The Vedas' second literary layer, the oldest and most authoritative Hindu religious writings, is known by this term.
The Brahmanas usually follow after the samhitas, or songs of adoration to the gods, and before the theoretical writings known as the Aranyakas and Upanishads, despite the fact that the Veda's creation is not entirely linear.
In principle, each Veda includes an appendix called a Brahmana that explains the Vedic rites in more detail.
Although this is exclusively true for the Yajur Veda, this understanding bestows on the Brahmanas the authority of revealed text (shruti) and therefore renders them infallible.
The Brahmanas are mainly ceremonial texts that provide detailed, laborious instructions for carrying out Vedic rites.
These writings show a major change in religious practice, from a focus on sacrifice as a method of summoning and pleasing the Vedic gods to a focus on the power of ritual itself.
Because even the gods are susceptible to the rites, the sacrifice priests become the most powerful individuals in the world.
The Aranyakas and Upanishads, which raise more speculative questions regarding the rituals themselves, are influenced by the force of well executed ritual.
These many religious genres are often juxtaposed, like in the Shatapatha Brahmana, which contains the Isha Upanishad.
These juxtapositions show that, although the emphasis in different kinds of writings differed, there was some overlap in the period they were written.
