Is There Human Sacrifice In Vedic Dharma

 

Written By- Vedic Dharmi Ashish 

It is often alleged by Muslims that Vedic religion has the tradition of human sacrifice.For this, these foolish people make futile attempts to prove their point by blaming the Purush Medh Yajna described in the Vedas and Brahmin texts.

Real Meaning Of Purusha Medha :

Giving wrong meaning of Purush Medha, these people say that "Purush" means The Male and "Medha" means its sacrifice which is totally against the Vedic grammar. Now we will explain the real meaning of the word "Medha" and also it's meaning as per Vedic grammar and it's context.

Nighantu (3/17)

Fifteen names of Yajna are mentioned in the Vedic dictionary Nighantu (3/17) by Maharshi Yaska Acharya. In this, one name of Yajna is Medha. But the thing worth noticing is that here another name of Yajna is also mentioned as "Adhvar" which means violence-less.

Shatpath Brahman(1/2/4/5)

In Shatapath Brahmana also, Yagya has been described as Adhvara i.e. free from violence. 

Now Medha can have three meanings: violence, enrichment and integration. So if Yajna has been called Adhvar, then the meaning of the other name of Yajna Medh cannot be violence at all because this would contradict the context.

    Therefore, it is appropriate to take the meaning of the word Medha as integration or enrichment in the context of Yajna. And the meaning of Purush Medh would be that unifying the best men and engaging them in the work of development is Purush Medh Yajna.

The full context of Purusha Medha Yajna comes in Yajurveda chapter 30 and it's explained in Shatapatha Brahmana (13/6/1 to 13/6/2) and Taittiriya Brahamana (3/4)

Shatpath Brahman (13/6/2/1)

According to an explanation in Shatpath Brahman, the name Purush Medh is given because this world is called Pur and the one who is complete in this world is called Purush. The essence of that Purush is food, so the yajna in which is performed for men by food is called Purush Medh. 

And it is also called Purush Medh because in this Yajna Many Medhya Purush means knowable mens are alabhan means attained.

Yajurveda (30/3)

According to Yajurveda (30/3), this yajna is performed to remove the shortcomings of man.

Yajurveda (30/5)

According to Yajurveda(30/5), it is described which work is suitable for which Man according to the qualities . And those who do good deeds get good results, similarly those who do bad deeds get bad results. It is also mentioned in Yajurveda (30/22) that people doing bad deeds should be handed over to the king so that he can punish them.

This mantra of Yajurveda(30/5) has been explained in Shatapatha Brahmana (13/6/2/10).

Shatpath Brahman (13/6/2/10)

So In the next context of Purush Medh, it is also mentioned that for Brahma we should attain Brahmin. Since we get Brahma knowledge from Brahmin, therefore, one should attain Brahmin for learning about the Brahm . Similarly, we should be acquired the knowledge of war from Khetriya.For business we should be acquired Vaishya and for penance one must acquired Shudra, this is Purush Medh.

Same thing is mentioned in Taittiriya Brahmana (3/4/1) also - "ब्रह्मणे ब्राह्मणमालभते । क्षत्राय राजन्यम् । मरुद्भ्यो वैश्यम् । तपसे शूद्रम् । "

Shatpath Brahman (13/6/1/6)

According to Shatapath Brahmana, Purusha Medha is performed for the achievement and attainment of all and not to kill anyone.

Shatpath Brahman (13/6/2/13)

Now see, it is clearly written in the context of Purush Medha that no man should be killed in this yagya. Because our sages knew that in the future many foolish people will come who will make futile efforts to show human sacrifice in Purush Medha, so the sages had clearly prohibited it beforehand.

Aitareya Brahamn(6/8/6)

It is also clearly written in the Aitareya Brahman of the Rigveda that humans, cows, sheeps, goats, horses etc are unfit for yajnas. So yajnas should not be performed by them and neither should their meat be eaten. This is also mentioned in the Shatapath Brahman (1/2/3/9) of the Shukla Yajurveda.

Was Manu's wife sacrificed?

An objection is raised against Shatapatha Brahmana (1/1/4/16) that it states that Manu's wife was sacrificed.

Here is an allegorical story that there was a speech which used to cause a lot of harm to the demons. Now let us look at the chapter from Shatapatha Brahmana (1/1/4 verse 15 to 17) . According to Kandika-15, that speech first entered Manu's bull. Now when the demons came to know about this, they wanted to kill that bull. So they took that bull from Manu for the yajna, but as soon as they got that bull, that speech came out of that bull and entered Manu's wife. According to Kandika-16 Now the demons again wanted to take Manu's wife for the yajna, but according to Kandika-17 as soon as they got Manu's wife, that speech came out of Manu's wife too and it entered in the pots of the yajna. So the yajna became free from demonic tendencies.

    Therefore, here it is simply told through a metaphorical explanation that since the yajna is devoid of demonic tendencies, no other creature should be killed in it, therefore the yajna is Adhvara (violence-less)

Shatpath Brahman (11/4/3/2)

In Shatapath Brahmana, it is clearly written that woman herself is the embodiment of Shri means Lakshmi, hence no violence should be done against her.

Is it written in Shatapath Brahmana that human head sacrifice is performed? :

Shatapatha Brahmana (7/5/2/13 to 14) is objected to for showing the human head being lifted up and then being sacrificed in a yajna.

Whereas the reality is that this is not about any common man, this is about the Golden Man.It is clearly written here that raising the head of the Golden Man means increasing his importance and that too through Yajna. The Golden Man himself is Sahasra, that is, he is for all and it is for everyone that we offer oblations to the Golden Man in the yajna.

All the animals reside around the head of that golden man.

Now the question arises that who exactly is this Golden Man?

Shatpath Brahman (7/5/2/27)

So on this it is clearly stated in Shatapath Brahmana that this golden man is called Sun and all the Devtas and humans etc are like animals for him who remain situated around him when he rises. 

And here the importance of that Sun has been told through Yagya etc. and there is no mention of killing any person here.

Shatpath Brahman (7/5/2/32)

But the foolish Momins start talking nonsense without reading the further context of it whereas in this very chapter it is clearly written that just like the Sun is as precious as gold, in the same way this human being is also as precious as gold, hence no human being should be killed.

Is A Man Killed For The Sake Of Yajna According To Shatapatha Brahmana (6/2/1/18)? :

An objection is raised against Shatapatha Brahmana (6/2/1/18) that it allows the killing of men and other animals in yajna.

Whereas the truth is that the word used here is "आलभन" which basically means to receive or touch. In Maharishi Panini's Ashtadhyayi (7/1/64) there is a sutra "लभेश्च". According to this sutra, the word Alabhan is formed from the root "लभ" which means to get or touch, not to kill.

Bhagwat Purana(11/5/13)

According to Bhagavata Purana (11/5/13) also, the word Alabhan means only touching the animals in yajna and does not mean killing them.

Shatpath Brahman (1/2/3/6-7)

Similarly, Shatapatha Brahmana (1/2/3/6 to 7) is also objected to because it talks about human sacrifice, whereas here also the meaning of  the word "Alabhan" is to obtain for the yajna.

Conclusion: Those who are misleading people about Vedic religion by taking references from WhatsApp University without studying properly, we have exposed them with the above mentioned arguments and the fact that Purush Medha is a non-violent yajna is also proved by the scriptures.