1. Many of Bhaktapur's local forms of behavior like its material artifacts) are of great historical and theoretical importance for South Asian studies, and some of those forms will provide bases for possible future changes in the life of the city. They are not immediately relevant for the kind of place Bhaktapur was at the time of the study, however, and are either neglected or treated summarily in this report. [BACK]

2. Nepali belongs to the Pahari group of Indo-Aryan languages; Newari, to the Tibeto-Burman division of the Sino-Tibetan language family. For the conventions used in this text for transcriptions of these languages, as well as Sanskrit, see appendix 1. I was able to use analyses of the Kathmandu dialect of Newari by Austin Hale and his associates of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (Sresthacharya, Maskey, and Hale 1971; Hale 1970 a , 1970 b ; Hale and Hale 1970) as a basis for approaching the quite different Bhaktapur dialect. To facilitate my work in Bhaktapur, with the help of Rama Pati Raj Sharma I prepared a dictionary of Bhaktapur Newari, beginning with the Newari translation of Nepali terms in a Nepali-English dictionary, and supplemented by terms derived from the transcription of my tape-recorded interviews in Bhaktapur Newari. This dictionary eventually contained about 5,000 entries. At the end of my fieldwork I obtained a draft manuscript of an extensive and scholarly Kathmandu Newari-English dictionary by Thakurlal Manandhar (1976), which was of great help in my later study of interview transcripts and which I have used extensively in the course of this volume. The first comprehensive grammatical analysis of Newari in English is that by K. P. Malla (1985). [BACK]

3. I am, as the sequel will show, particularly indebted to the work of Gopal Singh Nepali, Sylvain Levi, Colin Rosser, Christoph yon Fürer-Haimendorf, Lynn Bennett, D. R. Regmi, Niels Gutschow and his associates, Gérard Toffin, and Mary Slusser. [BACK]

4. Readers who know Sanskrit will remark that the majority of "Newari" terms used in this study are Sanskrit or of Sanskritic origin. This is because we are dealing most centrally here with religious and philosophical terms that are for the most part Sanskritic. The vocabulary of everyday lanuage is largely of Tibeto-Burman derivation. In the cases where the Bhaktapur Newari form is a modification or "corruption" of Sanskrit, as it is, for example, in the names of many of the city's deities, we use the classical Sanskritic form to facilitate recognition and comparison. [BACK]

1. Tahitian villages are only one kind of "simple traditional community." Like many other Polynesian communities, they are characterized by a relative self-sufficiency and a location in isolated undifferentiated aggregates of almost identical communities. Simple or, as they were once characterized, "primitive" communities elsewhere, such as those of Melanesia, which are embedded in complex areal relations with dissimilar communities, seem to have as a function of this areal complexity some of the same sorts of cultural and psychological differences from Tahitian villages, in both epistemology and the uses of symbolic forms, that Bhaktapur does. [BACK]

2. In chapter 17, we will discuss the problem of what "religious" means in relation to Bhaktapur. [BACK]

3. In addition, there are a centrally important series of performances in the city's neighborhoods by a major set of embodied deities, the Nine Durgas, which are partially determined by the lunar calendar and days of the week. There are twenty-one of these performances. [BACK]

4. Toffin (1984, 271) makes use of a similar characterization of "city" by Braudel (1967, 370) to support his definition of another Newar Valley community, Panauti, as a city. [BACK]

5. This distinction between "intelligentsia" and "literati," is, as we will suggest later in this volume and elsewhere, of considerable importance in the characterization of Bhaktapur's public and personal order. [BACK]

6. Some modern scholars, noting its disregard of the work of Fustel's own contemporaries, its cavalier use of his sources, and the untrustworthiness of its conclusions on Fustel's own evidence, have treated La Cité Antique mostly as an interesting and influential event in the history of ideas (Momigliano, 1977: Fustel de Coulanges 1980, preface; Finley 1977). Finley (p. 314) criticized Fustel, whose subsequent work he greatly admired, for replacing "the mode of subsistence by religion as the focus of attention and the key to the formation and change of institutions" in this study. [BACK]

7. J. C. Heesterman (1985) argues that India had its "axial breakthrough" even before the heterodox challenges in Vedic ritualism which was "unmythical, rational and individualistic" (see also Inden's [1986] review and criticism of this argument). Yet, it was, as Heesterman says in an aside, Buddhism with its legitimation of the universalistic imperial claims of the Mauryas that had an impact on the mundane order. The impact of Buddism in India was historically limited and countervailed by a developing Hinduism. It is the relation of "transcendence" to forms of mundane order, and not to elements of ritual order, which concerns us here. [BACK]

8. "With the modern knowledge . . . of the major role played by symbolic systems in shaping the individual understanding and, indeed, in shaping the very perception or cognition of the subject's world . . . [the problem of the relation of individuals to social action] becomes the problem of the relationship between individual (or group) interpretations of events in the light of a collective or encompassing symbolic code; and the problem now goes to the heart of our understanding of belief and symbols: in a word, culture" (from the introduction to a collect, on of readings on "symbolic anthropology" by Dolgin, Kemnitzer, and Schneider [1977, 16]). [BACK]

9. The Tantric and Vajrayana Buddhism of the Himalayas also functions in the support of archaic cities. This Buddhism is, in fact, a regressive Buddhism from the viewpoint of the transcendence of the "axial age" and is in its structure thoroughly Hindu. In its Newar form it has castes, married hereditary priests and no renouncers of society, and a pantheon of gods who are involved with special segments of space, time, and social structure—in short, all the immanent structures of the Hinduism of the city. [BACK]

10. I (R. L.) am indebted to Antony Hooper (1975) for pointing out this indispensable phrasing for the problem of the conception and actualities of "self" and "role," ''personality" and "culture" in psychological anthropology. [BACK]

11. As the matter of "self" has a bearing on our argument about Bhaktapur's peculiarities, some further remarks may be useful here. Tahitian response to the peculiar question from an interviewer who has known him or her for a long time, "Who are you?," is puzzlement at the question. If an answer is given, it is usually the person's name. The same question asked of a Newar is very liable to elicit an elaborate and self-conscious discussion. Newar informants sometimes said that the question of self or identity was an interesting problem for them and that they had discussed it with their friends. They characteristically define themselves discursively in terms of relationships, occupation, and descent, in terms of sometimes conflicting definitions that various segments of society hold about them, all in motion and dependent on context. As one respondent put it, "There is a saying in the Gita, I do not know it by heart, the verse where Krsna^{[ *]} talked to Arjuna, but I understand the meaning of what he said. He said that he [Krsna^{[ *]} ] was everything other. And so, to a great extent, it seems that I am everything other also, because whenever I cook, I am a cook; whenever I love some girl, I am a lover; whenever I have a son or a daughter, I am a parent, I am a father; whenever I am with my father, I am a son; whenever I am alone with a friend, I am a friend; whenever I am with foes, I am an enemy." Self in such examples is treated as a problem, a problem which generates discourse, a problem that has something to do with a multitude of situations and roles. In this example the "solution" to the problem, namely, ''I am everything other," is taken from a literary-religious text in the Hindu canon, from the available universe of marked symbolic resources, in this case the "extraordinary" conversation between the god Krsna^{[ *]} and Arjuna. [BACK]

12. The differences in the experiences of mature Tahitian villagers and Bhaktapur's citizens are augmented by great systematic differences in the household experiences and education of children in the two places, as well as by cultural doctrines such as maya . [BACK]

13. The studies of individuals chosen from all ranks of the status system that we will present elsewhere all show the intellectual ferment generated by their understanding of contrasting urban perspectives. [BACK]

1. For geographic background, see Karan (1960), Gurung (1973), His Majesty's Government Nepal (1969), Shrestha (1968), and Hagen (1971). For Nepalese ethnic groups, see Bista (1972). For language groups, see Malla (1973) and INAS (1976). Werner Winter, director of the Nepal Research Program's Linguistic Survey in Nepal, estimates that there may turn out to be as many as one hundred languages in Nepal (personal communication). It is possible to group many of the languages and cultures into larger groups, with respect to northern (Tibeto-Burman) and southern (Indic) affinities. [BACK]

2. The major work on the foundation of the modern Nepalese state in the eighteenth century is Stiller's The Rise of the House of Gorkha (1973). See also Stiller (1968) and Gewali (1973). [BACK]

3. We will now shift to the "ethnographic present" and speak of the situation in the early and mid-1970s, when this study was done, in the present tense. [BACK]

4. These gross figures for Bhaktapur include "noncitizens" (e.g., prisoners from surrounding areas), and will be modified in our discussion of the demography of Bhaktapur in chapter 4. Patan is referred to in government census data as "Lalitpur." [BACK]

5. Census data bases ethnicity on the language spoken. There is good reason to believe that this underestimates the percentage of Newars (cf. K. P. Malla n.d., Newar Ethnicity , 96). [BACK]

6. Most of the Valley villages and towns are primarily Newar settlements, the other Valley people live in small hamlets and scattered farmsteads. There are some thirty-five Newar villages and towns in the Valley, aside from the three main centers (Slusser 1982, 12). [BACK]

7. Historical works in European languages are D. R. Regmi (1965-1966, 1969), Lévi (1905), and Slusser (1982). For materials on the Licchavi period, see Jha (1970). English translations of some of the Nepalese Chronicles are Hasrat (1970) and Wright [1877] (1972). Summaries of political and cultural history can be found in Gewali (1973), P. R. Sharma (1973), and K. P. Malla (1979 a ). Hasrat also has an extensive bibliography of source materials and works on Nepalese history. His book contains a critical "prolegomena" with a detailed summary of Kathmandu Valley history. [BACK]

8. There is some evidence for a still earlier population of Austro-Asiatic speaking people, perhaps Munda-speaking peoples from Assam. The evidence for this is noted by Malla (1979 a , 1981 a ). Malla rejects an Austro-Asiatic influence on the non-Sanskrit nominals found (among the dominant Sanskrit terms) in ancient Nepalese epigraphy, but notes that although "The Newari language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family, . . . it betrays several features, particularly syntactic, which are, in all likelihood [a] Munda^{[ *]} substratum. . . . If the Newari language is any clue to the identity of [the] early settlers, the language has been definitely influenced by features which are not shared by other Tibeto-Burman languages" (1979 a ). [BACK]

9. There are various spellings, Lichchavi, Licchavi, Licchivi, Lecchavi, and others (Jha 1970, 3). We will here, and elsewhere where there are alternative spellings of historical terms, follow the usage of the Historical Atlas of South Asia (Schwartzberg 1978). According to Slusser, "as a conservative estimate it seems reasonable to assume that the beginning of the Licchavi Period in Nepal is no later than A.D. 300. Most likely it is earlier" (1982, 23). [BACK]

10. Although they were culturally North Indian, it has been suggested that the Licchavi themselves might have been of Mongoloid origin, in which case, as Slusser remarks, the "major penetration of the Valley by Caucasoid peoples took place only in late historic times" (Slusser 1982, 8). According to Majumdar, Pusalker, and Majumdar (1951, vol. II, p. 7), however, the view that the Licchavi were of "foreign origin" is not supported by evidence. [BACK]

11. References to canals using a Tibeto-Burman term in Licchavi epigraphy suggest that some canal irrigation was begun prior to the Licchavi period. [BACK]

12. Some Nepalese scholars believe that it was another Nepali king, Udayadeva (622-623 A.D. ). Other scholars believe the tradition may be legendary. [BACK]

13. "Vishnuism may have flourished in Licchavi Nepal because of its preeminence in Gupta India, where the sect received liberal patronage from the imperial Guptas. Visnu^{[ *]} seems always to have appealed to the martial caste, and particularly to conquering monarchs, for whom the heroic god has remained a symbol of regal valour" (Pal 1974, 11f.; Pal 1970). "The great popularity of Saivism [in Licchavi Nepal] was mainly because discrimination of sex or caste or birth had no place in it" (Jha 1970, 182). [BACK]

14. See Jha (1970) and Pal and Bhattacharyya (1969) on these minor deities. [BACK]

15. There has been disagreement and confusion on the date and on the ruler who established Bhaktapur. Ananda Deva has been confused with a later king Ananda Malla (or Ananda Deva II) who reigned from 1308 to 1320. Furthermore, Wright ([1877] 1972), in a miscalculation of the Western equivalent of the various systems of dating in the chronicles, puts the founding of Bhaktapur and "Ananda Malla's" reign into the ninth century. This error is reflected in recent literature, for example, Maskay (1962) and Auer and Gutschow (1974), who give dates for the founding of Bhaktapur of 889 and 865 A.D. , respectively. [BACK]

16. According to the chronicle, Ananda Malla at the same time founded seven villages, which should be noted for their relation to the Nine Durgas cycle that will occupy us later, specifically, "Banepa, Panauti, Nala, Dhulikhel, Khad-pur, Choukot, and Sanga." [BACK]

17. For a discussion of the various chronicles, see D. R. Regmi (1965-1966, part 1, pp. 21-37). [BACK]

18. These "Navadurga" images refer to what we will call the "Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddesses" (chap. 8) and not to Bhaktapur's Nine Durgas troupe, who are also referred to in the chronicles. [BACK]

19. These earlier settlements may still be reflected in aspects of one of Bhaktapur's major festivals, Biska: (chap. 14); one of whose themes is the founding and unification of the city. [BACK]

20. Bhaktapur, in the time of the Mallas, "got in exchange [for various traded commodities] silver and gold bullion from Tibet and this placed it in a special position of advantages compared to the [other] two cities in the Valley. Minting of coins for Tibet was the crowning advantage of all, which also provide an exclusive source of income" (D. R. Regmi, 1965-1966, part 1, p. 512). [BACK]

21. It was believed that there was occasionally a paramount ruler during this period at Patan. Slusser (1982, 54 n., 87) claims this is a misconception. "It seems almost certain that Patan, the almost universally accepted site of both the capital of the Licchavis and their successors, did not enjoy this prestige. If before the seventeenth century it was a capital city at all, it may have so served the Kirata, whose associations with that city are particularly evident" (1982, 87). [BACK]

22. The area of Mithila or Tirabhukti (modern Tirhut) influenced Malla Nepal. A kingdom was founded there by Nanya Deva, who according to some chronicles "captured" Bhaktapur. He was of the Karnataka dynasty, and had been an officer under the Palas, who had had the control of Tirabhukti (see Majumdar, Pusalker, and Majumdar 1957, vol. 5, p. 47f.). "This kingdom comprised most of present day Nepal's eastern Terai and a portion of the present Indian state of Bihar. Little is known yet about the full cultural significance of this kingdon. Its sculptural art had reached a highwater mark judging from a fine group of icons found in Simraungarth and several other regions of the eastern Terai. The rise of Tirhut posed a new political threat to Nepal, but at the same time it opened fresh avenues of cultural exchanges between the two states. No other language after Sanskrit has made such a valuable contribution to the literature of the Nepal Valley as Maithili, the language of this kingdom. Many dramas were written m Maithili or Maithili and Newari by the late Malla rulers of Bhaktapur. Maithili scholars were held m great respect m Nepal. The Maithili Jha Brahmans [chap. 10] were given high positions in the hierarchy of the Nepalese priesthood. Far more important than this, the two houses of the Mallas and the Karnatakas were actually joined by blood when Rajalla Devi became the wife of Jayasthiti Malla. Thus the late Malla rulers trace their ancestry to the Karnataka dynasty. Lastly, goddess Taleju, the highly venerated goddess of the Mallas, and still a prominent deity of the Valley, is believed to have been introduced from Tirhut" (P. R. Sharma 1973, 73). The Pala and Karnataka dynasties both had important cultural and religious influences on the Valley. Pal, however, argues against the assumption of "most scholars. . . that the Pala style exerted a strong influence on [the arts] of Nepal" (1974, 164). [BACK]

23. Gewali (1973, 51) has 1350 as the date. Hasrat (1970) states that there were two invasions, one in 1346 and a second m 1349. Recent scholarship suggests that there was only one, in 1349. [BACK]

24. There had earlier been five attacks on the Valley by. the Hindu kings of Maithili between 1244 and 1311 A.D. In one raid (in 1299) the Tripura palace in Bhaktapur was reached (Slusser 1982, 56). Slusser believes that more important than the Muslim raids in the destruction of Valley monuments were "the successive raids of the Maithili and the constant natural calamities of earthquake and fire" (ibid., 58). [BACK]

25. Different commentators on the evidence give different accounts of the establishment of Jayasthiti Malla's reign. For a summary of the recent scholarly consensus, see Slusser (1982, 58ff.). [BACK]

26. For comparison with contemporary groups in Bhaktapur, "Kasai" is Nae; "Podhe" is Po(n); Kulu is Kulu; and "Charmakara" is Halahulu. [BACK]

27. A birta is "an assignment of income from the land by the state m favor of individuals m order to provide them with a livelihood. In a society such as Nepal's, we generally find groups which, by virtue of religious tradition or their social or political function, cannot participate in economic pursuits. Their maintenance, generally at the cost of the agrarian class, is a primary responsibility of the state. Divestiture of ownership rights in the land through birta grants in favor of priests, religious teachers, soldiers, and members of the nobility and the royal family was thus the pivot on which rested the social and political framework of the state. Birta ownership not only insured a stable and secure income to the beneficiary, but also symbolized high social and economic status. Birta was m fact regarded as a form of private property with a clearly defined right vis-à-vis the state" (M. C. Regmi 1976, 16f.). [BACK]

28. Similar considerations may illuminate his new "rule that Brahmans might follow a profession" (Wright 1972, 187). These professions, judging by the later history of Newar Brahmans who pride themselves on not having to do "non-Brahmanical" work such as farming—as many non-Newar Nepalese Brahmans do—were probably limited to a narrow range of activities (scribal work, storytelling, administrative and advisory work to the court) thought to be consonant with Brahmanical status, but that gave them a wider influence in the city. [BACK]

29. The extent and placement of Bhaktapur's wall is relevant to our later discussion of the city's symbolic boundaries. Mary Slusser, who was able to trace the location of the city walls of Patan and Kathmandu, was able to discern only a few vestiges of the Bhaktapur wall as earthworks along the western perimeter, and "a fragment of the moat and several stone thresholds that mark former gateways" (1982, p. 102 and maps 7, 8, and 9). There is at least one religious painting on a cloth scroll m one of Bhaktapur's Buddhist viharas (a photograph of which is contained in the collection of Stephen Eckherd), which shows Bhaktapur as a completely walled city. Father Ippolitio Desideri, writing in 1722, after describing the three Valley cities, remarked that there were also, "a few other towns surrounded with the walls, all the rest are poor villages consisting of huts," implying that all the three Valley cities were surrounded by walls (Desideri [1932], as quoted in D. R. Regmi, [1965-1966, part II, p. 1013]). The Bhasha Vamsavali says that the Gorkhali attackers entered the city of Bhaktapur by breaking through the eastern and northern gates of the city (Stiller 1973, 129). It seems likely that Bhaktapur had a complete wall around its boundaries, but it did certainly have at least large extents of bounding wall with gates at the main roads that crossed the boundaries of the city, all dating in large part from Yaksa Malla's reign (see also D. R. Regmi [1965-1966, part I, pp. 420, 438]). [BACK]

30. According to Niels Gutschow (personal communication), this Bhairava, in fact, faces south. [BACK]

31. His estimates of numbers of households for the three cities is of interest. He was told that Kathmandu was supposed to have had 22,000 houses at the time of the last Malla king, and that it had been augmented under the Gorkhalis "not without some consequent decrease m the numbers of Patn [Patan] and Bhatgong [Bhaktapur]." He notes that the figures he was given for Kathmandu must have included an estimate of houses in Kathmandu's pre-conquest-dependent Valley villages and towns, as in his estimation the city itself could not have had more than 5,000 houses. He estimated ten persons to a house and thus a population for the city of Kathmandu of about 50,000 at the time. He estimated the population of the rest of the Malla kingdom of Kathmandu (at eight people to a household, the village house being smaller) as having consisted of about 186,000 people. These figures seem to be of the right order. For Patan "and its dependencies" under the late Mallas there were said to have been 24,000 houses; and for Bhaktapur "and its dependencies" 12,000 (Kirkpatrick 1969, 160-163). [BACK]

32. There is a large literature on the various aspects of political modernization in Nepal. For the Tribhuvan restoration, a sketch of the Rana polity that proceeded it, and the political changes that followed it, see the work of Leo Rose and his associates (Rose and Fisher 1970; Joshi and Rose 1966; Rose 1971). [BACK]

1. It is, however, the site of an important shrine, a pitha , of one of the city's "Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddesses," Mahakali. [BACK]

2. A demographic sample survey conducted by the United Nations fund for Population Activities in 1976 (cited in Acharya and Ansari [1980, 104]) reported an annual growth rate based on differences in the birth and death rates of 1.88 percent per annum for Bhaktapur, which will, if it were to keep up without a large increase in emigration be another of the many foreseeable problems for a future Bhaktapur. [BACK]

3. The urban population of Nepal as a whole has been calculated by the Central Bureau of Statistics as having a 12.95 per hundred excess of males; Kathmandu has 15.42. Most of this seems to reflect differential male migration into cities, as rural Nepal as a whole has a male/female excess of only 0.66 per hundred males, and the total Nepalese population has an excess of 1.35 per hundred males. [BACK]

4. These functions are enumerated in the Nepal Nagar Panchayat act of B.S. 2019 (1961): (1) to construct, maintain, and repair roads, bridges, drains, public latrines, and to keep them clean; (2) to provide drinking water; (3) to keep the lanes and roads clean; (4) to arrange and maintain the cremation grounds; (5) to keep census, birth, and death records; (6) to construct and repair the shelters for religious pilgrims; (7) to take measures against rabid dogs; (8) to provide treatment and preventive measures against epidemics; (9) to establish and manage schools, in accordance with the policies and regulations of the central government; (10) to keep records of the number of houses and their distribution in the town wards; (11) to provide parking places; (12) to encourage and aid activities for cultural development; (13) to provide assistance to district projects; (14) to provide street lighting; (15) to arrange for exhibitions, fairs, and markets; (16) to plant trees along the sides of the access roads into the town; and (17) to provide social and health services (adapted from Krishna Prasad Pradhan 1968, 120ff.). [BACK]

5. These wards have been the focal units for several economic surveys. They are newly created modern administrative units and are not related to the traditional city spatial units with which we will be concerned. [BACK]

6. A detailed general economic study of Bhaktapur has not yet appeared. Partial studies that give useful statistical and survey data include, in addition to census data, the Nepal Rastra^{[ *]} Bank (1978) on household budget surveys, Acharya and Ansari (1980) on the "basic economic needs" of Bhaktapur, and Wachi (1980) on the economy of farming households. Important materials on land ownership and use in a large traditional Newar town, Thimi, with presumptive similarities to Bhaktapur, are in Müller (1981). Details on agricultural techniques in a Newar village are given in Toffin (1977). Toffin also treats the economy of a Newar town in 1984, chapter 11. For aspects of agricultural economies, see also Pant and Jain (1969), M. C. Regmi (1971, 1976, 1978), and Müller (1981, 1984). [BACK]

7. Data cited in Müller (1981, 62) gives the extent of land devoted to various crops as well as their yields for the Bhaktapur district m 1972/73. Note that because of the high yield of rice its actual production has even more relative importance than the land devoted to it would indicate. Rice: land, 5,653 hectares, yield, 20,135 tons; wheat, 5,500 hectares, 9,810 tons; maize, 2,528 hectares, 4,425 tons; millet, 850 hectares, 1,452 tons; potatoes, 438 hectares, 3,920 tons; oilseed, 360 hectares, 216 tons; sugarcane, 7 hectares, 90 tons; barley, 4 hectares, 4 tons. [BACK]

8. One source (His Majesty's Government Nepal, 1969, 85) gives an intensity index (cropping in relation to land in cultivation) of 127 percent for the Bhaktapur district. Müller reports on the basis of detailed studies in Thimi that "the degree of intensity with which the land is farmed is always over 200 percent [for example, for fields used for both rice and wheat]. In the case of vegetable and potato growing it can be as high as 300 percent. The highest degree of intensity is reached in all year round vegetable cultivation. The Newar farmers never leave the land fallow longer than one to two months a year" (1981, 61). [BACK]

