Death related activities following the dasa kriya mourning period.
There will be further offerings to the humanoid spirit in the next few days, and the house itself must be further cleansed of its death pollution. During the year following a death, men who have lost a parent will wear white and will not wear leather shoes or belts. If a mother is lost, men are not supposed to drink milk for one year; if it is a father, they are nor supposed to eat curds.[81] If a male phuki member other than a man's father dies, men are supposed to wear a white cap for forty-five days; if it ,s a female household member other than a man's mother, the household men are supposed to wear white caps until the twelfth day after the death.[82]
The end of the ten-day mourning period is the beginning of a long series of sraddha[*] ceremonies, centering on offerings to the spirit, whose condition is now variously understood. The exact number, timing, and details of procedures vary according to the level and Brahmanical orthodoxy of various thars .[83] Some of these are considered to be of predominant importance, and thus are more generally done. These are the ceremonies of the eleventh, twelfth,[84] and thirteenth days, the forty-fifth day, the sixth month, the first yearly anniversary of the death, and each subsequent yearly anniversary of the death. In the same way as the events of the dasa kriya period helped form the preta's body, the sraddha[*] ceremonies of the first year aid the formed spirit's movement through its ensuing adventures.
On the eleventh day after death there is a ceremony called swama lhuyegu , the "washing away of sorrow." Males of the household and of the phuki go to the river, where the kriya putra offers a single pinda[*][85] made of wheat flour, to which other substances are added, to the dead person. Although the sprit is supposed to be in its human form by this day, this offering is still called a preta pinda[*] , and this procedure is a kind of redundant coda to the dasa kriya . The pindas[*] formed on the next, the twelfth (or for many thars the forty-fifth) day will have a different name and significance, and the ceremonies associated with them will be within the dry.
In this eleventh-day ceremony the kriya putra , facing south, worships an oil
lamp said to represent the deity "Siddhikesvara." in the course of the worship the preta pinda[*] made by the kriya putra is worshiped and given offerings including flowers, cloths, sinha(n) powder, fruits, incense, and an oil wick. When the puja is finished, the kriya putra places the pinda[*] on a patch of exposed soil in the river, whence a Po(n) is supposed to come and take it. Now the attending family and phuki members wash in the river. Then in an act of purification the family purohita sprinkles water and milk, which had first been poured over a Siva linga[*] , on each person in turn, starting with the phuki naya : and ending with the kriya putra . The kriya putra takes water of high purity, Ga(n)ga jal , and parities the area where the daily morning dasa kriya worship had taken place. The men now return to the kriya putra's house on the path he had used each day during the dasa kriya . As they go, the kriya putra sprinkles Ga(n)ga jal along the path. On reaching his house he walks around it, continuing to sprinkle the water.
These acts of purification of the residues of the death are followed later in this day or on the next, the twelfth day,[86] by another important act of purification called the gha:su yajña[87] or, in ordinary Newar reference, the lha panegu , "hand drying." The gha:su yajña is done among the upper-level thars in Bhaktapur by a special class of priests, the Tini (chap. 10).[88] Lower thars perform this ceremony with the aid of a daughter who had married out of the house (and whose household had thus not been contaminated by the death), who returns to the household to light the fire, and so now do many upper-level families because of a shortage of Tini priests in Bhaktapur in recent years.
In the course of this ceremony the Tim performs a simplified fire sacrifice, or yajña , on the cheli of the house, in the course of which, in contrast to ordinary fire sacrifices, a meat-containing offer of samhae is made. The focal deity of the offering is Siva.[89] People of the household, joined by a man or woman representing each of the phuki families, hold their hands toward the fire—the act of lha panegu itself. The fire, or its smoke, is thought to purify them and—through the medium of the representative—each of their households. The smoke of the fire moves up through the kriya putra's house, thus purifying it of dangerous influences.[90]
Brahman households, and a few upper-level Chathariya households, perform a complex set of additional ceremonies on this day. These are thought to be "Vedic" ceremonies, and include a fire ceremony, offerings of the five auspicious products of the cow, and a Vrsotsarga[*] ceremony, the setting of a cow and a bull "free to roam." These ceremonies are thought to enhance the dead person's chances of going to a "good place" after reaching Yama's realm.
