Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

to cremate, but nowadays the ritual is normally
performed when the initiate is between 17-18 years old.
They are not allowed to marry before they have been
initiated into the bartamande ritual, and some do both the
bartamande ritual and the marriage on the same day.
There is also a Chhetri working as a Cremation priest at
Pashupatinath, and there is one Magar priest who
cremates only matwalis. The experienced priests may
cremate a person within two-three hours, but those
without experience and a proper cremation practice, or
the deceased’s sons when they cremate themselves, may
use five hours or more. It is preferable to be cremated
fast, because it is an unfavourable condition for the
deceased when the flesh lingers to the body. After the
priests have finished their work and completed the
cremation, they purify themselves either in one of the
arranged taps on the ghats or in the Bagmati River.
Being employed as an undertaker is popular despite the
pollution involved. Even poor people together with
Brahmans have moved to Pashupatinath and started
working as Cremation priests. Among Brahmans, the
Funeral priests are seen as lower and more impure than
other Brahman priests, and the Cremation priest is
ranked lower than the Funeral priest. All actors involved
with death are concerned about the different degrees of
impurity. Despite the acknowledgement that there is no
caste system after the introduction of democracy, there is
reluctance among some of the Cremation priests to
cremate low-castes. Still, the majority of the Brahman
Cremation priests cremate low-castes, although this is
not fully accepted. If people know that a Brahman priest
cremates whoever irrespective of caste, then the rumours
and the gossip may harm the priest’s reputation and
career. Nevertheless, today most of the priests at
Pashupatinath cremate irrespective of the deceased’s
caste belonging, and Brahman Funeral priests may also
be employed for the mourning period of low castes if the
descendants pay enough. Before democracy it was a
social scandal if a Funeral priest conducted sraddha for a
dom unaware of the caste status of the mourner, and
therefore, occasionally low-castes pretended to belong to
another and higher caste group. Nowadays, low-castes
demand Brahmans for their rituals including both the
actual cremation and the mourning rituals, and the
priests have hesitantly accepted the changes. There are
certain possibilities for negotiations and practical
trespassing regarding the strict notions of purity and
impurity. It is not only the low-castes who have cheated
the priests and bypassed the caste-structures. Some
descendants demand the purest Upadhyay Brahmans to
perform their funeral, but the Jaisi Brahmans may
sometimes present and introduce themselves to the
mourners as Upadhyay Brahmins and conduct the
rituals.
Despite the money involved in cremations, at
Pashupatinath the business of death has not taken such
corrupt proportions as it has in Varanasi (see Parry
15
1994). There is an official Ghat management and service
committee at Arya Ghat Pashupati which has fixed the
prices and the services. The service fee description
charts are posted at the ghat area (figs 1.7 & 1.8.). 1 The
funeral office charges 10 % tax of all services that are
conducted at the ghats at Pashupatinath. Employing a
Cremation priest costs 500 Rs; the office takes 10 % tax
(50 Rs) and the priest earns 450 Rs per cremation. The
rent for using Arya Ghat is 60 Rs more expensive than
Ram Ghat. The minimum fare of expenses for a
cremation is approximately 1300 Rs. The Upadhyay
priests observing death pollution for the family charge
5000 Rs per mourning period. The main ritual function
of the priest is to prey for the deceased’s soul, and to
install the soul into another body. During the 13 days
mourning period after a cremation the priests observe the
same taboos and rituals as if they were observing the
death pollution for their own father. The total sum for a
cremation including the mourning period is therefore
seldom less than 6300 Rs, and the family has to give in
addition 1500 Rs before Dassain to the funeral office.
The latter money is given to the priest who conducted
the mourning ritual minus the tax charged by the funeral
office. The pyre for a normal cremation consists of some
300 kg wood but up to 500 kg might be used. If the
relatives want to save money, they may cremate
themselves, and therefore it is possible to reduce the
expenses by conducting a simple cremation. Thus, what
characterises Pashupatinath compared to Varanasi
regarding the business of death is the structured and
organised system which aims to give equal opportunities
for all. If the deceased has no family, or if the family
cannot afford an expensive cremation, then the
Pashupatinath Area Development Trust aims to cremate
the dead on their expenses.
The death and the funerals of the royal members
Death does not only challenge and threaten society and
cosmos, but social structures have to be re-created when
people in high positions die. The most important person
in a societal and cosmological perspective is the king.
The king is Vishnu on earth, and the Nepali kingdom is a
divine kingdom. Royal funerals encompass the whole
society, and hence, the constructions of castes and
cosmos become transparent during these rituals.
Moreover, the roles of the Funeral priests in these rituals
in particular challenge common assumptions of the caste
system as an organisation based upon purity and
impurity.
Year 2001 was a tragic year for Nepal and the royal
family. Ten royal members died at the Narayanhity
Palace massacre on June 1st 2001. What actually
happened is difficult to say and the truth may or may not
have been revealed.
1 1 US$ = ca. 75 Rs.