9. The use of hand digging tools by the Newar farmers is associated with a rejection of the use of animal-drawn ploughs. The rejection of such ploughing is explained by Newars m terms of religious taboos about yoking and using cows, bulls or oxen, thought to represent a goddess or Siva to plow the earth. There has been some discussion about whether this represents in fact an ideological rejection of what would otherwise have been a superior method of farming (Webster, 1981). The digging of fields at the start of the rainy season in preparation for rice planting is done with the short-handled hoe, or ku . As Müller (1981, 57) states the problem, "as ploughing is generally regarded as a criterion for an advanced civilization in connection with wet rice growing, it is strange that in an area termed as the center of an 'advanced civilization' in Nepal, ploughing is not done, whereas it is common even in the smallest, terraced fields outside the Kathmandu Valley. It is not possible to give an explanation for this phenomenon, especially as the plough is known to the Newars. Nevertheless, its use is punished with expulsion from the caste. As human labor is not highly valued as a production factor and as the Newars believe that they obtain more yield with their own, traditional methods of working the land the farmers regard the work with the Kodali [or ku ], which seems archaic to us, as something very positive." Webster argues (1981, 129) that "the plough was not used by the Newars to any significant extent because of practical, economic and ecological reasons." Subsequently, later events, perhaps "related to a Newar fixation on status, led to a prohibition on ploughing. The preference for the ku crystallized into a taboo." [BACK]

10. We are talking here of families who actually farm. This is not necessarily the same as the large section of the city's hierarchical system who are locally referred to as Jyapus , that is, "farmers." Most, but not all, of the thars (see chap. 5) within the Jyapu group farm, but not all of the families within a farming thar , nor all of the working members of a farming family farm. Furthermore there are members of other nominally non-Jyapu groups who do farm. Farming, in fact, as everywhere in South Asia, is one of the activities least restricted by caste prescriptions. [BACK]

11. The contributions of the exchange of goods and services to household income and the payment of debts is of importance throughout the Bhaktapur economy. [BACK]

12. One kind of land that tenants rent and farm is "Guthi" land. Guthi land is land that was set aside in the past, often by the Malla kings, with the purpose of providing income through a portion of its produce for maintaining a variety of religious and charitable institutions (including the maintenance of temples and the support of festivals) and, for the support of various social services such as "schools, hospitals, orphanages and poor houses" (M. C. Regmi 1976, 17). These lands are administered now through a central government agency in Kathmandu. [BACK]

13. In the 1964 Land Act the ceiling on land ownership for the Kathmandu Valley was 2.67 hectares (6.6 acres). The rents for agricultural land were also limited depending on the quality of the land. For the Kathmandu Valley as a whole rents are estimated to amount to about one-third the value of the total produce (Pant and Jain, 1969; M. C. Regmi 1976). [BACK]

14. Note that sahu is linguistically distinguished from the "trader," the banja , who travels to sell his merchandise. [BACK]

15. Membership in the hereditary status system affects trades or professions followed by members in various ways. Some economic activities are more likely to be followed by members of certain clusters of hereditary status groups. Thus commerce and trade are most likely to be followed by Pa(n)cthar and Chathar groups, farming by the members of the Jyapu cluster. These clusters have many aspects of social class. In contrast, there are a number of professions specified entirely by one's status group membership, particularly by one's membership in the clan-like unit called a thar . A thar member does not have to follow the thar -specific trade, although he often—in many cases almost always—does. If he does not, he cannot perform the thar -specific profession or trade of another thar ; he must follow a profession or trade (mostly farming, commerce and trade, government service, or unskilled labor) not specialized by thar . His access to these other kinds of work may be informally restricted by the "classes" that already have and that tend to control these jobs. Membership in thars determines some twenty-one specific crafts or professions (chap. 5). There are also certain hereditary professions (laundering, shoemaking, knife sharpening, some kinds of healing, and certain priestly activities) that are traditionally done in Bhaktapur by "non-Newars." [BACK]

16. Acharya and Ansari remark that the percentage of the economically active population in Kathmandu that is involved in services is 77.5 percent (according to the 1971 census materials), and note that employment in the services sector for Bhaktapur Town Panchayat is not only the lowest among the towns of the valley but also includes a considerable number of persons who actually work in Kathmandu (1980, 109). [BACK]

17. The Household Budget Survey of the Nepal Rastra^{[ *]} Bank showed that Bhaktapur households had the lowest level of externally produced manufactured goods of the three valley cities. For example, in Kathmandu in 1972, 71 percent of the household had kerosene cookers; 4.7 percent, kerosene heaters; 43.6 percent, radios; and 15.9 percent, bicycles. For Bhaktapur, for the same items, 13.8 percent of the households had kerosene cookers; 1.0 percent, kerosene heaters; 9.1 percent, radios; and 0.3 percent, bicycles. Even for locally produced modern items Bhaktapur households had very few. Only 8.6 percent of the households had chairs, 6.8 percent tables, and 14.3 percent beds (1974 b , 15). [BACK]

18. Of 18 representative town panchayats and market centers surveyed in the early 1970s by the Nepal Rastra^{[ *]} Bank, Bhaktapur had the lowest household income and the second lowest per capita income but also (with the exception of two towns in far western Nepal) had the highest percentage of household income in kind, some 46.54 percent. (Nepal Rastra^{[ *]} Bank [1978], from a table reprinted in Acharya and Ansari [1980].) [BACK]

1. There is frequently a difference between the name that members of a thar use to refer to and to identify themselves, and the name by which outsiders refer to it. When it differs, the name used by outsiders may refer to a professional or occupational category, or it may be a name that has some pejorative connotation in the judgment of the thar members themselves. In the presence of membets of a thar outsiders may often use a third, an honorific, name. For the most part in this work we use the ordinary names used by outsiders m references to a thar . [BACK]

2. In Bhaktapur, in contrast to its common use in Kathmandu and other cities, Srestha^{[ *]} is used by only one traditionally low group, the Cipi, whose traditional status is below the farming groups, but who are now engaged mostly in upper-level socioeconomic activities. [BACK]

3. Fürer-Haimendorf also notes that Chetri thars are not unilineal descent groups "in the narrow sense of the term. All members of the Bista clan [for example] no doubt consider each other as linked in an undefined way, but the fact that those who are of different lineage are not debarred from intermarriage excludes a fiction of patrilineal descent from a common ancestor" (1966, 30). [BACK]

4. Different thars may have internal differences in details of their religious practices, styles of life, and internal political organization, which in part derive from the thar's origins and history and m part, for many of them, from the effects of the position and functions forced on them by their position in the macrostatus system. [BACK]

5. Dumont (1964) had suggested that by his own criteria for caste structure, the Newars do not have a true caste system. This was probably based on limited information on the Newars. Greenwold, using Dumont's criteria, has argued that "the Newars in fact possess a caste structure that conforms most stringently to Dumont's definition" (1978, 487). Toffin also argues m the face of Dumont's statement that the Newars at least in the larger towns and the cities do have a "caste system" in Dumont's terms. "en ce sens qu'elles sont fondles sur un module religieux qui donne à la société une grande cohérence et qui lui sert de fondement intellectuel" (1984, 222). We will return to Dumont's conception of the caste system in chapter 11 in conjunction with a discussion of Newar uses of purity and impurity in social hierarchy. [BACK]

6. "A jati is an endogamous, hereditary social group that has a name and a combination of attributes. All members of a jati are expected to act according to their jati attributes, and each member shares his jati's status m the social hierarchy of a village locality in India" (Mandlebaum 1970, 14). For the jati members themselves, Mandlebaum notes, the jati has a position in a ranked hierarchy of groups. A " jati cluster" is a set of separate jatis , classed together under one name, whose members are treated by others as having the same general status (ibid., 19). [BACK]

7. The designation " sahu " or " jyapu " may indicate either the groups of thars and status levels whose members usually engage in these professions, or in other contexts it may designate all those who actually engage m the profession, irrespective of thar or status level. [BACK]

8. At a more abstract level there is, as we will touch on again below and discuss in later chapters, a vertical division of groups into two hierarchies, those whose members are "technicians of marked symbolism" and those who deal with other kinds of power and production. [BACK]

9. These distinctions have, however (as we shall note), one significant structural usage in Bhaktapur, in the separating of the thars grouped as a unity elsewhere among the Newars as ''srestha^{[ *]} '' or "sesya:," into two strata, Chathar and Pa(n)chthar, distinguished as being "ksatriya^{[ *]} " and "vaisya^{[ *]} ," respectively. [BACK]

10. Starting in the midnineteenth century the Ghorkali, state, following the Malla practice of written legal codes, began efforts to codify the entire heterogeneous population of the new multiethnic state into a traditional hierarchical system in a document called the Muluki Ain , "the law of the country." This intriguing imperial expansion of the Hindu ordering of small states underwent a number of stages and versions and was considered as "official" until the 1960s (Höfer 1979). [BACK]

11. The many status lists for Bhaktapur in the chronicles and other Malla documents (some of which are in the Hodgson collection at the India Office Library in London) and reports by later foreign visitors also provide an invaluable basis for an understanding of the historical changes that the system has undergone under various historical, economic, and demographic pressures. A very valuable attempt at collation of reports for Newar Nepal is Chattopadhyay (1923). [BACK]

12. Endogamy must be outside of the extended patrilineal kin group, the phuki (chap. 6). For the Rajopadhyaya Brahmans the lack of non- phuki kin in Bhaktapur requires that they marry Rajopadhyayas^{[ *]} from one of the other major Valley Newar cities. [BACK]

13. The Lakhe do not, apparently, exist m other Newar cities. Early accounts have noted similar lower-status Newar Brahman priests such as the "Lawerju" mentioned by Oldfield ([1880] (1974), vol. 1, p. 177). [BACK]

14. The term " srestha^{[ *]} " is from the Sanskrit srestha^{[ *]} . In classical Sanskrit its meanings included "best," "chief," "first," "best among," "oldest, senior," and in the form Srestin^{[ *]} , "a distinguished man, a person of rank or authority" (Monier-Williams [1899] n.d., 1102). " Syesya :" derives, according to Manandhar (1976), from an old Newari term " sista ," "a king's man" which may, in turn, be derived from " srestha^{[ *]} ." [BACK]

15. Although the Brahmans are not "renouncers," this terminology may suggest an idea of a contrast between the worldly professions and situation of the Chathariya and Pa(n)cthariya and an "other-worldly" profession of Brahmans and other priests. Most of the city's thar -specified activities can be sorted into one or the other of these "worlds," the realm of the "ordinary" on the one hand and of marked symbolism on the other. [BACK]

16. " Thariya " means member or members of a thar . Thus Chathariya are members of the Chathar level. We will use this form frequently. [BACK]

17. The Nepali coding of statuses, the Muluki Ain of 1854, divides the Srestha^{[ *]} into two levels, "cord wearers" and "non-enslavable alcohol drinkers" (Höfer 1979, 137f.). Höfer speculates that these two divisions may be equivalent to Chathariya and Pa(n)cthariya. [BACK]

18. Early accounts of Newar thars note groups written " jaisi " or " jausi ." In some accounts (e.g., Hamilton [1819] 1971) and those derived from some of the chronicles (e.g., Basnet 1981; Lévi 1905) the jaisi are described as a high mixed group "derived from a Brahman by a Newar woman," who have subsections variously doing divination, astrology, medicine, and some priestly work. Hamilton ranks them above "Shresta^{[ *]} " (i.e., Chathariya) as some middle- and low-ranked people still do. [BACK]

19. Some early accounts (e.g., Oldfield [1880] 1974; Hodgson n.d.) similarly report "classes" of Jyapu (three [Oldfield] or six [Hodgson] in number), which, however, in contrast to the present status-level "classes," were said to intermarry. [BACK]

20. " Jya " means "work," or "task'' in a very general sense. " Jyapu " (female '' Jyapuni ") means one who farms. It is used in two different ways. One is for anyone who belongs to a traditional farming thar , even if that person has some other profession. The other usage specifies "farmworker" and can also be used for someone from a nonfarming thar who does farmwork, although it would not usually be said that they are Jyapu, but rather that they "do Jyapu work." Even though farming is permissible to a large range of middle-level and upper-level thars it is not, in fact, done by upper-level ones and was traditionally forbidden to the lower "unclean" ones. Thus " Jyapu " also has implications of both "class" and a certain level of purity. [BACK]

21. The Chipi consider themselves to be of a higher status. It is said that there was a court case during the Rana period on the question of their ranking when their present low status was confirmed or determined. Our informants did not know why they have low status. [BACK]

22. Chattopadhyay (1923, 525) collates some of the early accounts of the Dwi(n). He notes that they were described as having originally been hunters and fowlers who worshiped both Siva and Buddha. They were said to have been elevated to the pure castes because they saved Prthvinarayana Saha's life. Chattopadhyay speculates that the Dwi(n) were originally a "more or less wild" jungle tribe. Niels Gutschow has interviewed the only Dwi(n) in Bhaktapur who follows the traditional thar activities, and notes that he has some special tasks during two annual festivals, Biska: and Pasa Ca:re (personal communication). [BACK]

23. Our reasons for qualifying such uses of "ritual" are discussed in chapter 11. [BACK]

24. It is said that under the Rana regime the Sa:mi, whose thar name is Manandhar, petitioned the Rana regime for a reclassification and were subsequently classified as being "water-acceptable" for the higher levels. This reclassification was "not accepted" in Bhaktapur (cf. Nepali 1965, 171). Oil pressing is generally associated in South Asia with low status. "The pressing of seeds . . . is stigmatized as a degrading occupation in the Code of Manu because it destroys life by crushing the seed" (Hutton 1961, 89). [BACK]

25. Several of the earliest accounts of Nepal, summarized in Chattopadhyay (1923), include a "caste" of Newar "washermen" variously given as "sanghar," "songat," "sangat," "sughang," and "pasi." Aside from Pasi (which we have placed at level XIII), these or similar names are not known now. These washer-men were listed in some accounts as being at the bottom of the status hierarchy, below "sweepers." [BACK]

26. According to Hodgson (n.d.), all these thars (with the exception of Cala[n], which he does not list) were "a class of Newars called Ekthureea [Ekthariya] or outcaste, or 'single body,' distinguished by their profession or trade." As Chattopadhyay (1923, 534) points out in a comment on this passage, they were certainly not "outcastes" but were placed just above the clearly polluting levels. Earle, in the 1901 Census of India (cited in Chattopadhyay [1923]), includes Cala(n) in the list and lists the group as a whole as "intermediate castes." Earle's and Hodgson's lists both have some additional thar s at this level not known m contemporary Bhaktapur. Lévi (1905, vol. 1, p. 242) writes of this group that they "only form a group by opposition to the previous groups, and are subdivided into true castes." The polluting status of this group in earlier accounts is somewhat ambiguous. Hamilton writes, "All the castes yet enumerated are considered as pure, and Hindus of any rank may drink the water which they have drawn from a well; but the following castes [our level XIII] are impure, and a person of any considerable dignity will be defiled by their touch (Hamilton [1819] 1971, 36 [emphasis added]). This comment corresponds w Hodgson's ''outcastes." Oldfield, however, includes them among the ''heterodox Buddhists" and says that "from their hands any Hindu will, or may, drink water" ([1880], 1974, vol. 1, p. 187). Nepali (1965, 168ff.) includes them among the clean thar s. These differences, and the consequent differences in reports about them by differently placed informants, suggest their marginal status. [BACK]

27. The Nae slaughter only the water buffalo. Other animals whose flesh is eaten in Bhaktapur are slaughtered by the households and other groups who will subsequently eat them as sacrifices to one of the "dangerous" deities (see chap. 9). [BACK]

28. The Do(n)s may be related to the Doms of Kumaon (Srivastava 1966, 194). According to Niels Gutschow, the remaining traditionally active Do(n) in Bhaktapur play a drum during certain festivals and other occasions (personal communication). [BACK]

29. They are often referred to as "Po(n)," and refer to themselves as "Pore" (which is probably an older Newari form). [BACK]

30. In 1974 Niels Gutschow interviewed a Halahulu who lived in Bhaktapur at that time, and who later moved to the nearby town of Timi. [BACK]

31. On Newar Buddhism, see Lewis (1984), Snellgrove (1957, 1961 a ), Locke (1976), Lévi (1905), and Greenwold (1973, 1978). [BACK]

32. David Snellgrove expresses the same opinion with an evaluative turn, "Whereas in India Buddhism was ruthlessly destroyed, in Nepal it has to be forced into conformity with other traditions, which represent the negation of all its higher striving, so that it has died of atrophy, leaving outward forms that have long ceased to be Buddhist in anything but the name" (1957, 106). [BACK]

33. The "Urae caste," according to Colin Rosser, was "a composite caste of merchants and craftsmen of generally high economic status through their predominance in the trade with Tibet, and of all Newar castes the one which is by far the strongest in devotion to Buddhist beliefs and practices according to the Tibetan model, largely, of course, through their close and continuing association with Tibetans in the course of trade" (1966, 106). For a study of a Urae group in Kathmandu, the Tuladhars, see Lewis (1984). [BACK]

34. The Urae were, as Hodgson (n.d.) put it, "traders and foreign merchants," and could draw their members from different thar s. Associated with the Urae by various authors are both trading and craft thars , including Tuladhar, Loha(n)ka-mi Sika:mi, Tamrakar, Awa:, Kumha:, Madhika:mi, and "Kassar" or "Kasa" (workers in bell metal alloy). Hodgson (n.d.) also lists carpenters associated with the Matsyendranath festival in Patan, "red lead makers," and doorkeepers. [BACK]

35. For a study on the Muslims in Nepal, see Gaborieau (1977). The Malla courts, influenced by Indian Mughal court styles, invited Muslims to settle in the valley as manufacturers of perfume and bangles and as court musicians from at least the early eighteenth century. See also Slusser (1982, vol. 1, p. 68f.). [BACK]

36. There is a section on the Gaine and their music in Hoerburger (1975). According to Niels Gutschow, the Gaine play music throughout Bhaktapur in the weeks before Mohani (chap. 15) according to a fixed schedule, each family having the right to play m certain quarters (personal communication). [BACK]

37. Priestly and para-priestly roles are often covertly stigmatizing (chap. 10). [BACK]

38. It is worth noting that the estimates made by our informants were usually very close, sometimes identical to Gutschow and Kölver's survey findings. [BACK]

39. In general, there seems to be some correspondence between the numbers of households needed for many of the city functions and the actual numbers of households, although this does go wrong and provide problems in some cases. It would be of importance to attempt a study of the adjustive mechanisms involved. [BACK]

40. This varies from the census figure of 6,484 because of distortions in rounding numbers in the adjusted table. [BACK]

41. One can get a rough idea of the number of individuals who are members of different classes of thar s by multiplying the number of households by the mean number of individuals per household for the city, which is six. The number of individuals per household, however, varies significantly by status level (chap. 6). [BACK]

42. Thus the total number of households in the group of occupational thar s is misleading because of the large numbers of Kumha: households that are engaged only in farming and not in the traditional thar craft of pottery-making. Similarly, the number of households in the group of thar s associated with Taleju is artificially enlarged by the inclusion of the large number of Suwal households, only a few of which have traditional Taleju functions. [BACK]

43. We will use the term "boiled rice," as the Newars do themselves, to denote both boiled rice and boiled pulses. [BACK]

44. "Each jati closes its boundaries to lower jatis, refusing them the privilege of intermarriage and other contacts defined as polluting to the higher jati. Each jati, in turn, is excluded by the jatis ranking above it in a local caste hierarchy. Thus, differences in degree of pollution create closed segments, as each segment tries to preserve its own degree of purity from contamination by lower castes" (Kolenda 1978, 66; derived from Dumont 1980 [1966]). [BACK]

45. Not only were "pure" levels forbidden to take water from "impure" levels, but traditionally and to a considerable degree now, members of the water-unacceptable levels did not take water from what they considered to be still lower levels, and this was sometimes true of thar s within a water-unacceptable level. As Höfer has noted, the Muluki Ain of 1854 formally forbade "pure castes" as a group from taking water from "impure castes" as a group, and no "impure caste" was allowed to take water from a still lower ranking ''impure caste" (1979, 56). That is, the first sorting of ''pure" and "impure" on the city level was replicated within successive divisions of "impure castes." However, these further divisions were of no importance, or of a different sort of importance, for the larger city organization. [BACK]

46. D. R. Regmi (1965, vol. II, p. 696), remarking that the conception of two types of polluting groups is found in the classical Dharmasastras^{[ *]} attributed to Manu and other writers, stated that the two classes, those who were water-unacceptable but not polluting by touch and those who could not be touched, were probably present in Malla Nepal. These two levels, "Impure but touchable" and "untouchable," are present m the official codification of the caste Hierarchy of Nepal, of 1854, the Muluki Ain , which codified existing social regulations (Höfer 1979, 45). Rosser (1966, 88f.) divided status levels among the Newars into a simple opposition, water-acceptable and water-unacceptable, equivalent to "pure" and "impure," "dominant" and "subordinate," respectively. His separation begins with the Jugi and does suggest the strong symbolic emphasis on the special polluting status of thar s at this level and below. It does not, however, correspond directly to the actual categories of purity and impurity. The water-unacceptable group begins for upper-level people above the Jugi, and the separation between simple water-unacceptability and untouchability cuts through his "subordinate" group. Stephen Greenwold (1978, 458f.), in a study of Newar castes in Kathmandu, tries to incorporate both the Hindu and Buddhist thar s there into one system. He divides the resulting combined status levels into two ranked groups with a "great divide" between them--those who have either Brahmans or Vajracarya Buddhist priests as household priests, and those who do not. By so doing, he incorporates our level XIII thar s into this upper division. He then further separates the households in his "clean" category served by priests into two ranked subgroups, whose purificatory services are done in the upper section by the barber thar (Nau) and whose lower section is purified by the low-level butcher thar , the Nae. The designation of a lower section of the status hierarchy which has purificatory services, specifically nail cutting, done by women of the butcher thar is reported in some of the chronicles of early Nepal (see D. R. Regmi, part I, p. 642). In Bhaktapur the barber thar does purification only for those levels above XIII (and for themselves), and some of the other thar s do have certain ritual purification performed by women of the butcher thar . Greenwold's "lower-clean" division represents those who are water-unacceptable (but not untouchable) in the Hindu system, and who are not served by Brahmans, even though they are served by Vajracaryas and other auxiliary priests. In the Hindu system of Bhaktapur the first separation in terms of cleanliness comes between level XIII and those above it. Greenwold's system works from the Vajracarya priest's point of view in which all the levels that he serves are necessarily "clean," but not from the point of view of upper-level Hindus. [BACK]

47. Newar Brahmans do eat mutton and goat meat. [BACK]

48. As Dumont has argued, in order to clarify the significance of "caste" endogamy in Hindu marriage, "the first marriage must be distinguished from subsequent freer marriages and, a fortion , from illegitimate unions" (1980, 113). Newar marriage, as we shall see later, has special features because the woman's first marriage is not precisely (in Dumont's terminology) a primary marriage, as she was previously married to the god Narayana^{[ *]} in a ritual mock-marriage. [BACK]

49. In contrast to Indo-Nepalese marriages Newar primary marriages are not optionally hypergamous, nor do they have hypergamous implications (see chap. 6). [BACK]

50. Höfer notes that in the Muluki Ain "a hypergamous union is prohibited only if it implies a transgression of the demarcation lines (a) either between pure and impure castes or (b) between touchable and untouchable castes within the category of the impure castes" (1979, 81). [BACK]

51. In the Muluki Ain of 1854 the Bare are listed below the Chathariya with a middle group of castes (Höfer 1979, 137f.). [BACK]

52. Now, as in Nepali, the term "Bhote" is used for Tibetans and distinguishes them from the Sae(n) hill peoples of northern origin. [BACK]

53. The equivalent Nepali term is " Parbate " or " Parbatiya:. " Some informants tend to use the Nepal, term to include both Sae(n) and Partya. [BACK]

54. The Sae(n)/Khae(n) contrast has a dubious relation to the historical origins of the Khas group, which may well have had Mongoloid, as well as North Indian, components (K. B. Bista 1972, 13). [BACK]

55. According to Slusser's summary of scholarly opinion, the Muslim conquests of North India at the end of the twelfth century which caused orthodox Brahmans from Mitila and Buddhists from Bihar to flee into the Kathmandu Valley also forced other refugees into the western hills of Nepal: "The latter belonged to well-defined Hindu castes, particularly the Brahman priesthood, the Ksatriya^{[ *]} military aristocracy (known as "Chetris" in Nepal), and, at the bottom of the social scale, occupational castes such as tailors, shoemakers, and blacksmiths. . . . This influx fortified other Indian immigrants who had long filtered northward, and had mixed in various measure with the established local population. The latter essentially issued from two streams: the Khasa, Indo-Aryans who spoke a Sanskritic language ancestral to Nepali, and who for centuries had drifted eastward through the Himalayan foothills; and the Mongoloid tribes, particularly the Magar and Gurung. . . . By the sixteenth century, an ethnically mixed military aristocracy, who often claimed Rajput descent and emulated the latter's preoccupation with military chivalry and the purity of Hindu religion, had carved out numerous petty hill states. Gorkha, immediately west of the Valley was one of these" (1982, 8). [BACK]

