Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

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Fig. 9. 1. Map of Nepal. Kaligandaki River Dhaulagiri 8176 Baglung Muktinath 146 Manang Kathmandu Manaslu 8163
The context – regions and religions There are approximately 70 glaciers in the Himalayas and they represent the largest body of ice outside the Polar ice cap, and hence, communities which are dependent upon this melt-water for their primary production are highly vulnerable to changes in the glaciers’ extent (Vetaas 2002). Nepal’s rivers contribute 45 per cent of the Ganges’ annual flow. Since the Himalayan Mountains are tectonically unstable, and given the monsoon climate, the larger north-south rivers are powerfully erosive (Sill & Kirkby 1991). Kaligandaki River is located in Dhaulagiri Zone in Western Region of Nepal in the North, and the river is the border between Gandaki and Lumbini Zones in the South. Kaligandaki River rises in the High Himalayas on the Tibetan plateau, following steep courses cutting across the geological grain of the country on the Terai Plain. Between Dhaulagiri (8176m) to the West and Annapurna (8091m) to the East the river cuts one of the deepest gorges in the world. At the widest point of separation, the peak-to-peak distance is only 32 km, with the river flowing at an elevation of 2000-2500 metres. The gorge is over 6,000 m deep, and it is dangerously prone to landslides, especially since earthquakes are common. The Himalayan mountain range in Nepal represents in certain areas a cultural, ritual, and religious border dividing Hinduism and Buddhism, although in other places in Nepal the religions co-exist (e.g. Gellner 1993). Muktinath is a holy pilgrimage site for both Hindus and Buddhists located at an elevation of 3800 m., and the place is “near the extreme northern edge of Hindu influence in this part of the Himalayas and at the same time is near the extreme southern edge of Buddhist and Tibetan influence” (Messerschmidt 1992:30). This area is situated in the rain-shadow behind the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri peaks with an annual rainfall of 200-400 mm a year. In front of the mountains, next to Baglung Bazaar, the river runs at en elevation of 800 metres. Baglung Bazaar is only 20 km west of the Lumle village in air distance; a village at 1610 metres above sea level, receiving between 4000 and 6000 mm of rain each year, and the air distance between Muktinath and Lumle is less than 60 km. In summary, the Himalayan range separates the Tibetan and Buddhist regions in the north in an arid rain-desert virtually unaffected by the monsoon rain, whereas the Hindu regions south of the mountains are situated in a highly humid and fertile area, creating some of the world’s steepest gradients regarding both elevation and precipitation. Based on one research site in each of these regions, the aim is to see to which extent, why, and how changes in the natural environment affect the conceptualisation and qualities of water as a life-giving process in death rituals. This point of departure needs some theoretical clarification. Fredrik Barth argues that social actions are 147 “intended” and not simply “caused” (Barth 1981:3), avoiding an ecological determinism because functional interdependencies “constitute necessary but not sufficient conditions for understanding the actual pattern of energy flow which emerge in man’s interaction with the natural environment” (Haaland 1991:14). Thus, it is necessary to develop a perspective combining macrolevel ecosystem dynamics with micro-level analyses of the actor’s intentions and perceptions (ibid). The question ”when does a system stop being what it has been and become something else?” is difficult to answer unless there is a distinct break in the successions of ecosystems (Rappaport 1979:149). The “human ecological triangle” links up three recursive systems, the environment, the society, and the person (Steiner 1993:57). Adaptation is a cultural phenomenon and connected to power, and thus, the social systems which are favoured by various environmental conditions, are not necessarily a maximizing process (Rappaport 1979:71). One major fallacy of much post-modern writing is the denial of economic, ecological, and natural factors in the explanations of human action. The post-processual archaeology’s emphasis on landscape analysis is an approach for incorporating the material world people inhabit and live in. Landscape, environment, nature, space, or other words designate the physical surroundings or the world humans live in, but different meanings and schools of thought are associated with the various terms. “Landscape” is a black-box category, but it often refers to the meaning imputed by local people on their physical and cultural surroundings. Painters introduced the term in the English vocabulary in the late sixteenth century as a technical term. Thus “landscape” originally has connotations to “scenery” or picturesque images. The cognitive, cultural, and representational aspects are in the foreground, and the actors are somehow outside the landscape (Hirsch 1995). Whereas “environment” often implies notions of “constraints”, “landscape” refers to notions of “constructions”. There are therefore implicit hierarchies found in the various concepts. “Space” is in archaeology a neutral category, and as such it does not denote any particular meaning. But as Godelier notes, the very concept of “space” is social because space is distributed among communities, which exploit territories or appropriate natural resources (Godelier 1988:55). “Nature” is untamed and controls humans, “environment” is a contested field of relations between man and nature where humans most often are the inferior part, and “landscape” designates the surroundings culturally conquered by man. The point of departure in archaeology is “that…monuments took over the significance of important places in the landscape and brought them under control” (Bradley 2000:17). Humans built monuments and therefore natural places have a significance in people’s minds (ibid:35). Man conquers Nature.
