Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

immediate divine access and godly grace and one’s
wishes fulfilled.
In Faridpur, Kali temples are mostly for devotees who
observe rituals at a personal level in a local setting.
Worship in the small Kali temples is conducted without
a Brahman priest, but his services are mandatory for the
annual pujas, particularly in the communal temples. The
devotees may perform the rituals themselves without
Brahman priests enforcing their orthodox world-view
and caste-system onto the rest of the population. Women
are actively engaged in the Kali worship, but the power
of Kali is a double-edged sword. If a person establishes a
Kali temple but does not maintain it, then Kali will kill
someone in the family or lineage.
Most of the people living by the river have at least once
in their lifetime lost their houses and fields, and
therefore, even Muslims are praying and sacrificing
goats and money to Kali and Ganga in order to avoid
new catastrophes. Moreover, the majority of the Hindus
in this area belong to the deprived tribes and schedule
castes, and most of these out- and low-castes have
prayed to Kali hoping the goddess will improve their
situation. In the past, the landlords were their enemies
since they suppressed them, and Kali kills the enemies of
society and all sinners who harm other people. Hence, it
was generally believed that Kali protected the common
people from the landlords, and the heads in Kali’s
necklace are also interpreted by local people as the heads
of the landlords; the sinners.
Yama, another form Shiva, is the God of Death
responsible for the actual execution of a person, for
instance when a man dies of old age. Yama received the
power from Vishnu (Narayan). There are no explicit
relations between Yama and Kali, because Kali kills
only those who are enemies of society. There is no
worship, no temples or rituals performed for Yama.
Shiva, on the other hand, serves many purposes, and
giving death is his main task. It is therefore not Yama
but Shiva who is responsible for death. Yama is the chief
servant and follower of Shiva who fulfils Shiva’s
wishes. When Shiva wants a soul, he sends Yama to
collect it, and as a servant he takes the required souls and
returns them back to Shiva. Yama is an executioner who
follows Shiva’s orders.
The popularity of Kali conveys epitomes or
embroiderings of fundamental truths in Hindu tradition
(Kinsley 1977:5), and if it was not for her extraordinary
popularity one would have characterised her as an
“extreme case”, but she is not (ibid:82). The most
terrifying forms of Kali are Shashan (or Smashan) Kali
and Chinnamasta (fig. 7.11). Kali’s preferred place to
stay is the cremation ground. The cemetery marks the
end of the bond to the material world and the entrance to
liberation. Kali is the gateway to the final destination –
the release from samsara (Kinsley 1977:143-144).
Chinnamasta is on the cremation ground standing on the
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copulating bodies of Kama and Rati – the god of sexual
lust and his wife. Chinnamasta has decapitated herself,
and jets of blood spurt from the neck, feeding two
female attendants, but also her own severed head
(Kinsley 1989:162). Life, sex and death are inseparable
(ibid:173). The Hindu and the Buddhist Chinnamasta is
the same, and she represents the unconditioned reality.
She drinks her own blood, and the severing of her own
head symbolises the destruction of the illusional belief in
a permanent self (Benard 1994:96). According to myths,
Chinnamasta’s two attendants, Dakini and Varnini,
begged and prayed to her for food, “We are overpowered
with hunger, O Mother of the Universe! Give us food so
we may be satisfied, O Merciful One, Bestower of
Boons and Fulfiller of Desires”. The goddess smiled and
severed her head with her fingernails (ibid:7). This is a
primordial sacrifice and renewal of the creation. The
goddess sacrifices herself and the mother’s blood feeds
her attendants. Chinnamasta is the food and the feeder,
she eats herself and is consumed by others. The
dichotomy of giver and receiver disappears – she is the
sacrifier, the sacrificed, and the receiver of the sacrifice
(ibid:9).
The head is the essential part of the body. Without the
head, no being or identity. It is from the head or the
mouth the “seeds of sound” as language come from,
emphasising the spiritual qualities (Kinsley 1997:153),
and life is often equated or seen as identical to the wind
force (Adhikary 1995:92). Other vital and life-giving
parts of the body might be sacrificed. The goddess
Pattini – a Kali type of goddess in Sri Lanka – mutilates
and sacrifices one of her breasts (Obeyesekere
1984:478). Sacrifices of the most vital forces are the
most pro-creative and vital offerings. One’s own death
may give life to others, but especially in mother-child
relations the death of mothers might be lethal and at the
same time vital. Life is death and death gives life, and in
these sacrifices life and death form a unity where
death:life :: life:death.
Shashan Kali is the cemetery or cremation Kali, and this
is another fearful manifestation of Kali. She lives only
on cemeteries, and she has numerous followers who
include ghosts and malignant spirits. A human body is
not necessary for being a Kali devotee. The cemetery is
therefore a dangerous place for humans. The ghosts
depend on and live in skulls, and human skulls are most
often a part of the Shashan Kali temples. When humans
offer food, fruits, and incense to the skulls, the ghosts
are fed and pleased, and the devotees pay homage and
respect to the ghosts who also worship Kali.
Shashan Kali has two arms instead of four unlike to the
normal Kali. Once Shiva stayed at the cemetery half
naked, drunk, and intoxicated on ganja, Kali thought that
her husband would be insulted if she appeared in front of
him when he was almost nude. Thus, Kali appeared in
the form of Vishnu with two arms when she visited
Shiva, but she realised that Shiva respected and adored