"The honor of your blood": brahmanism and topics of distinction in the Portuguese context

Abstract

This article is aimed at analyzing how the Brahmanic speeches that filled the Indian space (in which ritual purity and endogamy were recurring topoi) were perceived, experienced and appropriated by the agents serving the Portuguese crown. Among other aspects, it interests me to understand to which extent such speeches found an equivalence (or established a dialogue) with the lineage-related speeches that nourished the blood purity rules in an increasingly expanded and frequent way in the Iberian metropolitan context and in their respective imperial territories.

Blood purity; nobility; Brahmanism