Death and Life-giving Waters - oestigaard

355 Pages·2005·34.57 MB·English

Death and Life-Giving Waters
Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions

Terje Oestigaard

Preface

This book is reworked and based on my doctoral dissertation which I defended June 24, 2004. The first opponent was
Gloria Goodwin Raheja and the second opponent was Timothy Insoll, and I am grateful for the comments and
suggestions they had for improvements. And indeed, I appreciated the discussions during the defence.
The dissertation would not have been possible to write without help from numerous people and institutions.
The Norwegian Research Council, Miljø og Utvikling, has financed the grant, and to whom I am grateful. Moreover, I
would particularly like to thank my two supervisors, Randi Håland and Terje Tvedt. Randi Håland has been my
supervisor since I did my MA, she introduced me to Nepal, and I am grateful for her comments, assistance, support,
and encouragement throughout the years. Terje Tvedt has been my co-supervisor and he is the research director at
Centre for Development Studies and the Nature, Society and Water-programme, which my study is a part of. I have
highly benefited from intriguing and fascinating discussions and comments, which have been a constant source of
inspiration. Gunnar Håland, Ole Reidar Vetaas, Tor Aase, Ram Chaudhary, Om Gurung, and Anders Kaliff have
contributed in various ways with discussions, participations, and co-operations during fieldworks, among other things.
Fredrik Fahlander and Hasan A. Shafie have commented on parts of the manuscript. During these three years, I have
worked both at Centre for Development Studies and Department of Archaeology, University of Bergen. I will first of
all thank CDS (Ove Stoknes in particular and the rest of the staff in general), which has provided me with all facilities
even though my official affiliation has been at the Department of Archaeology, where I would like to thank Lars
Forsberg and Arne Mykkeltveit.
During my stay in England I will particularly thank Michael Rowlands who made things possible for me at
UCL, and the friendly staff at British Library and the library at SOAS. Jørgen Bakke and Erik Østby have contributed
with literature and ideas regarding the classical period and its problems. The course ”The Rise of elites in Europe”
organised in 2001 by the Departments of Archaeology and Classical Archaeology, University of Lund, gave
inspiration to study processes and mechanisms of hierarchies.
In the field, the “Bergen House” in Kathmandu and the Nordic Centre in Delhi have been wonderful places to
stay. In Nepal I will extend my thanks to senior engineer Rabi Ratna Tuladhar, Pashupatinath Area Development
Trust, Kantipur Publications, and not the least, my good friend and interpreter at Pashupatinath, Dilip Silwal. In
Bangladesh the fieldwork would not have turned out the way it did without the help from Hasan A. Shafie and the
energetic and splendid work of Shahanoor Alam. Moreover, I thank Mr. Mohiuddin Ahmed, Executive Engineer at
Roads and Highway, for his hospitality, and Mr. Abdul Latif, Additional Agriculture Officer Faridpur. In Bombay, the
Cama Institute of Oriental Research was to great help and assistance.
Tore Sætersdal and Eva Walderhaug-Saetersdal have always been good discussion partners, and particularly
working with Tore and Eva at CDS has been inspiring. Together with Siri Fredrikson, Gahr Smith-Gahrsen has as
always commented on the language. Thank you! Finally, Gro Kyvik deserves my thanks for discussions, reading my
manuscripts, and the fieldwork we had in 2003 is unforgettable. There are numerous others who also could have been
acknowledged, from informants to scholars, friends and family, and although not mentioned, you are not forgotten.
A few words about the fieldwork. Particularly in Nepal numerous material culture studies have been
conducted with the basis from Department of Archaeology, University of Bergen (Anfinset 1996, Oestigaard 1998,
Rijal 1998, Dhakal 1999, Khattri 1999, Hagen 2003), which this dissertation is a continuation of. I have conducted
three months fieldwork in Nepal from December 1996 – March 1997, three months from September – November
1997, three months from September – November 2000, one month in February/March 2001, one month in
February/March 2002, and three weeks in February/March 2003. I had a one-month fieldwork in Bangladesh in 2002,
and in India half a month in 1997 and one month in 2003. Altogether, I have had 14 months with fieldwork including
those I conducted for my Master-degree and the fieldwork in 2000 when I was a research assistant. However,
everything has not turned out the way I planned, and there have been numerous changes and problems. Initially I
planned to conduct an in-depth study of the differences in mortuary practices in relation to holy water along
Kaligandaki River from Muktinath to Baglung Bazaar. I did my Master-degree in the Baglung and Myagdi Districts
(Oestigaard 1998, 2000a), and as a part of the fieldwork in 2000 I spent one month in Manang. Due to the Maoist
revolution, which partly had its core areas in Western Nepal, I was unable to conduct further fieldwork in this region.
Hence, I needed to change my focus geographically although not thematically, and Pashupatinath and Kathmandu
became the main loci in Nepal where it was possible to collect data despite the state of emergency and the ongoing
revolution. Furthermore, the fieldworks in Bangladesh and in Bombay were added to the original project aiming to
increase the amount of data and to enable a comparative approach.

