Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

The katto-ceremony may in principle be held for anyone,
although symbolically, but then there will only be given
a small amount of money to the priests. Babb has noted
such rituals, which seem to be identical to the kattoritual,
although on a smaller scale. The Mahabrahman is
“presented with a quantity of khir (boiled rice and milk),
which is sometimes spread in the shape of a human on a
brass platter. This is eaten by the Mahabrahman, who
starts at the feet and ends up at the head. As he eats the
khir he cries out from time to time that he cannot
continue, that the khir has changed into blood. At each
interruption the family of the deceased must give him
some money to induce him to continue”, stressing the
pollution, “which accounts for the low status of the
Mahabrahman in all contexts but that of the funeral. It is
said that in eating the khir the Mahabraman is removing
the last traces of the deceased from this world and he is
providing him with substances for a body in the next –
the same notion that underlies the offering of pinda”
(Babb 1975:96-97).
The katto-ceremony is different from, but nevertheless
related to, the practice of astu. Astu means “the dead
man’s skull bone”, and astu is supposed to consist of a
part of the deceased’s brain. This piece of flesh should
be buried in the riverbed and thereby uniting the
deceased with the element of earth. The astu is,
traditionally, derived from either the brain or the heart.
The preferred part is the part of the skull or brain where
in the “third eye” is located. Similarly, some argue that
the katto-priest is supposed to eat this part of the king’s
brain. Most commonly it is a part of the torso that is
given to the river, despite the belief that the heart and
brain are the best parts of the body for astu. Those who
prefer to bury other parts of the body can do so. If the
astu is carried away and buried in other rivers, then a
piece of the skull is preferred, as with the astu of King
Tribhuwan whose remains were buried in Kaligandhaki
River. In the past it was common among rich people and
those who desired it to carry the astu to Benares and
bury the flesh in the Ganges.
Astu from King Birendra’s pyre was collected and given
to different holy rivers, among them Ganges in Varanasi.
Most of the ashes were given to Bagmati, but small parts
were taken to the other rivers. After Dipendra’s
cremation, astu was taken from the pyre and given to
Bagmati River only. Regardless of from which part of
the body, the astu is nevertheless believed to be the
“third eye” when it is carried away, and those who carry
it should preferably leave the same day or at least the
next day for Kashi. If the flesh is transported to another
river, then the astu is always kept outside the house and
never taken into a household. Moreover, if the ashes of
the deceased are given to another river, it is preferable
that the ashes are immersed within thirteen days. Rich
people still follow this practice, and less wealthy people
may give the ashes to a sacred river, for instance Ganga
in Varanasi, within a year.
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The practice of burying astu may today be conducted
among some Brahmans and Chhetris, but not Newars. In
ordinary astu rituals it is a piece of flesh that is buried,
but it may contain some bones. The astu always has to
be buried in water whether this is in the same river as all
the other cremains or in a different river. At
Pashupatinath, it is only a minority of the cremations of
common people that include the astu part. On one
occasion the astu-ritual was performed after all the other
ashes were given to the river. The small parts of burnt
and charcoaled flesh were wrapped in a piece of white
cloth (fig 1.9). The two sons dug a hole in the riverbed
while the cremation platform was washed and cleansed
with water by the Cremation priest (fig. 1.10). An
elderly relative, who also looked through the pyre to see
whether or not there was any more flesh lingering to the
bones, instructed the sons. He also instructed the priests
to search through the ashes and the pyre so he was sure
that all the flesh was burnt. The sons buried the astu in
the middle of the river. Some may also stick a small
bamboo-pole with a white cloth into the riverbed where
the astu is buried, which eventually will dissolve in the
water and thus complete the ritual.
The katto-ceremony is a part of the obsequies by which
the deceased’s soul is sent to heaven. It signifies the
passage of the soul to its heavenly abode. The donation
of gifts to the katto-Brahman is a part of a process by
which the gifts are given to the king since he needs them
in the other world. The priest impersonates the king, and
the priest transfers the spiritual value of the gifts. The
process by which the Brahman priest is fed by katto is
therefore a means of securing the deceased eternal
freedom and liberation from this world. Some people
living in the vicinity of Pashupatinath believed that the
katto-priests ate the kings’ flesh, and in particular the
brains which were the prescribed katto. The diversity of
opinions regarding whether the priest ate real human
flesh or not is crucial in the personal and collective
process of making or maintaining identities and caste
structure. Fundamental for the discussion in the next
chapters is the discrepancy and contest of those who
decide what the relevant identities are supposed to be.
Definitions of who belongs to which ethnic group, jat or
varna, depend upon a combination of internal or external
views. External definitions are embedded within social
relationships between ethnic groups, and thus external
groups may have possibilities to define others as groups
either by power or authority relations (Jenkins
1994:199). In the case of Hindus, these external
categories are produced by people who have the
legitimate authority by virtue of their superior ritual
status (ibid:217), as with the Brahmans’ notion of the
caste system, but as will be shown, being a “Brahman”
might be a highly disputed and ambiguous identity.