Sin, shame, and guilt in the Vedic ideology (Studies on evil, guilt and sin in the Ṛgveda and in the Brahmanic ideology, I)

Abstract

The concepts of evil, guilt and sin in the Vedic and Brahmanic ideology are here studied, starting from textual analysis, especially of the Ṛgveda. For the Vedic mind were sinful all infractions of ṛtá, specifically drúh: falsehood, betrayal and active breaking of a promise. The Vedic ideology shows so features of the «shame cultures», where an evil deed don’t produce guilt feelings, remorse or contrition, but in first line, fear of losing the public respect. When the gods are beseeched to free men from the fastenings that are the expected outcome of an evil deed, there is any distinction made in the texts between deliberate misdeeds, a casual or unconscious mistake, nor between own or others’ sins, for the consequences of alien misdeeds, in form of pollution, can too contaminate others. The analysis of avadyá «shame» is done on texts about Indra’s birth (RV 4.18) and Namuci’s death (MS 4.3.4).