Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

The dakhmas are not merely places where the corpse is
disposed of. It is believed by many that it is meritorious
to see the ceremonies of consecration of at least seven
Towers during one’s lifetime, and hence the
consecrations of new Towers gather huge masses of
devotees. The consecration process is a very meticulous
and complex process involving 1) digging the ground
and ritual initiation of the location, 2) laying the
foundation, and 3) the consecration of the Tower.
Corpses must not pollute the ground when they are
exposed, and the consecration processes seems to signify
that the proposed Tower is expected to pollute the
ground, but the initiation of the place points also to the
idea of unity in the Beginning and unity in the End
(Modi 1923:248-249).
The obsequies are the most auspicious purity rituals of
highly inauspicious and impure corpses and decaying
human flesh. “The vultures (nature’s scavengers) do
their work much more expeditiously than millions of
insects would do, if dead bodies were buried in the
ground. By this rapid process, putrefaction with all
concomitant evils, is most effectually prevented”, Modi
explains, and “According to Zoroastrian religion, Earth,
Fire, and Water are sacred and very useful to mankind,
and in order to avoid their pollution by contact with
putrefying flesh, the Zoroastrian religion strictly enjoins
that the dead bodies should not be buried in the ground,
or burnt, or thrown into seas, rivers, & etc” (Modi
1923:72).
The soul continues to live in the spiritual world, and
every soul goes through a process of judgement at the
“Bridge of the Separator” (Chinvato Peretav or the
Chinvat Bridge) at the dawn of the fourth morning after
death. The fate of the soul is decided in accordance with
the previous deeds. The soul will remain in heaven or
hell untill the end of time when the Last Judgement
followed by the Resurrection will take place and the
physical world will be restored to a perfect place. All
mankind must walk through this river at the Last
Judgement, as it is said in a Pahlavi text; “for him who is
righteous it will seem like warm milk, and for him who
is wicked, it will seem as if he is walking in the flesh
through molten metal”. Since the traditional Zoroastrian
eschatology promotes the belief in universal resurrection
the majority argue that there is no place for the theory of
reincarnation (Kotwal & Mistree 2002:355-361), but as
seen, the idea of reincarnation is not incompatible with
Zoroastrianism.
The funeral ceremonies are divided into two parts; those
that relate to the disposal of the body and those that
relate to the soul. The ceremonies are directed towards
breaking the contact of the living with the real or
supposed centre of infection, and to destroy this centre
itself. All cases of death are seen as infectious, and
people should come as little as possible in contact with
dead bodies (Modi 1923:51-52). A short time after death
the corpse is washed with water and a clean suit of old
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clothes is put over the body, but never new clothes,
which afterwards are destroyed and never used again.
After a final prayer the dead body is thought of as being
under the evil influence of Decomposition and
Destruction. It is then considered dangerous for the
living to touch the body. If somebody else touches the
body apart from the corpse bearers, then they have to go
through a process of purification or a sacred bath taken
under the directions of a priest (ibid:54-55). In ancient
Persia there were in almost every house separate
apartments for placing the corpse before its removal to
the Tower of Silence. In the cases of poor people who
could not afford such arrangements there was a separate
house for this purpose in every street, and the poor
carried their dead to such houses before taking them to
the Towers; “In every house, in every street, they should
make three katas (separate parts of ground) for the dead”
(Vendidad., V., p.10).
Then, one of the ceremonies was that of the Sagdid,
meaning “the sight of a dog”. A dog, usually four eyed,
which means that it had two eye-like spots just above the
eyes, was made to see the corpse. The reason for this is
not clear, some argue that it was to see whether or not
the life in the body was extinct, others have argued that
there was some magnetic influence in the eyes of the
dogs. Other explanations emphasise that the dog is said
to be the most faithful and loyal to his master of all
animals. Moreover, the dog’s importance in the breeding
of cattle has been pointed out; and even the dog as a
symbol of the destruction of immoral passions is one
explanation. Regardless of the reason for choosing a dog
for the ritual, the Sagdid had to be done several times
(Modi 1923:57-60), and in general it is believed that
there is some power in the dog’s eyes which can ward
off evil influences (Kotwal & Boyd 1982:77).
In the ceremonies of the Parsees the north side is
generally avoided. Even the winds from the north were
believed to be stinking, and the winds from the cold
north regions brought sickness and death in Persia.
South, on the other hand, was considered as a very
auspicious side (Modi 1923:56-57). The doors of
dakhmas are, in orthodox fashion, faced to the east
where the sun rises to draw the soul up to heaven (Boyce
1977:194). Then the body is removed from the bier, the
clothes on the corpse are torn off from the body, and the
body is left at the floor of the Tower. The body must be
exposed and at least partly uncovered so the fleshdevouring
birds may draw attention to the corpse. The
clothes are thrown in a pit outside the Tower where they
are destroyed by a combination of heat, rain, and air
(Modi 1923:68-69).
The corpse is never carried to the Tower of Silence
during night but only during day since it must be
exposed to the sun (Menant 1996:58). Vultures and
similar creatures were created by God specifically to
devour the corpses so that the good creations would not
be defiled (Hinnells 1981:48).