@article{8658765,
  abstract     = {{The classical account of the Brahmin priestly class and its role in Indian religion has seen
remarkable continuity during the past two centuries. Its core claims appear to remain unaffected,
despite the major shifts that occurred in the theorizing of Indian culture and in the study of religion.
In this article, we first examine the issue of the power and status of the Brahmin and show how it
generates explanatory puzzles today. We then turn to 18th- and 19th-century sources to identify the
cognitive conditions which sustained the classical account of the Brahmin priest and allowed for its
transmission. Three clusters of concepts were crucial here: Christian-theological ideas concerning
heathen priesthood and idolatry; racial notions of biological and cultural superiority and inferiority;
and anthropological speculations about ‘primitive man’ and his ‘magical thinking’. While all three
clusters were rejected by 20th- and 21st-century scholarship, the related claims about Brahmanical
ritual power continue to be presented as facts. What accounts for this peculiar combination of
continuities and discontinuities in the study of (ancient) Indian religion? We turn to some insights
from the philosophy of science to sketch a route toward answering this question.}},
  articleno    = {{181}},
  author       = {{Keppens, Marianne and De Roover, Jakob}},
  issn         = {{2077-1444}},
  journal      = {{RELIGIONS}},
  keywords     = {{Indian religion,Brahmin,ritual,priesthood,Aryan invasion theory,magical thinking,homology,Vedism}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{19}},
  title        = {{The Brahmin, the Aryan, and the powers of the priestly class : puzzles in the study of Indian religion}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.3390/rel11040181}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}

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