Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

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y putting faces on people who otherwise are mere theoretical abstractions (structure, agency, society, etc), I have illuminated that everything is just various types of real human interaction. Secondly, it would have been difficult to anonymise Sapkota although possible to give Tyaginath and Hazera pseudonyms. Still, it would not have been difficult to reveal the real names. Thirdly, if both the names and the places were pseudonyms it would be difficult to check the information if anyone would like to do so. By being explicit one may argue that the work is more scientific but with the danger that this context of justification is made on the expanse of the informants’ privacy. Fourthly, in a comparative research perspective I have often been frustrated when I have found studies which could have been useful for me if I knew where they had been conducted, but the anonymity of the community has reduced the research value for later generations. Therefore, the use of the information for others is a criteria that one should incorporate into ethical discussions, which not only include researchers but indigenous people’s revival of lost traditions as seen for instance among the Australian Aborigines. Research ethics should comprise both concerns for the informants but also methods for evaluation and justification as well as potential uses of the study. Finally, by illuminating that Sapkota was cheated in the king’s funeral, but also that he still works as a priest, and that Hazera is a female Muslim undertaker cremating Hindus, such knowledge may illuminate and decrease the actual power structures at work in a society. It may dissolve part of the categorical “-isms”. The high religion as presented by the authorities is not the only reality that exists. 5) Pictures. Since this is a material culture study, I have emphasised materiality not only presented by words but also visualised by pictures. Even though there has been a paradigm in archaeology focusing on the transformation from “things to texts”, words alone cannot describe the artefacts and the materiality which are the subject for discussion (Goldhahn 1997). Materiality matters, and pictures emphasise the mattering. The obvious question which follows is: have I received the informant’s consent regarding taking and publishing pictures of the dead? Before answering the question, and this is not meant to be humoristic, but strictly a fact: the dead have never objected. My point is only that we must never forget that by asking the question in the way I did, it is a third person who answers. If the deceased was alive, he or she may not have objected to post-mortem pictures but the descendants may do. Although one will never get the deceased’s answer, the question has more to it than being a mere excuse for taking pictures. Particularly the kings’ funerals were widely published and broadcast on television and in newspapers, and there are situations that transcend the descendants’ sanctions. Still, I have often asked for permission to take pictures (I am not sure that they were aware that they might be published, although I presented myself as a researcher, with everything that includes in that); sometimes I have not 308 asked. Therefore, I will briefly relate my practice to general attitudes towards death. As a result of the Maoist insurgent a number of both policemen and military officers have been killed and given official or state funerals at Pashupatinath. For instance the VDC Chairman Ram Mani Gyawali of Kerunga Village, Arghakkanchi – a member of the Nepali Congress Party – was cremated with a huge delegation witnessing the dagbatti, and among them was former prime minister and then current president of the party, Mr. Koirala. The deceased had the Nepali Congress Party’s flag on his chest, which was thrown into the river before the pyre was lit. His torso was bandaged where the knife strokes had killed him, and he was cremated at the 2 nd platform at Ram ghat. Pictures of Naraharinath and Ram Mani Gyawali were published on the first page of Kathmandu Post and The Rising Nepal (figs. 18.1-18.3), and in fact, I stood next to the professional photographer who took the picture of the dead congressman, and in all modesty I have to say that as a photographer he made quite a lot more of himself than I did. What is important is that many of the funerals at Pashupatinath are public funerals, and within the Nepali society taking such photos are accepted. The degree of interference by taking a photo is also a matter of being discrete, some are interfering more than others, and researchers are not the worst. I will therefore follow Hammersley & Atkinson when they say that it is our view “that the most effective strategies for pursuing research should be adopted unless there is clear evidence that these are ethically unacceptable. In other words, indeterminacy and uncertainty should for the most part be resolved by ethnographers in favour of the interest of research, since that is their primary task” (Hammersley & Atkinson 1995:285). Despite all these considerations and attempts to navigate in muddy waters, there are other difficulties and limitations with the data and the interpretation in this dissertation, which I will try to give an account for. As Rosalie Wax says, “the most valuable thing any fieldworker can take with him into fields is good luck” (Wax 1985[1971]:268), and to some extent I have been lucky, particularly in Faridpur in Bangladesh, which was an extraordinary case study, and despite the national tragedy (and without sounding like a vulture), the royal massacre in Nepal and the subsequent cremations were, from a strictly academic point of view, an important source of knowledge. Nevertheless, the limitations and objections that may challenge my data and the interpretations can be summed up in these broad categories: Time limitation. Due to the comparative approach and political circumstances I have not spent as long a time at each location as I would have preferred.
