Expiatory Rites in Keralite Tantra

by T. S. Syamkumar | 2017 | 59,416 words

This page relates ‘Punishment and Expiatory Rites’ of the study on Expiatory Rites in Sanskrit literature and ancient Indian religion and society, with special reference to Keralite Tantra. Further references to texts include those found in Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism as well as Dharmashastra literature. This study also investigates temple records and inscriptions of Kerala in order to demonstrate the connection between social life and expiatory rites and its evolution.

4.3. Punishment and Expiatory Rites

Being the remedial actions due to the breakage of law, punishment and expiatory rites contain some resemblances. Punishments are recommended to resolve social offences, and expiatory rites are prescribed to religious offences.[1]

Timothy Lubin rightly observes thus:

“Punishment comprises a range of penalties inflicted by the king or his agents. [….] The prescribing of Prāyaścitta has no place here; the aim of such punishments is the maintenance of the civil order by means of deterrence (through public shaming, fines and the display of force by the state) and the elimination of serious offenders.”

In early times, the punishment and Prāyaścitta were seen interlinked and mixed. In some cases, punishment is made to act as expiation and vice versa. In Sūtra period, it can be seen that the concept of Prāyaścitta and Daṇḍa are closely related. For instance, Āpastamba-dharmasūtra says that if someone kills a Kṣatriya, he should give a thousand cows to erase the hostility, a hundred, if he kills a Vaiśya, and ten, if he kills a Śūdra. In addition, a bull is to be given in each case of expiation. The same applies for killing women of these classes.[2] A man who has had sex with the wife of his Guru should cut off his penis together with his testicles and holding them in his cupped hands, walk towards south without turning back or else he should end his life by embracing a red hot metal column.[3] A man who has drink liquor should drink boiling hot liquor.[4] These expiations manifest the nature of punishment. A. L. Basham opines that the early Dharmasūtras indicate expiations in the form of punishment.[5] Here the Dharmasūtra authorities considered that crime are concurrently equal to sin. Gradually the crime, sin and expiatory conceptions acquired a divine sanction. The Brāhmaṇas and Tantric manuals treat Prāyaścitta only in the context of rituals. The Brāhmaṇa texts suggest expiations in accidental mistakes connected with rituals.

G.U. Thite notes thus:

“The Brāhmaṇas in general, however treat Prāyaścitta only in connection with the Śrauta ritual. The difference between the later Prāyaścittas and the Prāyaścittis in the Brāhmaṇa texts in general is that, originally the Brahmanical Prāyaścittas are merely in connection with the ritual and have no reference to crime and punishments.”[6]

Punishment is also related to the social purification and rites, while it was mostly used to denote the re-admission to one’s previous cast after punishment or paying of a fee.[7] Otherwise, the Daṇḍa is too performed at the moment of social crime and other related activities.[8] Typically, expiatory rites are related to ritual performances. Nevertheless in Sūtra period expiatory rites were attached to social rites and customs. The expiatory rites are the means of compensating for omissions, errors, and mishaps in ritual performance.[9]

After categorizing punishment and expiatory rites, Lubin lists the basic features of expiatory rites as follows:

1. Expiatory rites are performed in the ritual obligations.

2. Acts and omissions that compromise one’s purity.

3. Defects in ritual performance.

4. Misdeeds committed in a previous life, which may be inferred from the occurrence of bodily disfigurements in life.[10]

Thus it is clear that the expiatory rites are different from the environment and character of Daṇḍa. The concept of punishment is closely related to the concept of diseases. In the early Vedic period, the seers have considered that the diseases are the forms of punishment.

G. U. Thite has attested this view. He notes,

“The idea of diseases as a punishment for breaking a rule, norm, agreement, oath etc. or in other words for any Anṛta, sin etc. is often found in Vedic texts.”[11]

Many examples are seen in the Vedas regarding diseases as a punishment. The famous Śunaḥśepha story proves that this concept also existed in the early period. According to this story, Hariścandra suffered from diseases as a punishment from breaking an agreement with Varuṇa.[12] Same stories can be found in Saṃhitā literature.[13] The concept of diseases indicates the necessity of expiatory rites for the deliverance of diseases.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Lubin, Timothy, “Punishment and Expiation: Overlapping Domains in Brahmanical Law”, Indological Tauranessia (33), eds. Nalini Balbir, et.al. 93-22, Torine, ed. AIT, 2007, p. 108.

[2]:

Āpastamba-dharmasūtra, 1.24.1-5.

[3]:

gurutalpagāmi savṛṣaṇaṃ parivāsyāñjālāvādhāya dakṣiṇāṃ diśamanāvṛttiṃ vrajet | jvalitam vā surmim pariṣvajya samāpnuyāt | Āpastamba-dharmasūtra, 1.25.1-2.

[4]:

steyaṃ kṛtvā surāṃ pītvā gurudārāṃ ca gatvā brahmahatyamakṛtvā | caturthakālā mitabhojanāḥ syurapo'bhyaveyuḥ savanānukalpam | sthanāsanābhyāṃ viharanta ete tribhirvarṣerapa pāpaṃ nundante | Āpastamba-dharmasūtra, 1.25.10.

[5]:

Basham, A.L., The Wonder that was India, p. 118.

[6]:

Thite, G.U., Sacrifice in Brāhmaṇa Texts, p. 165.

[7]:

Ibid., p. 83.

[8]:

For more discussions see, Lahiri, Tarapada, Crime and Punishment in Ancient India, Radiant Books, New Delhi, 1986 and Das Gupta, Ram Prasad, Crime and Punishment in Ancient India, Bharatiya Kalaprakashan, Delhi, 2007.

[9]:

Lubin, Timothy, op. cit., p. 104.

[10]:

Ibid., p.105.

[11]:

Thite, G. U., op.cit., p. 58-59.

[12]:

Aitareya-brāhmaṇa, 7.13-14.

[13]:

Tsam, 2.3.5.1, also see Maitrāyaṇisaṃhitā, 2.2.7 and Kāṭhakasaṃhitā, 11.3.

Like what you read? Consider supporting this website: