297 



BRAHMANS. 



BRANDY. 



Supreme Being in the abstract, devoid of personal individuality. When 

 treated as a masculine word, it takes a long a in the nominative case, 

 Brahma, and thus modified, becomes the name of the first of the three 

 gods who constitute the trimurti or triad of principal Hindoo deities. 



Brahma, the impersonal divine substance, is with the Hindoos not 

 an object of worship, but merely of devout contemplation, and he is 

 addressed as Oin, or Aum, a reverential word, which no Hindoo pro- 

 nounces aloud. According to the Vedanta system of philosophy, which 

 recognises the ancient sacred writings of the Hindoos as the authority 

 of the doctrines which it advances, Brahma is the great source from 

 which the visible universe and all the individual deities of mythology 

 have sprung, and into which all will ultimately be re-absorbed. " As 

 milk changes to curd, and water to ice, so is Brahma variously trans- 

 formed and diversified, without aid of took or exterior means of any 

 sort. In like manner, the spider spins his web out of his own sub- 

 stance ; spirits assume various shapes : and the lotos proceeds from 

 pond to pond without organs of motion." " Ether and air are by 

 Brahma created ; but he himself has no origin, no procreator nor 

 maker, for he is eternal, without beginning as without end. So fire, 

 and water, and earth, proceed immediately from him, being evolved 

 successively the one from the other, as fire from air, and this from 

 ether." The human soul, according to the same authority, " is a 

 portion of the supreme ruler, as a spark in the fire. The relation is 

 not as that of master and servant, ruler and ruled, but as that of whole 

 and part." It is subject to transmigration, and the route on which, 

 after the death of the human individual, it proceeds to its ultimate 

 re-absorption in the divine essence, is variously described in divers 

 texts of the Vgdas. " But he who has attained the true knowledge of 

 God does not pass through the same stages of retreat, proceeding 

 directly to reunion with the Supreme Being, with which he is iden- 

 tified, as a river, at its confluence with the sea, merges therein alto- 

 gether. His vital faculties, and the elements of which his body 

 consists, are absorbed absolutely and completely ; both name and form 

 cease ; and he becomes immortal, without parts or members." (Passages 

 from the ' Brahma-sutras,' or aphorisms on the V&Janta doctrine, by 

 Badarayana, translated by Mr. Colebrooke ; ' Transact, of the Roy. 

 Asiat. Soc.,' vol. ii. passim.) The Vddas do not teach hero-worship, 

 and make but slight allusions to the incarnations or avatars, which 

 have so largely increased the number of gods. The Veda was succeeded 

 by the Vedanta, and that by the Puranas, each becoming less mono- 

 theistic, until the Puranas have ended in a pantheistic idolatry. 



Brahma, as an individual deity in mythology, though originally 

 represented as the almighty creator, preserver, and destroyer, has 

 subsequently become three distinct beings, as Brahma the creator, 

 with Vishnu the preserver and sustainer, and Siva the destroyer. His 

 epithets are numerous, and the following are some of those given by 

 Mr. H. H. Wilson : Vuiedbhardna, the creator of the universe ; MahA 

 puriuhd, great or supreme spirit ; Imdriydtmd, one with (or lord of) 

 the senses. But exclusive worshippers of Brahma and temples dedi- 

 cated to him do not now seem to occur in any part of India : homage 

 is however paid to him along with other deities. The Brahmans, in 

 their morning and evening worship, repeat a prayer addressed to 

 Brahma ; and at noon likewise they go through certain ceremonies in 

 his honour : on the occasion of burnt offerings, an oblation of clarified 

 butter is made to him, but it does not appear that bloody sacrifices are 

 ever offered to Brahma. In the later Puranas, as in that of ' Bhagavat 

 Dasam askand,' translated by Theodore Pavie, Vishnu or Krishnu, and 

 Siva, rise into independent deities ; and as they represent the principles 

 of good and evil, a continued contest is the result. The other deities, 

 of whom there are numbers, are now represented as having been either 

 avatars of Brahma in the form of Vishnu, or his descendants either 

 immediately or from Vishnu or Siva. Brahma, in the earlier Vedas, 

 is stated to have preceded the existence of matter ; but Vishnu is at 

 once Purusha (spirit), Prudhana (crude matter), Vyakta (visible form), 

 and Kdla (time) ; and the acts of creation, preservation, and destination 

 came to be allegorised into personages. At the full moon of the 

 month Magha (January-February), an earthen image of Brahma, with 

 that of Siva on his right and that of Vishnu on his left hand, is wor- 

 hipped ; and dances, accompanied with songs and music, are performed 

 as at the other Hindoo festivals. When the festivities are over, the 

 images of the three gods are cast into the Ganges. A particular worship 

 is paid to Brahma at Pushkara or Pokher in Ajmere, and at Bithore 

 in the Dooab, where he is said to have performed a great and solemn 

 sacrifice on completing the act of creation ; and the pin of his slipper, 

 which he left behind him on the occasion, and which is now fixed in 

 one of the steps of the Brahmaverta Ghat near Bithore, is still an 

 object of adoration there. 



(H. H. Wilson, The Viihnu Purdnd, a Syitem of Hindu Mythology 

 and Tradition, 1840 ; Pavie, Krichnu et ta doctrine, Paris, 1852 ; Count 

 M. F. F. Bjornstjerna, Die Theogonie, Philotnpkie und Kosmogonie der 

 Hindut, Stockholm, 1843.) 



BRAHMANS. [HINDOOS, CASTES OP.] 



