Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

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Fig. 12.1. Sadhu fasting for Nepali priests and a pure Bagmati River. Loknath Upadhyaya Adhikari “Kashyap” STRIKE TILL DEATH Strike days 885 On 20 th October, 2000. Shree Pashupatinath is considered to be the greatest Hindu God of Nepal. Historians say the origin of Nepal is directly linked to the self created God. For this reason Nepal is also called the “Land of Pashupatinath”. Millions of devotees recognize Nepal with the name of Pashupatinath. People from different parts of the world come to worship here. But the priests appointed to conduct daily prayer and worship of God are not Nepali citizens. All of the five priests are from south India. They share among themselves the money as well as the ornaments collected in the offering with no record of it. Moreover, no Nepalese are allowed to conduct any kind of religious or cultural activities within the premise of the temple without the prior consent of the chief priest. Therefore, Nepalese citizens should be entrusted with the responsibilities of carrying out all the ceremonial activities at the holy shrine. The priest should be given a certain amount of money as salary. The money collected in the offering should not be personalized. Instead it should be institutionalized and spent for the renovation of the temple and improvement of its premises. For this, the government should formulate a committee and monitor its activities with transparency. Beside the Pashupatinath area the holy river Bagmati flowing through it should be cleaned as soon as possible. With these and 15 other demands, Loknath Upadhyaya Adhikari “Kashyap” of age 58 is on strike – till death. He began the protest from 2055-2-9 (May ’98) hoping to see a pristine Pashupatinath Temple and its premises with the same cultural and religious value. Thus, you are kindly requested to join this National campaign and we always welcome your valuable suggestions on these issues. The lines were guarded by police forces, who took action if devotees broke out from the lines and tried to jump the queue. PADT aimed to build a permanent water reservoir that could distribute water to the pilgrims. Two small tanks with taps were at that time available for the pilgrims, one of them was located on the roof of the red building at Bhasmeswara Satal, the other tank was located at Arya Ghat. These two water supplies were insufficient regarding the huge masses of pilgrims which came to Shivaratri, but it was the best solution due to both the lack of a water supply and financial funding. The condition of Bagmati River concerned everybody. Peoples’ various ways of participating and worshipping at Shivaratri reflect their attitude to water as a holy medium. The sadhus as religious specialists often dispute or challenge the authority of the priests. During Shivaratri in 2001, a note was distributed to pilgrims and visitors. A sadhu had been fasting for Nepali priests in the Pashupatinath temple and for a pure Bagmati-river. The note was circulated even though the holy man himself ended his strike some months before Shivaratri and went to another place (fig 12.1). Shiva’s night along Bagmati River Bagmati is a holy river famous all over the Hindu world. The origin of Bagmati is “The Mouth of the Tiger”, located in the Shivapuri mountain north of Kathmandu. The river is a tributary to Ganges, and it is also known among the Hindus as the Shiva Ganges. The holiness of the river can wash away sins, and after a holy bath in Bagmati the devotees’ desires will be fulfilled. Thus, 188 celebrating the Shivaratri festival along Bagmati River at Pashupatinath is the perfect time and place for devotional penances. Nevertheless, some claimed that there were less Indian pilgrims at Shivaratri in the year 2001 compared to previous years, and they basically gave two explanations; the Kumbh Mela festival in Allahabad in January 2001 was more important than Shivaratri, and the quality of the water in Bagmati River made the pilgrims unable to conduct the proper sin cleansing rituals. Others argued that because of Kumbh Mela there were more Indian pilgrims than normal since they were in the vicinity both in time and space; after Kumbh Mela they continued their pilgrimage to Shivaratri. What is undisputable is the special grandeur Shivaratri has among pilgrims since only Shiva’s legs are born in Kashi. Sadhus in Varanasi wonder why Nepalese pilgrims come to Kashi to worship Shivaratri when it is possible to worship the birth of the head in Kathmandu. Despite the cosmic purity of both the river and the temple, the water was so highly contaminated that it was inappropriate and even unhealthy to use it in the rituals. Many Hindus felt a great sorrow that the river had become extremely dirty and as Hindus they felt a commitment to purify it. Without taking a holy bath in the Bagmati River Hindus were unable to worship Lord Shiva, which explains the feelings and obligations for cleaning up the river. Especially pouring the filthy water on the top of Lord Shiva’s head was seen as desecrating. A well was therefore made inside the temple from which the devotees brought the water they gave to Shiva, but the well water was seen as only pure and not holy.
