[INDOLOGY] Brahmin?

[rajam]

Dr. Whitakar has raised an important question and I’m thankful.  

It may be unknown to some readers on this list that the first known intellectual/academic contact between the West and India happened through South India in the 16-th century. 

We have records of the earliest contact between the Portuguese and India through the South. One of such records is Fr. Henriques’ handwritten manuscript of the grammar of Tamil (Arte Da Lingua Malabar) from 1549 CE (long before the British arrived in India). 

In his manuscript, Fr. Henriques records the following words: “piramanen” and “பிராமனன”; piramanati and “பிராமனததி.” No distinction between the alveolar “n” and the retroflex “n.” 

The final “in” in  "B/brahmin” must be after Fr. Henriques’ time. 

For details, please refer to “The Earliest Missionary Grammar of Tamil” by Jeanne and Rajam, Harvard 2013.

++++++

One of the earliest Tamil commentaries from about the 8-th century uses the term பிராமணன் (pirāmaṇan). 

Thanks and regards,
Rajam


On Feb 20, 2014, at 12:08 PM, Jarrod Whitaker <whitakjl at wfu.edu> wrote:

> Dear Colleagues:
> When does the word "B/brahmin" ("priest, priestly class") with a final "-in" begin to be used/appear? I have always assumed that it appeared with the colonial encounter and thus it was a Anglocized (perhaps Franco-cized?) way of representing the final short schwa sound of "brahman". Does it have an older history in Arabic/Mughal writing? It surely is not a final Sanskrit "-in" stem (I have never heard of a Brahmii priest), but perhaps it has a regional/dialect use somewhere in India...
> 
> Silly question but frustrating nonetheless when trying to unpack the complex use of the term brahman and its various meanings to students and the fact that textbooks are not uniform in how they represent the term and its derivatives (B/braahmaan.a [and more rarely Braahman. with final retroflex "n," which is curious in and of itself], B/brahman, or, of course our current Brahmin....[throw into the mix lower case, sometimes italicized brahman from Upanishads and god Brahmaa and students think you are just messing with them]).
> 
> Cheers
> JW
> 
> Jarrod Whitaker, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor, South Asian Religions
> Zachary T. Smith Faculty Fellow
> Graduate Program Director
> 
> Wake Forest University
> Department of Religion
> P.O. Box 7212
> Winston-Salem, NC  27109
> whitakjl at wfu.edu
> p 336.758.4162
> 
> 
> 
> 
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