Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

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priori”, Jung argues; “The representations themselves are not inherited, only the forms, and in that respect they correspond in every way to the instincts, which are also determined in form only (Jung 1968c:79, pars 155). Jung’s archetypes are characterised at first by no specific contents, enabling the “content” to be inherited (Jacobi 1959:53-54). What the archetypes are “filled with” depends upon the inherited traditions – habitus – and general social and cultural structures, but this content is not the archetypes per se. “Archetypes are, by definition, factors and motifs that arrange the psychic elements into certain images, characterized as archetypal, but in such a way that they can be recognized only from the effects they produce…Empirically considered, however, the archetype did not ever come into existence as a phenomenon of organic life, but entered into the picture with life itself” (Jung 1958:149, par 222, my emphasis). This move is important and has often been missing in analyses and uses of Jung’s archetypes in practical studies. Regarding the mode of apprehension which Jung calls the archetype or primordial image, the “…archetypes are not disseminated only by tradition, language, and migration, but that they can re-arise spontaneously, at any time, at any place, and without any outside influence…[This] means that they are present in every psyche forms which are unconscious but nonetheless active – living dispositions, ideas in the Platonic sense, that perform and continually influence our thoughts and feelings and actions” (Jung 1968c:79, pars 153-154, my emphasis). The content may be as different and manifold as the number of humans, but when the archetypes manifest themselves in time and space they are perceived by the conscious mind as symbols. This implies that every symbol is at the same time an archetype, and as such determined by a nonperceptible “archetype per se”; every symbol has “an archetypal ground plan” or point of departure from which it arises. The archetype is “ready to actualise itself and manifest itself as a symbol”, and the symbol is always grounded in the unconscious archetype (Jacobi 1959:74). Therefore, a symbol is never entirely abstract, but is most often in some way or another “incarnated” (ibid:76). Whether a thing is a symbol or not depends upon the consciousness of the one who considers it; whether it is perceived as merely a fact or an expression of the yet unknown (Jung 1923:602). Symbols without spontaneous effects are dead. An important premise in Jung’s use of archetypes is that symbols are neither allegories nor signs: Symbols are images of contents that most often transcend consciousness; the content is beyond comprehension and explications in words, but nevertheless real (Jung 1923:601). Cassirer argued “a signal is a part of the physical world of being; a symbol is a part of the human world of meaning” (Cassirer 1945:32). This ontological dimension is important because “animals have signals 172 and signs but no symbols” (Jacobi 1959:94). Erich Fromm (1952) distinguishes between tree types of symbols; 1) the conventional, 2) the accidental, and 3) the universal, and it is only the latter that can be regarded as a symbol in the Jungian sense. “In so far as a symbol is a living thing, it is the expression of a thing not to be characterised in any other or better way. The symbol is alive only in so far it is pregnant with meaning. But, if its meaning is born out of it, i.e. if that expression should be found which formulates the sought, expected, or divined things still better than the hitherto accepted symbol, then the symbol is dead…it merely serves as a conventional sign for associations which are more completely and better known elsewhere. Only for the exoteric standpoint is the symbol always alive. An expression that stands for a known thing always remains merely a sign and never a symbol. It is, therefore, quite impossible to make a living symbol, i.e. one that is pregnant with meaning, from known associations. For what is thus manufactured never contains more than was put into it” (Jung 1923:602). As I understand it, a symbol is in a religious sense a divine and living actor. It has powers and capacities, which live their own lives, and as a living being the symbol has a life-giving potential. Thus, life-giving symbols cannot be constructed in a post-modern sense: they exist. Living symbols therefore have a deep ontological meaning and foundation. When humans face problems, they ask the gods for help, but this request is impossible without employing symbols with immanent powers. Therefore, seen from the devotee’s perspective a symbol works in mysterious ways both unknown and unconscious to humans; what they know is that the symbol and rite work. In a ritualised context the symbols become living and life-giving because they are not conventional signs; they appear as if they have an origin outside themselves which is interpreted as a divine lifegiver. Life-giving water seems to be the ultimate archetypal representation, not as an archetype of form or as sterile water, but as the pro-creative power in its numerous spheres. The belief in life-giving water as the ultimate divine solution to any kind of problem seems to be not only a living symbol but a life-giving process. Thus, it is not the archetypal form that matters, but the archetypal process and the outcome that give the lifegiving symbols their authentic and ontological legitimacy. There is a hierarchy of archetypes, and each type may have an infinite development and differentiation, like a robust tree can put forth branches and thousands of blossoms (Jacobi 1959:55), and “the deeper the unconscious stratum from which the archetypes stems, the scantier will be its basic design, but the more possibilities of development will be contained within it, and the richer it will be in meanings” (ibid:56). I will argue that the deepest unconscious stratum is ontologically life and death in its widest sense, and the procreation of new life by use of ritualised water. “The
living symbol shapes and formulates an essential unconscious factor, and the more generally this factor prevails, the more general is the operation of the symbol; for in every soul it touches an associated chord” (Jung 1923:605, my emphasis). This life-giving symbol as a process may take numerous cultural forms and expressions but they nevertheless are all created out of water and the basic human need to cope with the practical realities of life and death. The symbols are perceived as being exterior to humans but they have the 173 capacities to solve problems within the human world. Humans do not know, strictly speaking, how or why these symbols work, and precisely because of this they are perceived as having immanent capacities, which make them life-giving symbols. In the next chapter I will therefore continue with myths describing the origin of Pashupatinath and Bagmati. Life-giving symbols in general and water in particular are crucial in the cosmogony and the rites that take place at Pashupatinath.
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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
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In the Ashram all the expenses are
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Fig. 6.7. Burial in coffin. 98
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Fig. 6.8. Private Kali temple in Ba
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Fig. 6.9. Jagadbandhu temple in Ban
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The importance of the priest in rit
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the rituals, and they have differen
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108
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Fig. 7.1. The mighty Ganga. Fig. 7.
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Fig. 7.3. Tara. Fig. 7.4. Tripur-Su
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Fig. 7.11. Chinnamasta. 114
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immediate divine access and godly g
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Fig. 7.12. Pot-maker in front by th
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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
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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 158 and 159: Fig. 9. 1. Map of Nepal. Kaligandak
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
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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
Page 208 and 209: As an example, once a complete drun
Page 210 and 211: Fig. 12.10. Bagmati River with clea
Page 212 and 213: positive or negative feedback upon
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Page 216 and 217: Fig. 13.1. Decaying corpse at Nire
Page 218 and 219: achievement of a wanted state or co
Page 220 and 221: while unmarried girls and boys with
Page 222 and 223: Logic of sin and pollution Cosmogon
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Page 228 and 229: less “true”, unimportant, or in
Page 230 and 231: From the present to the past, urban
Page 232 and 233: 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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278
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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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292
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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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