Fig. 18.1. Picture of Ram Mani Gyawali, The Kathmandu Post. Fig. 18.2. Picture of Naraharinath, The Rising Nepal. 309
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Death and Life-Giving Waters Cremat
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Preface Contents List of figures In
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The origin of Pashupatinath and the
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Fig. 5.1 Map of Bangladesh with Far
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In karmic traditions, death and lif
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constructions, it has often been ap
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Part 1: Cremating Death - Creating
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ethically conditioned (fig 1.2). Th
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The pervasiveness of karma linking
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Fig. 1.3. Pashupatinath temple and
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Fig. 1.5. Cremation priest lighting
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Fig. 1.7. Ghat management and servi
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theories of castes as an organisati
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Fig. 1.9. The sons collected the as
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highly polluted that the people wou
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24 Fig. 1.12. Durga Prasad Sapkota
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problematic (Levinson 1982:198), es
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(seeds, food). In life a person bec
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Fig. 2.1. Manikarnika Ghat, Varanas
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the dead, (they shall eat) their fo
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Fig. 2.6. The representation of cas
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degrees of purity and pollution. En
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Fig. 2.8. Caste structure according
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Nevertheless, it is preferable to b
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the sacrifier is the sacrifice. Thu
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partly a process by which the gods
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Chapter 3: Meditation upon death an
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Being a part of a religious elite i
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The dangers of social interaction S
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Third party observing and legitimat
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Fig. 3.4. Tyaginath sitting next to
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57 Top: Fig. 3.6. The grave of Nara
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the Mahabrahmans mostly consume the
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Religion and ritual Studies of deat
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purest in common sense is not alway
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Fig. 4.3. Modes of fleshly incarnat
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e reincarnated into regarding spiri
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Fig. 4.5. Hocart’s and Dumont’s
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impure and still treated as a Brahm
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Part 2: The Sisters Kali and Ganga
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Ganga Brahmaputra • Faridpur Bay
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Fig. 5.4. Ambikapur Shashan Ghat. F
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Fig. 5.6. Channel from the pyre whe
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The head is always supposed to be d
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Hinduism. She is employed as a care
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Only Hindus are cremated at the cem
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According to Hazera, Badol cremated
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Fig. 6.1. Statue of Jagadbandhu. 90
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Fig. 6.2. Rajani receives the bless
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His disciples are like missionaries
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In the Ashram all the expenses are
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Fig. 6.7. Burial in coffin. 98
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Fig. 6.8. Private Kali temple in Ba
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Fig. 6.9. Jagadbandhu temple in Ban
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The importance of the priest in rit
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the rituals, and they have differen
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108
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Fig. 7.1. The mighty Ganga. Fig. 7.
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Fig. 7.3. Tara. Fig. 7.4. Tripur-Su
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Fig. 7.11. Chinnamasta. 114
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immediate divine access and godly g
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Fig. 7.12. Pot-maker in front by th
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Fig. 7.14. The making of Durga. 120
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This image is the most important pa
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Fig. 7.17. Replacement of Shashan K
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Fig. 7.18. The Baishanti Durga puja
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tradition. The Bhaishanti Durga sta
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enlightenment and achieve liberatio
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132
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cloth. Although the Hindus in Farid
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Fig. 8.1. A combined Kali and Saras
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high-caste and priests as religious
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1979:115-118). As seen in Faridpur
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142
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144
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Fig. 9. 1. Map of Nepal. Kaligandak
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The opposite approach is the histor
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Fig. 9.2. Manang and Gangapurna gla
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Fig. 9.5. Bone grinding. 152
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Only 20-25 years ago air-burials we
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was completed by the end of the 18
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As a cultural construct water is al
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These sacrifices rebuild the deceas
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giving mother. A “spirit” is
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Gorakhnath promised the Nepalese th
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“Shiva, the god of eroticism, is
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Fig. 10. 3. Dagbatti - the lighting
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Fig. 10.4. Sexual engravings at the
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priori”, Jung argues; “The repr
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174
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are there in a quite objective sens
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Purana, “those who recite them wi
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forms of colour, 4) water with the
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Fig. 11.2. The spot where humans we
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Fig. 11.4. Bagmati originating from
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186
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Fig. 12.1. Sadhu fasting for Nepali
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If the river could not cleanse itse
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The trust is not directly involved
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Fig. 12.6. The outlet of treated wa
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As an example, once a complete drun
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Fig. 12.10. Bagmati River with clea
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positive or negative feedback upon
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this process happens slowly and pro
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Fig. 13.1. Decaying corpse at Nire
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achievement of a wanted state or co
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while unmarried girls and boys with
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Logic of sin and pollution Cosmogon
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212
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214
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less “true”, unimportant, or in
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From the present to the past, urban
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Dating traditions - the development
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The Muluki Ain aimed to arrange all
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spiritual fold took them to the upp
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choose one’s own path because onl
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esult of a variety of combinations
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practice, common people are ignoran
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procured for the people. The import
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Fig. 15.1. Gundestrup cauldron with
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236
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took place, at some time in history
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Fig. 16.1. Maneckji Seti Agiary in
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stony desert. The polluted body was
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Fig. 16.3. Zoroastrian ossuary from
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Fig. 16.4. Zarathushtra and fire-te
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Fig. 16.6. Inside a Tower of Silenc
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Fig. 16.7. Zarathushtra. 250
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meaningfully constituted and situat
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creative act in world-history - unl
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Alexander there offered sacrifices
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Page 274 and 275: Fig. 17.5. Dharmarajika: plan of re
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Page 292 and 293: of birth and death. The soul is ete
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Page 306 and 307: kept perpetually ablaze for over a
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Page 310 and 311: Manosha The patron saint of serpent
Page 312 and 313: Ratnasambhava The third dhyanibuddh
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Page 318 and 319: very nice. The last son (or husband
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Page 324 and 325: Fig. 18.3. Ram Mani Gyawali, author
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Page 328 and 329: When it again closes then Shiva bec
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Page 332 and 333: A man, after taking a bath in the P
Page 334 and 335: Vishnu said: Obeisance to you, O de
Page 336 and 337: The linga is pure, auspicious and i
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Page 340 and 341: Cambridge. Barth, F. 1990. The Guru
Page 342 and 343: Art, Religion & Culture: 184-191. M
Page 344 and 345: Priest. Cambridge University Press.
Page 346 and 347: Insoll, T. 1999b. Introduction. Res
Page 348 and 349: Lahiri, N. 2000. Archaeology and id
Page 350 and 351: Ahmedabad. Mirza, H. K. 2002. Liter
Page 352 and 353: Gandhi National Centre for the Arts
Page 354 and 355: (eds.). Representing Hinduism: 51-8
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