Long ago in the heavens, Indra entered into a series of battles with Vritra who was the son of the brahmin Tvastri. They fought for days and nights and weeks and months. Finally, Indra killed Vritra with a thunderbolt made from the bones of the sage Dadhich. The gods rejoiced, but Indra’s troubles were far from over. As Vritra died, a ghastly woman emerged from his mouth. She was naked. She had wild hair and fangs and a terrifying demeanour. She roared as she chased Indra through the three worlds. Eventually, she found him hidden in a lotus stalk and when she enveloped him, he became totally paralysed.
Terrifying creature
The gods went to Brahma and asked him to secure Indra’s release from this terrible creature. He told them that the woman was Brahmahatya, the personified sin of killing a brahmin, a sin which was now attached to Indra because he had killed Vritra. Since she could not go back to where she had come from, Brahmahatya said she would release Indra if Brahma gave her a place to stay.
Brahma called together all living beings — gods and humans, trees and grass and rivers — and asked each if they would give Brahmahatya a place to live. In order to make it easier, Brahma said that he would divide her into four parts.
Agni agreed to take one part but only for a little while. Brahma said that a man who did not perform the appropriate rituals at the right time would absorb the sin. The trees and grass and rivers also said that they would take Brahmahatya for a short period. And Brahma said that a man who polluted them or harmed them in any way would absorb the sin.
There was no one else willing to take what was left of Brahmahatya. So, Brahma assigned the remaining part to the celestial nymphs and said that a man who slept with a woman during her menstrual period would absorb part of that sin.
In another version of the same story, Brahmahatya herself says that she would live for three nights inside young women who are full of pride and that she would destroy that pride. Obviously, this is also a reference to menstruation.
How interesting that the inordinately heavy sin of killing a brahmin, Brahmahatya, is personified as a woman, even though women had nothing to do with the hostility between Indra and Vritra. The sin is so huge and the impurity from it is so great that despite Brahma’s efforts, Indra is not free of this pollution until he performs the Ashwamedha. Further, neither the human women nor the apsaras volunteered to house Brahmahatya and still, they are subjected to the pollution from that murder. They do not even have someone who will share the burden, as do Agni, the trees, grass and rivers. Brahmahatya becomes the menstrual cycle of human women and establishes the period of their ritual, social and sexual impurity.
The writer works with myth, epic and the story traditions of the sub-continent
