Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

Pashupatinath in its contemporary Hindu community. It
is nevertheless difficult to trace and follow the early
history of Pashupatinath. When the first temple was built
is unclear, but it is believed that there was a temple at
Pashupatinath earlier than the first century CE. Some
historical sources indicate that there were temples and
shrines in Deopatan, the area where Pashupatinath is
located, as early as the third century BCE. The temples
of Pashupatinath at the current complex may have been
constructed as early as the fourth century CE.
Pashupatinath is mentioned in an inscription from CE
533 on the Bhasmeswhara lingam in the Pashupatinath
area. Whatever temples existed at Pashupatinath, they
were rebuilt during the lifetime of Ganga Rani – the wife
of King Shiva Singh Malla. The king ruled in Nepal
from 1585-1641, and according to the legends, “his wife
Ganga Devi was in charge of religious affairs. During
her lifetime, the Pashupati temple was restored. The
queen was a great devotee and when she died such a
loud sound of lamentation arose from the lingam of
Pashupati that the people in the neighbourhood went
deaf” (Majupuria & Majupuria 1990:8). The main
temple complex was, however, built in the 1640s or
1650s during the reign of King Pratap Malla (Bhandar
1988:10-11). Jagat Jung placed the enormous metallic
bull Nandi inside the temple area in 1879 CE. The
current decorative patterns on the pavilions were made
during the reign of and sponsored by, Chandra
Shumsher, who was Rana Prime Minister of Nepal from
1901-1928 (Majupuria & Majupuria 1990:7-8).
There are some inscriptions found in the courtyard
indicating that the temple of Guheswori was also made
during the reign of King Pratap Malla. The temple is
dedicated to Sati Devi, a former wife of Shiva. It is
constructed after the Tantric-Yantra or the geometric
triangle which signifies the female power of pro-creation
and re-generation. In the main sanctuary of the temple
there is an oval-shaped cupola like a gold platform
symbolising the female organ. In the middle of the
sanctum there is a water filled hole. The depth of the
water is said to be unfathomable, and the level of the
water remains always the same. This sacred hole is a
symbolic representation of the Goddess Sati (Bhandar
1988:29-30): “[…] This is the most venerated temple in
Pashupati and it is believed that the secret organ (vagina)
of Sati fell here when her dead body was carried about
by Shiva until it got decomposed and pieces of it
dropped in different places” (Majupuria & Majupuria
1990:20). 2 When Shiva saw his wife’s sexual organ
broke through the earth and started falling down to hell,
he took the form of a mountain and supported the yoni,
so wherever a part of Sati’s body fell apart it became a
linga (Singh & Nath 1995:185).
Of other temples I will just mention two, which are
located next to the ghats. The Bachhaleshwori temple is
2
According to other myths, Sati’s yoni fell down in
Kamarupa (Assam).
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dedicated to Parvati – the consort of Shiva. The temple
has violent sexual engravings covering the walls (see fig.
10.4). According to myths there was a human sacrifice
here each year on the day of Shivaratri until the reign of
the mythological King Sada Shiva Deva. The small
square in front of the temple is the place where those
who were sacrificed were cremated. The cremations of
the victims were important and grandiose rituals
involving the distribution of food to the devotees, and
the memory of the victims and the feasts are still
commemorated by devotees offering red and yellow
sandalwood powder on the spot (fig. 11.2). The temple
of Virupakshya is located behind the cremation
platforms at Arya ghat. The image of Virupakshya is a
stone statue commonly believed to be half buried and
slowly rising from the ground (fig. 11.3). When the
statute of Virupakshya is fully standing, it will be the end
of the world and Kaliyuga, and then Satyayuga – the age
of truth – will begin. According to Skanda Purana,
Virupakshya was born as a son of a Brahmin and became
a great sinner committing the worst of crimes. He
indulged with prostitutes and it is even believed that he
had sexual intercourse with his own mother. He became
a leper, and while wandering around he met a saint who
advised him to take a holy bath in Bagmati and to
worship Pashupatinath. So he did, and he was cured
from his leprosy (Bhandar 1988:23).
Materialised myths – Shiva’s appearance on
earth
As seen, current practices are rooted in myths, but there
are always contested hierarchies regarding the
materialisation of the myths, or in other words, which
temples are the true and only manifestations of the
mythological, and now cosmogonical, re-creations of the
world. The clarification of these mythological matters
maps the religious and cosmological landscape, which is
inhabited by believers, and in particular, pilgrims.
Regardless of a historical origin as defined by
contemporary criteria, myths matter, they are
materialised, and these manifestations are ontological
truths. It is therefore impossible to separate between
myths, history, space, and practice because these facets
are all interwoven and constitute each other and the
religious practices. Furthermore, it is important to stress
two aspects of mythology in space and daily practice.
Firstly, what seems to be vague cosmological ideas and
descriptions somewhere in outer space are actual
descriptions of the Pashupatinath temple complex.
Cosmos and the world were, according to the believers,
created at this very spot, and therefore, Pashupatinath
has a deep ontological and cosmological relevance all
over the universe. Myths gain their strength through
material manifestations in monuments, which in turn are
seen as evidence for the factuality of the myths.