Who the Brahmin are
Brahmins are the traditional priestly and scholarly communities of Hinduism, found in every region of India and in Nepal, and today across every profession. They have historically been custodians of Sanskrit learning and temple ritual, and they remain influential far beyond their numbers.
There have been Brahmin followers of Christ whose lives shaped the Indian church — the scholar and reformer Pandita Ramabai and the Marathi poet Narayan Vaman Tilak among them — but they were rare, and Brahmin believers remain very few. The cost of conversion is high: it can mean the loss of family, standing and community at once.
Signs of hope
A rich history of Brahmin believers, from Pandita Ramabai to Narayan Vaman Tilak, who brought the Gospel into Indian language and song.
The honest difficulty
Following Jesus is often seen as abandoning heritage and family, at great personal and social cost.
What "Frontier" means
Fewer than 1 in 1,000 follow Jesus, and there is no indigenous movement large enough to grow on its own. Most people in this group will never meet a Christian.
This describes access to the Gospel, not the worth of a people or the sincerity of anyone's faith.
How to pray for the Brahmin
Take one of these for a week rather than all of them for a day.
- Pray for Brahmin seekers to encounter Jesus in the Scriptures they can already read.
- Thank God for the legacy of Brahmin believers like Pandita Ramabai.
- Ask God for believers who can share Christ with humility rather than contempt.
- Pray for Brahmin families to find in Jesus the fulfilment of their search for truth.
Where the Brahmin live
Each nation profile carries church size, unreached peoples, what is going well, what is hard, and four prayer points.
Questions people ask about the Brahmin
Who are the Brahmin people?
The Brahmin (also called Brahman) are a people group of roughly 60 million, living mainly in India, Nepal. They speak Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil and many others and are predominantly Hinduism. The priestly and scholarly community at the top of the traditional caste order, among the least reached people in South Asia. Population figures for people groups vary considerably by source and by how a group is defined.
Are the Brahmin an unreached people group?
The Brahmin are classified as frontier. Fewer than 1 in 1,000 follow Jesus, and there is no indigenous movement large enough to grow on its own. Most people in this group will never meet a Christian. Scripture status: Available in all the major languages of India and Nepal.
How can I pray for the Brahmin?
Pray for Brahmin seekers to encounter Jesus in the Scriptures they can already read. Thank God for the legacy of Brahmin believers like Pandita Ramabai. Take one of these for a week rather than all of them for a day.