Terje Oestigaard

Bergen
January 10, 2005

Preface
Contents
List of figures

Introduction 1

Part 1: Cremating Death – Creating Life 5

Chapter 1: Cremations, kings, and katto 7
Karma – ethicised rebirth eschatology 7
Pashupatinath: Cremation as cosmogony 10
Funeral priests and the cost of death 13
The death and the funerals of the royal members 15
Katto and astu – Man is God and God is man 17
The katto-ceremonies of King Birendra and King Dipendra 21
Ritual realities – from theory to practice 22
Castes – ideology or subtle substances? 25

Chapter 2: Sacrifices of kings – Constructions of castes and cosmos 29
Spatial distance and purity 29
Hocart’s interpretation of caste 32
Ritual and sacrifice – space and architecture 34
The ritual space at Pashupatinath 36
Kings, sacrifices, and creations of cosmos 40
The first kings must have been dead kings 41
Caste and cosmos – cremation and cosmogony 42

Chapter 3: Meditiation upon death and digestion of the dead 47
Elitism and individual status as holy 47
Aghori -sadhus 49
The dangers of social interaction 51
The construction of elitism and other statuses 52
Digesting death and the creation of holiness 58
The poison of purification and the dangerous gift of death 59

Chapter 4: Paradoxes of purity and pollution 61
Religion and ritual 61
The pure as sacred vs. the impure as chaos 62
Flesh – katto, kings, and Aghoris 63
Purity and status 65
Katto and the sins of kingdom 67
Caste and cremations 68
The Funeral priest as Brahman 70

Part 2: The Sisters Kali and Ganga 73

Chapter 5: “I am on my dharma but Kali is on my karma” 75
Low castes in Bangladesh 75
Ambikapur Shashan Ghat 77
The Cremation Committee 82
Hazera – A female Muslim Kali devotee as Hindu undertaker 82
Badol Mohanta and Doms 86

Chapter 6: Castes without Brahmans 89
Jagadbandhu 89
Sri Angan Ashram and the disciples 91
Mohantas – The Chosen People 96
Sweepers and untouchables 99
Absence of Brahmans and caste confusions 103
Mutual feeling of responsibility 105

Chapter 7: Water burials of Mother Goddesses 109
A Hell filled with good things! 109
The cosmic battle between Kali and Asuras 111
Kali, Ganga, and Chinnamasta 115
The making of Kali 117
Cemetery of statues – water burials of goddesses 122
Worship of the warrior goddess and cosmic queen 125
Rivers of milk, food, and blood 128
Mothers as life-givers and death-givers 129

Chapter 8: Hindus in a Muslim world 133
Saint Farid and syncretism 133
Akar, sakar, nirakar 134
Kali and Fatima – Shiva and Ali 135
Contextualising the local: “low-caste” perspective 138
Different vehicles in history 140

Part 3: Reality, Materiality, and Spirituality 143

Chapter 9: River and rain – Waters of life and death 145
Water worlds and culture 145
The context – regions and religions 147
Rainmaking death rituals at Tore cemetery in Manang 148
Kaligandaki River Valley and Nire ghat in Baglung 155
Different waters for life and death 156

Chapter 10: The hydrological circle – Cosmos and copulation 161
The process of procreation 161
Creation of life and sexual fluids 162
Food and semen – eroticism and sexuality 164
The hydrological cycle uniting macro- and microcosm 166
Mother’s womb, ghosts, and barrenness 167
Living symbols and life-giving processes 171

Chapter 11: Myths and materiality – Mind in matter 175
Mythology and phallus 175
The origin of Pashupatinath and the Shiva-linga 177
Priesthood and the temple complex 180
Materialised myths – Shiva’s appearance on earth 181

Chapter 12: Shivaratri, sadhus, and sewage 187
Prologue and preparations 187
Shiva’s night along Bagmati River 188
Modification of sacred materiality 189
Catch 22 – an empty river for 7 months a year 190
Shivaratri 2002 and 2003 192
Significance of water 199

