Ātatāyī
Ātatāyī · ātata-āyī, “one who comes with a drawn weapon”
Grammar: masculine noun (stem ātatāyin); from ātata (stretched, drawn, of a bow or weapon) and āyin (one who comes): “one who comes with weapon drawn”.
Meaning: a violent aggressor who deserves death. In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa the word means one who sets fire to a house, one who gives poison, a killer and the like.
In the scriptures: after Aśvatthāmā had slain the sleeping sons of Draupadī, Arjuna brought him bound before Draupadī. Draupadī, full of compassion, asked that he be spared, so that his mother Kṛpī should not weep as she wept; Bhīma said that for one who killed sleeping children, killing was right. Śrī Kṛshṇa looked at his friend Arjuna and spoke as if smiling: “That a brāhmaṇa, even a fallen one, must not be killed, and that an ātatāyī deserves to be killed: both these sayings I myself, the maker of the śāstra, have spoken. Follow my teaching. Make true the vow you made while consoling your beloved Draupadī, and at the same time give satisfaction to Bhīmasena, to Draupadī and to me.” Arjuna knew his meaning: with a sword he cut away the jewel on Aśvatthāmā’s head together with the hair, loosed his bonds and drove him out of the camp. For a fallen brāhmaṇa, the text says, shaving the head, taking away his wealth and driving him from his place are equal to the punishment of death (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 7).
In the Bhavishya Purāṇa: Sumantu Muni says that to give a girl and thereby provide one’s livelihood is a way fit for servants, ātatāyins and actors, and not fit for the good (Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 13).
Related terms: Vadha · Brahmahatyā · Dharma · Kshatriya
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 7
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 13