A similar temporary solution was made within the temple complex where the naked sadhus stayed separated from the tourists. The sadhus took holy “baths” in a small water tank inside the restricted temple area, and they worshipped this water as if it were the holy Bagmati River. Seen from a religious, karmic, and social point of view, the problem was the consequences of using only pure but not holy water in the rituals. According to most Hindus, it was mandatory for the devotees to pour holy water on the head of Lord Shiva (the linga). Shiva becomes pleased with the devotees when they pay him this homage, and Shiva returns spiritual merit and cleanses the pilgrims of their sins. However, without a ritual bath before the water offering to the linga, the Shiva ritual was incomplete and imperfect, and Bagmati water was too impure for both holy baths and ablutions. It was not enough just to use clean water, the water had to be holy. The condition of the polluted river was interpreted as a part of Kaliyuga whereby one is unable to perform sacrifices and rituals in the appropriate manner, and consequently, there were changes in the rituals due to the contamination of the river. The holiness of Pashupatinath had decreased due to the pollution, and the pollution affected everything in a very derogatory way, including Shiva himself. The religiosity of the river was not independent of its physicality. The relation between mind and matter – spirituality and materiality – was interlinked and depended upon each other. Ritual purity and physical purity, or ritual impurity and physical impurity, are not absolutes but are inseparable. Although the devotees could manipulate the signifiers in constructions emphasising that the river was pure and holy despite the contaminated condition from a physical point of view, there were obvious limitations regarding the possibility of postponing a harmonisation of the material world with the spiritual practice. The material world or the environment had a feedback effect upon the spiritual and religious interpretation of the sacred materiality, and vice versa. There are limits which it is impossible to transcend regarding the belief in an interpretation of the river as pure and holy when the physical materiality contradicts any such understanding. Together, the mental and the material constitute the life-worlds of the devotees. The religious perceptions of the river were nevertheless superior to profane defilements of the water. Although the contaminated materiality de-sacralised the spiritual capacity of the water, the spiritual power was still seen as immanent in the river. The divine capability was just hindered from being active by the pollution, which “imprisoned” the spiritual capacity of transforming impurity to purity. In 2001 there were uncertainties regarding when the river could become clean, but people hoped that the government would solve the problem so Bagmati River one day could attain a bright future 189 corresponding to the mythological greatness. Humans’ interference in the material world may modify the external materiality to such an extent that the “divine” powers would “realise” its spiritual potentials and powers. As a consequence, devotees also postponed the need for finding religious answers to the practical problems that had to be solved. It was easier to give legitimacy to a mechanical change of the water in the river than to change the webs of significance spun around the river for millennia. The pollution of Bagmati was so recent that the changes had not been incorporated into the high religious perceptions of Bagmati and Pashupatinath. Modification of the sacred materiality Water matters and the importance of water in Hindu rites are best exemplified with the modification of the townscape which took place at Pashupatinath by the cleaning of Bagmati River. The sewage cleaning station was legitimised by the devotees’ needs for a pure river in which they could take their holy baths and attain spiritual purity through the river’s removal of sins. The mechanical cleaning of the river by technical engineers financed by politicians is an interference into religious spheres which normally belong to divine realms, and this was the devotees’ dilemma: was the river still holy after the process? Logically, if the river has the capacity to remove sin after it became cleaned, but not before when it was polluted, then humans have created holiness by their mundane and profane cleaning of the sewage into pure water. There are differences between pure/clean and holy water. Pure water means clean water, which it is possible to procure everywhere. Holy water, on the other hand, is inevitably bound up to and connected with a particular place or space, a tirtha. Ganges water came out of the head of Lord Shiva, and in the Puranas there is a comparison of Ganges and Bagmati, which says that Bagmati is as holy as Ganges. The water in itself is holy, and devotees often refer to the religious texts when explaining why the river is sacred. Physical purity and ritual purity are related, but improving the physical quality does not necessarily imply an enhanced spiritual quality since the latter quality represents an immanent sacredness. The water of Bagmati River is supposed to have this special capacity, which is the power to sustain and cleanse itself. Consequently, some argued that improving the water quality mechanically would not restore the religious capability of the river. Bagmati has been seen as the holiest river precisely because of the capacity to cleanse sin and human contamination, and still remain pure; this is one definition of holiness regarding water. The river being unable to clean itself was seen as a sign of decreasing holiness.
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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
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This image is the most important pa
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Fig. 7.17. Replacement of Shashan K
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Fig. 7.18. The Baishanti Durga puja
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tradition. The Bhaishanti Durga sta
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enlightenment and achieve liberatio
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132
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cloth. Although the Hindus in Farid
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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
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 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
Page 214 and 215: this process happens slowly and pro
Page 216 and 217: Fig. 13.1. Decaying corpse at Nire
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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
Page 234 and 235: The Muluki Ain aimed to arrange all
Page 236 and 237: spiritual fold took them to the upp
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Page 240 and 241: esult of a variety of combinations
Page 242 and 243: practice, common people are ignoran
Page 244 and 245: procured for the people. The import
Page 246 and 247: Fig. 15.1. Gundestrup cauldron with
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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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