Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

The importance of the priest in rituals has been confused
with the status of the priest. Ritual importance and status
are two completely separate entities although they are
often presented to be identical. People in general
acknowledge the importance of the priest’s work, but
they do not necessarily rank him socially at the top of an
imagined pyramid.
Regarding statues, the devotees are not concerned with
the rituals and what the priest actually says as long as the
statue is “activated” and it “works”: the main question is
whether or not the god or goddess is initiated and
immanent in the statue. The worshippers are concerned
with the outcome of the priest’s work, not the way he
works. When the priest chants and recites in Sanskrit the
devotees cannot understand what he says and does, but
that is of no importance as long as the priest is able to
“activate” the statues. The priest does not need to be a
Brahman – the main importance is that the ritual
functions are done, and most often this task involves a
Brahman priest. Nevertheless, if the sweepers manage to
do the rituals alone, they are confident without
Brahmans, although culturally and religiously there is
the implicit understanding that a Brahman priest is
needed if the rituals are to be conducted properly. In
reality, the solutions to ritual problems are irrespective
of caste and gender as long they are solved.
Without Brahmans to conduct rituals, local practices and
traditions have developed in the temples. In Tepakuli
Krishna temple the women sit on the right side and the
men on the left side in front of the temple during pujas.
There were two female priests from the low-castes
performing the weekly rituals. They were appointed to
the posts by the temple’s puja committee to do the work
of Brahmans. The puja committee consists of 43
members, and most of them belong to the low-castes.
The female priests are wives of carpenters, and they
were employed because of their skills and devotion to
the gods and the temple. A ten year old girl named
Purnema from what they labelled as “schedule” caste
and “sudra” – a relative of the priests– went among the
devotees giving them tika and blessings. Each Friday the
community arranges a musical program and prayer, but
there are on occasion other rituals in the temple. Only
men were playing, and most of the musicians and the
participators belonged to, according to themselves, the
schedule castes. But the caste system is in flux, and there
is no clear knowledge or agreement regarding what
castes are, who belongs to which caste, and even more
importantly, what the different dharmas according to the
castes are supposed to be. The low-castes use the terms
“low-caste”, “schedule-caste”, and Vaishya without any
clear distinctions. Occasionally they distinguish between
four castes; Brahmans, Ksatriyas, low-caste, and
schedule castes, but most often the so-called low castes
operate with three castes (Brahmans, Ksatryas, and
Vaishya), and the sweepers as the only outcaste which is
not a part of society, although a sweeper can proudly say
“We are Sudras!”
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Confusion regarding caste belonging are not solely for
low-castes, but include high-castes. The Bhairagis were
traditionally tantric sadhus, and they are, according to
themselves, particularly high-ranking Hindus due to this
alleged religious supremacy, which is indicated by their
use of double parallel tika. Today, most of them live like
ordinary people but they use the sadhu identity as a
means for constructing social identity in their daily life.
In Faridpur there are approximately forty households of
Bhairagis, and most of their households are located
along the riverside in the vicinity of Ambikapur Shashan
Ghat. They accept water from, and marriages with,
Brahmans, things which make them equal in status.
Nevertheless, despite claims of being high ranking
Hindus, in daily life they have accepted a lower status
which enable them, on the one hand, to marry within
other groups, and on the other hand, to indulge in
commercial enterprises by which they gain financial
advantages. Hierarchies within the jati are also disputed
and challenged. Members of one household
acknowledged only their own lineage as being pure
Bhairagi. The rationale behind the claim was that the
Bhairagis in India were exogamous, but in Faridpur and
Bangladesh the real Bhairagis should be endogamous.
Thus, according to the informant, all the other Bhairagis
had married exogamously, even in Faridpur, and they
were consequently less pure compared to his lineage,
implying that his household is the only one that can keep
up the endogamous practice, which might be slightly
problematic in the future.
In the Sri Angan Ashram I asked a sadhu which caste the
Bhairagis belonged to. He thought for quite some time
before answering that they were below Brahmans but
above the three other castes; they are very near the
Brahmans but not exactly the same as Brahmans. In
other words, everyone has been taught that there are four
castes, but they are unable to fit the jati groups into the
prescribed system. Others, however, claim that the
Bhairagi jati belongs to the Vaishya caste. Moreover,
the conceptualisations of caste are complicated by other
factors. Many low-castes work in Faridpur as
businessmen, and therefore they characterise themselves
as Vaishyas. As indicated earlier, most of the “original”
Vaishyas have migrated. Once I asked about caste
belonging, most agreed on belonging to the Sudras –
especially the women – but the one who spoke English
said Vaishya because they were businessmen, working
as tailors and hairdressers, but not fishing!
This was a general trait among most of the Sudras. All
those who earned money from a profession regardless of
their occupation; tailors, hairdressers, goldsmiths, or
blacksmiths etc., characterised themselves as
businessmen, and as such belonging to the Vaishya
caste, but they could equally describe themselves as
Sudras depending on the situation. Goldsmiths claimed
they are Vaishyias, although one of the female members
once advocated that they were Ksatriyas, but then all the
others refused and agreed that they were Vaishyias. In