1. "Sixty percent of all Bhaktapur households lived in multi-unit structures, thirty-six percent occupied single-family houses, three percent lived in commercial buildings and a smaller number were in temporary quarters" (Nepal Rastra^{[ *]} Bank 1974 a ). [BACK]

2. This distribution is very similar to that found in the other valley cities, Kathmandu and Patan, studied in the same survey. There Is a somewhat larger percentage of the largest-sized households in Bhaktapur. [BACK]

3. See Mandlebaum (1970, vol. l, part II) for a summary of studies on family, family roles, and the family cycle in Indian societies. [BACK]

4. The male/female sex ratio for Bhaktapur is 102.6 males per 100 females in 1971. The figures for Nepal as a whole--with its mix of Himalayan and Indo-Nepalese communities--were about the same. [BACK]

5. The relationship is symbolized in an annual Newar ceremony, the Kija Puja (chap. 13), a variant of a widespread Hindu ceremony in which sisters worship their brothers. [BACK]

6. In the lower thar s, whether the wife returns to her natal home and the length of the stay is limited by the need for the woman to return to help in household and other economic tasks. Among the Jugi, for example, the wife returns to her parents' house only if there are other women in her conjugal household to help with household tasks, and among the Po(n) sweeper families the wife does not return to her natal home at all. [BACK]

7. The nakhatyas generally take place after the main day or days of the festival or rite of passage. On the main days there may be feasts for the patrilineal kin, the phuki . [BACK]

8. A similar system of precedence characterizes the hierarchical sharing of the head of a sacrificial animal among wider male kin groups (chap. 9). [BACK]

9. In some farming families in Bhaktapur, a father will stop accepting a daughter's cipa once she has been married out of the family, a practice that has been reported elsewhere in South Asia. Thus, in the central provinces of India, "some castes will not take food from their own daughters once these daughters are married, even to men of their own caste (Hutton 1961, 73; citing Russell and Lal [1916] 1975, vol. 1, p. 179). [BACK]

10. The great majority of thar s marry within Bhaktapur. [BACK]

11. Newar girls are kept out of the sun during their menarche ceremonies (app. 6). [BACK]

12. In contrast to its reported use elsewhere in South Asia, menstrual blood is not reportedly used in esoteric Tantric rituals in Bhaktapur. [BACK]

13. See the discussion of menarche rites in appendix 6. [BACK]

14. During the course of a wedding, at the end of the first phase representing the separation of the bride from her parental household, it is not her brother but her own maternal uncle, her paju , who plays a key transitional role. He physically carries her out of her natal house and hands her over to the groom's representatives. [BACK]

15. It may also be referred to in relation to the child, simply, as grandfather's or grandmother's house while those kin are alive, but it will always be the paju 's house. [BACK]

16. A young husband wishing to give his wife a present, say, cloth for a sari , without it appearing that the money was withheld from the common household pool, may sometimes claim that the sari is a gift to his wife from his paju , with some assurance that the lie is plausible and, furthermore, that the paju will back him up. [BACK]

17. As there has been some liberalization of marriage rules in recent decades, particularly a prohibition of child marriage, among all Nepalis, the Newars now are not as different from other Nepali Hindus as they formerly were in these particular aspects of marriage. [BACK]

18. Among the Newar Brahmans after the marriage of a girl of perhaps nine or ten to a Brahman boy of perhaps twelve to fifteen (or sometimes older), the girl would go to her husband's household for important household ceremonies. She was also brought to her husband's household in anticipation of her first menstruation and its associated rite of passage which should take place there, but she would then return to her natal home and not return to live at her husband's house until sometime after menarche--In some cases not, in fact, until she was seventeen or eighteen. [BACK]

19. A younger wife may also, it is said, be flighty and may run off, either back to her home or to another man. [BACK]

20. There are some rough statistics on actual ages of first marriage for other Newar communities at a period some fifteen years before this study. In 1957 and 1958 Gopal Singh Nepali surveyed 206 Newar families in Kathmandu and fifty-one in the village of Panga. He reported that about 35 percent of the women in his Kathmandu sample married at less than fifteen (the majority were thirteen or fourteen years of age). About 41 percent of the women roamed when they were between fifteen and eighteen years of age, and another 15 percent married between nineteen and twenty years of age. The remaining 9 percent married at more than twenty years of age. For the men, some 12 percent married below the age of fifteen years, 39 percent between fifteen and eighteen years, 30 percent between nineteen and twenty-four, and the rest, about 19 percent, above age twenty-four. Most girls, he concluded, married between thirteen and twenty years of age and most boys between fifteen and twenty-four. The village statistics showed slightly earlier ages for the marriage of girls m Panga. He attributed this to the high value of labor among the farmers of Panga but commented that in contrast to some agricultural villages in India none of the Panga girls were below ten at the age of marrigae (Nepali 1965, 201ff.). [BACK]

21. G. S. Nepali found that because, he was told, of a comparative scarcity of brides, people had "started marrying a woman from the third or fourth generation, if the relationship is traced through the female links only" (1965, 205). This is probably true now for many of the thar s of Bhaktapur who are faced with similar scarcities. Nepali and others have written that the patrilineal restriction is limited to seven generations. For many, perhaps the majority of Bhaktapur's thar s, however, it applies as long as common membership in a kul is recognized, whatever the number of generations. [BACK]

22. There are a few groups, such as the Brahmans, who consider all Bhaktapur Rajopadhyaya to belong to the same kul , who must marry outside the city. In recent years there seems to have been a tendency for some of the wealthier, more educated people involved m business or trade to take wives from a larger area. [BACK]

23. Although it is possible to object to a particular arranged marriage, it is greatly harder for either to reject marriage altogether . Girls, for example, are told, "All right, you do not have to marry this man, but remember you are going to have to marry someone." [BACK]

24. Hilabula marriages are not uncommon among Brahman families because of the restriction of available brides to a relatively few families. [BACK]

25. That the girl is married to the Bel fruit is a frequently repeated error. See appendix 6 under discussion of the Ihi ceremony. [BACK]

26. G. S. Nepali (1965, 239) quotes the 1911 Census of India in a reference to the Newar custom of placing betel nuts on the bed to signify divorce. Nepali writes that it still persisted at the time of his study, but was confined to the "Udas [Urae] and Manandhar castes." I [R. L.] did not hear of its use in Bhaktapur, although it may be practiced by some thar s. Nepali also quotes the 1911 Census of India to the effect that a Newar woman "could undo her marriage bond by placing two betel-nuts on the chest of a dying husband." He found cases of this practice among some women who were young and without children. This removed from the young widow obligations for a prolonged mourning period, and for the deceased husband's family it removed the widow's claims to a share of his property. [BACK]

27. These statistics are derived from Nepali's tables I and II, not from his discussion, which seems to be in error in regard to the extent of divorce and separation among his own sample. [BACK]

28. Failure to produce children would be an important contributing reason, but this, as we will see, may lead to a multiple marriage (or, very rarely, adoption) rather than separation if the wife's relation to the household is otherwise satisfactory. [BACK]

29. According to Brahmans, a woman who left a previous marriage with a divorce could by customary law have a full marriage ceremony, but it is not done because of "social ( samajik ) custom." On the other hand, they say that a woman who leaves her husband without a divorce is not entitled to a major marriage ceremony, which requires the participation of Brahmans. Nevertheless, a minor ceremony-- gwe ( n ) kaegu --which does not require the participation of a Brahman, gives the new wife full ritual as well as social membership in the family, and she may subsequently participate in the other Brahman-led rituals of her new conjugal family. [BACK]

30. "Misa," the Newari term for "woman," is used for ''wife" in Bhaktapur. " Kala '' is used in other Newar towns for "wife," and as an elegant usage in Bhaktapur. [BACK]

31. In this case the second marriage, in fact, permits the first wife to be kept m the husband's home. Otherwise, there would be a necessary separation. [BACK]

32. Having more than two wives m a multiple marriage is reportedly extremely unusual m Bhaktapur, Nepali's discussion suggests that each of the eight cases in his sample involved only one additional wife. [BACK]

33. For a theoretical interpretation of Newar isogamy, and a review of often conflicting statements about Newar marriage patterns in relation to status, see Quigley (1986). [BACK]

34. See also Gray (1980) on Chetri hypergamy. Among Chetris, status differences "are created during, and do not exist prior to, the marriage ceremony. As a result of the performance of a Vedic wedding, the affinal rule becomes relevant to and structures the relationships between the members of the households newly linked by marriage [with the] . . . superiority of the wife-taking household and the inferiority of the wife-giving household. . . . Through kinship contagion, these status attributes emergent in marriage become part of the substance of all members of the giving and taking households" (Gray 1980, 27). [BACK]

35. The Newar avoidance of adoption IS in marked contrast to the situation in Polynesian and Micronesian societies where adoption is extremely frequent (Carroll 1970), and is an index of structural differences affecting, among much else, the experience and education of children. [BACK]

36. For the neighboring Indo-Nepalese Brahmans and Chetri an important maximal indicator of lineage is the gotra , which relates individuals to one of the seven mythical Vedic Rsis^{[ *]} or "seers." Among them a concept of gotra exogamy creates an exogamous group much larger than the patrilineal kinship involved in kul exogamy. See Bennett (1977, 38ff.) and K. B. Bista (n.d.). Bista claims (p. 39) that notions of endogamy and exogamy among the Chetri are fundamentally based on gotra exogamy. Only upper-level Newars know their gotras , which they must specify in the course of certain rituals. All Rajopadhyaya Brahmans may use the alternative thar name Subedi, which indicates, they say, that they belong to the Bharadvaja gotra . Most Chathariya are said to belong to the Kasyapa gotra . For the Newars the gotra has no special ceremonial entailment, aside from identifying oneself ritually, and has no exogamous entailment at all, even the Brahmans intermarrying within the same gotra . [BACK]

37. As has been noted above, nonpatrilineal marriage restrictions that apply to tha:thiti become annulled after several generations. [BACK]

38. Toffin (1978) found these "clans" in the Newar town of Pyangon. The unit there was named gwoha ( n ), a designation apparently not used among Newars elsewhere. As in Bhaktapur the phuki in Pyangon was a subunit of the "clan." [BACK]

39. For decisions affecting a larger section of the thar or the entire thar , for example, the Brahmans' decision as a group to abandon child marriage, a matter of litigation over a thar 's proper status, or a decision about ostracizing a member from a thar , the heads of various phuki s may meet in a council. The council may or may not represent one kul , depending on the constitution of the thar . [BACK]

40. Steven Parish found an average of 4.5 familes per phuki among Bhaktapur's Jyapu Suwal thar (1987, 86). [BACK]

41. " Thakaki ," "elder," " naya :," ''leader," and " naki ( n ),'' "eldest or leading woman," are used as fides in various kinds of groups. Thus, there is both a household naki ( n ) and a phuki naki ( n ). [BACK]

42. For a sketch of phuki organization in the Sa:mi (Kathmandu Newari Saemi) thar , see Fürer-Haimendorf (1956). [BACK]

43. This term may derive from tha :, "one's own," and " thiti, " from the Sanskrit sthiti , "rule, regulation, decree," thus meaning related through ritual arrangement (e.g., marriage) in contrast to descent. [BACK]

44. The daughter of the phuki who marries out is in herself not a member of an individual's tha:thiti , although her husband, children, and husband's own phuki members and their spouses are. She has, as we will see in connection with lineage rituals and rites of passage, ritual and social connections with both her kul and her husband's kul , as she has continuing social relations with her natal and affinal households. [BACK]

45. " Bhata " is a term used by a woman to refer to members of her husband's family (e.g., kija bhata , a husband's younger brother). It was not clear to Bhaktapur informants why this term is used, but it might conceivably derive from the context in which girls traditionally form twae relationships, which is while both girls are part of a group of girls being given in mock-marriage to the god Narayana^{[ *]} . Each would be to the other a twae from her divine husband's family. It is also possible that historically cowives in real marriages at times formed these ritual relations. [BACK]

46. Most people only have one twae . A businessman or trader with connections in several communities may have several twaes representing his interests or major connections in various communities. [BACK]

47. For an extensive discussion of guthi land tenure, see Mahesh C. Regmi (1971, 1976, 1978). [BACK]

48. Most of the important temples and larger festivals (chaps. 12 to 15) are now funded from a centralized bureau of the Nepalese government that controls major guthi funds. There are still, however, many smaller temples and festivals supported by local guthis . [BACK]

49. When the guthi has a professional membership, it seems to echo the traditional South Asian professional guild, the sreni . [BACK]

50. For an extensive discussion of Newar guthis, see Toffin (1975 b ). [BACK]

1. Niels Gutschow and his associates, and Mary Slusser (in the works cited in this and other chapters) have been particularly concerned with persisting material forms, including aspects of urban space, as evidence for the history of the Newar cities and of the Kathmandu Valley. We will cite such materials and their work insofar as they have a persisting active reflection in Bhaktapur's ongoing life. [BACK]

2. For another representation of Bhaktapur as a yantra or mandala^{[ *]} ; see Köer (1976) and Auer and Gutschow (1973). [BACK]

3. These shrines are pitha or "hypaethral shrines," which we will discuss m chapter 8. Each of the nine goddesses is also associated with a tirtha , a sacred area in a body of water, usually the river but m some cases a pond. [BACK]

4. The names of the individual goddesses and their order at the circumference of the city will be given below m the section on Bhaktapur as a mandala^{[ *]} . The mythological sources of that particular order is discussed in chapters 8 and 15. [BACK]

5. Hadigaon (or Harigaon) was a major settlement in the Licchavi period and afterward and was the site of a Licchavi royal palace (Vajracarya 1985, 9). This provides an intriguing possible connection with the folk tale that the original site of the Digu God worship was once Hadigaon. [BACK]

6. Fustel de Coulanges quotes "ancient authors" on the founding of Rome to the effect that at the founding of that city Romulus dug a small circular trench and then he, followed by each of the settlers, threw a clod of earth from their previous home city into it. "A man could not quit his dwelling-place without taking with him his soil and his ancestors. This rite had to be accomplished, so that he might say, pointing out the new place which he had adopted, 'This is still the land of my fathers . . . for here are the manes of my family . . . . These souls, reunited there, required a perpetual worship, and kept guard over their descendants'" (1956, 136). [BACK]

7. Throughout the book we will generally use the Sanskrit rather than the Newari form of the names of major Hindu deities when the Newari variation is closely related to the Sanskrit form. [BACK]

8. In the classical Hindu period there were funerary prescriptions separating the four varnas^{[ *]} into at least two divisions. The corpses of "twice-born" men, the three highest varnas^{[ *]} , were to be carried out of the western, northern, or eastern gates of a town, while the corpses of Sudras, the lowest, were to be carried through the southern gate ( Manu , Book V, 92 Bühler 1969, p. 184). The division here simply separates a lower segment from the amalgamated upper one. [BACK]

9. Fustel de Coulange believed that this division was pervasive m the ancient Indo-European world: "We find this class [plebeians] around almost all the ancient cities, but separated by a line of demarcation. Originally a Greek city was double; there was the city, properly so called-- polis , which was built ordinarily on the summit of some hill; it had been built with the religious rites, and enclosed the sanctuary of the national gods. At the foot of the hill was found an agglomeration of houses, which were built without any religious ceremony, and without a sacred enclosure. These were the dwellings of the plebeians, who could not live in the sacred city" (1956, 231). He goes on to describe a similar arrangement in ancient Rome. [BACK]

10. Mary Slusser stated that the butchers as well as the sweepers, traditionally lived outside of the city boundaries. She cites Oldfield and Sylvain Lévi (1905, vol. I, p. 56) on this. As Lévi wrote (vol. 1, p. 238 n.), however, as he did not have time during his visit to Nepal to do his own research on castes, he followed Hamilton and Oldfield, and in doubtful cases Oldfield, who was "more recent and more complete." Gutschow and Kölver accepting the Oldfield statement about the butchers, or Nae, proposed that Bhaktapur's pradaksinapatha^{[ *]} , the major city-wide processional route, on whose outer perimeter the Nae and many other city groups live, was the actual ritual boundary of the city at one time (1975, 21). If the butchers ever lived outside the Newar city's walls it was already no longer the regulation at the time of Jayasthiti Malla's fourteenth-century codification of Bhaktapur's tradition, and we may take the Oldfield-Lévi remark as, perhaps, at the most some reflection of some very ancient arrangement. [BACK]

11. See the analysis of the neighborhood dance performances of the Nine Durgas troupe in chapter 15 for a detailed description of this usage of the symbolism of the outside. [BACK]

12. The names of these deities are given here in their Sanskrit form, not in their local Newari pronunciation. We will discuss their relevant characteristics and their relations to other divinities in the next chapter. [BACK]

13. As we will see in chapter 8, Taleju has her own pitha , that of the goddess Dumaju. [BACK]

14. Untouchables living outside the city's borders belong neither to the upper or lower city, nor do they belong to a mandalic^{[ *]} segment. [BACK]

15. Kautilya^{[ *]} and other writers quoted in Dutt use the eight compass directions as the basis for the ideal placement of occupations and castes, an arrangement that, although possibly having some echoes in Bhaktapur in, say, the untouchables' southern location, is not an organizing principle there. [BACK]

16. According to Lewis (1984, 560), the royal Taleju temple in Kathmandu is at that city's highest point. [BACK]

17. Dutt emphasizes the classical "technical" use of the term " grama " for an urban component. "It should be noted here that this grama is not a modern village. It is a technical term for a locality with certain definite measurements and corresponds to the insulae of an ancient Greek town as well as to the municipal wards of a modern city" (ibid., 188). This does not take account of the functional analogy of the ward to the village. [BACK]

18. D. Vajracarya (1985, 13) also identifies twa: and grama . D. R. Regmi suggests another village/ twa: analogy for Malla Nepal in which, "the village must have been the lowest unit of administration m the rural [areas] as was the tol^{[ *]} in urban centers" (1965-1966, part I, p. 514). [BACK]

19. A legend ascribing the establishment of the city's twenty-four twa: s to the fourteenth-century king Ananda Malla is given in chapter 14 in connection with the Chuma(n) Ganedya: Jatra. [BACK]

20. Slusser believes that the Licchavi grama in Nepal must have been considerably smaller than the Indian grama (1982, vol. 1, p. 85). [BACK]

21. For descriptions of the construction, structure, and symbolism of Newar houses, see Auer and Gutschow (n.d.), Toffin (1977), Barré, Berger, Feveile, and Toffin (1981), Korn (1976), and Vogt (1977). [BACK]

22. Gutschow notes that the brick walls, not wooden posts, bear all the structural loads of the house. The inner face of the wall may be of unbaked, sun-dried bricks (personal communication). [BACK]

23. This idea is closely reflected m ideas about the protective pollution and danger accumulating functions of the lowest thar s, particularly the Po(n) and the Jugi. [BACK]

24. According to Katherine Blair (1975), cited in Vogt (1977), there are some villages in Nepal where every house is oriented m traditional directions. [BACK]

25. Vogt's informant, Mangal Raj Josi, added some ideal compass placements, which seem to be very often ignored in practice. Thus the household shrine should be to the northeast "because north is the direction of the Himalayas, home of the gods, and east is the direction of the rising sun." The area or room for household "treasures" should be to the north, the home of Laksmi the patron of household wealth; the kitchen area should be to the southeast, the home of Agni, god of fire (1977, 89f.). [BACK]

26. In 1986/87 Gutschow attempted a complete survey of Bhaktapur' chwasas . He found 108 chwasas where clothing of dead people is left to be picked up by Jugis (app. 6). He notes that not all chwasas within the city are at crossroads, and was unable to find why they were located at particular places (personal communication). They may, in fact, represent what were once crossroads in the past, or there may be some other historical or legendary basis for their uncanny significance. [BACK]

27. Most potentially polluting materials are disposed of outside the city boundaries, often in the river, and in the case of dead bodies, by cremation at the cremation grounds. There are some places near the river where polluting materials such as placentas are traditionally disposed of, that are also thought of as chwasas . [BACK]

28. In a work summarizing his studies in several Newar communities of various sizes, Toffin notes the general location of chwasas at crossroads in those communities (1984, 488). [BACK]

29. See, for example, S. Stevenson, (1920, 425). Victor Turner (1968, 580), in a discussion of "tricksters" as "liminal figures," notes as a sign of their liminality that the Yoruba spirit Eshu-Elegba and the Greek god Hermes both inhabited crossroads as well as thresholds of houses and open public places. The Tantric-like Greek goddess Hecate is also a goddess of crossroads (Burkert 1985, 171). [BACK]

30. One of these twa: s in the extreme west of the city is a relatively new addition to the city. [BACK]

31. Veena Das, in a review of studies of Hindu cooking practices, noted that in some aspects, at least, Hindu space was not abstract Western Newtonian space, in which it was once hoped everything else could be fixed. "The most interesting idea that emerges from these descriptions is that one cannot define the characteristics of a space independently of the characteristics of time as a logical category" (1981, 140). Thus "In the context of a marriage, when the time governing the event is described as auspicious, the [sacred, household] cooking space may expand to include many more areas than the kitchen, and ritual injunctions would be applied to all these areas. In contrast, a death in the domestic group . . . results in the shrinking of the cooking area nil it becomes nonexistent" (1981, 140). In contrast, however, the city spaces we have been considering here are quite fixed in their extent, and are used to help anchor other shifting aspects of the city's organization. [BACK]

1. For Newar religious and art history in relation to representations of divinities, see Pal (1970, 1974, 1975, 1978), Pal and Bhattacharyya (1969), Slusser (1982), M. Singh (1968), Macdonald and Stahl (1979), and Ray (1973). [BACK]

2. Compare the discussion of Visnu's^{[ *]} avatars below. [BACK]

3. There is some correspondence between the shape of the main body of the temple—square, rectangle, circular, octagonal—and its particular deity (Slusser 1982, vol. 1, p. 142). [BACK]

4. This unemphasized reference to Brahma is one of the very few rimes where this divinity is represented in Bhaktapur. [BACK]

5. For Indian Vaishnavites, salagramas are a particular species of fossilized mollusk thought to embody Visnu's^{[ *]} presence. [BACK]

6. This is of particular interest in regard to Krsna^{[ *]} . His cult is of great importance in India and elsewhere in Nepal, but it has not developed in Bhaktapur's traditional religion. This probably is related to the conflict that the personal bhakti religion centering around Krsna^{[ *]} represents in relation to the civic priestly religion of Bhaktapur. Krsna^{[ *]} devotion is beginning in certain groups in Bhaktapur and represents a transformation and "modernization" of Bhaktapur's religious organization. [BACK]

7. Varahi is generally conceived as one of the forms of the Tantric goddesses derived from Siva. She is also the Sakti of Varaha, however, the boar avatar of Visnu^{[ *]} , and this gives her a connecting thread to Rama, another avatar of Visnu^{[ *]} . [BACK]

8. See Pal (1970). Some of these representations represent the Vaishnavite emphases of earlier Newar dynasties. [BACK]

9. "Some works differentiate the divine essence in the several human incarnations thus: Krsna^{[ *]} , full incarnation; Rama, half; Bharata, Rama's Brother, one quarter; Rama's two other brothers, one-eighth; and other holy men, various appreciable atoms" (Atkinson 1974, 709). [BACK]

10. In spite of their marked contrasts to the imagery and uses of the dangerous deities, particularly the Goddess (below), some of Visnu's^{[ *]} avatars share with the Goddess her ability to overcome the Asuras, and people may occasionally pray at their shrines for protection against exterior dangers such as earthquakes, evil spirits, and destructive weather as they would, and most usually do, to the Goddess. These avatars represent a "semantic" potential use that is not important m Bhaktapur because, in a sense, the dangerous goddesses fill the need. [BACK]

11. Siva is in a different way a bridge to the Tantric gods but he is worshiped as an "ordinary" deity. [BACK]

12. The ambivalent nature of Ganesa^{[ *]} is sometimes signaled elsewhere in South Asia by the position of his trunk to the right or left. "The trunk . . . may turn either to the right or to the left, and it is most important to notice in which direction it is turned, for Ganesa^{[ *]} with his trunk turned to his own right hand is a dangerous god to worship. Only a Brahman in a state of the utmost ceremonial purity dare attempt it. . . . The god with his trunk turned toward his left hand, however, is in quite a different mood; even a Sudra dare approach him, and he can be worshiped quite informally, and even though his worshiper be not ceremonially pure" (Stevenson 1920 [1971], 292-293). [BACK]

13. In Bhaktapur (and generally for the Newars) Ganesa's^{[ *]} vehicle is a shrew, techu(n) , (Kathmandu Newari tichu[n] ) rather than his usual South Asian vehicle, a mouse or rat. He is only rarely represented in Bhaktapur in his one tusk, ekadanta , form. [BACK]

