Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

positive or negative feedback upon each other. Culture is
dependent upon, and a part of, nature; they cannot be
separated. Despite the fact that within culture and
religion any construction can be made up, there are
limitations to these constructions when applied in the
real world and aimed to work in a society of humans by
humans.
Therefore, instead of adapting an ideology and
eschatology to an environment, one may change nature
into a world which fits the existing body of myths.
Modification of the sacred materiality is a human
intervention into the religious sphere re-creating the
religious environment as it is perceived it should be.
Humans construct sacred space, and at Pashupatinath
this process is basically the enterprise of engineers and
politicians. This modification of materiality and creation
of sacred space differ from the traditional holiness
priests create when for instance initiating altars for ritual
purposes. In profane space priests may consecrate a
particular spot and make it holy, and thereafter
deconstruct it when the rituals are conducted. Regarding
the cleaning of Bagmati, this project is profane and the
priests are not blessing or consecrating the water on
behalf of the common people. Rather the contrary, it was
the priests, sadhus, and religious experts who were the
most critical and suspicious opponents of the project
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from the very beginning, claiming that the river would
only become pure, but not holy, if it was modified.
The capability to transform impurity into purity and
chaos into cosmos is not only characterising the outcome
of water rituals, but a general principle in cosmogonic
processes. It is not coincidental that the most holy rivers
are intimately connected to death, and indeed the
preferred place to perform obsequies. Particularly
important in funerals is the transformation of the
deceased into a forefather, which is one of the most
polluting processes among the ritual obligations in
society.
As indicated, I will argue that a funeral is basically a
purification ritual, which aims to prepare the deceased
for the gods. The most potent and dangerous matter in a
funeral is the deceased’s flesh, and the emphasis in the
next chapter will therefore be put on the preparation and
cosmologies of human flesh. The embodied mind is not
separate from the general cosmogonic processes and
principles, but the point of departure from where they
arise. A focus on the transaction and transference of sin
and pollution in the flesh of dead people will further
illuminate why funerals have to take place along holy
rivers and the importance of water in the crossing point
between this world and the Other.