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Death and Life-Giving Waters Cremat
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Preface Contents List of figures In
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The origin of Pashupatinath and the
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Fig. 5.1 Map of Bangladesh with Far
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In karmic traditions, death and lif
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constructions, it has often been ap
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Part 1: Cremating Death - Creating
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ethically conditioned (fig 1.2). Th
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The pervasiveness of karma linking
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Fig. 1.3. Pashupatinath temple and
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Fig. 1.5. Cremation priest lighting
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Fig. 1.7. Ghat management and servi
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theories of castes as an organisati
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Fig. 1.9. The sons collected the as
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highly polluted that the people wou
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24 Fig. 1.12. Durga Prasad Sapkota
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problematic (Levinson 1982:198), es
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(seeds, food). In life a person bec
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Fig. 2.1. Manikarnika Ghat, Varanas
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the dead, (they shall eat) their fo
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Fig. 2.6. The representation of cas
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degrees of purity and pollution. En
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Fig. 2.8. Caste structure according
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Nevertheless, it is preferable to b
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the sacrifier is the sacrifice. Thu
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partly a process by which the gods
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Chapter 3: Meditation upon death an
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Being a part of a religious elite i
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The dangers of social interaction S
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Third party observing and legitimat
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Fig. 3.4. Tyaginath sitting next to
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57 Top: Fig. 3.6. The grave of Nara
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the Mahabrahmans mostly consume the
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Religion and ritual Studies of deat
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purest in common sense is not alway
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Fig. 4.3. Modes of fleshly incarnat
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e reincarnated into regarding spiri
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Fig. 4.5. Hocart’s and Dumont’s
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impure and still treated as a Brahm
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Part 2: The Sisters Kali and Ganga
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Ganga Brahmaputra • Faridpur Bay
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Fig. 5.4. Ambikapur Shashan Ghat. F
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Fig. 5.6. Channel from the pyre whe
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The head is always supposed to be d
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Hinduism. She is employed as a care
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Only Hindus are cremated at the cem
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According to Hazera, Badol cremated
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Fig. 6.1. Statue of Jagadbandhu. 90
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Fig. 6.2. Rajani receives the bless
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His disciples are like missionaries
Page 108 and 109: In the Ashram all the expenses are
Page 110 and 111: Fig. 6.7. Burial in coffin. 98
Page 112 and 113: Fig. 6.8. Private Kali temple in Ba
Page 114 and 115: Fig. 6.9. Jagadbandhu temple in Ban
Page 116 and 117: The importance of the priest in rit
Page 118 and 119: the rituals, and they have differen
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Page 122 and 123: Fig. 7.1. The mighty Ganga. Fig. 7.
