Brahmin (/ˈbrɑːmɪn/; Sanskrit: ब्राह्मण, romanized: brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within the Hindu society. The Brahmins were known as the “priestly class” as they were priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (acharya or guru). The other three Varnas were Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra.
The traditional occupation of Brahmins was that of priesthood at the Hindu temples or at socio-religious ceremonies and rite of passage rituals such as solemnising a wedding with hymns and prayers. Theoretically, the Brahmins have the highest ritual status of the four social classes. Their livelihood is prescribed to be one of strict austerity and voluntary poverty (“[A Brahmin] should acquire what just suffices for the time, what he earns he should spend all that the same day”). In practice, Indian texts suggest that some Brahmins became agriculturalists, warriors, traders and had also held other occupations in the Indian subcontinent.
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