14. "The idol of Ganapati^{[ *]} is installed at the gateways of villages and forts, under the fig tree, at the entrance of temples, and at the southwestern corner of Siva temples" (Mani 1974, 273). This last placement is also represented in Bhaktapur, when Ganesa^{[ *]} is placed along with Visnu^{[ *]} , Surya, and Bhagavati, as one of the four protectors at temples of Siva as the supreme god. [BACK]

15. "Inar" derives from the Sanskrit Ina, one of the names for the sun and the sun god, (Surya is another). Worship, puja , to Ganesa^{[ *]} is called ma puja in Newari. There is a legend regarding the founding of the Inar Dya: temple in which the dead son of a Brahman is brought back to life through the agency of Ganesa^{[ *]} , who had previously taken the boy's life out of jealousy because of the excessive love of Ganesa's^{[ *]} father Siva for Nepal. The boy's life was restored at a spot in a forest where the first rays of sunlight at dawn touched the ground, which thus became the site of the present shrine. [BACK]

16. Niels Gutschow and his associates were shown a complex drawing of Bhaktapur as a mandala^{[ *]} showing concentric arrangements of various deities (Kö1ver 1976; Auer and Gutschow n.d., 38). They have designated this as a "ritual map" and made attempts to locate the divinities in Bhaktapur's actual space. The deities include eight Ganesa^{[ *]} locations, ten Mahavidyas, eight Bhairavas, and eight "Mothers" (Astamatrkas^{[ *]} ). The painting was made in the 1920s, and provides considerable difficulties in its evaluation and interpretation in relation to the present and past realities of Bhaktapur's religious practices and existing shrines. The location and function of the Astamatrkas^{[ *]} is clear in relation to present practices, the rest problematic. The eight Ganesas^{[ *]} , ten Mahavidyas, and eight Bhairavas located in the "ritual map" have no clear location or representation in Bhaktapur's present religious life, with the possible exception of certain Tantric initiations where their location and function may, perhaps, be referred to in a trace of some traditional esoteric knowledge. [BACK]

17. Brahma has no important representation nor significance in religious action in Bhaktapur. He is represented, as we have noted, as one of the three gods, the Trimurti, represented in the Dattatreya temple, which has its major importance as a Shaivite pilgrimage site for non-Newars during the annual Sivaratri festival. As Slusser writes, "In the Kathmandu Valley there are no temples of Brahma, his images are few, and his role in Nepalese affairs minor" (1982, 263f.). Slusser, while noting that Sarasvati, like Laksmi, is an independent goddess, says that she may be considered as having a relation to Durga, the Tantric goddess. She notes early Newar representations where she is "Durga's daughter, and one of Visnu's^{[ *]} consorts," and is the "Kumari aspect of Durga herself" (1982, 320f.). Such interweavings are sometimes significant in Tantric esoteric doctrine, but for her meaning and action in Bhaktapur's city organization, Sarasvati, like Laksmi (who has similar esoteric connections), is an independent and benign divinity. [BACK]

18. There is a month-long period of devotion to Parvati (the Swasthani Vrata; see chap. 13) which is important to all Valley Hindu women. For Bhaktapur's women the spatial foci of this devotion are the household and together with other Hindu women in melas , mass pilgrimages at out of the city Valley sites. [BACK]

19. This reflects a traditional South Asian distinction in the form that a particular deity as well as kinds of deities may take between "peaceful" forms and (in the conventional Sanskrit terms) ugra "mighty, violent, grim, terrible" or krodha , "angry," forms. [BACK]

20. It is possible to offer an "ordinary" puja to the dangerous gods, but it is not the properly effective puja required for most of the purposes that their worship serves. The legend of Taleju, discussed below, indicates the importance of the "proper" worship of such deities through meat and alcoholic offerings. [BACK]

21. Fustel de Coulanges long ago suggested that the " pater " and " mater " as used in relation to the classic Mediterranean gods had more to do with titles of respect and authority rather than of ordinary (biological) parenthood, which was expressed in terms such as " genitor " and '' genitrix " (1965, 89f.). Sanskrit also has these two contrasting Indo-European terms for mother, Matr^{[ *]} and Nanitr^{[ *]} (the latter, related to the term for "birth''), which are cognate with " mater " and " genitrix ." [BACK]

22. Each of the Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddesses was sometimes popularly referred to as "Ajima," the respect title for grandmother, preceded by a differentiating term. Indrani^{[ *]} , for example, was called "Ili Ajima," and Vaisnavi^{[ *]} was called "Naki(n)ju Ajima." These names seem to be going out of ordinary usage. [BACK]

23. The pithas of the Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddesses are worshiped m the same order by an Acaju priest during the course of the mass mock-marriage ceremony, the Ihi (app. 6). [BACK]

24. Bhaktapur, like the Newars generally (Slusser 1982, vol. 1, p. 322n.), has given this name to two historically distinct forms. One of these is the Matrka^{[ *]} , proper (Kaumari in Sanskrit), considered as the Sakti of the god Kumara. The other historically different goddess given this name is the Goddess as a young virgin (Sanskrit Kumari). While the Mandalic^{[ *]} "Kumari" is derived from Kaumari, Bhaktapur's "living goddess" Kumari is partially derived from the virgin Kumari, and her representations as young daughters in households during Mohani is entirely derived from that virgin form. Other Bhaktapur Kumaris, preeminently the Kumari of the Nine Durgas, combines both precursors in one figure. [BACK]

25. The order of the Astamatrkas^{[ *]} at Bhaktapur's periphery seems to reflect another cosmic sequence. Pal and Bhattacharyya (1969, 39) give a diagram taken from the Pujavidhi chapter of the Agni Purana^{[ *]} . This diagram presents the Astamatrkas^{[ *]} with the same membership and in the same order as they are arranged in Bhaktapur, beginning again with Brahmani. But here the Matrkas are associated with corresponding heavenly bodies or grahas . Seven of the grahas are associated, m a tradition shared with the west, with particular days of the week. With one exception, that of Vaisnavi^{[ *]} associated with the sun and hence Sunday, who appears in the fourth and central position, the other deities in the list as they are arranged in Bhaktapur are exactly in order of the days of the week; Brahmani, for example, is associated with the moon, and thus Monday, and so on in order. The goddess m the eighth position, Mahalaksmi^{[ *]} is associated with a graha , Rahu, which does not preside over a day of the week. Mahalaksmi^{[ *]} is the deity who does not occur in the Devi mahatmya list either, and is from the point of view of both correspondences added to the seven basic Matrkas to yield an eighth. [BACK]

26. Guhyesvari is primarily represented in Bhaktapur in a hidden and restricted shrine within the Taleju temple. A second representation is a hole in the ground in the western part of the city, next to a rest shelter, where people entering Bhaktapur in that direction from a pilgrimage were customarily met by their family priest and family members and where they would stop and pray. [BACK]

27. This is in contradiction to the belief held by some in the Valley that it was Sati's anus that fell to earth at the place marked by the Guhyesvari shrine (G. S. Nepali 1965, 307; Slusser 1982, vol. I, p. 326). [BACK]

28. The eighth Durga is the Sipha goddess, or Mahalaksmi^{[ *]} . We will discuss the "mystery" of the ninth Durga in chapter 15. [BACK]

29. These forms are historically related to the Nepalese tiger- and lion-headed goddesses Vyaghrini^{[ *]} and Simhini^{[ *]} (D. R. Regmi 1965-1966, part II, p. 590; Hamilton [1819] 1971, 34.) Slusser writes of them that they derive from "the lion-headed Simhavaktra^{[ *]} and her tiger-headed companion, Vyagravaktra, Buddhist dakinis^{[ *]} who are the fearful psychosexual partners of yogins" (1982, 326). [BACK]

30. There have been a number of architectural studies of the Kathmandu Valley Malla palaces (Nippon Institute of Technology 1981, 1983; Sanday 1974; Korn 1976). Korn (1976, 59) and Slusser (1982, vol. II, fig. 3) present sketches of the ground plan of the Bhaktapur palace and its adjoining temples. See also Slusser (1982, vol. I, chap. 8). [BACK]

31. Some of the inner structures' sculptures and frescoes, superb examples of Newar art of the Malla period, have been photographed and reproduced in Singh (1968, 192-193, 198-199). [BACK]

32. "In A.D. 1097, Nanyadeva, a chief from the Karnataka^{[ *]} country (the western part of southern India) proclaimed himself King of Mithila and established a new capital at Simaramapura, referred to in Nepali sources as Simraongarh [Simraun gadh^{[ *]} ]" (Slusser 1982, vol. I, p. 46). [BACK]

33. This buffalo sacrifice amalgamates Taleju in Bhaktapur with the warrior goddess Bhagavati as Mahisasuramardini (below). [BACK]

34. In contrast to other sacrificial animals, which are supposed to be killed by the person who offers the sacrifice whatever his status, the killing of water buffaloes including the major sacrifices to Taleju is the special function of the low Nae, or "butcher" thar . This part of the legend is connected with this. [BACK]

35. At present the Taleju temple still has esoteric ritual relations with the Indrani^{[ *]} pitha . The Taleju temple is within Indrani's^{[ *]} mandalic^{[ *]} section. [BACK]

36. Slusser has made the suggestion that Taleju was associated with and eventually absorbed the cult of the ancient Licchavi tutelary goddess Manesvari (1982, vol. 1, p. 317). In Bhaktapur there is a stone within the Taleju temple which is worshiped as Manesvari. [BACK]

37. D. R. Regmi states that in the Kathmandu Taleju temple, "There is no image of Taleju at the main shrine, only a finial with certain symbolic marks engraved in a plate of bronze stands in its place as is the case with similar patterns in other temples of the type in Nepal." (1965-1966, part II, p. 593). The "finial" is a metal ritual waterpot, the kalas . [BACK]

38. A Brahman, a Tantric priest (Acaju), and an astrologer (Josi) are necessary for all of Taleju's internal rituals. At the time of this study the Taleju staff had four Rajopadhyaya Brahmans, six Acajus, and three Josis. Among the Brahmans one is considered Taleju's chief priest. This is a title and function that is inherited within one segment of the Rajopadhyaya thar . It is noteworthy that in contrast to both Malla royal inheritance (D. R. Regmi 1965-1966, part I, p. 485; part II, p. 394) and current Nepalese law, where succession to title is by primogeniture, the Taleju chief priest fide passes on the death of a holder to his next oldest brother, even if the eldest son of the deceased title holder is elder than the next eldest brother. However, this principle is limited to brothers dwelling in the deceased title holder's extended household. If the brothers bye in a separate household, the title will usually pass to the deceased title holder's eldest son if he is of age. [BACK]

39. These rituals are perfunctory. The priests read an oath in Sanskrit, which is translated into Newari. The person being initiated takes the oath while making an offering of a mixture of rice, nuts, and corns to the goddess. [BACK]

40. It is said that there is only one group in Bhaktapur's civic religion whose Tantric initiation does not depend ultimately on Taleju mantras, namely, the Jugis. [BACK]

41. Only a failure to consider the esoteric and structural aspects of her role or perhaps an emphasis on the comparatively fragmented religious system of Kathmandu may explain Slusser's remark that "today, except for a brief annual resuscitation at Dasai(n) [Mohani], the Taleju—Mahesvari temples are closed and her cult is virtually extinct" (Slusser 1982, vol. I, p. 319). [BACK]

42. As Slusser remarks, Bhagavati "is the name most commonly invoked to identify any image that is iconographically puzzling to the Nepalese, particularly gods or goddesses that remind them of the familiar multiarmed Durga" (1982, vol. I, p. 310). [BACK]

43. Dui Maju has another entirely different legend in another context. On the fifth day of the Biska: festival sequence (chap. 14) she is worshiped as the "younger sister" of the Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddess Indrani^{[ *]} . According to the legend told about this day's worship the Goddess Devi had gone in the form of a low-caste Dwi(n) maiden to the market where she was recognized and captured by a Malla king with Tantric power and placed in the Taleju temple. This story may have been generated entirely by the resemblance m sound of Dui and Dwi(n). [BACK]

44. Bacchala's temple image is variously described as an anthropomorphic image in the embrace of Siva as the Lord of the Dance, and as a yantra on a Kalasa. Her temple is next to a temple of Siva as Pasupatinatha and seems to represent his consort. [BACK]

45. The story goes that a Malla king of Patan, jealous of the king of Bhaktapur, sent a merchant to sell Ku Laksmi's^{[ *]} image (and thus the goddess herself) to the Malla king of Bhaktapur, who was famous for accepting all new things offered to him. The king bought her and placed her near his palace with the result that she drove out the other protective goddesses, who did not want to be associated with her. So she was moved to a different area, and people went there to worship her. [BACK]

46. The practice of going on the twelfth day meant that most of the children who might die from smallpox had already died, thus protecting the goddess's reputation. [BACK]

47. The Devi Mahatmya is an independent text that was once a part (chaps. 81-93) of the Markandeya Purana^{[ *]} . According to Vasudeva Agrawala, that Purana^{[ *]} was a product of the Gupta Age and its final version was completed by the time of Chandragupta Vikramaditya at the end of the fourth century A.D. (1963, p. iv). [BACK]

48. The version of the Devi Mahatmya we are using here is a translation of a thirteenth-century Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript (Agrawala, 1963, p. xiii). [BACK]

49. In Bhaktapur, Taleju, Bhagavati, and the Devi of the Devi Mahatmya are sometimes addressed as "Bhavani," a title that would be inappropriate for lesser Tantric goddesses, or for ordinary goddesses such as Laksmi. Bhavani, "the popular name of Devi in the Sakti cult" (Stutley and Stutley 1977, 44), connects the goddess for Shaivite purposes to Bhava, a title of Siva, a title stressing his creator functions. According to Bhaktapur Brahman informants, Parvati is not properly called "Bhavani" until she becomes transformed into Parvati Devi, or Bhagavati, that is to say, the fully powerful manifest goddess. Bhavani sometimes is held to mean Siva's consort, stressing the Shaivite connection, but sometimes to mean the " naki(n) " of ''mistress'' of existence, which emphasizes the goddess as the supreme creator. [BACK]

50. Bhisi(n) is only one of the protective deities choosen by Newar trades-men and shopkeepers in other places. In other Newar communities Laksmi is said to be the most popular of their deities. Bhisi(n)'s central status for them in Bhaktapur is special to that city. [BACK]

51. As Toffin notes Nasa Dya: and some other figures m the Newar pantheon "clearly have non-Indian roots. These autochthonous elements represent that part of the religious heritage that is authentically Newar. . . . Unfortunately our knowledge of the pre-Indian substrate is too limited to determine precisely its role in contemporary Newar religious life" (1984, 422 [our translation]). [BACK]

52. Akasa Bhairava, in Bhaktapur a severed head, is described m Puranic^{[ *]} accounts as having cut off the head of Brahma who had enraged Siva. In some of the versions Bhairava was forced to continue to carry Brahma's severed head with him because of his great sin. He was finally able to purify himself and get rid of Brahma's head (which m some versions had become stuck to his palm) in Benares, at a place that is still commemorated (Mani 1975, 115; Sahai 1975, 119, O'Flaherty 1973, 124). [BACK]

53. These eight Bhairavas (for their names, see Kölver [1976, 69-71]) are those eight forms traditionally designated as the "leaders" of the eight major groups of Bhairavas, each group containing, in turn, eight lesser Bhairavas (Sahai 1975, 121). [BACK]

54. The slits in the walls of houses, which allow supernatural serpents, Nagas (and other vague spirits), to enter and, more importantly, to leave the house, are sometimes identified with Bhairava. These slits are called "Dya: la(n)," or god paths, and are also identified with a dangerous form of Hanuman as Hanuman Bhairava, and variously called "Hanuman," "Bhaila Dya:," "Nasa Dya:," or "Naga" holes. [BACK]

55. Among the non-Newar Hindu Chetri the lineage gods are also represented by stones generally found outside the village (K. B. Bista 1972, 66). [BACK]

56. Toranas^{[ *]} , which commonly are placed behind or over figures of divinity, are in Bhaktapur often carved with a demonic protective figure at their apex. This figure, Che(n)pha: God, represented with a lion's head, sometimes with horns, is said to be the brother of Garuda^{[ *]} , to whom he is related in local legends. He is iconographically related to the demon-like South Asian form Kirtimukha. Some arches have Garuda^{[ *]} himself as the protective figure at the apex. [BACK]

57. Niels Gutschow remarks (personal communication) that there are some particular stones in the city that represent (or are) naga s and that can be worshiped and placated. [BACK]

58. According to Toffin (1984, 488), the chwasa is identified in some Newar communities "by women" as the goddess Ajima. "Ajima" is a respect title for "grandmother" and is used in Bhaktapur with additional qualifying terms, as we have noted, to refer to various major dangerous goddesses. [BACK]

59. According to Manandhar (1976, 37), Buddhist priests similarly believe that the chwasa is "the location of an image of Siva." [BACK]

60. For the Biska: festival Swatuna Bhairawa represents the place where Bhairava descended into the ground in an attempt to escape his angry consort Bhadrakali^{[ *]} . The attempt was only partially successful in that she seized his head and cut it off; the headless body escaped. This movement is consonant with the idea of the stone deities as transitions to the underground. [BACK]

61. These are the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, plus two more (Rahu and Ketu) representing the ascending and descending nodes of the moon where it crosses the ecliptic and, thus, the "dangerous" points where eclipses may occur. [BACK]

62. The various particular kinds of influence—neutral, auspicious, and inauspicious—of each of the Navagraha are also reflected m the auspiciousness or inauspiciousness of particular days of the week for various activities, each day of the week having its particular presiding Graha . [BACK]

63. Bhaktapur's shrines of Jagannatha, Ramasvara, Kedarnatha, and Badrinatha "were conceived as substitutes for four famous Indian tirtha s, to which the king's subjects could more easily repair in their own city square" (Slusser 1982, vol. 1, p. 207). She has some notes on their construction. [BACK]

64. "Annapurna^{[ *]} , 'Giver (or possessor) of food.' A household goddess who is a beneficent form of Durga. Her worship ensures that the household and the world shall never lack food" (Stutley and Stutley 1977, 14). [BACK]

65. In South Asia the persisting preta is generally associated with greediness and a hunger and thirst that cannot be assuaged. For example, "to linger as a preta is the most dreaded of all states, for a preta has a throat as narrow as the eye of a needle, so it can neither drink water nor breathe, and its shape is such that it can never stand or sit, but it is for ever flying m the wind." Stevenson, from whom this quotation is taken (1920, 191), goes on to say that, the preta "continues in that terrible state not . . . owing to any bad karma it has acquired, but, generally, owing to the way m which its Sraddha^{[ *]} [death ritual] has been either omitted or bungled. There is, however, another thing that may hold a spirit in this terrible condition, and that is the force of its unfulfilled desires." [BACK]

66. The bhutalpreta distinction is vague and varies for different people, and in different communities. In his Kathmandu Newari dictionary Manandhar (1976, 409) defines " bhuta " as "a ghost, spirit of a dead person." Stevenson (1920, 161) says that the preta may become a bhuta , "a malignant spirit."

Stutley and Stutley (1977, 47) indicate that bhuta were a special class of created malignant beings, who later became assimilated, in part at least, with the malevolent qualities of "particular pretas such as those who have met with violent deaths, or who have died without the performance of the correct funerary rites." [BACK]

67. D. R. Regmi believes that the khya is derived from the ancient Indian forest spirit the Yaksa^{[ *]} (1969, 31). [BACK]

68. The numbers of deities in household pantheons are of the same order, however, as Roberts, Chiao, and Pandey's numbers. [BACK]

69. As we have seen, differentiations based on "elementary family groupings" only—and significantly—apply to one component of Bhaktapur's pantheon, the benign major deities. [BACK]

70. Some of the historical residues that are represented in a "religious" object or event may in a global way give it its canonical validity. They give force to the object or event from the very fact that they are "traditional" yet not presently understandable. Compare Rappaport (1979) on the "sacred" implications of traditional invariants in ritual. [BACK]

71. The epitome is St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans (i. 20-24). "Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles . . . they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator." [BACK]

72. "Horror stories," as exemplified by Dracula , are familiar modern examples. See Levy (1985), which contrasts horror stories as explorations of the moral periphery of a community with tragedy as portrayals of their moral centers. [BACK]

73. The iconographic features of Hindu gods are discussed in the books on Nepalese art history mentioned above and exhaustively for South Asian icons in Rao (1971), Banerjea (1956), and Sahai (1975). [BACK]

74. Totagadde's terms for this " devates " group includes " buta ." [BACK]

75. Both these terms refer to a sort of general deity, which has successively differentiated concrete forms that add specific attributes and functions to the general characteristics of the term. Each level of differentiation is a being, a deva in itself. Wadley notes the contrast between what we have called the "generative powers" of the more abstract beings to the concrete, embodied powers of the more and more specialized manifestations: "We move from the least differentiated beings (with the broadest powers) in the first deity class to the most differentiated beings (the most marked beings with the most defined powers) in the last class. The more differentiated, more marked beings are most likely to be found acting in the world of men or to have derived mythologically from the world of men. Related to the amount of specification (differentiation) of deities is the ideas of powers as embodied. Bhagavan , only vaguely anthropomorphized, represents largely unembodied powers—and the least differentiated powers" (1975, 145). [BACK]

1. They had capured a pig and drunk its blood, thus making it impossible for the Brahman to take them back into his home. [BACK]

2. One upper-status interview respondent, a noninitiate, described such uses of Tantrism as "traditional Hindu science," which was falling into disuse because it was being replaced by Western alternative techniques of power such as medicines. [BACK]

3. The low Jugi thar , which has some customs and traditions relating it to an historical yogic sect (chap. 10), has some rudimentary Tantric aspects in its initiations. Some of the Jugi's public functions, notably their performances as Siva, are interpreted by upper thar s as having some Tantric meaning and power, and members of the upper thar s imagine that the Jugis have private Tantric knowledge. [BACK]

4. There are Tantric elements or references m Bhaktapur's ordinary pujas . The sukunda (see below) with its references to Siva and Sakti is used in many Newar pujas , and aspects of the diagrams on which puja equiment is placed, some of the hand gestures used m the pujas , and so on, are understood by the priests, although not by uninitiated participants, to have some Tantric references. This is thought by local Brahmans to represent a difference between Newar ordinary pujas and Indo-Nepalese ones. [BACK]

5. Beyer (1973) devotes an entire long volume to a detailed description and exegesis of a Tibetan Tantric puja . Van Kooij (1972) provides a detailed discussion of Hindu Tantric worship. For other sources on Tantric procedures, see Gupta, Hoens, and Goudriaan (1979). [BACK]

6. " Aila " is renamed " nya(n) " in Tantric ritual contexts. [BACK]

7. A "right-handed method" was associated with the "purely internal worship" of Sakti. Such worshippers "abhorred the use of wine and other unconventional ritual items. The term Vamacara . . . became established for the time-honored Sakta use of wine and meat, and perhaps also other antinomian elements in their ritual" (Gupta et al. 1979, 44). [BACK]

8. The significance of mudra as one of the five makaras is generally assumed to be in reference to the supposed aphrodisiacal power of the substances usually used as mudra , parched grain and kidney beans (see Stutley and Stutley 1977, p. 195). They note that m Buddhist Tantrism, the word may be applied to a female adept. In Gupta et al. (1979), Hoens has a comment on this latter use. " Mudra sometimes denotes the sadhaka 's female partner or [the] wife of a deity but in that sense it is almost exclusively confined to the Buddhist Tantras. Mudra is the fourth of the five makaras used in Kaula types of Tantric rituals, where in modern times it stands for parched rice, some other cereal or savory titbit. Nevertheless one wonders whether originally it did not mean a female partner" (Gupta, Hoens, and Goudriaan 1979, 117). [BACK]

9. "Kaula Tantrics always follow the most orthodox form of esoteric rites involving the practice of drinking alcohol, eating meat and fish, and having sexual intercourse with a chosen partner during puja . The partner is sublimated to the position of the goddess and is called "Sakti. " She is initiated m the sect and, at the time puja is consecrated and worshiped. Her face, breasts and sex organ are specially revered. The Tantric exerts himself to please her with food, drink and gifts" (Gupta, Hoens, and Goudriaan 1979, 147n.). [BACK]

10. As we will see in a later section, there is evidence that human sacrifice probably once existed m Bhaktapur as part of the worship of the dangerous deities. The killing would have been a sacred act, having been done in the correct ritual context, and the victim would have received liberation, or mukti . This is the sort of transformation of what would otherwise be a crime or a "great sin," a mahapapa , into a positive religious action that otherwise illicit sexual practices in a Tantric context would have represented, and suggests a climate in which they may have been more likely than in recent decades or perhaps centuries. [BACK]

