[INDOLOGY] Brahmin

[Klaus Karttunen]

Dear all,
to return to the original question. As Allen already mentioned, one must always check Hobson-Jobson for questions like this, but in this particular case it offers surprisingly little. Better is Dalgado's Glossário Luso-Asiático – there we find some early i-forms: Marco Polo's Bramini (in another version Abraiaman referring to the false etymology deriving brahman from Abraham), Portuguese bramines 1502, Italian Bramini 1582 and French Bramins 1676 (Tavernier). In French we also meet the funny shortening brame.

I cannot say, why i came. Originally the word was introduced in the West by Megasthenes in the early 3rd century BCE as Greek Brachmanes and with the Alexander Legend it became well-known part of European literary conception of India. In Latin it also got the form Bragmanae. Beside Bramans/Bramins/Brahmans/Brahmins these were still often used in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Best,
Klaus

Klaus Karttunen
South Asian and Indoeuropean Studies
Asian and African Studies, Department of World Cultures
PL 59 (Unioninkatu 38 B)
00014 University of Helsinki, FINLAND
Tel +358-(0)9-191 22674
Fax +358-(0)9-191 22094
Klaus.Karttunen at helsinki.fi







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