Page 124 and 125: Fig. 7.3. Tara. Fig. 7.4. Tripur-Su
Page 126 and 127: Fig. 7.11. Chinnamasta. 114
Page 128 and 129: immediate divine access and godly g
Page 130 and 131: Fig. 7.12. Pot-maker in front by th
Page 132 and 133: Fig. 7.14. The making of Durga. 120
Page 134 and 135: This image is the most important pa
Page 136 and 137: Fig. 7.17. Replacement of Shashan K
Page 138 and 139: Fig. 7.18. The Baishanti Durga puja
Page 140 and 141: tradition. The Bhaishanti Durga sta
Page 142 and 143: enlightenment and achieve liberatio
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Page 146 and 147: cloth. Although the Hindus in Farid
Page 148 and 149: Fig. 8.1. A combined Kali and Saras
Page 150 and 151: high-caste and priests as religious
Page 152 and 153: 1979:115-118). As seen in Faridpur
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Page 160 and 161: The opposite approach is the histor
Page 162 and 163: Fig. 9.2. Manang and Gangapurna gla
Page 164 and 165: Fig. 9.5. Bone grinding. 152
Page 166 and 167: Only 20-25 years ago air-burials we
Page 168 and 169: was completed by the end of the 18
Page 170 and 171: As a cultural construct water is al
Page 172 and 173: These sacrifices rebuild the deceas
Page 174 and 175: giving mother. A “spirit” is
Page 176 and 177: Gorakhnath promised the Nepalese th
Page 178 and 179: “Shiva, the god of eroticism, is
Page 180 and 181: Fig. 10. 3. Dagbatti - the lighting
Page 182 and 183: Fig. 10.4. Sexual engravings at the
Page 184 and 185: priori”, Jung argues; “The repr
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Page 188 and 189: are there in a quite objective sens
Page 190 and 191: Purana, “those who recite them wi
Page 192 and 193: forms of colour, 4) water with the
Page 194 and 195: Fig. 11.2. The spot where humans we
Page 196 and 197: Fig. 11.4. Bagmati originating from
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Page 200 and 201: Fig. 12.1. Sadhu fasting for Nepali
Page 202 and 203: If the river could not cleanse itse
Page 204 and 205: The trust is not directly involved
Page 206 and 207: Fig. 12.6. The outlet of treated wa
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As an example, once a complete drun
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Fig. 12.10. Bagmati River with clea
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positive or negative feedback upon
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this process happens slowly and pro
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Fig. 13.1. Decaying corpse at Nire
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achievement of a wanted state or co
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while unmarried girls and boys with
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Logic of sin and pollution Cosmogon
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less “true”, unimportant, or in
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From the present to the past, urban
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Dating traditions - the development
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The Muluki Ain aimed to arrange all
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spiritual fold took them to the upp
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choose one’s own path because onl
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esult of a variety of combinations
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practice, common people are ignoran
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procured for the people. The import
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Fig. 15.1. Gundestrup cauldron with
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236
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took place, at some time in history
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Fig. 16.1. Maneckji Seti Agiary in
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stony desert. The polluted body was
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Fig. 16.3. Zoroastrian ossuary from
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Fig. 16.4. Zarathushtra and fire-te
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Fig. 16.6. Inside a Tower of Silenc
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Fig. 16.7. Zarathushtra. 250
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meaningfully constituted and situat
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creative act in world-history - unl
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Alexander there offered sacrifices
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therefore concentrate on his docume
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Marshall suggested that the height
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Fig. 17.5. Dharmarajika: plan of re
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Fig. 17.6. Buddha from Building L n
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Fig. 17.8. The “smaller” Buddha
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is always explaining, instructing,
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Pakistan Fig. 17.9. Mohenjo-daro an
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Fig. 17.10. The Great Bath. From Ma
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This is problematic for several rea
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As mentioned before, Schutz has mad
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of birth and death. The soul is ete
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constructions are applied and mater
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many possibilities such an approach
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follows her husband purifies the th
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improper performances of funerals.
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290
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kept perpetually ablaze for over a
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Gange Farid million people. Muslim
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Manosha The patron saint of serpent
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Ratnasambhava The third dhyanibuddh
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Tirtha Spiritual ford, crossing pla
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304
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very nice. The last son (or husband
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y putting faces on people who other
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Hence, I have a feeling that I am o
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Fig. 18.3. Ram Mani Gyawali, author
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314
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When it again closes then Shiva bec
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or the opposite? Is the Aghori capa
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A man, after taking a bath in the P
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Vishnu said: Obeisance to you, O de
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The linga is pure, auspicious and i
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326
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Cambridge. Barth, F. 1990. The Guru
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Art, Religion & Culture: 184-191. M
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Priest. Cambridge University Press.
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Insoll, T. 1999b. Introduction. Res
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Lahiri, N. 2000. Archaeology and id
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Ahmedabad. Mirza, H. K. 2002. Liter
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Gandhi National Centre for the Arts
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(eds.). Representing Hinduism: 51-8
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Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

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