If there is time on the eleventh day, and if not, then on the twelfth day, a ceremony called an apadutaegu will be done. An apa is a small clay waterpot with a spout.[91] In the course of the ceremony five or (for upper-level thars ) seven apas are made use of. One, dedicated to Surya, is placed in the sunlight; one in the neighborhood Ganesa[*] temple; one at a nearby well; one, dedicated to Siva, at the side of the river; and one within the house. Upper-level thars place two additional apas , one at their Aga(n) House, and one "dedicated to all the deifies" outside of their houses in the courtyard of the house.
During the apadutaegu fourteen preta pindas[*] are made. These fourteen pindas[*] are conceptually grouped with the preta pinda[*] made on the eleventh day, and with one that will be made during the sapinda[*] sraddha[*] (which will be held later either on this day or else on the forty-fifth day) as a set of sixteen preta pindas[*] . The sixteen preta pindas[*] are said to make a full body for the deceased person's preta , the body being completed with the making of the last pinda[*] during the sapinda[*] sraddha[*] . The preta pindas[*] are also said to represent the stage of the journey of the preta , a journey that in one sense or version ends at the time of the sapinda[*] sraddha[*] when the preta's body is complete and—no longer a preta as it is now in its ethereally embodied form—joins with the pitrs[*] , the "ancestors." While these ideas are not consistent with the doctrine that this formation had been completed during the dasa kriya period, they reflect not only some general inconsistency in doctrines about details of postmortem happenings but also, perhaps, an effort to ensure that the formation and progress of the spirit be in accord with all the various ambient doctrines about the spirit's whereabouts, forms, and tasks.
The work of the first twelve days is said to summarize what was in some distant past a full year of death work, during which the kriya putra had to remain on the cheli and perform mourning ceremonies. Each day in this view represents a month.
The essential ceremony of the twelfth or forty-fifth day[92] is the sapinda sraddha[*] . "Sapinda[*] " refers to a group of living and dead kin who are thought to share the same body (pinda[*] ) or body particles.[93] The "sapinda[*] sraddha[*] " is a variant of the traditional South Asian sapindikarana[*] sraddha[*] ceremony (cf. Kane 1968-1977). This is the time when, in one of the parallel conceptions of the fate of the soul, the soul changes from its preta form and enters into the community of the pitrs[*] , the "fathers" or "ancestors." In the course of the sapinda[*] sraddha[*] a pinda[*] representing the dead person—a pinda[*] considered still to be a preta pinda[*] , the final one in the series of death ceremonies—is, in the course of an elaborate and largely traditional ceremony, physically joined with three pinda[*] s representing the ancestors of three ascending generations.[94] This represents the transformation of the preta not only into an embodied spirit but also into an ancestor—the spirit of the deceased person having now reached the pitr[*] loka , the realm of the ancestors.[95] The sraddha[*] ceremonies that will follow the sapinda[*] sraddha[*] during the first year also represent a journey, the journey of the soul now in its ethereal body, its second, "bhogadeha, " form, toward Yama's realm.
The timing of the subsequent sraddha[*] ceremonies depends on when the sapinda[*] sraddha[*] had been done. When it is done on the twelfth day, it is followed by another sraddha[*] ceremony on the thirteenth day, and then subsequent ones at one month, forty-five days, six months and one year after the death.[96] For those who do the sapinda[*] sraddha[*] on the forty-fifth day, the sequence of subsequent sraddhas begin with the sixth-month ceremony.
The spirit's journey to Yama's realm continues during the first year. In the ceremonies of the annual Saparu festival [45] activities by the community and the relatives of the deceased person help the spirit to cross over the river bounding that kingdom on its eventual arrival there. Finally, safely arrived in King
Yama's realm, the person's fate will be announced, the reward or punishment not only for his or her own moral and ritual actions during this and previous lives but, in a somewhat uneasy relationship to this idea, also for the adequacy of the enormous ritual efforts of kriya putra , household, extended family, and the people of Bhaktapur.