Chapter 13: Status and flesh – Conceptualising corpses 201
The problem of corpses 201
The phenomenology of human flesh 202
Cremation and mummification 205
The deceased’s life cycle rituals 206
Logic of sin and pollution 210

Part 4: Archaeology of Water-Worlds 213

Chapter 14: Pashupatinath as living traditions and cultural heritage 215
Archaeology of religions 215
From the present to the past, urban archaeology, and water-worlds 218
Dating traditions – the development of castes and divine kingdom 220
The power of tradition 223
Continuity, change, and tradition 225

Chapter 15: Rebirth and water in ancient Greece and India 227
Rebirth and the elements of micro-and macro cosmos 227
From Plato to Plotinus 229
Greek and Indian cosmologies 230
Eastern influences and Western responses 232

Chapter 16: Exposure, purity, and Zoroastrianism 237
Zoroastrianism – a historical introduction 237
Purity of the life-giving elements 239
Persians and ancient funeral practices 242
Death and the Tower of Silence of the Parsees in Bombay 243
Ecology of death 249

Chapter 17: Religious syncretism at Taxila 253
One question but no answers… 253
Taxila and historical sources 254
Funeral practices 257
The temple of Jandial 257
A religious conglomerate: Knowledge transaction and common values 260
The Great Bath in Mohenjo-daro and construction of cosmogony 269
Excavating the Gordian knot 273
Conclusion 279

Appendix A: Glossary 293
Appendix B: Ethics and ethnography 305
Appendix C: Aghoris at the left hand of God 315
Appendix D: Origin of Pashupatinath 319
Appendix E: Descriptions of statues from Taxila 325

Literature 327

List of figures

Fig. 1.1 Map of Indian sub-continent 2
Fig. 1.2 Karmic eschatology 9
Fig. 1.3 Pashupatinath temple and Bagmati River 12
Fig. 1.4 Preparation of corpses at Brahmanal 12
Fig. 1.5 Cremation priest lighting the pyre 14
Fig. 1.6 Cremation priest cremating the deceased 14
Fig. 1.7 Ghat management and service committee Arya Ghat Pashupati, service fee 16
description chart
Fig. 1.8 Statement of the prices which have been fixed by the Ghat management and service 16
committee
Fig. 1.9 The sons collected the astu from the pyre and wrapped it in a white cloth 20
Fig. 1.10 The sons buried the astu in the riverbed 20
Fig. 1.11 Durga Prasad Sapkota during the katto-ritual 23
Fig. 1.12 Durga Prasad Sapkota crosses Bagmati River on elephant 24
Fig. 1.13 Durga Prasad Sapkota with wife showing some of the King Birendra’s personal 24
items he received as gifts
Fig. 2.1 Manikarnika Ghat, Varanasi 30
Fig. 2.2 Harishchandra Ghat 31
Fig. 2.3 Cremation on the banks at Harishchandra Ghat 31
Fig. 2.4 Relation between sacrifice and sacrificer 32
Fig. 2.5 Relation between caste and office 33
Fig. 2.6 The representation of caste in sacred texts 34
Fig. 2.7 Pashupatinath with the different ghat-areas. The royal platform is the northernmost 37
followed by the cremation platform for the “wealthy” ones and finally the
southernmost platforms for the “common” people
Fig. 2.8 Caste structure according to Hocart - Ritual space and cremations at Pashupatinath 38
Fig. 2.9 Spatial distribution of cremations according to castes 39
Fig. 3.1 Naga-sadhu preparing for penances transcending the body at Pashupatinath, 48
Shivaratri 2002. By doing the impossible he proves his immortality
Fig. 3.2 Situational and relational maintenance of elitism 53
Fig. 3.3 Cultural legitimacy of elitism – the third party 53
Fig. 3.4 Tyaginath sitting next to the statue of Ramnath 55
Fig. 3.5 Naraharinath 56
Fig. 3.6 The grave of Naraharinath 57
Fig. 3.7 A female Aghori at Pashupatinath 57
Fig. 4.1 The sacred cosmos and the profane chaos 63
Fig. 4.2 Relation between the flesh of the consumer and the purity of the consumed flesh 64
Fig. 4.3 Modes of fleshly incarnations corresponding to the various beings in the different 65
realms
Fig. 4.4 Relation between consumption of dead flesh and the purity of the consumer’s own 66
flesh.
Fig. 4.5 Hocart’s and Dumont’s interpretations of castes 69