Brahmahatya

'''Brahmahatya''' ({{Langx|sa|ब्रह्महत्या|translit=Brahmahatyā}}), also rendered '''Brahmanahatya''' ({{Langx|sa|ब्राह्मणहत्या|translit=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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hudson |first=D. Dennis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IMCxbOezDi4C&pg=PA579 |title=The Body of God: An Emperor's Palace for Krishna in Eighth-Century Kanchipuram |date=25 September 2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-199-70902-1 |page=579}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Williams |first=George M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7LOZfwCDpEC&pg=PA96 |title=Handbook of Hindu Mythology |date=27 March 2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-195-33261-2 |page=96 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Doniger |first=Wendy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nNsXZkdHvXUC&pg=PA409 |title=The Hindus: An Alternative History |date=30 September 2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-199-59334-7 |page=409}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Patton |first=Laurie L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aZjp0kIK5fsC&pg=PA119 |title=Authority, Anxiety, and Canon: Essays in Vedic Interpretation |date=1 July 1994 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-791-41938-0 |page=119 }}</ref> The ''Manusmriti'' regards the murder of a Brahmin to be one of the five greatest sins (''maha patakas'').<ref>{{cite book |last=Morgan |first=Peggy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vt-qBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA41 |title=Ethical Issues in Six Religious Traditions |date=16 February 2007 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-748-63002-8 |page=41}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shastri |first1=J. L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J81MEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA162 |title=The Skanda Purana Part 4: Ancient Indian Tradition And Mythology [Volume 52] |last2=Bhatt |first2=G. P. |date=1993 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-8-120-81082-2 |page=162 }}</ref>

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''.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Conception of Punishment in Early Indian Literature|author=Terence Day|year=1982|isbn=978-0-919-81215-4|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press|page=95}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Hinduism|author=Monier Monier-Williams|year=1882|publisher=Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge|page=64}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Aspects of Hindu morality|author=Saral Jhingran|year=1989|isbn=978-8-120-80574-3|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|page=62}}</ref>

== 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.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gFReDQAAQBAJ&dq=Brahmahaty%C4%81&pg=PA129 |title=The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume VII: Uttarakāṇḍa |date=20 December 2016 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-400-88456-8 |page=129 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M-R5DwAAQBAJ&dq=Brahmahaty%C4%81+R%C4%81ma&pg=PA163 |title=When the Goddess was a Woman: Mahābhārata Ethnographies - Essays by Alf Hiltebeitel, volume 2 |date=27 July 2011 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-9-004-21622-8 |page=163 }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stutley |first=Margaret and James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQWQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT96 |title=A Dictionary of Hinduism: Its Mythology, Folklore and Development 1500 B.C.-A.D. 1500 |date=9 April 2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-62754-5 |pages=96 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kramrisch |first=Stella |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cjqfkgD6YCAC&pg=PA294 |title=The Presence of Siva |date=1988 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-8-120-80491-3 |page=294 }}</ref>

Hindu texts state that bathing at the water bodies of a tirtha, a Hindu site of pilgrimage, cleanses one of the sin.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jacobsen |first=Knut A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kn6_3oBFAqIC&pg=PA159 |title=Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: Salvific Space |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-59038-9 |page=159 }}</ref>

==See also== * Prāyaścitta * Vrata

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

Category:Hindu mythology Category:Sanskrit words and phrases Category:Hindu belief and doctrine