11. Gopal Singh Nepali remarked that the Indo-Nepalese Brahmans of Nepal refused to accept the Newar Brahmans as their equals because they are priests to the Newars "whose domestic ceremonies are similar to those of the Sudras. An additional reason is purported to be the influence of Tantrism on them, involving use of liquor" (1965, 152). [BACK]

12. A Tantric puja may, for example, be required, on the advice of some religious expert, in response to some offense to a Tantric deity, particularly to the Aga(n) God itself. [BACK]

13. Non-Tantric pujas are not necessarily less expensive than Tantric ones, and some of the Brahman-assisted dhala(n) danegu pujas (app. 4) may be quite expensive. [BACK]

14. The shift from Tantric to non-Tantric pujas seems to be part of the weakening of the phuki group and a consequent emphasis on the household, and is allied with other recent shifts toward a more "modern" type of Hinduism. [BACK]

15. When the mandalic^{[ *]} pitha is a center of worship, people first go to the twa: Ganesa^{[ *]} temple, then to the Aga(n) God to make a perfunctory offering, and finally to the pitha for the main puja . In the case where Aga(n) House pujas are at the center worshipers again go first to the twa: Ganesa^{[ *]} temple, but then to the mandalic^{[ *]} pitha to make a perfunctory offering, and finally to the Aga(n) House for the main worship. An Acaju can be delegated to do the early parts of the sequence. [BACK]

16. The comparative meanings and uses of Digu Gods and Aga(n) Gods are different in Newar villages, which lack the social complexity of Bhaktapur (cf. Toffin 1984, 76-81). [BACK]

17. The people who m legend brought Tantric forces into the city, such as Harisimhadeva^{[ *]} , who brought Taleju, and the Brahman Tantric expert, who introduced the Nine Durgas, are very high-status people. The presence of Tantric Aga(n) Gods within the city in the possession of high-status families is consonant with this association of high status and legitimate Tantric power. [BACK]

18. In the case of need a family section of a relatively poor phuki sometimes moves into the Aga(n) House, relegating the worship area to an isolated section. [BACK]

19. The expenses of the Aga(n) House are sometimes supported by the proceeds from family-owned farmland set apart as a special land grant. The farmers who farm the land pay rent or give some of the land's yield to the phuki . The famers also have some responsibilities toward the protection and maintenance of the Aga(n) House. This system of support, like others based on upper-status land ownership, has begun to disappear because of land reform and the changes in the famers' socioeconomic status. [BACK]

20. Some texts on the Newars refer to the Aga(n) Room as the "Agama Room," and the Aga(n) House as the "Agama House." This is said in Bhaktapur to be a "Nepali" or a "foreign" usage and is not used locally. The Aga(n) image itself is reportedly sometimes called ''Aga(n)ma,'' said to be a contraction of Aga(n) maju , " maju " being an honorific appellation of some dangerous goddesses. The term Aga(n)ma has been confused with the term "Agama", which designates traditional Tantric and non-Vedic texts. [BACK]

21. Slusser gives as alternate names "Degu," "Deguli," "Dehuri," "Digu," and "Devali puja ." "Dugu," meaning "goat," refers to the animal often sacrificed to the Digu God. It is a common "vulgar" term for the deity in ordinary usage in Bhaktapur. [BACK]

22. There are some thar s whose members believe they all have a common ancestor and thus must marry into other thar s at the same status level. Such a thar may have only one Digu shrine for the entire thar . There are other thar s whose members believe that they are in the same thar because their ancestors although unrelated shared some common trade or historical origin. It is for this latter group and for those thar s who believe that their common ancestor is now so distant in time as to no longer require thar exogamy that the Digu God shrines are significant markers. In Bhaktapur's cultural mosaic all this is further complicated in that among some, at least, of the low thar s the deity they call their "Digu God" is of a different significance. The Jugi, for example, say that they all have the same Digu God, but they have intermarrying sections. [BACK]

23. Building a new Aga(n) House is an expensive undertaking, and sometimes the same Aga(n) House may continue to be used for some period of time by two or more split- phuki groups who use it at different times. [BACK]

24. In some South Asian contexts istadevata implies a personal deity m a modern sense, often in the context of Bhakti religion. Thus, the choice a person makes of an istadevata "is a radical, ultimate choice, an act of faith involving his total person and life. It also has the aspect of a 'voluntary association,' and he enjoys a 'freedom' to make his choice m worshiping a deity, regardless of group, family, caste, and other ties, including the kuladevata" (T. K. Venkateswaran 1968, 159). This description is alien to traditional Bhaktapur, however, where one's istadevata is one's family deity. [BACK]

25. Those Rajopadhyaya Brahmans who are attached to the Taleju temple usually become initiated into this stage at much younger ages than other high-status candidates. In addition to the three levels of dekha , the Taleju Brahmans must undergo further initiations to understand and participate in Taleju worship. These are not properly dekha , but are called "elevations" or tha taegu (see chap. 8 on Taleju). [BACK]

26. This is not to say that there may not be some individuals in Bhaktapur who may have this belief and who, indeed, may not know more profound Tantric meditative techniques, and who may not have experienced the more profound personal experiences that are the ideal goals of the practice. However, such virtuosi, if they exist, are hardly representative of what, to all accessible evidence, seems to be experienced and believed even by advanced Brahman practitioners. [BACK]

27. Their main images are at the household shrine near the cooking area on the top floor. [BACK]

28. Goudriaan, in listing the constituents of Tantrism, includes as one of them the "realization of the supernatural world by specific methods of meditations ( dhyana ), involving in the first place the creation of mental images or pictures of gods and goddesses who may be worshiped internally. The deity thus created may be invoked for social, especially medical, aims" (Gupta, Hoens, and Goudriaan 1979, 8). [BACK]

29. We will consider the royal and aristocratic implications of Tantrism for Bhaktapur in conjunction with the relation of king and Brahman in later chapters. [BACK]

30. The last chema puja prior to this study had been some ten years earlier, in 1962, when the astral grahas had all been in conjunction, a sign of great danger portending perhaps a major earthquake. Ceremonies lasted about two weeks throughout the entire city. [BACK]

31. The various specialized craftsmen who contribute to the masks and other images of the Devi cycle and the people who are possessed by and who perform as the Nine Durgas (chap. 15) are enabled to do this because of the powerful Tantric mantras that are (or were in the past) transmitted to them by high-status, initiated Brahmans. [BACK]

32. When considered in relation to function the clapper of a bell may be considered as sakti in relation to the bell itself; when considered in relation to sexual imagery, the clapper would be male, Siva, and the enveloping bell itself would be Sakti. [BACK]

33. All this is related to the issue of the differences in the relations between male and female deities among the benign deities and the dangerous deities, which we discussed m chapter 8. [BACK]

34. They cannot be ranked by some unifying scale of purity, for the benign gods are supremely pure, while the dangerous gods belong to a realm where conditions of purity and impurity are irrelevant. [BACK]

35. As we will see later, in the public religion of the city most vividly and clearly in the Nine Durgas performances (chap. 15), much of the "message" of sacrifice is specifically directed to male citizens of the city. The preferential sacrifice of male animals was general m South Asia. Kane quotes the Kalika Purana^{[ *]} , which after an extensive listing of animals proper to be sacrificed to Devi (the list including human beings and "blood from one's own body"), adds that ''females of the species specified . . . were not to be offered as bali and the person who did so would go to hell" (1968-1971, vol. V, p. 164). Whatever additional meanings that Hindu or Newar emphases on male sacrifice may have, since neolithic times the sacrifice of male rather than female animals has been everywhere more prevalent m large part because of the critical relation of the number of female livestock to the quantity of births and thus new stock. [BACK]

36. As Kane puts it, "The convenient belief from very ancient rimes has been that a victim offered m sacrifice to gods and pitrs^{[ *]} went to heaven. . .. Hemadri quotes verses saying that all the animals such as the buffalo that are employed for (gratifying) Devi go to heaven and those that kill them incur no sin" (1968-1977, vol. V, 168). [BACK]

37. Stevenson reported of Kathiawar^{[ *]} that when "non-Brahmans are about to offer a goat at Dasera [the Newars' Mohani] the shaking and quivering of the goat is a clear sign that it is acceptable" (1920, 122). She implies that this is associated with an idea of the possession of the goat by the deity. [BACK]

38. In some Bhaktapur households which are relatively modernized, secularized and, therefore, closer to general Nepalese culture, animals that are sacrificed primarily for feasts—and therefore with perfunctory ritual—are sometimes decapitated. [BACK]

39. In contrast to the killing of animals for food, the killing of wild "game" for sport by Ksatriyas^{[ *]} has generally in South Asia been considered a nonstigmatizing aristocratic activity, like the killing of foes in warfare (compare the discussion of king and Brahman in chap. 10). [BACK]

40. The highest-status public sacrificer is the Acaju, who performs the sacrifice for, "in the name of," the leading client. Sometimes when an animal is dedicated and offered at a mandalic^{[ *]} pitha , or at a local temple of Ganesa^{[ *]} , the killing may be done by some member of one of the low castes, a Po(n), Jugi, or Nae, who may be attached to the temple as a "guardian," a dya: pala . [BACK]

41. K. B. Bista notes, without giving details, "festivals of the head" among at least two non-Newar Chetri groups, in which the head of the sacrificial animal is shared at a special feast for the leading male members of the family group (1972, 104, 107). [BACK]

42. Among the Po(n)s there are occasions, such as following the birth of a child, when a pig sacrifice is made and the siu is distributed m hierarchical order among family women only. [BACK]

43. This and the following quotations are from tape-recorded interviews. R. L.'s questions in the interviews are given in parentheses. [BACK]

44. As Kierkegaard put it in relation to Abraham's imminent sacrifice of Isaac, unless Abraham doubted the meaning of his act and thus suspected that the sacrifice of his son might possibly be only a common murder—and of an exceptionally reprehensible sort—his faith had no significance. "The ethical expression for what Abraham did is, that he would murder Isaac; the religious expression is, that he would sacrifice Isaac; but precisely in this contradiction consists the dread which can well make a man sleepless, and yet Abraham is not what he is without this dread" (Kierkegaard [1843] 1954, 41). I have previously used this quotation (1973, 352) to suggest the kind of ethical dilemmas that Tahitian village society tries to avoid, and is generally able to avoid, but which, in contrast, proliferate in complex societies such as Bhaktapur's, giving rise to new problems, solutions, and sensibilities. [BACK]

45. The secret religion of the cellular groups corresponds to Fustel's conception of the cellular aspects of family religion in the ancient Indo-European city. "Each family has its religion, its gods, its priesthood. Religious isolation is a law with it; its ceremonies are secret" (Fustel de Coulanges 1956, 113). [BACK]

46. This cellular privacy also greatly reduces the number of things that any competent citizen must know about. Thus, aspects of information management in a complex traditional society are also at issue here. [BACK]

47. In other kinds of societies and historical conditions full secrecy may, of course, exist (alongside of groups who will, like the groups in Bhaktapur, advertise that they have secrets), and its symbolic implications will be directed entirely toward the members within the unit which holds the secrets. [BACK]

48. Of course, the danger is also to the holders of the secret, who, like the Wizard of Oz, may lose the power of the secret if it becomes public knowledge. Insofar as this brings about the collapse of the sociocultural system organized through secrets, however, it is also a genuine threat to the violator. [BACK]

49. The loss of the secrets of an urban unit with a resulting loss of the differentiation of information is analogous m part to the social uses, conceptions, emotional implications, and metaphorical extensions of "purity" and "impurity" (chap. 11). [BACK]

50. As we have discussed, this escape from the constraints of ordinary logic and fixed social relations and physical forms is an important part of the legends, classification, appearance, and behavior of the dangerous deities m contrast to the ordinary ones. [BACK]

51. Newar Brahmans, because they are both "ordinary" priests and Tantric gurus , embody the opposition of being guardians of the moral realm and guides to its proper violation. [BACK]

1. A classic attempt to explore and resolve the moral paradoxes of the king's responsibilities is the Bhagavadgita. [BACK]

2. Some Rajopadhyaya Brahman individuals or families now use for some purposes the surname "Subedi" or "Sarma," a generalized Brahman name that does not distinguish them from other Nepalese Brahmans. [BACK]

3. The Rajopadhyaya Brahmans contrast themselves with the Partya Brahmans, among other ways, in that they, the Rajopadhyaya, are engaged only in proper Brahmanical activities. The Partya Brahmans' farming indicates for the Newars a fallen status. [BACK]

4. This displacement of the old Kanyakubja Brahmans and the building of the "substitute house" is referred to in the legend of the bringing of Taleju into Bhaktapur (chap. 8). [BACK]

5. This reference to the shortage of families from which the new Rajopadhyaya Brahmans could take wives suggests the possibility that the two groups of Valley Brahmans although supposedly both from Kanyakubja may have refused to intermarry, and that the earlier Brahmans were in fact displaced by the later ones. [BACK]

6. D. R. Regmi, discussing the Brahmans in Malla Newar society, notes that some of the chronicles state that the Valley Brahmans were divided into two groups, one made up of "five divisions" of North Indian Brahmans and the other of "five divisions" of South Indian Brahmans. He goes on to say, "There is no trace of ... [these] Brahmans [within organized Newar society] other than those belonging to one branch, those known as the Kanaujiyas. It was true that some Brahman families came from South India. There were [also] many families who came also from Mithila and Bengal. But these never rendered priestly functions to the community. As such they were kept outside the pale of the Nepalese caste structure" (1965-1966, part 1, p. 679). [BACK]

7. There is another inferior group of Brahmans, usually referred to as the "Lakhae Brahmans," who although they use the that name "Rajopadhyaya," are at present an entirely different group than the dominant Rajopadhyaya Brahmans. (See the next section in the text.) [BACK]

8. These thar s are Malla, Hada, Hoda^{[ *]} , Pradanana^{[ *]} , Ujha(n)thache(n), Gwa(n)ga, Jo(n)che(n), and Bijukche(n). [BACK]

9. Pressures of modernization and economics have caused changes in recent years. Many Rajopadhyaya Brahmans are now seeking some position in the modernized Kathmandu Valley society commensurate with their traditional status. [BACK]

10. The Rajopadhyaya Brahmans are well aware of the stigmatizing implication of dana offered them in connection with death and illness in other contexts, and some say that they do not accept such offerings. We will return to the implication of payments to Brahmans below. [BACK]

11. Taleju's focal festival, Mohani, requires three astrologically determined saits or proper times, but these, which coordinate the timing of Taleju's activities in each of the old Newar cities, are made by the central government's Royal Astrologer, a non-Newar. Only some comparatively minor astrological determinations are made in relation to Taleju's activities by the Bhaktapur Temple's own Josis during this festival (chap. 15). [BACK]

12. Astrological work for the lower-middle and marginally clean thar s is often done by Buddhist Vajracarya priests. [BACK]

13. The word " dasa ," when used without a context specifically meaning "good," implies "bad fortune.'' [BACK]

14. It is possible by a secondary use of Karmic theory to say that the reason that a person has a had relation to the astrological forces is because of his or her bad karma . This is a more abstract, theoretical use of " karma ." [BACK]

15. In some early accounts and later chronicles (e.g., Hamilton [1819] 1971; Basnet [1878] 1981; Lévi 1905) the Josi (written "Jaisi" or "Jausi") are described as a high-status mixed group derived from the marriage of a Brahman and a non-Brahman Newar woman who had subsections variously doing divination, astrology, medicine, and priestly work. Hamilton ranks them above "Shresta," that is, above Chathariya, as some middle-ranked and low-ranked people still do. [BACK]

16. In the other Newar cities some, at least, Acaju families are at the Chathar level. [BACK]

17. Characteristically, the term "Tini" is not used in their presence, where its use would be considered disrespectful. In their presence they are referred to as "Sivacarya" and addressed as "Pujari." [BACK]

18. We only know of one passing reference to the Tim in older lists of Newar status groups (Chattopadhyay 1923, 506). [BACK]

19. The gha:su: jagye ceremony is said to be a shortened version of a fire offering to Bhairava (called a Bhairavagni ) made once a year in the main Bhairava temple. [BACK]

20. Members of the Cyo thar , which is at level XI, officiate as a "sort of a priest" during one phase of the ceremonies at the cremation grounds lust prior to the cremation itself in the death ceremonies of upper-level thar s. [BACK]

21. There are, in fact, still three Pasi families living in Bhaktapur, but they no longer do this traditional and stigmatizing work. [BACK]

22. One of these is a linga^{[ *]} representing Siva as Hatakeswar^{[ *]} , "a god who comes from under the earth," made of special clay dug from deep under the surface, a kind of linga^{[ *]} that can be properly made only by a Bha. [BACK]

23. In a very significant contrast to the untouchable and near untouchable thar s who have been forced to remain in their traditional positions and to perform their traditional functions through various social and economic sanctions, the members of the marginally polluting thar s find it much easier to drop the status-depressing, polluting, and embarrassing traditional functions of their that for other kinds of work, often in farming or the modern sector of Bhaktapur's economy. Thus many Bha families have farms, shops, or small restaurants, and have members who are in government service or are school teachers. [BACK]

24. Toffin describes this service by the Bha for the high Hindu thar s of Panauti where a bit of bone from the dead persons skull is mixed with a food offering presented to the Bha. Toffin says that this practice is for the purpose of evicting the spirit of the dead, of chasing it from the house by "identifying" it with the Bha (1984, 290). [BACK]

25. This is said to have been done by a Partya Brahman in connection with the death ritual of the last king of Nepal. The Brahman is said to have had to leave Nepal and to have gone to India. [BACK]

26. Hamilton, in one of the earliest Western accounts of the Newars, presents a passage that bears on the activities and status of the Tini, Bhatta^{[ *]} Brahmans, and Bha, "The Achars [by whom he seems to mean Newar Brahmans and auxiliary priests] have among them certain men who perform the ceremonies necessary to free from sin the souls of those who die on certain unfortunate days. This ceremony they call Horn. The [non-Newar] Brahmans perform similar rites, which they call Pushkarasanti. The Hindus believe that if this ceremony is neglected all the relations of the deceased will perish. By this ceremony the officiating priest is supposed to take upon himself the sin of the departed soul; and if, in its performance, he commits any mistake, he incurs certain destruction from the wrath of the Deity. The office is therefore shunned by men of high rank, both as sinful and dangerous. The Achars who perform this ceremony are calculated Gulcul, and cannot intermarry with those of the first rank" ([1819] 1971, 31). [BACK]

27. Todd Lewis, in his study of the Newar Buddhist Tuladhars of Kathmandu, writes that "most" of them believe that the Newar Brahmans are at the top of their (the Tuladhars') caste system (1984, 148). A survey of Bhaktapur's various Buddhist thar s on this issue would be of considerable interest. Insofar as Lewis's findings might hold in general, the elevation of the Brahmans in the conceptions of nonpriestly Newar Buddhists may reflect an inference by Buddhist laymen that the status of the Vajracarya unprotected by an allocation of contaminating functions to others is lower than the Brahmans, an inference deriving from the logic of the purity-based status system—which the Newar Buddhists accept. [BACK]

28. This "permanent attachment" is in many ways problematic, and must be reinforced by ensuring often through physical and economic force that the low thar s continue to perform clearly polluting functions and live m polluting circumstances. [BACK]

29. As we have noted in chapter 9, the Ksatriya^{[ *]} groups could kill (and eat) animals in the course of war-like hunting and could kill human beings in the course of war without its having a lowering effect on their status. They were following their special kind of Ksatriya^{[ *]} " meta-dharma ." [BACK]

30. In popular (and erroneous) folk explanation it refers to "eating the God's meat" ( la ), that is, the offering to the Tantric Astamatrkas^{[ *]} . [BACK]

31. According to Niels Gutschow (personal communication), the main source of temple-caring income for the Po(n)s comes from their assignment to the Surya Vinayaka temple (chap. 8), which, like the pithas , is outside the city's boundaries. [BACK]

32. The Po(n) have one uniquely nonpolluting role to play in Bhaktapur on the fifth day of the solar New Year festival Biska: (chap. 14). [BACK]

33. "Jugi," "Darsandhari^{[ *]} ," and ''Kapali" are terms derived from that group's yogic tradition; "Kusle" or ''Kusale" is a Nepali term referring to hereditary tailoring groups, one of the Jugis' professions. [BACK]

34. D. R. Regmi, however, characterizes the first Jugis in Nepal as "Nepalese mendicants" of the Gorakhnath school and contrasts them with the Kanphata^{[ *]} yogis themselves who arrived later in Nepal and became associated with the Valley Matsyendrantha cult, and "who do not belong to Newar society" (1965-1966, part II, p. 756). Briggs (1938), supporting a possible origin of those "mendicants" in the yogic order, gives many examples of descendants of Kanphata^{[ *]} yogis whose occupations and status resemble those of the present Newar Jugis. [BACK]

35. In their musical performances they use other instruments—drums and cymbals—as well, but these instruments are not special or restricted to them. [BACK]

36. This is on the fifth day for a Brahman, on the fifth or seventh day for various Chathariya and Pa(n)cthariya thar , and generally on the seventh day for Jyapu-level thar s. [BACK]

37. The Jugi who goes to a particular chwasa may live anywhere m the city. "One Jugi may own rights at five different chwasas , and three Jugis may have divided their rights at one chwasa . These rights are occasionally sold to others" (Gutschow, personal communication). [BACK]

38. The Bha: also, in the case of high-status chents, incorporates part of their body substance. This magical gesture is only tangentially related to the symbolism of the flow of impurity, and in some cases, as we have noted, previously required the exile of the Bha:. [BACK]

39. In fact, as we will discuss elsewhere, this is a matter of very vestigial forms used in the course of initiations into certain thar activities, such as the beginning of the study of the musical instrument, the mwali . The Jugi now, in Bhaktapur at least, do not know or use traditional yogic practices, and, in contrast to upper thar s with Tantric initiation, do not perform meditation. This is, in fact, characteristic of even those who remained fully in the Kanphata^{[ *]} tradition. As Briggs wrote in the early decades of this century, there seemed to be little knowledge of their texts and only limited practice of Yoga among them ([1938] 1973, 251). [BACK]

40. That is, we are excluding here those religious structures that are Newar Buddhist and whose attending priests are the Vajracarya, and the Mathas^{[ *]} , the centers for visiting Shaivite ascetics from elsewhere in South Asia, whose presiding priests, or mahantas , are Ja(n)gam, Gin, and Puri of Indian origin. [BACK]

41. For the three or four temples that had more than one priest, only the major pujari is listed. [BACK]

42. For example, "The Brahmans, being in principle priests, occupy the supreme rank with respect to the whole set of castes" (Dumont 1980, 47). [BACK]

1. A similar point was made earlier by Gabriel Campbell, who adds the observation that the transcendence of the categories of purity and impurity may characterize children as well as ascetics, and thus be prior to social differentiation. "Children are buried [rather than being cremated] because they are social and ritual non-entities; they have not completed the transition into human society . . . although the child is born in relative impurity, his nakedness and innocence is relative purity. . .. In the burial [rather than cremation] of saints [that is, Hindu ascetics] exactly the same structural relation to society holds as in the burial of children. Thus the saint is also outside of society both socially and ritually. He is casteless, without a family, and although m a state of basic purity, really exists outside the system of purity and pollution as it affects normal householders. . .. Cremation is necessitated by 'separateness,' by a social and ritual 'individuality'; whereas the relationship of the child and the saint to Brahman, the pervading Soul, is precisely one of non-separation, or non-individuality" (1976, 118-119). Burial rather than cremation is done in Bhaktapur for infants and young children and for Bhaktapur's historically renouncer group, the Jugi. It should be noted, however, that infants and young children who would not be cremated if they died are nonetheless purified in many thar s, albeit in a perfunctory manner, following death and birth pollution in the family. [BACK]

2. As Veena Das remarks, Van Gennep (1909) had in his seminal Les Rites de Passage already "emphasized the threatening nature of all liminalities—intellectual, social, and cosmic. He pointed out that being unclassifiable, these liminalities have the potential of disrupting the particular classifications imposed by man on his given reality" (Das 1977, 117). [BACK]

3. See the discussion of these theorists in Douglas (1968, 336f.). [BACK]

4. "Even those who have incurred impurity (on death, etc.) are enjoined to do certain religious acts such as offering water to the deceased" (Kane 1968-1977, vol. IV, p. 268). We noted in chapter 6 (In the discussion of menstrual disabilities) that menstruating women—and polluted men—may worship the Tantric lineage deity and do daily household worship, but in areas away from the shrines, and by making use of imagined images of the deities. [BACK]

5. "Thus the precise rules for the purification of the body have been declared to you; hear now the decision of the law regarding the purification of the various inanimate things" Laws of Manu V, 110 (Bühler 1969, 188). [BACK]

