, S. A. Dange, P. C. Joshi, Acharya P. K. Atre and many others were Brahmins. Present Brahmins in Indian politics include Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal Budhadev Bhattacharya, Union Minister for Rural Develeopment C. P. Joshi and President of the National Commission for Women of India Girija Vyas.

Brahmins who became Prime Ministers of India include:

           Jawaharlal Nehru, Morarji Desai, P. V. Narasimha Rao and Atal Behari Vajpayee. Brahmin Presidents of India include V. V. Giri, R. Venkataraman, S. Radhakrishnan and Shankar Dayal Sharma.
Pakistani politician Mahesh Kumar Malani, a Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from the Pakistan Peoples Party, is also Brahmin.

Hindu priests:

Brahmin saints include Ramanuja, Madhwacharya, Mandana Mishra, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Goswami Tulsidas, Surdas, Vallabhacharya, Dnyaneshwar, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Ramana Maharshi and Shree Kripalu Maharaj.Brahmin saints include Ramanuja, Madhwacharya, Mandana Mishra, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Goswami Tulsidas, Surdas, Vallabhacharya, Dnyaneshwar, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Ramana Maharshi and Shree Kripalu Maharaj

Hindu avatarams:


Some incarnations (avatarams) of Lord Vishnu were Brahmins. Parashurama, the son of sage Jamadagni, is considered a redeemer of virtue and set the stage for nobility to manifest as Lord Rama, the divine king, by ridding the world of unscrupulous and unjust rulers - Haiheyas. As Vamana, a dwarf Bramhin, Vishnu who vanquished Bali, an ancient king of Kerala who became more powerful than the Devas in piety.