Brahmahatya

Brahmahatya (Sanskrit: ब्रह्महत्या, romanized: Brahmahatyā), also rendered Brahmanahatya (Sanskrit: ब्राह्मणहत्या, romanized: Brāhmaṇahatyā) is the Sanskrit term for "the killing of a Brahmin".^[1][2] It is translated as Brahminicide in English.^[3][4] The Manusmriti regards the murder of a Brahmin to be the greatest of sins, and the highest of the mahapatakas (mortal sins).^[5]

Brahmahatya is also personified as a hideous woman in Hindu texts such as the Puranas. Described to possess red hair and wear blue robes, she is stated to laugh boisterously, chasing the murderers of Brahmins.^[6]

Literature

The Ramayana describes the conflict between Indra and Vritra. After Indra slays 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.^[7] In the same epic, to expiate Rama's sin of brahmahatya for the killing of Ravana, Sita creates a lingam out of sand for the worship of Shiva, which was installed at the temple of Rameswaram.^[8]

The Matsya Purana describes the legend of Shiva's form of Bhikshatana. Having decapitated one of Brahma's heads, Shiva incurs the sin of brahmahatya, with the skull of the deity stuck to his palm. For the atonement of this sin, the deity assumed the guise of a mendicant and wandered across the land until he reached Kashi, where he achieved redemption.^[9][10]

Some texts state that bathing at the water bodies of a tirtha, a Hindu site of pilgrimage, cleanses one of the sin of brahmahatya.^[11]

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 978-0-19-970902-1.
2. Williams, George M. (27 March 2008). Handbook of Hindu Mythology. OUP USA. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-19-533261-2.
3. Doniger, Wendy (30 September 2010). The Hindus: An Alternative History. OUP Oxford. p. 409. ISBN 978-0-19-959334-7.
4. Patton, Laurie L. (1 July 1994). Authority, Anxiety, and Canon: Essays in Vedic Interpretation. SUNY Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-7914-1938-0.
5. Morgan, Peggy (16 February 2007). Ethical Issues in Six Religious Traditions. Edinburgh University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-7486-3002-8.
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 978-81-208-1082-2.
7. The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume VII: Uttarakāṇḍa. Princeton University Press. 20 December 2016. p. 129. ISBN 978-1-4008-8456-8.
8. When the Goddess was a Woman: Mahābhārata Ethnographies - Essays by Alf Hiltebeitel, volume 2. BRILL. 27 July 2011. p. 163. ISBN 978-90-04-21622-8.
9. 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.
10. Kramrisch, Stella (1988). The Presence of Siva. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 294. ISBN 978-81-208-0491-3.
11. Jacobsen, Knut A. (2013). Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: Salvific Space. Routledge. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-415-59038-9.