6. The radical possibilities of the escape from the Brahmanical dharma- supported status system when "inner impurity" is not only taken into account but given greater significance than "external impurity" is evident in the way that low castes can and do make use of the altered emphasis. Barnett and Barnett quote a South Indian untouchable, who argues "The caste man [a member of the clean castes] says if you touch a person who is not in the caste system, you will be polluted, but we deny caste. . . . Bathing is for external cleanliness only. . . . Our view of bathing and pollution is rational, theirs is traditional. . . . The caste man is not clean in heart while Adi-Dravidas [untouchables] are, since [we] . . .do not retaliate after mistreatment, and therefore surface dirt is irrelevant. . . . Brahmanical culture emphasized cow worship and sacrifice, not character'' (1974, 387f.; cited in Sara Dickey 1984). [BACK]

7. A person may have "impure" or "dirty" thoughts. These are one particular one sort of disturbed and disturbing thoughts, about which people feel variously shame or guilt or concern, but these are distinguished from, and are different sorts of problems than, physical impurities. [BACK]

8. The Po(n) and Jugi, like all thar s, high and low, have their own necessary purification procedures prior to rituals, and their own still lower status, and relatively degraded, eaters of cipa and collectors of impurity. In their own conception and action some, at least, and perhaps all of their own pollution might also be removed. But, they say, the conditions of their life make it impossible to avoid contamination as well as to devote themselves properly to religious activities. They may ascribe their fallen social condition to an act of a thar ancestor (the Jugis have an elaborate account of this), but this does not explain any "indwelling impurity," only the inherited conditions of life that render each generation and individual impure as a secondary consequence. [BACK]

9. Veena Das, emphasizing the relation of symbols of impurity to liminality, writes that "In the case of the symbolism of impurity, it is the peripheries of the body which are emphasized. Thus hair and nails, which figure prominently in this, have a peripheral position in relation to the body as they can both belong to the body and yet be outside it. It is significant that both the hair and nails are allowed to grow in a natural state to symbolize impurity" (1977, 127). [BACK]

10. There are three ritualized life-cycle events: birth, death, and menarche, which cause group pollution—which must be removed by purification at the end of the samskara proceedings. However, while the entire phuki is polluted by birth and death of its members—the shared pollution being one of the defining characteristics of a phuki group—the extent of pollution connected with menarche and menarche rites (see app. 6) varies according to the custom of individual thar s. In some thars all the phuki members are polluted; in others, only the parents of the girl. [BACK]

11. Compare the discussion by Veena Das (1977, 128f.) on the many problems in attempts to identify birth and death pollution with "caste pollution." [BACK]

12. The various "purificatory" acts that follow in the days after the main purification, which ends the official ten-day period of mourning after death—which is the purification referred to in this statement—can be seen as purging individuals and various places of dangerous, nondisgusting influences, that is, of "clean contaminants" (see app. 6). [BACK]

13. One metaphorical connection between "dirt" and birth and death is liminality. "The impurity of death marks off the mourners for the period when they are dealing with the liminal category of the preta ; similarly, birth impurity marks off the relatives of the new-born, till the child has been incorporated as a person, within the cosmic order" (Das 1977, 125). [BACK]

14. The idea of the effective transfer of a dangerous "substance" is general in South Asia as it is everywhere in the world. Stevenson noted that on the birthday of a Brahman boy in Kathiawar^{[ *]} a "lucky woman" is brought to wave her arms toward him, and then, cracking her knuckles against her forehead takes on herself his ill luck" (1920, 26). [BACK]

15. Manu lists various procedures for cleaning inanimate objects according to their constituent materials, using ashes, earth, water, fire, Kusa grass, hot water, mustard-seed oil, cow urine, and cow dung (Buhler^{[ *]} 1886, 188ff.). [BACK]

16. This is part of a general understanding that to be impure is a matter of discomfort and possible social embarrassment, but to cause someone or something (including oneself) to become polluted is a moral error, in the sense that it is a matter of personal responsibility. [BACK]

17. Lower thars, depending on their status and thar customs, make use of other personnel and procedures for purification. [BACK]

18. The Tulsi plant itself, associated with Visnu^{[ *]} , has various ritual uses. [BACK]

19. Nana is water that must be drawn on the same day it is used from a river, well, or tap, which must not be touched by a major source of contamination such as a menstruating woman, member of an unclean thar , or unclean animal. It is used for washing the face and hands in the morning, washing before puja s, the initial cleaning of puja equipment, and so forth. It is the least "powerful," the most ordinary, of the various kinds of pure water (app. 4). [BACK]

20. In most major purifications now only some nuchal hair is shaved off. Total shaving of the head (sparing an occipital tuft of hair) is generally restricted now to the closest male relatives in the purification following a death in the family. In some elaborate Tantric or ordinary puja s performed for some special purpose, however, both the officiating priests and the sponsor of the puja may have their head shaved during the preparatory purification. [BACK]

21. This may have been in part to prevent their use by a witch, a boksi , in "contagious magic." This possibility is known about but is considered a trivial risk. [BACK]

22. Although the Nau is not an untouchable, the minor bya(n)kegu after the Nau procedures may reflect to some degree a response to the Nau's borderline clean status as well as the completion of purification. Elsewhere, such as among the Coorgs as reported by Srinivas, "contact with a barber defiles a Coorg, and every Coorg has to take a purificatory bath after being shaved by a barber" (1952, 41). [BACK]

23. Veena Das's remarks cited above regarding the liminality of hair and nails, which both belong to the body and are at the same time outside of it, suggest that hair shaving and nail paring serve to delineate anew the clean boundaries of the body by dealing with the peripheral aspects of hair and nails as exuviae, first separating them and then distancing them from the body. [BACK]

24. Theoretically according to karmic theory the individual who has he-come polluted would be being punished for some past violation of the dharma , but, in fact, such theory is only made use of in special, and usually extreme and rare cases. [BACK]

25. Marriott and others (e.g., Marriott 1976, 1980; Marriott and Inden 1977) have interpreted some aspects of South Asian thought and behavior as based on conceptions of "dividuals" as open to a flow of substances which continually affect and constitute their individuality. These conceptions are widely represented in Bhaktapurian doctrine and ordinary discourse about the self. [BACK]

26. Disgust has something to do with powerful motivations for rejection of the ingestion of food or food-like substances. Only some kinds of substances that should not be ingested are disgusting; broken glass, for example, is not. "Disgusting substances" are organic and have some of the properties of food and thus represent some potential temptation for ingestion. "Disgust" implies a powerful blocking of a temptation for incorporation. In Bhaktapur the temptation to be "equal to all" has, for middle-status and upper-status people, a strong implication of being free to be equal to those lower on the scale. Dirtiness, rejection of hierarchical separations from lower-status people, and rejection of the special restrictive responsibilities associated with middle and upper status, are strongly tempting as well as threatening for middle-status and upper-status people in Bhaktapur for various reasons. Such temptations are associated, particularly for men, with a long period of freedom of association and action during childhood before the extensive differentiation, restrictions, and responsibilities that result from a sudden transition after initiation into full thar membership with the kaeta Puja rite of passage. The temptation is countered by obsession with the lowest thar 's contacts with dirt, particularly with feces, their evident dirtiness, and their "disgusting" moral behavior. [BACK]

27. An Important element in the marriage ceremonies of many thar s that also implies a unification of bodies is the ceremonial sharing by the bride and groom of food from the same dish, the sharing of each other's cipa (as it is phrased), which symbolizes the unification of the bridal pair. In upper-level thar s this is the only time that the husband takes the wife's cipa ; that is, following this unification, she, by taking his cipa , incorporates his and his lineage's substance, but he will not incorporate hers. [BACK]

28. In practice the persons who are concerned with contamination by contact with low-status people are mostly men—particularly Brahman men whose priestly activities would be compromised. Upper-status women's relatively domestic, household-centered life traditionally limited their chances of coming into contact with members of low thar s. [BACK]

29. The purification of ritual equipment and settings is, like individual purification, done through cleaning and washrag with various pure substances and varies, as does ordinary purification of the body, from perfunctory to elaborate. The condition to be achieved by such purification is usually phrased as making the area or equipment suddha or (more rarely, and mostly in Brahmanical usage) pavitra. "Suddha " means clean or pure in a general sense. " Pavitra " adds an additional meaning, it has been glossed as "pure, holy, sacred, sinless, etc." (Monier-Williams [1899] n.d.). Ritual equipment and areas not only are pure but also have supernatural power concentrated within the boundaries delineated by purification—and concentrated further in other smaller mandalic^{[ *]} circles drawn within the larger purified mandala^{[ *]} in which the supernatural aspects of the puja are located. " Pavitra ," as ''sacred,'' means both pure (i.e., clearly delineated) and powerful. Once the area and equipment are purified, the supernatural power is brought into them through additional procedures such as mantras and entreaties to the deities. [BACK]

30. This is complicated in Bhaktapur by the Rajopadhyaya Brahmans' esoteric functions as Tantric priests and the fact that they can eat certain meat. But when they are functioning as priests of the ordinary deities they share the purity and food restrictions which apply to those deities. [BACK]

1. The events that take place in multiple numbers of years are mela s, in which people from Bahktapur join masses of other Nepalis in a visit to some shrine elsewhere in the Kathmandu Valley or in wider Nepal. Most mela s are annual events that are only tangentially connected with the city order. There are four prominent nonannual ones, three of these taking place every twelve years, and one every thirty-three months. Calendrically determined or encouraged events with monthly, fortnightly, or weekly cycles are primarily matters of household and individual worship. Thus, Tuesdays, for example, are proper for Ganesa^{[ *]} worship, particularly if they fall on the fourth day of a lunar fortnight. The first day of each lunar fortnight is particularly proper for the worship of Visnu^{[ *]} , the full-moon day for worship of the moon, the fourteenth day of the dark lunar fortnight for worship of the dangerous goddesses, and so on. [BACK]

2. Manandhar defines " nakha :" as "a festival in which the central event involves a feast called nakhatya put on at home," and notes in his definition of " nakhatya " that it entails an invitation to women married out of the household (1976, 244). There are, in fact, some nakha cakha in which married out women are not, properly speaking, "invited" in that they must return to their natal homes as an integral part of the ceremony. [BACK]

3. There are, approximately, seventeen annual mela s in which some or many of Bhaktapur's citizens might participate. Among these six are intimately connected with the annual cycle, and are listed in the city's annual festival calendars. These are the events [4], [15], [32], [33], [35], and [51], discussed in the following chapters. (Please see chap. 13, last paragraph in "Introduction" section, for an explanation of these bracketed numbers.) Two of these take place at the same time as events within the city, but are not particularly connected with them. The remainder of the mela s, including those four that take place in multiple numbers of years, are not connected with city events. [BACK]

4. For an extended description of Nepalese and Hindu calendars and eras, see Slusser (1982, vol. 1, pp. 381-391). See also D. R. Regmi (1965-1966, part I, p. 49; part II, p. 793ff.), Gaborieau (1982), Freed and Freed (1964), and Kane (1968-1977, vol. V). [BACK]

5. For non-Newar Nepalis of Indian origin, the "Indo-Nepalese," and in some other parts of South Asia the lunar month begins on the day following the full moon (Gnanambal 1967, 4). [BACK]

6. These are, respectively, timila and khimila in Kathmandu Newari; mila , according to Manandhar (1976, 452), deriving from an old Newari term for moon. [BACK]

7. In practice, the Nepal, term au(n)si is usually used for the new-moon day. [BACK]

8. Traditionally the names of the solar months were those of the corresponding signs of the zodiac. Basham writes that the solar calendar was imported with ancient Western astronomy and is known to have been used since Gupta times onward, "although it did not oust the old luni-solar calendar until recent years" (1967, 495). He remarks that the Sanskrit names of the signs of the zodiac from which the names of the solar months were derived are almost exact translations of the Greek originals. [BACK]

9. Gnanambal's report (1967) on Indian "festivals" includes fourteen festivals (some of which have more than one component part and lasts more than one day) celebrated generally throughout India, in contrast to the many festivals restricted to one or to a group of states. [BACK]

10. The sequences and events of greatest integrative importance are Swanti, in relation to household organization, Biska:, Mohani, and the larger Devi cycle—within which the Mohani sequence is an element—in relation to the structure of the city and its environment, and Saparu as a central "antistructural" festival. [BACK]

1. As the Swanti sequence includes the lunar New Year's Day, its numbering contains the last and first days of the annual cycle. [BACK]

2. The ambiguity of the reference of many terms for this period (e.g., Divali, Dipavali, Tihar, Tiwar) as referring to a three-day or five-day span is more general than in the Newar case. Sometimes the terms designate a five-day period, sometimes they are applied to a three-day core period to which two additional days of events are added (e.g., Kane 1968-1977, vol. V, p. 194; see also "Tiwar," R. L. Turner 1965, 286). [BACK]

3. There are Puranic^{[ *]} references to gambling during this festival, which in some other parts of South Asia takes place on the fifth day of the sequence (Kane 1968-1977, vol. V, p. 203). According to Kane's reference, the gambling is conceived as an omen, forecasting whether the gambler would gain or loose his wealth during the course of the year. [BACK]

4. During the Rana period tents were set up in the city where large groups of townspeople could join together in gambling. [BACK]

5. Laksmi is called "Lachimi" in Bhaktapur, but we are following the convention for the festivals that we used in our discussion of the deities of using Sanskrit names for the major pan-Hindu deities. [BACK]

6. Certain upper-status families most closely derived from the Malla kings and their priests make a food offering to Taleju before the house puja to Laksmi, and they take an oil lamp from the Taleju temple to the household as one of the lights to be presented to Laksmi during the course of the household puja . [BACK]

7. The Brahmans and a few high-status Chathariya families who emulate them are an exception. They use Acajus rather than the household naki(n) to perform the worship. [BACK]

8. In G. S. Nepali's account of this ceremony for another Newar community, he was told that the mandalas^{[ *]} represent Yama, the deity of death. This is not the interpretation of our informants, but the symbolism of Yama is central to the Swanti sequence. Nepali also reports that the lamp wicks offered were as long as the height of the person to whom they were presented, and that their length symbolized the length of the life of the individual (1965, 381). The wicks offered in Bhaktapur are commonly about a foot in length, but very much longer than ordinary oil-amp wicks. [BACK]

9. In some Jyapu families the custom is, in fact, restricted to the worship of younger brothers by elder sisters. In the traditional Hindu account of the origin and practice of the puja , in India, the sister is primarily a younger sister, modeled on Yama's younger sister Yamuna (e.g., Kane, 1968-1977, vol. V, p. 2207f.). [BACK]

10. From here on our estimates of the importance of events for Bhaktapur will be given in a parenthetical note. [BACK]

11. Many of these days apparently had in the past, different names throughout the year for each one of their successive occurrences. Only a few such special names are known now, and even fewer of them now have any special differentiated current significance. [BACK]

12. The main temple image, considered the essential one and a form that is often hidden from the view of all except initiated priests, is never removed from the temple. [BACK]

13. Bhaktapur's main annual festival directed to the same purpose is Saparu [48]. [BACK]

14. The local tale goes that Kubera, the god of wealth, came to a house disguised as a beggar. The householders asked him in and offered him Ya: Marhi cakes to eat. The god revealed who he was and told his hosts that on that day henceforth their grain storeroom would always be filled. [BACK]

15. Iltis (1985) includes a full translation of one version of the collected stories. [BACK]

16. This is a peculiar combination of Newar and non-Newar traditions. The girls past the Ihi ceremony are always married in that they have had a mock-marriage to a deity. One of the purposes of this is to prevent the traditional Hindu stigmata of widowhood, as the social marriage is (in a restricted way) a secondary remarriage. The nonparticipation of Newar widows in the Swasthani ceremony implies, in this case, the acceptance of the ritual status of widow. [BACK]

17. The representation of Siva as a linga , or phallus, is a major theme in the Swasthani story, where it is an object of worship by Parvati, and a dangerous force that had to be controlled by Visnu^{[ *]} (Bennett 1983). [BACK]

18. Iltis, on the basis of discussions with Newar women reported that the large majority of women, in contrast with Bennett's reports on Chetri women, said that they did not participate in the vrata in order to overcome some particular problem, but rather "for merit and to help others, as well as to assure a continued good future" (1985, 611). There may well be problems here in the difference between local conventions about expressing a motive for a religious proceeding and the generally understood private motives. [BACK]

19. In connection with the reference to Lhasa it may be noted that Sarasvati is associated in some versions of this tale with the Vajrayana Buddhist deity Manjusri. [BACK]

20. As we will see when we discuss the spatial arrangements of the solar Biska: Festival, the Khware-Ga:hiti axis is part of the line dividing the city into lower and upper sections, which are marked and placed into opposition during that festival. The use of this route here adds to the sparse evidence for the association of the city's two major Visnu/Narayana^{[ *]} temples with city halves. [BACK]

21. If the woman was a widow she would present the eight cakes to her son, and if she had no son they were sent to the river and discarded there. [BACK]

22. The name of the Ca:re, "Sila," is in folk etymology, at least, associated with Sila , stone, which, in turn, is said to stand for Siva's linga , usually represented in stone. It is also alternatively said to derive from the name of the month, Silla. All ca:re s are in Saivite Hindu tradition associated with Siva. Kane notes that "The 14th tithi of the dark half of a month is called Sivaratri" but that this particular one is the Sivaratri, par excellence (1974, vol. V, p. 225). The association of the other ca:re s with Siva is played down in Bhaktapur's emphasis on the Goddess. [BACK]

23. Hunting is a Ksatriya^{[ *]} activity, and the hunter in Kane's version is a king. As we have seen in the discussion of Tantra, the transcendence or manipulation of the ordinary dharmic realm is a necessary characteristic of Ksatriya^{[ *]} religion. [BACK]

24. In Patan, in contrast, the Krsna^{[ *]} image carried in procession on this day is housed in one of the city's major and most imposing temples, a temple specially devoted to that deity. [BACK]

25. See Anderson (1973, chap. 34) for a description of the events of this day elsewhere in the Kathmandu Valley. [BACK]

26. In parts of India where the year began with the month of Caitra, this day was often in honor of Brahma. Kane notes, in passing, in a description of Caitra New Year events that in their course the worshiper should anoint his body with oil and take a bath (1968-1977, vol. V, p. 83). [BACK]

27. The previous day, the fourteenth is called "Matati Ca:re," the ca:re of the Mata Tirtha, but there are no special activities in Bhaktapur on this day beyond those of an ordinary ca:re . For some of the legends told about the pilgrimage site, see Anderson (1971, 51). [BACK]

28. As in many calendrical events, this requires planning and coordination for the movements of a woman who is both a daughter and a mother. [BACK]

30. Lewis (1984) has a detailed account of the annual festival calendar of the Newar Buddhist merchant group, the Tuladhars, in Kathmandu. [BACK]

31. Although the Buddha can be amalgamated to Hinduism as a minor avatar of Visnu^{[ *]} , the general doctrine, overt among Brahman theorists, is that any form that is believed to be divine by anyone and that is worshiped may be considered as a deity. [BACK]

32. The four deities of the Panauti Jatra are Bhadrakali^{[ *]} , Brahmani, Bhairava, and Indresvar Mahadeva. For a description of this event, "the culminating point of the religious year" at Panauti, see Toffin (1984, 509-520). [BACK]

33. The day of Hari Sayani in itself is a minor event. [BACK]

34. Gu means "nine," and the compound gunhi means "nine days," referring to the period of special activities initiated by this day. Manandhar (1976, 87) gives the form "Gunu Punhi.'' [BACK]

35. In the years subsequent to this study the younger and more modernized Brahmans began to resist this annual hair-shaving. [BACK]

36. In other Newar cities the Rajopadhyaya Brahmans during the course of the day also tie such bags with yellow thread around the wrists of their jajaman s. In Bhaktapur, however, the custom is for the non-Rajopadhyaya Brahmans, the Jha and Bhatta^{[ *]} , to tie the bags on the wrists of men of upper-status and farmer families who are not otherwise the clients of these "non-Newar" Brahmans. [BACK]

37. As is the case with both these sources for many of the festivals we are describing in these chapters, some of the details and versions of the stories they report are unfamiliar to us for Bhaktapur. [BACK]

38. This is a traditional South Asian belief. "Vaitarani. The name of the foetid river which flows between the earth and the nether regions, and over which the dead pass to Yama's realm. . . . Vaitarani is also the name of the cow presented to the priest during the funerary rites, in the belief that it will carry the dead man safely across the dreaded river" (Stutley and Stutley 1977, 318). [BACK]

39. There is, as we shall note, a variation in this ordering in the last segment of the procession. [BACK]

40. Whatever the situation may have been in the past, there is some uncertainty as to when the shift from a child to an adult representation should be made. It is not simply a matter of level of rites of passage now (i.e., Ihi mock-marriage for a girl, Kaeta Puja for a boy), but a decision each family must make within an uncertain age span. The fact that the large image is considerably more expensive than the small one influences this decision. [BACK]

41. In other competing accounts of the fate of the soul after death, one would have long before passed through one's preta state. [BACK]

42. The variants "Ghi(n)ta" for Ghe(n)ta(n) and "Ghisi(n)" for Ghesi(n) are also used. [BACK]

43. As Newar women do not dance now, with the one exception noted m the discussion of the period just following the day of Saparu, It is generally assumed that these dances represent dances once done in the past at some period when women still danced in public. [BACK]

44. Although young Brahman men participate in most dance types, they are said never to do obscene dances. [BACK]

45. Some people "carry placards decrying social ills—real, exaggerated or entirely imaginary. Local newspapers participate in Gai Jatra satire, with stories announcing a great increase in salary for the superfluous masses of government workers. Others tell of the release of all political prisoners, who are now to be absorbed into the ranks of officialdom. Again it is reported that the abolished caste system has been replaced with rank 'according to wealth.' On this day, supposedly, citizens are free to express themselves without fear of reprisal" (Anderson 1971, 103). [BACK]

46. " Au(n)si " is the Nepali term for "new-moon day" and is used not only for this general Nepali festival, but usually for new-moon day in general, rather than the Newari term amai . [BACK]

47. See Anderson (1971, chap. 12) for the legend associated with this mela . [BACK]

48. There is another Bhairava Jatra of great symbolic importance in the course of the solar New Year festival, Biska: [20-29]. The jatra image used in that festival is a different one from the one used in this festival, although it is housed in the same temple. [BACK]

49. Compare Toffin (1984, 530). Lewis (1984, 373), remarking that the Buddhist Newar Tuladhars of Kathmandu, whom he studied, did not observe Tij, says that "shresthas^{[ *]} and other Newar Hindu women" do observe it. This may have been a misreporting by his Newar Buddhist informants. It is also possible that some Newar groups who have assimilated to Indo-Nepalese culture may have introduced the practice. [BACK]

50. In South Asia the vrata proper to this day was traditionally practiced mostly by women. According to the Brahmanda^{[ *]} Purana^{[ *]} "if a woman performs this vrata she enjoys happiness, becomes endowed with good bodily form, beauty and sons and grandsons" (Kane 1968-1977, vol. V, p. 150). [BACK]

51. According to Niels Gutschow, most of these poles are placed along the main festival route, but may be located anywhere else in the twa :. Certain families, mostly Jyapus, erect the poles year after year. [BACK]

52. According to Niels Gutschow (personal communication), an image of Indra is painted on the neck of the Kisi. [BACK]

1. " Sankranti^{[ *]} " refers to the passage of the sun from one sign of the zodiac to the following one, which constitutes the basis for the sequential progression of the twelve solar months (Kane 1968-1977) vol. V, p. 210). [BACK]

2. The numbers in brackets refer to the position of solar events within the sequence of lunar calendrical events in 1975/76. [BACK]

3. Major offerings to Brahmans were traditionally done in South Asia on all sankranti^{[ *]} (Kane 1968-1977, vol. V, p. 212). [BACK]

4. G. S. Nepali (1965, 386) presents some details on the observations of the day, presumably among village Jyapu families, which are unfamiliar to us for Bhaktapur. [BACK]

5. It is unique, that is, in its particular combination of elements at a particular time. Some of those elements are reflections of Kathmandu's Indra Jatra (see festivals [59-65], chap. 14); others are closely similar to aspects of a festival in the Newar town of Panauti about two months later (Barré, Berger, Feveile, and Toffin 1981, 45). [BACK]

6. According to Gautam Vajracharya (personal communication), this is an echo of the form of the term in classical Newari, yalasi(n) . "Si" here means "pillar" as well as "tree." Vajracharya glosses the word " yalasi(n) '' as "sacrificial pillar." Variants of the term are found in other religious forms, such as the central pillar of Newar stupas. The poles that are erected to represent Indra during Kathmandu's Indra Jatra are also yasi(n) . [BACK]

