INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

Sikh woman said: “We used to ask our fathers why women couldn’t go to the cremation
ground. My father explained that men have much more control, they are
stronger. If you can’t control yourself it could create trouble over there.” Weeping,
she was told, is a sign of weakness that is improper at the cremation ground. Her
husband, who overheard the conversation, added: “It is not that men are less close to
their respected mothers, they are in the same grief as women, but they can control
themselves. Women are more emotional.” Responsible for the household, women
highlight their functions and duties performed in the house after the corpse has left,
such as the cleaning of the house and Sukhmani Sahib recitations.
IMMERSING THE “FLOWERS”
When the pyre has burnt down the remaining ashes and bones of the cremated body,
the “flowers” (phul), are collected in a ceremony referred to as Chautha, “the fourth”
day after cremation. 632 On this day the chief mourner picks up the bones from the
cremation place, washes them in milk, ties them in white cloth and consigns them to a
river. With the later Sikh Gurus the custom of immersing the remaining bones of a
cremated body became associated with the village Kiratpur close by the river Sutlej in
Punjab. Guru Hargobind built this village on the plains bordering the Shivalik hills
and at the time of his death his body was cremated and the bones consigned to the
Sutlej. It is likely that the remains of the next two Gurus, Har Rai and Har Krishan,
were similarly immersed at Kiratpur. Today Sikhs in the Punjab and elsewhere bring
the bones of deceased family members to the watercourse at Kiratpur.
My Sikh informants in Varanasi were acquainted with the custom of bringing
“flowers” to Kiratpur, but for most it is a more convenient choice to immerse the
bones in Ganga. Due to the constant stream of cremations in Varanasi the Chautha
ceremony is often simplified: the chief mourners will collect bones immediately after
cremation or just wash the remains into the river Ganga on the same day when the
body has burnt down. Afterwards the mourners leave to pay a visit to the gurdwara
where they arrange an Ardas and receive blessed food.
Drawing a parallel to the immersion of images of deities and sacred books,
Parry suggests that Ganga operates as an “agent of desacrilisation” by neutralizing
sacred things, even persons. 633 Most often the Sikhs I spoke to did not, however, attach
any religious importance to a particular river, but said the ceremony could be
done at any watercourse. Those who did specify a locality of immersion held it to be
an act of reverence to comply with the last will of the deceased. When the mother of a
wealthier Sikh family died, for instance, her “flowers” were taken to Allahabad under
the escort of five cars to be immersed in the confluence (prayag) of the rivers Yamuna
and Ganga. Social status is often a motivating factor in choosing a religious pilgrim-
632
The ceremony is also referred to as phul chugna, ”collecting the bones”.
633
Parry 1994: 188.
385
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008