Brahmahatya
Brahmahatya, also rendered Brahmanahatya, refers to Brahminicide or killing of a Brahmin, one of the varnas. The Manusmriti regards the murder of a Brahmin to be one of the five greatest sins.
Description
Brahmahatya refers to the killing of a Brahmin, one of the varnas of ancient Hindu society. The Manusmriti regards the murder of a Brahmin to be one of the five greatest sins.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.
There are other activities 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.
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. 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.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.
Hindu texts state that bathing at the water bodies of a tirtha, a Hindu site of pilgrimage, cleanses one of the sin.