Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

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