7. According to D. R. Regmi (1965-1966, vol. II, p. 650), the term "Biska:" (in its Nepali form, Bisket) derives from Visvaketu, the "universal flag," which was the name given to banners that are attached to the "arms" of the yasi(n) . Bhaktapur has its own folk etymology, which we will note below. [BACK]

8. The major components of the Biska: festival sequence in our treatment are the Bhairava/Bhadrakali Jatra [20] from the first to the ninth day, the raising of the large Yasi(n) God [21] on the fourth day, the "taking out" of the Tantric gods [22] on the fourth day, the Varahi Jatra [23] on the fourth day, the taking down of the Yasi(n) God [24] on the fifth day, Indrani^{[ *]} Jatra [25] on the fifth day, Mahakali/Mahalaksmi Jatra [26] on the sixth day, Brahmani/Mahesvari^{[ *]} Jatra [27] on the seventh day, the procession worhiping the gods that had previously been taken out [28] on the eighth day, and Chuma(n) Ganedya: Jatra [29] on the eighth day. [BACK]

9. According to G. S. Nepali (1965, 344), it was traditionally the responsibility of the Sa:mi (or Manandhar) thar to select, cut with the proper ritual, and supervise the dragging of the tree to Bhaktapur. This is the same thar whose members in Kathmandu are responsible for selecting and bringing the tree used for the yasi(n) in Kathmandu's Indra Jatra. [BACK]

10. The location where the tree is to be cut is "explained" by one of the legends about the yasi(n) ,which we will present below. [BACK]

11. In the course of the Biska: festival Bhadrakali^{[ *]} is generally referred to by her honorific title, "Naki(n) Ajima," "the leader of the mothers (or grandmothers)," that is the dangerous goddesses. Bhadrakali^{[ *]} is a name occasionally given Sakti in the Tantric tradition. It is used a very few times as an appellation of the Goddess in the Devi Mahatmya. [BACK]

12. During the Mohani festival the goddess of the mandalic^{[ *]} area is sometimes called "Bhadrakali^{[ *]} " rather than "Vaisnavi^{[ *]} ," but in that case they are simply two names for the goddess of that area. [BACK]

13. For some notes on this and other Newar ritual chariots, see Gutschow (1979 b ). [BACK]

14. This sword, carried at this point by a representative of the central government, is taken by it to represent the contemporary central authority. When Prthvinarayana Saha conquered the Kathmandu Valley, he maintained traditional Newar festivals, but for those that had important political implications, references to the new regime were understood to have been substituted for references to Malla kings. Although the sword represents to the political authorities themselves and to other Nepalis the sign of the superordinate authority of the central regime, to many local people in Bhaktapur this symbol, and many other such symbols still represent the traditional Malla kings; hence, the significance of the carrying and the handing over of the sword m this preliminary event becomes significantly altered m its local implications. [BACK]

15. In other jatra s images of deities are usually carried in palanquins called kha:ca , or 'little chariots." [BACK]

16. For some detailed photographs of the Bhairava chariot, see Gutschow (1982, 82-85). [BACK]

17. According to Gutschow's account (1984), the musicians are from the low Jugi thar and the man who carries the sukunda is from the marginally clean Bha thar . [BACK]

18. This is an important example of the "advertised secrecy" that we discussed in chapter 9. [BACK]

19. The head of Bhairava separated from his body is an element of one of the legends associated with the festival, which we will recount below. [BACK]

20. The Maha(n) constitute a category, now containing two thar s (Caguthi and Muguthi) within the middle-status segment of the Jyapus. According to Manandhar, who has the name Maha:(n), the word derives from the old Newari term mahatha , "a military commander, a very Important military post in Malla days. . .. From this the term Maharjan was taken as a caste name or surname by a section of Jyapus to avoid the contempt associated with the name Jyapu." He notes also that "those who were in military service during the days of the Malla kings were called maha:(n) ." (1975, 444). The military commanders (as opposed to the soldiers) have their thar descendants, as Manandhar notes, in the Chathar Amatya (alternately called "Mahaju") thar . [BACK]

21. As we noted in the previous chapter, the Pulu Kisi Haigu [65] is another, but comparatively minor, occasion when conflict between the city halves is expressed. [BACK]

22. In the years of social change and breakdown of traditional patterns just after the study, some of the fights initiated by the tug of war were very severe, extensive, and difficult to control, and threatened the performance of the jatra itself. [BACK]

23. A hiti is a traditional water fountain. A ga: hiti , according to Manandhar, is "the old type of fountain located m a depression in the earth" (1976, 627). Bhaktapur Newari, like Kathmandu Newari, has the form " hiti ," but has a long final "i" for this particular place name. [BACK]

24. The Kathmandu version of the term ( syaku tyaku ) refers to another occasion "the main day of the Dasain [Mohani] festival, involving a feast and a visit to the goddess Durga. The word is popularly reinterpreted. . . [to mean] 'However much you kill you don't have to repay as retribution; what is killed [and eaten] is for the goddess and is not for self-interest, thus the killer is exempt from the blood-guilt of the animals slaughtered'" (Manandhar 1976, 606). [BACK]

25. The sequence of Das Karma signifies for a deity its birth or more accurately rebirth, and is characteristic of deities who reappear during each annual cycle. [BACK]

26. The erection of a pole, or a pole with banners, on the solar New Year's Day is (and was) found elsewhere in South Asia (e.g., Underhill, 1921; D. R. Regmi, 1965-1966, part II, p. 650). [BACK]

27. The yasi(n) s are symbolically connected in a very minimal way by saying they are consorts, with the larger central yasi(n) being the male, the smaller secondary one the female. [BACK]

28. A quotation from Gutschow illustrates this historical, archaeological approach to cultural features. "We do not know the reason behind the apparent . . . [parallelism] of the two poles [the two yasi(n) s]. The clue might again, [as] in so many cases, lie in the spatial development of the town. We also do not know why Bhairava and Bhadrakali^{[ *]} 'take residence' in temporary 'houses' in Lakulache(n). . . . All these activities point to a former center with its New Year ritual. With the unification of a number of villages, the construction of new temples and the installation of a more elaborate and grander ritual the needs of an enlarged community was served. Older places of reference were then incorporated; . . . modification of rituals and a change of the spatial setting tend to incorporate preceding patterns. The present ritual might well reflect the existence of a more ancient setting, thus telling us in a hidden form about the history of the place" (Gutschow 1984, 17). The legends of the Chuma(n) Ganedya: Jatra (see text below) refer, in fact, to an enlargement or founding of Bhaktapur in connection with the establishment of Biska:. [BACK]

29. It is these banners, as we have noted above, which may have provided Biska: with its name. [BACK]

30. As we have noted in chapter 8, each of the eight Matrkas traditionally has a specific Bhairava consort, independent subforms of that deity. This particular iconic feature of the Yasi(n) God unites the diverse couples into one. [BACK]

31. In other Newari and South Asian versions of this tale, only one snake appears. The extra snake adapts Bhaktapur's version to the two banners on the yasi(n) . [BACK]

32. Anderson's version of the story (1971, 41f.) has an important variant. Here the sole and "excessively passionate" daughter of the Bhaktapur king takes a different lover each night, the duty of providing a lover rotating among city households. Each morning the lover is found dead, until the arrival of the successful prince puts an end to the danger. It is of interest to compare different published versions of this story. In the episode of the snake, D. R. Regmi (1965-1966, part II, p. 650) and Hale and Hale (1970, 248ff. [a direct transcription of a Newari verbal account]) describe one snake coming out of the princess's nose. Anderson (1971) tells of two "dark threads" coming one each from the princess's two nostrils, which "rapidly expanded into monstrous serpents writhing about in search of their usual victim." The version of the story given by Punya Ratna Bajracharya, a Newar, in the Nepalese newspaper "Rising Nepal'' (April 18, 1974) is "as he [the soon to be victorious prince] kept awake he saw a very tiny snake coming out from the womb [i.e., vagina] of his queen and it assumed a terrible form and tried to attack him, but he took out his sword and slew it." It was only after the slaying of this serpent, or serpents, that marriage to the princess was possible. [BACK]

33. This refers to events that will take place subsequently. [BACK]

34. D. R. Regmi recounts a similar story (1965-1966, part II, p. 651). [BACK]

35. There were two Licchavi kings of that name noted in inscriptions who reigned in the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. (Slusser 1982, vol. 1, p. 397). [BACK]

36. Gutschow and others have made the plausible suggestion that as the yasi(n) is often interpreted as a linga^{[ *]} , the hole must represent a yoni , or vagina, and that "the erection of the pole can be understood as a reenactment of primal procreation" (Gutschow 1984, 16). Although sexual union is dearly understood in cultural doctrine to be symbolized by other subsequent aspects of the Biska: cycle, this meaning does not seem to be overtly associated by religious experts, at least, with the placing of the yasi(n) into its base. [BACK]

37. If it were to fall, as it sometimes does, it would be not only dangerous to the people working to lift it but also taken as a sign of danger for the city. [BACK]

38. Gutschow has studied this phase of Biska:. He notes that individual deities may be added (and presumably discontinued) from time to time, and notes examples of two deities who were added, at least one of which was brought from a village outside Bhaktapur. In 1983 he counted twenty-nine imags that were brought out at this time (1984, 20). [BACK]

39. In the course of their jatra s the images of Kumari and Tripurasundari are carried to their pitha s outside of the city as are the other Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddesses whose jatra s are emphasized (see below). [BACK]

40. Gutschow (1984) observes that the movement of these Tantric deities out of their god-houses and to the outside area where they are exhibited resembles, in part, the movement of the Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddesses from their god-houses to their pitha s outside of the city in the major jatra s of this period. [BACK]

41. This conjunction of the internal representation of a dangerous deity and its external pitha or natural stone representation is also enacted, as we have noted (chap. 9), m lineage deity ceremonies. [BACK]

42. The Jugi also have another connection with this day. Some five-and-a-half months previously, on the lunar day of Bala Ca:re [7], one of their members had begun dances m the city representing Siva as Mahadeva. On this day, the fifth day of Biska:, with the falling of the Yasi(n) God, the period proper to this representation comes to an end. [BACK]

43. Indrani^{[ *]} and some of the other deities who have jatra s during the Biska: period also have jatra s during the lunar cycle. These are Indrani^{[ *]} Jatra [61], Varahi Jatra [53], and Chuma(n) Gandya: Jatra [63]. [BACK]

44. It is not clear why it is Indrani^{[ *]} who receives this special royal greeting rather than the other jatra gods of Biska:. This emphasis is a reminder of the various connections between Biska: and Kathmandu's Indra Jatra. [BACK]

45. This alignment of the chariot, like the direction in which the Yasi(n) God will soon be swayed, would seem plausibly to be related to the sun's east-west path. However, such a connection is not known now to our informants. [BACK]

46. On the evening of this day the Po(n)s have feasts in their houses and invite other Po(n)s from other communities. [BACK]

47. Whatever the significance of the lack of contamination of the two men who touch the untouchables while giving the prasada on this day may be, the others on the chariot are protected from contamination because the chariot is a temple. This protects the riders of the chariot from pollution in the next phase when the Po(n)s pull at the ropes at the back of the chariot. [BACK]

48. It is noteworthy that the upper-status thar men, including Brahmans, who participate in the pulling of the chariot on the first and last days of the cycle, do not do It on this day when the Po(n)s are also involved. [BACK]

49. This Bhairava stone also marks the place where during the Mohani festival Taleju gives full power to the Nine Durgas troupe and takes leave of them as they begin their annual mission. [BACK]

50. Manandhar notes that ''this verb requires plural actors and originally meant 'to meet at one place.' This meaning is still current in the causative form of the verb [as found in the phrase] dya: lwakala. 'The deities were made to meet at one place' . . . [this] does not mean that the deities were made to fight" (1976, 529). However, whatever its original implication may have been, in the present generalization of the meaning of the term from its use in other contexts, it now seems to convey the meaning of fighting, at least m Bhaktapur. [BACK]

51. These hesitations between interpretations of sexual intercourse and aggression represent familiar psychodynamic forms as modified by Bhaktapur's special ways of dealing with these problematic passions. For our present purposes it is sufficient to note that these are critical ambiguities that hold the attention, intellect, and passions of the spectators and participants, and help make this element of the festival sequence—like so many others—compelling, significant, and "alive." [BACK]

52. There are other examples when for some limited purpose one of a pair of goddesses is interpreted as male so that they can be conceived of as a husband and wife, or man and woman. One is Brahmani and Mahesvari on the following day, another is Sima and Duma during the Nine Durgas performances (chap. 16). In that latter case it is generally agreed that Sima is male and Duma female, probably as an accident of color contrasts in their images. [BACK]

53. The Natapwa(n)la temple contains, as we noted in chapter 8, an esoteric form of the Goddess that was placed there to act as a restraining influence on the Bhairava of the main Bhairava temple, also located in the square, who is also the Bhairava of Biska:. [BACK]

54. The dangerous deities are not considered to be married in the domestic sense that the benign deities are (see chap. 8). [BACK]

55. Gutschow (1984, 24) remarks that people must leave the ordinary route to include visits to Bhairava in his jatra god-house in Lakulache(n) and at two other places. [BACK]

56. These offerings are called "giving Swaga(n) to the gods." [BACK]

57. Chu(n) means both rat and/or mouse. As we have noted, this same Ganesa^{[ *]} has another jatra [63] during the course of the lunar year. The rat or mouse is the traditional vehicle of Ganesa^{[ *]} . In Bhaktapur's representations the vehicle is usually a tichu(n) , a shrew. [BACK]

58. Theoretically parallel events may be significantly contrastive. This is the case in the presence or absence among various thar s during a festival of the Aga(n) God worship that characterizes upper-level thar s. With that exception, however, contrastive parallel events among otherwise similar units are not salient during Bhaktapur's annual festivals. [BACK]

59. The princess is unaware of her destructive nature, and can be treated as an innocent wife after her indwelling serpents have been destroyed. This is reminiscent of Parvati's relation to her Durga emanation as suggested in the Devi Mahatmya stories (chap. 8). [BACK]

1. We use the theatrical term "troupe" to refer to the group of men who traditionally embody and act the Nine Durgas as well as the group (or troop) of divinities who become embodied. [BACK]

2. This probably refers to one of two kings called elsewhere Gunakamadeva^{[ *]} , who reigned in the tenth and twelfth centuries (Slusser 1982, vol. 1, p. 45). The "Wright chronicle" puts the events of the legend in the realm of one "Suvarna Malla" (placed in that chronicle in the early sixteenth century), who "introduced the dance of the Nava Durga, having heard that they had been seen dancing at night" ([1877] 1972, p. 189). [BACK]

3. In some version they just happen to be there; in others they were forced to stay m the forest through the power of still another Tantric expert. [BACK]

4. We have seen variations on this theme in the legend of Sesar^{[ *]} Acaju's wife in Biska:, whose meddling led, according to one of its legends, to Biska: as a civic festival (chap. 14). The function of the Brahman's wife in the Nine Durgas legends has interesting psychological and mythic resonances elsewhere. Like Eve and Bluebeard's wife she destroys the paradise of man's childlike, self-absorbed, and selfish pleasures, but m so doing reroutes forces to the service of civilization. In the Yasi(n) God legend of the princess inhabited by snakes and in Puranic^{[ *]} stories of a benign Parvati inhabited by the Dangerous Goddess, we are reminded that the woman not only domesticates but also can represent the very dangers against which domestication protects. Bhaktapur tries, not always successfully, to isolate and separate these meanings. [BACK]

5. This Bhairavi is thought by some religious experts to be associated with an esoteric goddess represented in the Gana^{[ *]} Kumari, in the Hipha: gods of Mohani, and in the Taleju temple (see text below). [BACK]

6. The numbers m brackets refer to the sequence of calendrical events of the lunar year as presented in chapter 13. [BACK]

7. This last dance-drama or pyakha(n) is of the kind called na^{[ *]} lakegu , or "fishing" pyakha(n) . It takes place in the Rajopadhyaya Brahman's neighborhood where they had danced before beginning their circuit of the city and its environing communities some nine months before and closes the spatial circle of the na^{[ *]} lakegu performances by bringing them back. [BACK]

8. Of course, the relation of these ritual markers of the agriculture and weather cycle to the actual events of that cycle is variable. In the case of Sithi Nakha, the day occurs early enough in the year to probably well precede the rains. Such markers have to be placed so that they are safely prior to the changes they anticipate and prepare for. [BACK]

9. For references to Kumara on this day and at other times during the year elsewhere in Nepal, see Anderson (1971, chap. 5). [BACK]

10. During the Prthivi^{[ *]} puja six sweetcakes are offered to the Goddess in the mandala^{[ *]} , and six different kinds of pulses are also offered. The name of Kumara is recited during the puja , but this is locally thought of as a secondary reference. [BACK]

11. The rice is prepared at the Taleju temple by members of the high Jyapu thar , the Suwal. This is one of the many special duties at the Taleju temple assigned to specific thar s, which are often residues of ancient thar functions during the Malla period. [BACK]

12. According to Niels Gutschow (personal communication), one of his associates reported seeing the Nine Durgas when they reached their god-house on this day first banging against its closed door, and then falling to the ground and lying there as if dead. [BACK]

13. Teilhet's paper has important details on the making of the masks, their iconography, on other aspects of the Gatha's costumes, and on the Gatha performers themselves. It reflects, however, the limited perspective of Teilhet's informants m their speculations on other aspects of the Nine Durgas' activities other than the ones with which they were most closely concerned. [BACK]

14. The practice of putting cremation remains "in a small earthen pot and throw[ing] them into the water" in Puranic^{[ *]} times is noted in Pandey (1969, 261). Following cremations in Bhaktapur now, some of the ashes and bone fragments from the head of the cremated corpse are placed m the soil of the river bed just after the cremation (app. 6). [BACK]

15. The Nine Durgas may be thought to increase not only the amount of water but also its fertile potency. Niels Gutschow remarks that Bhaktapur's farmers have a strong belief that the Nine Durgas are present in the water in the rice fields during the summer. They say that they should not urinate in the flooded fields in order not to offend or hurt those deities (personal communication). [BACK]

16. It is important to note for the distinction between the Nine Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddesses and the Nine Durgas (chap. 8) that the Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddesses remain actively m their fixed locations throughout the entire year. However, neither they nor the ordinary moral gods of the city are fully sufficient to protect the city when the Nine Durgas are dormant. [BACK]

17. Hamilton writes that the sacrifice was supposed to have taken place on the eighth day of Asvina, which would have been during the Mohani sequence. It is Bhairava not Bhairavi who now performs animal sacrifices—with the exception of the killing of a cock during the Pyakha(n) (see text below). In Hamilton's list of the Nine Durgas ([1819] 1971, 35) Bhairavi seems to represent the Mahakali of the present troupe, and Mahakala seems to represent the present Bhairava. If it were Bhairavi who did, m fact, perform the human sacrifices, this would be congruent with her later meanings in the Nine Durgas dance-dramas. [BACK]

18. When farmers have finished the transplanting they have a purification ceremony on this day called syina jya byenkegu , with feasts later in the day. If the transplanting cannot be completed until after Gatha Muga: Ca:re, the ceremony will be held when the actual transplanting is completed. [BACK]

19. It is also said that on this day the Nine Durgas' Ganesa^{[ *]} appears and will give the Gathas ritual effectiveness, siddhi , in their preparation for the new cycle. [BACK]

20. Iron is widely believed to have the power to repel spirits, and is used for this purpose in certain household rituals. [BACK]

21. His name has no apparent connection with the Gatha thar name. [BACK]

22. The versions of the legend given by Anderson (1971, 73) and D. R. Regmi (1965-1966, part II, p. 661) tell of an heroic frog who alerted the valley people to an attack of the demon and helped trap and thus destroy him. This part of the legend seems not to be salient in Bhaktapur. [BACK]

23. That is to say, a consistent and profound belief in karma , the automatic and certain rewards and punishmens for moral activities, can produce contradictions with other belief systems, such as the power of devotion or of ritual practices directed to the gods to alter one's fate. This sort of belief in karma would be subversive of the priest-mediated ritual order of traditional Newar cities. [BACK]

24. This detail is related to one of the customs of the day, as we will see below. [BACK]

25. This is a transformation of the Ghantakarna legend. That name means "bells [at the] ears," and in a Puranic^{[ *]} legend refers to an Asura who being an enemy of Visnu^{[ *]} wore bells at his ears so as not to hear the mention of his name (Mani, 1975, 289). This creature later became a devotee of Visnu^{[ *]} and an ally of the Gods. [BACK]

26. One striking difference from some of the descriptions of events in other Newar communities is that Po(n) untouchables are said elsewhere to play important roles m representing Gatha Muga:. "The main character in the festival is a Newar man of the untouchable Pode [Po(n)] caste who has the dubious honor of impersonating Ghana Karna, his near-naked body painted with lewd symbols and pictures depicting all types of sexual depravity (Anderson 1971, 74; see also D. R. Regmi 1965-1966, part II, p. 661; G. S. Nepali 1965, 378). This use of a Pore or Po(n) is not made now in Bhaktapur, and we have no information on it having been made there m the past. [BACK]

27. This reflects a similar practice described in at least one Puranic^{[ *]} text for the final day of Dasai(n) (Mohani). "The sending away of Devi should be made . . . by throwing dust and mud, . . . with indulgence in words and songs referring to male and female organs and with words expressive of the sexual act. The Devi becomes angry with him who does not abuse another and whom others do not abuse and pronounces on him a terrible curse" (the Kalikapurana^{[ *]} , quoted in Kane [1968-1977, vol. V, p. 177]). Kane goes on to comment that the purpose of this was to emphasize that "before Devi the highest and the lowest were of equal status . . . [and] to show that all men were equal at least one day in the year." [BACK]

28. In traditional Newar houses the carved wooden open worked windows are so constructed that it is possible to look out without being visible from the outside. [BACK]

29. Although there would seem to be a strong metaphorical connection of Gatha Muga: and fertility, there is no local doctrine about this nor of any relation to the Nine Durgas or Devi who are related to fertility in the Devi cycle. Devi is, in doctrine, fully and self-sufficiently generative in herself. [BACK]

30. The Newars of Bhaktapur, as Nepalis do m general, fly kites at this time. These are usually flown from the ka:si s the open porches of the upper stories of houses. One of the several accounts given of this practice is that it sends messages to the gods to remind them not to send any more rain. [BACK]

31. Mohani (in Kathmandu Newari, also Moni or Monhi), according to Gautam Vajracharya (personal communication), is derived from the Sanskrit, mahanavami , the "ninth great day." The ninth day is one of the climactic days of the cycle. There are similar words that have close thematic relations to the term. Monhi ( moni in Kathmandu dialect) is a mark made using the soot from a special oil lamp that allows for possession by a deity and which is an important part of the worship of the Mohani period for all worshipers. Mohani (Sanskrit, mohini ), meaning "enchantment," is an important theme and term in the scriptural account, the Devi Mahatmya , which is a major source for the imagery of the period. The two latter words are probably connected, the Monhi mark inducing Mohani or the state of being "enchanted." [BACK]

32. Our discussion of Mohani refers throughout to aspects and interpretations of Devi and the dangerous goddesses that are treated at length in chapter 8. [BACK]

33. As we have noted in chapter 8, the position of the goddesses around Bhaktapur and the sequence of their special days during Mohani corresponds closely to the sequence in which they are introduced in the Devi Mahatmya , the Puranic^{[ *]} text that contains much of the mythological account on which Mohani is based. The pitha s are visited during Mohani on each successive day in their exact circumferential sequence around the periphery of Bhaktapur. Starting with (1) Brahmani to the east on the first day, the successive days' focal pitha s are (2) Mahesvari to the southeast, (3) Kumari to the south, (4) Vaisnavi^{[ *]} to the southwest, (5) Varahi to the west, (6) Indrani^{[ *]} to the northwest, (7) Mahakali to the north, and (8) Mahalaksmi^{[ *]} to the northeast. On the climactic ninth day the focal pitha is Tripurasundari at the mandalic^{[ *]} center. On the tenth day the focus is once again on the beginning position, Brahmani. [BACK]

34. Manandhar proposes that " Na:la " is derived from the Sanskrit Nava Ratra , the "nine nights," the first nine nights of Dasai(n) (1976, 242). Others think that it has the meaning of "new and delicate." "Swa(n)'' means flower. The Na:la swa(n) is the name given in this context to the barley plant that is grown in soil placed in the room. This room is also sometimes called the " Kha(n) '' or "sword" room. Swords will be an important symbolic element in the room later in the sequence. [BACK]

