The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s7.51

v1.c27.s7.51

The remaining priest in the list of seven is the Brahman. It is uncertain exactly who is meant by this term, but the greatest probability is clearly that it is the Brāhmaṇācchaṅsin of the later ritual, who is also addressed as Brahman and whose older name was clearly Brahman.⁶ His duty in the later ritual is to be an assistant of the Hotṛ, and at the Soma sacrifice to recite a litany for Indra. The alternative view, that of Geldner,⁷ takes him to be in the Rigveda already the priest charged with the whole of the supervision of the ritual, and it is possible, though not certain, that already in the Rigveda¹ in the latest parts such a priest was known. In the later ritual his place is one of the highest importance: he is set off against all the other priests as equal in value to the whole of the rest of them: he says very little, and is mainly engaged in supervision seated in the place of the Brahman near the chief fire altar, by his silent meditation repairing every flaw in the sacrifice. The later nature of the office is also reflected in the tradition that the Vasiṣṭhas alone were the owners of a certain litany,² which has to be spoken by the Brahman at the offering: this points to the tradition of an invention in one family, which led in course of time to the gradual adoption of the use of such a priest by all the families.