four great crimesthat makes one an
outcast from society. This crime’s seri-
ousness stems from notions of brahmin
sanctity and status; with the exception
of self-defense, the deliberate murder of
a brahmin holds serious repercussions.
Even the gods are subject to this act’s
negative karmic consequences. Hindu
mythology records that the god
Bhairavawanders the earthfor years
after cutting off one of the heads of the
god Brahma. The skull sticks to his
hand as a visible sign of his crime until it
finally falls off at Kapalamochana. In
the more lenient prescriptions in the
dharma literature, the punishment for a
brahmin murderer is parallel to that of
Bhairava. The murderer has to carry the
skull of the dead man for twelve years,
wearing only a rough garment to cover
his loins, and during that period he has
to live on alms, beggingat no more
than seven houses per day. After twelve
years he is deemed pure, unless the
murder was intentional, in which case
the term of punishment is doubled.
According to several commentators,
however, when a brahmin is intention-
ally murdered by a kshatriya, vaishya,
or shudra, the only possible expiation
(prayashchitta) is death.
Brahma Kumaris
Modern Hindu religious organization
founded in the 1930s by a Sindhi jeweler
named Dada Lekhraj. In 1947, after the
partition of British India into India and
Pakistan, the organization relocated its
headquarters from Sindh (in modern
Pakistan) to Mount Abu in the Indian
state of Rajasthan. Although the sect
has only about 100,000 members—
minuscule by Hindu standards—it is
noteworthy for several reasons. Unlike
most Hindus, the Brahma Kumaris
aggressively seeks out and converts new
members, and thus it has a much higher
profile than other religious sects. The
organization preaches a doctrine fore-
telling the imminent end of the world,
which must be prepared for by radical
asceticism. It is also noteworthy that
since its beginning, the majority of its
adherents have been women.
The movement began following a
series of apocalyptic visions by Dada
Lekhraj. These visions not only con-
vinced him of the coming tribulation
but also reinforced his conviction that a
human being’s real identity lay not in
the body but in the soul. This latter real-
ization resulted in the organization’s
adoption of complete celibacy. When
this ideal was adopted by some of his
young women followers, it initially led to
a tremendous uproar, because they
renounced their primary traditional
roles as wives and mothers. The move-
ment persisted despite these troubles,
which bound the followers together
even more tightly. By the time Dada
Lekhraj died in 1969, the movement had
developed a strong missionary bent. All
of these factors make it unusual and, in
the eyes of many ordinary Hindus, mar-
ginal and suspicious. For further infor-
mation see Lawrence Babb, Redemptive
Encounters, 1987.Brahma Marriage
One of the eight ways to perform a
marriage according to the Dharma
Shastras, the treatises on religious
duty (dharma). In a Brahmamarriage
the bride’s father gives away his
daughter, along with any ornaments
he can afford, to a learned man of
good character. This man is respect-
fully invited to accept her with
absolutely no conditions or fees. This
form is considered the most suitable
for Brahmansbecause it is free from
lust or any sort of financial induce-
ments, hence the name Brahma mar-
riage. For these reasons it is also
deemed the best of the four approved
(prashasta) forms of marriage.
The Brahma marriage is one of the
two forms practiced in modern India. It
is by far the more socially respectable,
since the asura marriage—in which the
groom gives money to the bride and her
family—carries the connotation of sell-
ing the bride. Yet even with the BrahmaBrahma Marriage