Lexicon

of Rig Veda

brahman, Brahman

When the word is used in a masculine gender, it is an epithet or name of a god or of a priest of Wisdom-Word; in the neuter gender, it means the Wisdom-Word. As an epithet, it expresses the idea that God is the original source and master of the Wisdom-Word bearing divine Truth. Rishi, a seer-poet, can be its channel and so also is named as brahman. In the times after the Rigveda, this word was fixed as the name of the God-Creator of the world and as the name of the caste. Occasionally, the word is also used as an epithet of soma.

See also:

•  soma (soma)

•  wisdom-word (brahmāṇī)