Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

Adjoining the Pashupatinath temple there were built
temporary temples. The divine images in one of these
temples – a tent temple – were statues made of mud. The
statues were removed the next day and carried by truck
to Tribeni where the statues were immersed. Prior to the
removal of the statues there was a discussion regarding
which river would be the most appropriate for the
immersion of the statues. Previously, statues had been
immersed in Bagmati, but after Shivaratri there was not
sufficient water, and hence, they were transported to the
conjoining rivers. The lack of water in the river this year
was as last year a consequence of the cleaning station,
causing changes in rituals regardless of whether these
are perceived as good or bad.
Significance of water
Most of the “ritual” pollution is of two types; flowers
offered to the linga inside the temple, but more
polluting; clothes and charcoal from cremations. Temple
assistants clean the inner sanctuary regularly, and the
debris and flowers are given to the river. During
funerals, the mourners take off the deceased’s clothes,
which are thrown into the river together with other
personal belongings of the dead. After the cremation,
ashes and charcoal are immersed in the river regardless
of the amount of water flowing. Both the offered flowers
in the temple and the remains from cremations have to
be immersed in Bagmati. But once thrown into the river,
the ritual act is finished. The water takes over the holy
and religious function, and the objects themselves seem
to have become de-sacralised. The river ends the rituals.
Whether it be clothes, bones, wood, or flowers, the river
takes on the holiness – the holy water transfers or
receives the gifts – and the objects retain a profane
value.
Those who clean the river start carrying away the
charcoal and half burnt pieces of ashes before the
remains are cold, and they may throw them into the
water again to cool them before carrying them away (fig
12.2). This may happen immediately after a cremation is
completed and the ashes are thrown into the river, before
the next pyre is build and the cremation starts. The wood
is carried to the other side of the river from where it is
transported away. Since the wood has been used to burn
human flesh, it is contaminated and inappropriate for
cooking food, although some sadhus and the poorest
people may use it. The wood is generally used in the
commercial brick production. Flowers and other gifts
given to the deceased together with the deceased’s
clothes, which are thrown into the river immediately
when the cremation starts, might be taken directly from
the water and carried away while the mourners witness it
(fig. 12.4). The deceased’s clothes are collected, washed,
and sold second hand, although it is uncertain whether
the customers are aware of the circumstances from
which the clothes are procured. In other cases the
leftovers are used intentionally. It is common for
199
devotees to offer food to the river, which is placed in
small baskets made of leaves and sent down the river,
and some of the poorest may pick up this prasad (food)
and eat it.
The river is the last stop in this earthly sphere. The
objects themselves seem to lose their importance once
immersed; it is the act of immersion in water that
matters. When the participants have fulfilled their ritual
duties, the river both ends the profane and starts the
divine journey, and as such water changes the bio-moral
character of objects or persons that have been immersed
in the river. What arises from the river is different from
what was immersed, some objects lose their holiness,
others are invested with sacredness.
The major modification of parts of the townscape in
Kathmandu with the goal of having a clean Bagmati
River for ritual purposes, illuminates aspects of the
importance of holy water in Hindu society, ritual, and
religion. Rituals without water as the essential part is
impossible, and all aspects of life and death are
structured around water and holy rivers in different ways
and to various degrees. More importantly than just
illuminating the significance of water, the case study at
Pashupatinath stresses also some of the structures that
create holiness and perceptions of sacredness. The
sacred world consists of materiality, and if the
materiality does not fit with the perceptions of
sacredness, then humans may recreate the environment
that constitutes holiness. Perception is dependent upon
physicality, and this fact stresses the need for material
culture studies analysing the role and function of various
types of materiality in social and religious constructions.
There is a dialectic relationship between text and
context. The sacred texts prescribe rituals, which
necessitate pure and holy water, but it is impossible to
perceive sewage as holy water. Although ritual purity
and physical purity belong to two different realms, they
are not entirely separate. The text or religious
perceptions of the world do not exist separately from the
world they work within. If the external and the real
environment deviate from what the texts prescribe for
ritual action, then the scriptures and religion lose parts of
their importance because it is impossible to neglect the
physical environment in which religion is a part.
Religion may provide a certain framework for how the
environment is supposed to be used and understood, but
there are physical limits which even religion cannot
transcend.
On the one hand, the environment may cause a negative
feedback effect upon texts and religion if the physical
environment does not cohere with the ritual sphere, but
on the other hand, the texts may give legitimacy to an
environment which would otherwise not have been
interpreted as holy; the sewage of Bagmati would never
have been seen as holy unless it was the holy Bagmati
River. Text and context may create and give either