BRAIN, DISEASES OF. The morbid conditions of the brain are 

 of great importance, and will be found treated of in this work under 

 the various heads of the most distinctive forms which these diseases 

 assume. They will be found under the following heads : APOPLEXY, 

 CONVULSIONS, CHOREA, DEURIUM-TREMENS, ENCEPHALITIS, EPILEPSY, 

 HTSTIRTA, INSANITY, MENINGITIS, PARALYSIS. 



BRAKE, or BREAK, in Machinery, a contrivance for retarding or 

 arresting motion, by creating an amount of friction too great to be 

 overcome by the moving power, or the momentum of the machine. 

 Brakes generally consist of blocks of wood so connected with a system 

 of levers or screws that they may be pressed firmly against the 

 periphery of a wheel mounted upon the main axle of the machine ; 

 but in some cases, instead of a block of wood, a strap or belt of iron, of 

 sufficient length to embrace one-half of the periphery of the brake-wheel, 

 or a series of small blocks of wood attached to the concave surface of 

 such a strap, is used. [SAW-MILL ; ROLLING STOCK ; WIND-MILL 1 



BRAMAH'S PRESS. [HYDRAULICS.] 



BRAMINS. [HINDOOS, CASTES OF.] 



BRAND IN CORN. [BURNT-EAR.] 



BRANDY. This well-known liquid is the alcoholic or spirituous 

 portion of wine, separated from the aqueous part, the colouring matter, 

 &c., by distillation. The word is of German origin, and in its German 

 form, branticein, signifies burnt wine, or wine that has undergone the 

 action of fire. Brandies however have been made from potatoes, 

 carrots, beet-root, pears, and other vegetable substances ; but these 

 varieties are all inferior to true brandy. Brandy is prepared in most 

 wine countries, but that of France is the most esteemed. It is procured 

 not only by distilling the wine itself, but also by fermenting and dis- 

 tilling the marc or residue of the pressings of the grape. It is procured 

 indifferently from red or white wine ; and different wines yield very 

 different proportions of it, the strongest of course giving the largest 

 quantity. Brandy obtained from marc has a more acrid flavour than 

 that from wine ; this appears to be occasioned by an oil contained in the 

 skin of the grape, which when separated proves so acrid that a single drop 

 would deteriorate several gallons of good brandy. The celebrated brandy 

 of Cognac, a town in the department of Charente, and that brought from 

 Andraye, seem to owe their excellence to being made from white wine, 

 so fermented as not to be impregnated with this oil. Like other spirit, 

 brandy is colourless when recently distilled. By mere keeping, how- 

 ever, owing probably to some change in the soluble matter contained in 

 it, it acquires a slight colour, which is much increased by keeping in 

 casks, and is made of the required intensity by the addition of burnt 

 sugar, or other colouring matter. 



The production of brandy, so far as obtaining the alcoholic principle 

 is concerned, is described under DISTILLATION. 



Although brandy drinkers despise patent or British brandy, yet 

 it is a question whether this may not be quite as pure and strong 

 as much that goes by the name of foreign brandy. So enormous is the 

 duty paid on foreign brandy, that the French manufacturers are 

 induced to strengthen their cognac artificially by spirits of wine, and 

 the English dealers to increase its bulk' by water and other additions. 

 Foreign brandy ought to be a little ' over proof ; ' but it is frequently 

 12 to 15 degrees below proof. Dr. Normandy makes the following 

 remarks on the worst or really fraudulent brandy : " Brandy, when 

 newly distilled, is white ; but that met with in commerce is always of a 

 yellowish, brown, or dark brown colour, due to the presence of some 

 extractive matter, and of tannic acid, which it has dissolved from the 

 oak casks in which it has been kept for a long time. But in order to 

 simulate this colour of genuine brandy, the brandy of commerce is 

 nothing else than new brandy or alcohol, at once converted apparently 

 into old brandy by means of caramel, or burnt sugar." 



British brandy, for which patents have been obtained by many 

 English distillers, is the result of numerous attempts to produce, from 

 malt spirit, a liquor that shall bear a close resemblance to foreign 

 brandy. The best malt spirit is the basis of all the British brandies ; 

 and the flavour, colour, and degree of strength, are brought about by 

 the addition of some among the following long list of ingredients : 

 water, red tartar, acetic ether, French vinegar, French plums, wine- 

 bottoms, tincture of catechu, oak shavings, bitter almonds, burnt sugar, 

 tincture of vanilla, oil of cassia, rum, &c. each manufacturer having a 

 favourite recipe of his own. It is said that where black tea is cheap, as 

 in America, it is often employed to give an imitative brandy-roughness 

 to coloured spirits. 



Brandy is an ingredient in a large number of cordials and liqueurs, 

 such as cherry brandy, carraway brandy, lemon brandy, orange brandy, 

 peach brandy, raspberry brandy, and the like. They all bear a family 

 resemblance in so far as they consist of brandy, flavoured by the fruits 

 or seeds whose name they bear, sweetened with sugar, and rendered 

 fragrant with spices. 



Regarded in its commercial features, brandy is a commodity of con- 

 siderable importance. In all wine-producing countries, a part of the 

 produce of the vineyards is converted into brandy ; and in some of 

 those countries a portion of the spirit is employed to give strength to 

 the remaining portion of the wine. The fiery wines of Spain, Portugal, 

 Madeira, the Cape of Good Hope, and other countries, are thus treated. 

 There are no certain means of knowing what proportion of the produce 

 is distilled in different places. The only country in which, as far as we 

 know, any estimate of this kind has been made, is France ; where a com- 

 mission, appointed to inquire concerning the duties levied upon liquors, 

 has given an estimate of the produce of the vineyards, and the mode of 

 its disposal. From this it appears that about 15 per cent, of the wine 

 is made into brandy ; but as the spirit obtained varies in quantity 

 according to the quality of the wine from which it is made, it is not 

 possible to state its amount with precision. It has been estimated 



