Agni Purana — Dharma-shastra, Shloka 4
Prāyaścitta — Definitions of Killing, Brahmahatyā, and Graded Expiations
आक्रोशितस्ताडितो वा धनैव्वा परिपीडितः ततः कर्माणीति ख , ग , घ , छ च यमुद्दिश्य त्यजेत् प्राणांस्तमाहुर्ब्रह्मघातकं
ākrośitastāḍito vā dhanaivvā paripīḍitaḥ tataḥ karmāṇīti kha , ga , gha , cha ca yamuddiśya tyajet prāṇāṃstamāhurbrahmaghātakaṃ
လူတစ်ဦးသည် ဆဲဆိုအော်ဟစ်ခံရခြင်း၊ ရိုက်နှက်ခံရခြင်း သို့မဟုတ် ငွေကြေးအာဏာကြောင့် ဖိနှိပ်ခံရခြင်းရှိသော်လည်း၊ ထိုလုပ်ရပ်များကြောင့် (ရှေ့တွင် ဖော်ပြထားသော က၊ ခ၊ ဂ၊ ဃ၊ စ အချက်များအရ) မိမိအသက်ကို မိမိပယ်ချလျှင်၊ ထိုသေဆုံးမှုကို ဖြစ်စေသောသူကို «ဗြဟ္မဏသတ်သူ» (brahma-ghātaka) ဟု ကြေညာကြသည်။
Lord Agni (in discourse to Sage Vasiṣṭha, as the usual frame of the Agni Purāṇa)
Vidya Category: {"primary_vidya":"Dharmashastra","secondary_vidya":"Arthashastra","practical_application":"Addresses liability for suicide caused by abuse, beating, or financial oppression; guides judges and communities in attributing brahmahatyā-like guilt to coercive persecutors.","sutra_style":false}
Encyclopedic Reference: {"reference_type":"Commentary","entry_title":"Causation of suicide by coercion/oppression as brahma-ghātaka","lookup_keywords":["ākrōśa","tāḍana","paripīḍā","ātmahatyā-causation","brahma-ghātaka"],"quick_summary":"If a person, driven by abuse, beating, or oppressive pressure, gives up life, the one responsible for those causative acts is deemed a brahma-ghātaka with respect to that death. Moral causation extends beyond direct violence."}
Concept: Harmful coercion and sustained persecution can be a proximate cause of death; dharma imputes guilt by causal responsibility, not only by physical act.
Application: In social conduct and governance, prohibit harassment and exploitative financial oppression; in adjudication, treat coercive causation of death as a grave offense requiring severe penance/punishment.
Khanda Section: Rajadharma & Nyaya (Law, Ethics, and Sin—definitions of grave crimes)
Primary Rasa: karuna
Secondary Rasa: raudra
Visual Art Cues: {"scene_description":"A distressed person subjected to public abuse, beating, and debt-pressure; the victim later relinquishes life, while the oppressor is shown as the moral cause—linked by a visual thread of causation.","kerala_mural_prompt":"Kerala mural, sequential narrative panels: (1) verbal abuse scene, (2) beating, (3) money-oppression with debt ledger, (4) victim’s life departing; strong emotive faces, symbolic dharma thread connecting oppressor to outcome","tanjore_prompt":"Tanjore style, moral allegory: oppressor with gold-highlighted wealth symbols, victim in sorrow, a dark karmic chain motif between them, ornate borders and gold work emphasizing the weight of sin","mysore_prompt":"Mysore painting, clear four-step storyboard with captions ākrōśa/tāḍana/paripīḍā/prāṇatyāga, emphasizing causality; refined linework and gentle colors","mughal_miniature_prompt":"Mughal miniature, urban setting with moneylender and officials pressuring a man, later a private chamber scene of self-destruction; delicate detailing, subdued drama, explanatory cartouche"}
Audio Atmosphere: {"recitation_mood":"solemn","suggested_raga":"Bhairav","pace":"slow","voice_tone":"contemplative"}
Sandhi Resolution Notes: ākrośitastāḍito → ākrośitaḥ tāḍitaḥ; dhanaivvā → dhanena iva vā (as transmitted); yamuddiśya → yam uddiśya; prāṇāṃstamāhuḥ → prāṇān tam āhuḥ; brahmaghātakaṃ → brahma-ghātakam. The sequence 'kha, ga, gha, cha' appears as manuscript/edition markers; treated as indeclinable letter-names.
Related Themes: Agni Purana 173 (items ka-kha-ga-gha-cha referenced; broader list of grave causations and liabilities)
FAQs
It gives a dharma-śāstric rule of culpability: causing a person to abandon life due to abuse, beating, or coercion is treated as a brahmahatyā-equivalent offense (brahma-ghātaka).
Beyond ritual and myth, the Agni Purāṇa preserves legal-ethical classifications of crimes and their karmic weight, functioning like a compendium of rajadharma/nyāya alongside other sciences.
It assigns severe karmic responsibility to the perpetrator: driving someone to suicide through oppression is counted among the gravest sins, comparable to brahmahatyā.