Hindu Culture & Belief System

In the Hindu ritual known as varunapraghasa an oblation is made to Varuna, god of morality. Appeased by the sacrificer's offering, Varuna then releases him from evil and seizes his rival instead. The unusual means by which this transfer of evil is effected is the confession by the sacrificer's wife of the name of her paramour. It is to this lover that the evil is transferred. Interpretations of the varunapraghasa vary widely. But it is clear that the central purpose of the rite is to turn untruth (anrta) into truth (rta) and transfer untruth to the rival. The ritual involves a particular Hindu response to the problem of evil, i.e. theodicy, that besets most religions. In this particular case the underlying belief was that evil "arose in a god who [was] then forced to rid himself of it by transferring it to men or women" (O'Flaherty 141). Human beings can, in turn, effect a further transfer of this evil to other persons--in a number of different ways. The nature of the evil, or sin, or anrta that is reassigned in the varunapraghasa, and the reasons for employing the particular means of transferring evil, can only be understood in light of the elucidation of Hindu theodicy in the myths that surround the prescription of the ritual.

Theodicy is often viewed as a product of monotheism. If God is both omnipotent and entirely benevolent, then how can evil exist? Logically, if God is all-powerful, then he must be able to eliminate evil, and if he is all-good, then he mu

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is not surprising that in the varunapraghasa evil is seen as a transferable entity that can, with the assistance of Varuna, find a better home with the sinner (i.e., the wife's paramour) than with the sinned-against (i.e., the sacrificer-husband). The ritual is described in a number of Hindu texts with variations in procedure and focus. The basic elements, common to most accounts, are as follows. The varunapraghasa is one of the caturmasya sacrifices, liturgies that are performed at the beginnings of seasons. The varunapraghasa is performed annually at the start of the rainy season. On the evening before the sacrifice, three dishes of barley gruel are prepared by the sacrificer's wife. A ram and a sheep, which have been fed with "Varuna's barley" (ghas), the source of the ritual's name, are brought in, "both animals being clothed in woollen [sic] coats and marked with appropriate tokens of sex" (Sharma 193). The ram is for Varuna and the sheep is for the Maruts, storm gods who are propitiated because of the season and because they may steal the sacrifice intended for Varuna. Two altars (vedis) are set up at the north and south ends of the room. In the Taittiriya Brahmana "the northern vedi is said to be the sacrificer's

Category: Foreign - H