h; spent his life
in the study of the stars; discovered a new star in Cassiopeia; had an
observatory provided for him on an island in the Sound by the king, where
he made observations for 20 years; he was, on the king's death, compelled
to retire under persecution at the hand of the nobles; accepted an
invitation of the Kaiser Rudolf II. to Prague, where he continued his
work and had Kepler for assistant and pupil (1546-1601).

BRAHMA, in the Hindu religion and philosophy at one time the formless
spirit of the Universe, from which all beings issue and into which they
all merge, and as such is not an object of worship, but a subject of
meditation; and at another the creator of all things, of which VISHNU (q.
v.) is the preserver AND SIVA (q. v.) the destroyer, killing that he may
make alive. See TRIMURTI.

BRAHMAN, or BRAHMIN, one of the sacred caste of the Hindus that
boasts of direct descent from, or immediate relationship with, Brahma,
the custodians and mediators of religion, and therefore of high-priestly
rank.

BRAHMANAS, treatises on the ceremonial system of Brahminism, with
prescriptions bearing upon ritual, and abounding in legends and
speculations.

BRAHMAPUTRA (i. e. son of Brahma), a river which rises in Tibet,
circles round the E. of the Himalayas, and, after a course of some 1800
m., joins the Ganges, called the Sampo in Tibet, the Dihong in Assam, and
the Brahmaputra in British India; it has numerous tributaries, brings
down twice as much mud as the Ganges, and in the lower part of its course
overflows the land, particularly Assam, like an inland sea.

BRAHMINISM, the creed and ritual of the Brahmans, or that social,
political, and religious organisation which developed among the Aryans in
the valley of the Ganges under the influence of the Brahmans. According
to the religious conception of this class, Brahma, or the universal
spirit, takes form or incarnates himself successively as Brahma, Vishnu,
and Siva, which triple incarnation constitutes a trimurti or trinity. In
this way Brahma, the first incarnation of the universal spirit, had four
sons, from whom issued the four castes of India--Brahmans, Kshatriyas,
Vaisyas, and Sudras--all the rest being outcasts or pariahs. See
CASTE.

BRAHMO-SOMAJ (i. e. church of God), a secession from traditional
Hinduism, originated in 1830 by Rammohun Roy, and developed by Chunder
Sen; founded on theistic, or rather monotheistic, i. e. unitarian,
prin