Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

degrees of purity and pollution. Environments of
enclosures are especially important in this context
because some people are allowed to perform actions at a
certain place, others are denied (Deluze 1997:309).
Discrimination is a process by which identity is created
through an emphasis on differences and exclusion
(ibid:55). Space is lived, and cremations and the use of
sacred space reveal such interrelatedness between
different practices. The world is constructed and
constituted by cremations. Cosmogony takes place in the
real world, and hence, the spatially and the
interrelatedness of the various locales where it takes
place reveal the structuring principles and social
hierarchies.
The ritual space at Pashupatinath
The origin of the caste system is still not thoroughly
explained, but the basis of it is twofold: descent and
sacrifice, where decent is just a qualification for
performing the sacrifice. Hocart concludes “we can
therefore confidently accept the ancient classification of
castes as based on actual practice. We see it not only in
the ritual but in the planning of the city. The four groups
are placed at different points of the compass within the
square or circular city: royal to the east, mercantile to the
south, servile to the west, priestly to the north. Heretics
and outcasts live outside the city near the cremation
ground, the place of corruption” (Hocart 1950:27).
This is the ideal location in a neutral space, or in an area
without a river. If we move to Pashupatinath and
Bagmati River, which are connected through the
sacrifice of water upon Shiva’s head, then the
organisation takes another spatial patterning.
The perfect cosmic and karmic location on a line differs
from the same structural principles within a square or
circle. The closeness to the Pashupatinath lingam is of
the uttermost importance because it is close to the holiest
spot in Nepal; Shiva’s head, by which the world was
created and is re-created through sacrifices and funerals.
Thus, the locations of ghats have to be seen in the light
of what death rituals aim to accomplish, and the
subsequent roles each group in the society once had.
The caste system seen as a ritual organisation means
centrality and specialisation, implying that different
people are selected, based on skills in performing
different tasks. This notion can be transferred to cosmos
as a whole by which skills or potential capacities are
acquired and restricted by birth (Hocart 1970a:39). At
Pashupatinath the centrality is the linga – the head of
Shiva. If the caste system is basically a ritual
organisation, then the hierarchy should be manifested
spatially around the linga. The linga is the purest, and
according to notions of purity and pollution the most
polluted castes should be cremated far away from the
linga whereas the purest caste closest to the temple.
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At Pashupatinath there are three distinctive areas (fig.
2.7). At Arya Ghat there are two cremation platforms.
The one closest to the temple and the linga is for royal
cremations only. The second platform is for those who
today are called wealthy people, but traditionally this has
been the ghat for Brahmans. The six cremation platforms
at Ram Ghat are basically for the common people or the
third caste. 2
Low caste people have traditionally been cremated on
the banks below these ghats. This ritual space follows
the ideal orientation. The kings are located to the east,
the cremation platform to the Brahmans is the
northernmost of the platforms for non-royal people, and
successively, the further south the more impure the
castes, and finally the sudras at the very south who have
no platforms at all. The ritual space at Pashupatinath is
hierarchically structured around the Shiva-linga and
lined along Bagmati River, and the proximity reveals a
hierarchical scheme close to Hocart’s interpretation of
caste (fig. 2.8) (Hocart 1950:26).
Even though the caste system is abolished today, the
spatial restrictions and the actual use of the ghats
manifest, restructure, and reincorporate caste principles
in society. The materiality of space directs and
prescribes actions. Taboos concerning purity and
pollution deny and restrict access to the pure ghats for
impure people. The locale where the deceased is
cremated has to be in accordance with the caste status.
This is especially seen among the low castes today. The
taboos have structured their practices – practices which
have become their traditions. Thus, the structures of
history enable and constrain the present. Tradition is
actively transferred by transformative actions, which
involve prescribed values, norms, and practices.
Although these practices are representing and referring
to various time-scales and contexts, the material space is
a constitutive source of stability, which restricts the
actual achievable transformations. The materiality is
cementing social structures and hierarchies. Space and
monuments restrict and prescribe actions. Some
trajectories of the past are continually re-negotiated and
given cultural importance in the present, whereas others
are ignored, forgotten, or perceived as unimportant in the
structuring of society.
The past is not only justified, but it is educated. Thus, it
is a medium for strengthening the purpose of those who
possessed power, and equally important, for reconciling
those who lacked it (Plumb 1969:45). It is in this process
materiality plays a fundamental role.
2 A seventh cremation platform was constructed in 2002 to
meet the increasing number of people who died and became
cremated at Pashupatinath.