Brahmahatya

Brahmahatya (Sanskrit: ब्रह्महत्या, romanized: Brahmahatyā), also rendered Brahmanahatya (Sanskrit: ब्राह्मणहत्या, romanized: Brāhmaṇahatyā), refers to Brahminicide or killing of a Brahmin, one of the varnas (social classes). The Manusmriti regards the murder of a Brahmin to be one of the five greatest sins (maha patakas).

Description

Brahmahatya refers to the killing of a Brahmin, one of the varnas (social classes) of ancient Hindu society.^[1][2][3][4] The Manusmriti regards the murder of a Brahmin to be one of the five greatest sins (maha patakas).^[5]

In the Hindu texts such as the Puranas, Brahmahatya is personified as a hideous woman possessing red hair and wearing blue robes, and laughing boisterously, chasing the murderers of Brahmins.^[6]

There are other activities (anupatakas) such as murder of a menstruating or pregnant woman, killing of a kshatriya or one who has given a sacrifice, causing harm to a child or causing an abortion, and harming someone who has sought refuge, are mentioned as equivalent to committing Brahmahatya.^[7][8][9]

Literature

In the Hindu epic of Ramayana, when Indra kills Vritra, he incurs the sin of brahmahatya and is immediately paralysed, falling unconscious. The deities arrange for the purification of Indra's sin with the performance of the ashvamedha sacrifice.^[10] In the same epic, to expiate Rama's sin of brahmahatya for the killing of Ravana, his wife, Sita, worships a lingam, a form of Shiva, created out of sand at Rameswaram.^[11]

The Matsya Purana describes the legend of Shiva taking the form of Bhikshatana. Having decapitated one of Brahma's heads, Shiva incurs the sin of brahmahatya, and the skull of the deity stuck to his palm. For the atonement of this sin, Shiva assumed the guise of a mendicant and wandered across the land until he reached Varanasi, where he achieved redemption.^[12][13]

Hindu texts state that bathing at the water bodies of a tirtha, a Hindu site of pilgrimage, cleanses one of the sin.^[14]

See also

• Prāyaścitta
• Vrata

References

1. Hudson, D. Dennis (25 September 2008). The Body of God: An Emperor's Palace for Krishna in Eighth-Century Kanchipuram. Oxford University Press. p. 579. ISBN 978-0-199-70902-1.
2. Williams, George M. (27 March 2008). Handbook of Hindu Mythology. Oxford University Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-195-33261-2.
3. Doniger, Wendy (30 September 2010). The Hindus: An Alternative History. Oxford University Press. p. 409. ISBN 978-0-199-59334-7.
4. Patton, Laurie L. (1 July 1994). Authority, Anxiety, and Canon: Essays in Vedic Interpretation. State University of New York Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-791-41938-0.
5. Morgan, Peggy (16 February 2007). Ethical Issues in Six Religious Traditions. Edinburgh University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-748-63002-8.
6. Shastri, J. L.; Bhatt, G. P. (1993). The Skanda Purana Part 4: Ancient Indian Tradition And Mythology [Volume 52]. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 162. ISBN 978-8-120-81082-2.
7. Terence Day (1982). The Conception of Punishment in Early Indian Literature. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-919-81215-4.
8. Monier Monier-Williams (1882). Hinduism. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. p. 64.
9. Saral Jhingran (1989). Aspects of Hindu morality. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 62. ISBN 978-8-120-80574-3.
10. The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume VII: Uttarakāṇḍa. Princeton University Press. 20 December 2016. p. 129. ISBN 978-1-400-88456-8.
11. When the Goddess was a Woman: Mahābhārata Ethnographies - Essays by Alf Hiltebeitel, volume 2. BRILL. 27 July 2011. p. 163. ISBN 978-9-004-21622-8.
12. Stutley, Margaret and James (9 April 2019). A Dictionary of Hinduism: Its Mythology, Folklore and Development 1500 B.C.-A.D. 1500. Routledge. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-429-62754-5.
13. Kramrisch, Stella (1988). The Presence of Siva. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 294. ISBN 978-8-120-80491-3.
14. Jacobsen, Knut A. (2013). Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: Salvific Space. Routledge. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-415-59038-9.