35. G. S. Nepali (1965, 405 ff.) gives details on this and other Mohani procedures, many of which differ sharply from the common Bhaktapur ones. [BACK]

36. Girls born into the family take part, as do wives married into it after their introductory initiation into the household rituals and deities. In those upper-status houses with Tantric practices some portions of the Na:la swa(n) ceremonies on the eighth, ninth, and tenth days of Mohani require initiation, and only those women with special Tantric "half-initiation" take part. Nepali says (1965, 409) that married-out women can no longer enter the Na:la swa(n) rooms of their parental homes. Although this may be true for some thar s in Bhaktapur, it is not, reportedly, generally true for most of them. [BACK]

37. The lamps are placed on his head, his right and left shoulders, his right and left knees, and the palms of his hands, which are held in a supine position. [BACK]

38. The lamps may be filled with the particularly expensive fuel, clarified butter, but even the more ordinary mustard or sesame oils are expensive for families in these quantities. [BACK]

39. In the past there was a more dramatic version of these procedures during the first nine days. The devotee would wrap cloths around each of his fingers and, dipping the cloths in oil, set them afire. This practice has disappeared in recent years. The motives given in explanation of all these vrata s are various, but they typically represent gratitude for help in overcoming some difficulty, or in hopes that it will be overcome in the future. In certain extended families the vrata had been pledged at some time in the (sometimes distant) past, and various families within the phuki take turns m designating one of their members to perform it. These hereditary vrata s are sometimes conceived as protection against the flooding of the phuki's fields, or against illness in the family. It is mostly members of the farming thar s who perform these vrata s. This reflects, perhaps, the agricultural emphasis of the Mohani and the dangers of improper agricultural conditions as well as the special economic vulnerability of the farming thar s in Bhaktapur's traditional economy. [BACK]

40. The major Taleju activities of Mohani are the daily Na:la swa(n) worship; various activities concerning the "living goddess" Kumari; the special activities of the ninth night, the Kalaratri; the moving ("taking up" and "taking down'') of the goddess Taleju within the temple; and, on the final day, the procession of the goddess Taleju. [BACK]

41. The lower thars (such as the butchers, Jugis, and Po[n]s) still associated with Taleju have kept their traditional functions there, as they have in the wider city society, as have the priestly thar s. Shifts since Malla times away from their traditional functions are for the most part among the Pa(n)cthariya and Chathariya (whose thar names usually signify their traditional functions in the aristocratic court-centered segment of Malla society) as well as among a few of the Jyapu thars who previously had some specialized servant or military function (e.g., guards, charioteers, cooks) for the court. The particular thar s who had traditional Taleju Malla court functions are listed m chapter 5. [BACK]

42. This is in contrast to Biska:, where the king and the Guru-Purohit are represented by two different Brahmans. [BACK]

43. The true Taleju image may be moved within the temple, but cannot be taken out of it. The jatra image, like all such images, is specially designated for processions outside of the temple. These two images are the only images of Taleju in the Taleju temple. [BACK]

44. Taleju temple also has an elaborate external Golden Gate facing on the Laeku or "Durbar" Square. Access to Taleju's inner courtyard is forbidden to non-Hindus. The inner Golden Gate and the adjoining areas in the Mucuka are shown in a color photograph in M. Singh (1968, 192-193). This photograph is of particular importance in that photographing of the interior areas of the Taleju temple is, in principle, forbidden. [BACK]

45. This conjunction of two forms of the Goddess is reflected on the following day, the eighth day, in the other Na:la swa(n) rooms throughout the city, where an additional image of Bhagavati—in those cases an anthropomorphic one—is brought into the Na:la swa(n) rooms and placed in conjunction with the kalasa . [BACK]

46. As G. S. Nepali dryly remarks, "This is a state event and all Government officials, even if they are Newars, have to be present m the procession" (1965, 407). [BACK]

47. Nepali erroneously places these events on the eighth day of Mohani. [BACK]

48. There are some references m the literature to Mohani's connections (particularly the victory celebration of the tenth day) with the Ramayana's^{[ *]} account of Rama's victory over the demon king Ravana^{[ *]} (e.g., D. R. Regmi, 1965-1966, part II, p. 673; Anderson 1971, p. 152). That story is still told m Bhaktapur, and sometimes informally associated with Mohani, but is more closely associated in Bhaktapur with the minor spring festival, Cait dasai(n) [31]. None of the mass of symbolic events of Bhaktapur's Mohani period seem to refer to the Rama story. [BACK]

49. Like many calendrically connected feasts, this one has a humorous name. It is called the "Ku chi," the "one- ku " feast. A ku is a measure equivalent to about a quart, and the name indicates that people will eat at least this much beaten rice, along with all the other foods they will eat at the feast, and that, thus, they will consume enormous quantities of food. [BACK]

50. The exact number does not seem to have any traditional significance, in contrast with the number of sacrificial water buffaloes. [BACK]

51. " Dugu " means goat. " Nikhu " is said to mean solidly colored in the sense of an unspotted or unblemished color. The morpheme ni in other compound words has the sense of "uncontaminated," which is part of the sense of nikhu here. [BACK]

52. " Thu " comes from " thume ," male water buffalo. [BACK]

53. This is done by a member of one of the farming thars , who lives in the house where the buffalo has been kept, and whose family has this traditional responsibility. [BACK]

54. The king, seated, asks, "What is this buffalo's name?" The Nae answers, "Nikhuthu." King: "Is this Nikhuthu proper (i.e., does it have the required characteristics as a sacrificial offering)?" Nae: "Yes.'' King: ''Do you swear to it?" Nae: "Let there be victory to the king and to Taleju and destruction to myself (if I am not telling the truth)." [He repeats this oath three times.] King: [Again.] "Do you swear to it?" Nae: "Let there be victory to the king and to Taleju and destruction to myself." [He again repeats this oath three times.] [BACK]

55. It is said that in the past each twa : paid for the buffalo that represented it. Now they are paid for by the central government's, Guthi Samsthan. [BACK]

56. Animal sacrifice during Mohani is done in the same way as it is at other times during the year (see chap. 9). [BACK]

57. Hi means blood; pha comes from phayegu , meaning to receive in outtretched supine hands held joined together as a cup, or in a container so held in the hands. [BACK]

58. Buffaloes, in general, are killed only by Nae butchers in Bhaktapur, and are not used for ordinary householders' sacrifices. The exception is the killing of buffaloes by the Nine Durgas during Mohani and later in their cycle. [BACK]

59. At this point the buffaloes, like the goats, are soul-bearing creatures, who are being offered salvation through sacrifice to the Goddess. Their subsequent meaning as Asuras does not affect this interpretation. [BACK]

60. It does not make any difference whether this sacrificial blood is offered first to the right or to the left. [BACK]

61. The meat from the bodies of the buffaloes and goats will be cut up and distributed to members of the Taleju staff and to members of the government's Guthi Samsthan. [BACK]

62. It is said that anyone who, following this bath, sees blood in the water at the ancient water fountain and bathing tank associated with Indrani^{[ *]} will die within six months. The Indrani^{[ *]} bathing tank was historically within the old court complex and drew from the same water supply as the tank where the Hipha: gods bathe, and this may, in part, account for the belief. [BACK]

63. Kumari has been seen by people in the northern part of the city throughout Mohani in a daily procession from her god-house to the nearby vihara , from which on this day she will be brought to the Taleju temple. [BACK]

64. The tirtha of Tripurasundari is the only one of the Mandalic^{[ *]} Goddesses' tirtha s that (necessarily, because of her central location) is not close to the corresponding pitha . [BACK]

65. The demand for sacrificial goats is so great at this period that many people who would be able to afford one are unable to procure one and must offer a lesser sacrifice. [BACK]

66. The sacrifice is done in "Nepalese" style, that is, by decapitation of the animal in one blow from the back of the animal's neck without a prior cutting of the throat. The Newar Nae does not sacrifice the buffaloes. The ceremony, furthermore, although taking place on Laeku Square, is said to have no reference or relevance to Taleju. [BACK]

67. There will be no sacrifices anywhere in Bhaktapur on the tenth day. [BACK]

68. It is said, amalgamating these tools with a characteristic of the dangerous deities, that if a sacrifice is not given them they may cause an accident, thus taking the sacrifice by themselves. [BACK]

69. The condensation is, perhaps, most evident in the "Kumari" of the Nine Durgas group. [BACK]

70. The Newari term for such a deity, is Mwamha Dya:, literally "living deity." [BACK]

71. The most extensive general survey and detailed accounts of the Newar Kumaris is Michael Allen's The Cult of Kumari (1975). See also Allen's article on virgin worship in the Kathmandu Valley (1976). [BACK]

72. Kumari in Sanskrit means simply "girl, virgin, daughter." [BACK]

73. This is a form in which Kumari the maiden and Kumari as Kaumari, the Mandalic^{[ *]} Mother Goddess, are represented together. [BACK]

74. It is important to note here that for the upper-status Hindu Newars in Bhaktapur, even the high Buddhist thar s are not water-acceptable (chap. 5). This is significant here in connection with the legend of the Ekanta Kumari (see text below) and the Tantric aspects of Kumari. [BACK]

75. He is identified by the Taleju priests as Bhairava, but the Bare themselves, it is said, think of him as Kumar. [BACK]

76. They will not participate in the later main Kumari worship in the temple. This is restricted to the "Malla king" himself, that is, the Brahman who represents him. [BACK]

77. In addition to the Gana^{[ *]} Kumari, there is still another "Ekanta Kumari," who is selected from the same Bare phuki as the main Ekanta Kumari. She is connected with a now minor temple of Taleju in the Wa(n)laeku area in the northeast of Bhaktapur near Dattatreya Square. It is thought by some that this temple may have been the royal Taleju temple at an earlier time when the royal palace may have been located in that area and that this Kumari may represent some residue of that situation. At any rate, the temple is now supervised not by a Brahman but by an Acaju, and its Ekanta Kumari is of significance only to the local neighborhood. [BACK]

78. These stories resemble those of Sesar^{[ *]} Acaju (in connection with Biska:) and Somara Rajopadhyaya (in the Nine Durgas legend), which we have discussed above—in the loss of direct contact with a deity and/or the loss of supernatural power through a minor and almost inevitable human error. In those stories the blame was put on a weak woman, as it is in the second of these stories. In the first story it is the king's own fault. The Goddess's realm, like the realm of all the dangerous deities and the realm of Tantra, is beyond the civic moral order—and curious prying into this realm, by either the king or some unauthorized woman, is a particularly dangerous violation. On the basis of accounts gathered apparently for the most part from Buddhist Bare informants, Michael Allen writes that "there is always the implication, which is sometimes made explicit, that the king developed a strong desire to sexually possess the goddess" (1976, 302). [BACK]

79. For the quite different Buddhist accounts of the origins of the practice of using a Bare girl as Kumari see Allen (1975, 1976). [BACK]

80. According to Niels Gutschow (personal communication), the present (1989) Kumari lives at her parental home. This may have been true of some previous Kumaris. [BACK]

81. Allen (1975, 63) presents a list given him by a Vajracarya informant of thirty-two ideal characteristics for a Kumari, including, for example, "blue-black eyes," "skin pores small and not too open," "hair whorls stiff, turning to the right," and ''long and well-formed toes." [BACK]

82. The water buffalo heads at this time are within the inner gate of the Taleju temple's main courtyard, along with the Taleju jatra image. [BACK]

83. It is commonly said by people in Bhaktapur and is repeated in many descriptions of the Ekanta Kumari that she is placed among the decapitated heads and left alone there to see if she is without fear as a test of her validity. For Bhaktapur, at least, this is false. [BACK]

84. Most of them will remain in Bhaktapur to watch the remainder of the day's events. [BACK]

85. These procedures stand out in Bhaktapur as uniquely extreme and "Dionysian" procedures. However, they are limited in both extent and discomfort and in the very minor bodily injuries, if any, that result, in marked contrast to the much more severe and self-injuring procedures often found in such vratas elsewhere in South Asia. [BACK]

86. The buffalo heads, which are never used as siu , are given to non-Brahman members of the staff who will use them for food in feasts. [BACK]

87. Manandhar notes of the bhuiphasi (which he gives in Kathmandu dialect as bhuyu: phasi ) that it is "a variety of pumpkin which can be offered in lieu of an animal as a sacrifice to a deity (used especially by vegetarians who do not sacrifice animals or eggs)" (1976, 407). This usage is not salient in Hindu Bhaktapur. [BACK]

88. This same deity is referred to throughout Mohani. She is included in the Gana^{[ *]} Kumari, the Hipha: gods are her manifestations, and she represents Bhagavati, here. She is sometimes taken to be the mysterious Ninth Durga, as the unrepresented Sakti of the Nine Durgas Bhairava. [BACK]

89. According to Manandhar, " paya(n) " derives from the old Newari word for sword, " pa " (1976, 295). There are descriptions of Newar "sword processions" elsewhere on this day, which differ from Bhaktapur's Taleju-centered procession (e.g., D. R. Regmi 1965-1966, part II, p. 678; G. S. Nepali 1965, p. 411; Anderson 1971, 153). [BACK]

90. In her description of the activities of this, the tenth day of the Dasai(n) harvest festival in Kathiawar^{[ *]} in Gujarat in western India during the early part of the century, Stevenson reports that toward the end of a ritual centering on the Rajput princes of Kathiawar^{[ *]} , the "chief summons four of the leading grain merchants of the State and asks them what the price of gram is likely to be during the next twelve months. They give a rough estimate, but, in order not to be held to it too closely, say: 'It is in God's hands'" (1920, p. 233). The two episodes, with their references to the price of grain, which is dependent on the extent of the harvest, must obviously have some common historical ancestor. [BACK]

91. When it goes to the lower part of the city, the procession goes in a counterclockwise loop rather than in the usual auspicious clockwise one. This is apparently determined by spatial constraints, and is the unique occasion when this occurs in a city calendrical procession. [BACK]

92. The temple has no identifying iconic features now. Niels Gutschow has been told (personal communication) that it is—or was—a temple of Jagannatha. [BACK]

93. In some popular accounts it is incorrectly said that a mantra is given in a whisper by the Taleju priest to the Durgas at this time. [BACK]

94. The fertility aspect of the warrior goddess of the Devi Mahatmya is overt in a verse where foretelling an extended period of drought in a future yuga she promises "at that time, O Gods, I shall support the whole world with life sustaining vegetables, born out of my own body, until the rains set in again" ( Devi Mahatmya XI, 45; Agrawala 1963, 141). [BACK]

95. The Gatha do not eat pork except in their ritual capacity as incarnated deities. [BACK]

96. The reason that some of these locations are outside of the present Bhaktapur district is unclear to our informants. These must reflect both boundary changes and special invitations in the years after the inauguration of the dances in, presumably, the sixteenth century. [BACK]

97. According to Gutschow and Basukala (1987), this skullcap represents Guhyesvari. [BACK]

98. Some of the old public squares that were part of the organization of every major twa: and every sub- twa: neighborhood have been disturbed by patterns of building so that they have now become inner courtyards and/or reduced in size. New areas have to be found now in such places for activities attracting large crowds of local people. [BACK]

99. Our description of the pyakha(n) s is based on observations of segments of it, on descriptions given by local people, and on observations by Steven Parish, who was doing research in Bhaktapur at the time this chapter was being revised. [BACK]

100. The basis for the differentiation is the only feature in which the two masks differ, their color. Sima's mask is white and Duma's reddish orange, which reflects a white/red contrast that sometimes designates male/female in Tantric symbolism. [BACK]

101. This is the same procedure by which Tantric physicians try to chase away the spirits that cling to people and cause diseases. This procedure is also used in other contexts to drive away evil influences. New brides, for example, entering a household for the first time are similarly freed of evil influences at the ptkha lakhu , the symbolic boundary of the house. [BACK]

102. This last sacrificial sequence, which is described on the basis of informants' reports, does not occur in all performances of the pyakha(n) . Niels Guts-chow reports that he has never seen it done (personal communication). [BACK]

103. This idea and its development in the following paragraph is indebted to the work of Roy Rappaport (1979). [BACK]

104. The form that the sacrifice takes within the pyakha(n) , the biting off of a cock's head, adds the imagery of the threat of castration to the general sacrificial threat of bodily destruction. [BACK]

105. This also replicates on a smaller scale the narrative movement in Mohani, where cosmic forces are represented, then gathered together in a bounded, concentrated and maximized form, and then moved out into the life, space, and time of the larger city. [BACK]

1. Recall (see chap. 12) that we have included in our discussions and enumeration only those particular weekly, fortnightly, or monthly events that have some important differentiated annual significance. The remainder are generally of relatively minor civic importance, of concern only to particular individuals or households. We have also not included here ten melas not associated with the city's annual calendar, and four taking place in multiple numbers of years. If these events were listed, they would augment the number of days in any given year that are the occasion for some sort of calendrically determined event. [BACK]

2. The other is a memorial service for patrilineal ancestors held at the riverside during Dhala(n) Sala(n) [66]. [BACK]

3. This comparative optionality also means that public festivals are particularly vulnerable to social change, to alternative forms of entertainment and new pressures on the use of time and capital. [BACK]

4. These symbols are good examples of what Victor Turner called "bipolar" symbols. "At one pole [there is] . . . a set of referents of a grossly physiological character, relating to general human experience of an emotional kind . . . at the other . . . a set of references to moral norms and principles governing the social structure" (1967, 54). Thus in the Biska: story what is focally celebrated is the prince's overcoming of the potentially fatal snakes that issue from the princess's nose in order to establish a royal—or any other kind of—marriage. [BACK]

5. We have arbitrarily included optional annual visits [50] to the dangerous goddess Sitala by household members for protection against smallpox in our enumeration of "household" rather than "public" events. Sitala Puja does not entail worship within the house, and is not really an exception to this observation. The annual worship of Bhagavati during Mohani is a secondary participation in and reflection of the public worship of the period. It is a sort of invasion of the Goddess into the family circle, which is usually bounded against her. [BACK]

6. This nonrepresentation is similar to the way potential conflicts of the social groups within a twa: are deflected to the less consequential ritualized struggles of the city halves (chap. 7). [BACK]

7. The summary of the festival year, including its events, themes, and temporal relations given in appendix 5, should make the following discussion somewhat easier to follow. [BACK]

8. Bhisi(n), although a dangerous deity, is uniquely isolated from the other dangerous deities in both concept and use. [BACK]

9. The term "lateral" environment is meant to suggest a contrast with the bordering enviroment of the household in a different direction or plane, that is, the realms just beyond birth and death, beyond thresholds that individuals cross as they enter and leave the household in the flow of a lifetime. For individuals and households the city is "lateral" to this direction. [BACK]

10. The dormant period of the Nine Durgas is not the usual four-month absence characteristic of the periods of "sleep" of many other Hindu deities in South Asian tradition. [BACK]

11. The lunar harvest festival Mohani, coming about six months after Biska:, is thus an autumnal festival and the two focal sequences have a seasonal symmetry, but there is no reference in Mohani to the autumnal equinox equivalent to Biska:'s reference to the vernal equinox. [BACK]

12. We have commented on the "astral" qualities of Biska:'s symbolism in contrast to Mohani in chapter 14. [BACK]

13. Swanti, with the lunar New Year Day at the beginning of a bright fortnight as the fourth of its five days, thus includes a movement from a dark fortnight to a light one. [BACK]

14. Recall that this "ordinary death" contrasts with the violent destruction of the body at the hands and teeth of the dangerous deities, a destruction due to accidental encounter or some ritual error, a destruction which, once initiated, can only be avoided through instruments of power, not through exemplary social behavior. [BACK]

15. The exception is the Panauti Jatra, which is a mass visit to a focal festival of a town that previously was within the Bhaktapur kingdom. The main deities of that festival are dangerous ones. The jatra is a calendrical formalization of the visits to a focal festival of some nearby community that are common throughout the valley and that Bhaktapur does less formally to focal festivals of other nearby places on other occasions. [BACK]

16. According to the Satapatha Bramana^{[ *]} , both the gods and Asuras sprang "from the Creator Prajapati, [and] inherited speech—both true and false, but . . . finally the gods rejected untruth, whilst the Asuras spurned truth which led to their downfall Another tradition states that though the gods and Asuras were equally powerful, their power was divided, the gods exercising it by day and the Asuras by night. . .. Later the term asura denoted the hostile native rulers and tribes opposed to Aryan religious and political expansion" (Stutley and Stutley 1977, 23). [BACK]

17. The optional vratas of Mohani, of the Swasthani period, of Caturmasa and of some other customary occasions during the year are individual performances, but are most often regarded, as we have been in our discussion of the vratas of Swasthani and Mohani, as being immediately or ultimately for the good of the family. The individual vratas thus serve to enable an individual to overcome some obstacle in his or her full contribution to the family or to some larger unit. Similarly, the emphasis in acquiring personal skills during the Sarasvati festivals ([12] and [13]) is on the learner's dependence on the deity for acquiring a socially defined and useful skill, rather than as a quest for self-sufficiency. Learning in general in Bhaktapur is structured to emphasize the profound dependency of individuals on family, deities, and society as the originators and teachers of skills and knowledge [BACK]

18. Thar membership is only differentially signaled in the course of the annual cycle for those particular thars , of particular importance in the symbolic order of the city, which have special ritual symbolic functions in the city (see chap. 5). [BACK]

19. We deal with the most important of these, the samskara s or rites of passage that center on individual, household, and extended family, at some length in appendix 6. A consideration of the samskaras provides a useful perspective on the peculiar features of the urban mesocosmic enactments. [BACK]

1. The title of this chapter derives from the title of a lecture by Warren McCulloch, "What is a Number, that a Man May Know It, and a Man, that He May Know a Number?" (1965). The second phase of the dialogue—in the form of "what is a Newar that he or she may know Bhaktapur?"—will occupy us more centrally elsewhere. [BACK]

2. It should be noted that the idea of a mediating mesocosm with its own particular characteristics implies that Bhaktapur's relation to the great cosmos is not that of, say, a medieval monastery, which was sometimes conceived of as simply a faithful map of the heavenly city. [BACK]

3. Polytheism avoids the strains placed on a monotheistic representation such as Jehovah, who in his symbolically overloaded ineffability must represent, for example, both ideal human moral qualities, including compassion for individuals, and at the same time a contradictory set of para-human disruptive, destructive, protective, and controlling forces. [BACK]

4. We will consider some formal relations between myth and legend in the next section. [BACK]

5. The religiosity of Bhaktapur's marked symbolism is perhaps only a "problem" when looking back on it from later secular perspectives, perspectives where the sacred, to recall St. Paul (whose pronouncement we used in a discussion of the "problem of idols" in chap. 8) has been exiled from the creation to the distant and thus unencumbering realm of the Creator. [BACK]

6. For example, from James Joyce's story, The Dead , "There was grace and mystery in her attitude as if she were a symbol of something. He asked himself what is a woman standing on the stairs in the shadow, listening to distant music, a symbol of." [BACK]

7. It should be noted that sexuality in civic symbolism is disconnected from ideas of family, procreation, love, or the normally erotic—its symbols are nonhuman and uncanny. This is a sexuality outside of the realm of the social person. [BACK]

8. For some vivid examples, see Hale and Hale (1970). [BACK]

9. The transformations in organization and meanings that characteristically occur as levels change highlight the peculiarity of those systemic patterns that are occasionally reiterated at different levels. A characteristic example in Bhaktapur is the Po(n) untouchables who mimic the larger macrosocial system in having their own "Brahmans," as they sometimes put it, and their own "untouchables." [BACK]

10. Compare Rappaport (1979) on the central importance of action and bodily involvement in ritual in an attempt to overcome the limits of ordinary language—in which lying is possible—for social commitment. [BACK]

11. The ontological status of deities in these three forms, and the truth claims of the forms themselves, differ. People may doubt a legend that, as we noted in the legend of the Yasi(n) God in chapter 14, often has different and contradictory forms, in a different way than they might doubt the presence of an embodied deity. [BACK]

12. Classification by levels generates mysteries when a particular entity is placed at different levels in different hierarchies. Within the class of dangerous deities females are more inclusive, more powerful, more independent, and more paradigmatic of the class than are males. This relation is reversed in the class of the benign deities. Women are differently ranked in these and still other classification and thus "femaleness" considered as a united, unsplit, category has a certain peculiarity about it. The goddess Bhaktapur' condenses as Kumari derives some of her fascination from being a concrete and differentiated deity, a "maiden," in one series, and a relatively full goddess in another. King, Brahman, and untouchable, in their own different ways, have different positions in hierarchies of purity on the one hand and of power on the other, and so become interestingly and generatively paradoxical. [BACK]

13. We have sketched, in chapter 2, some aspects of what we take to be the "states of mind" necessarily associated with orders such as Bhaktapur's. We suggested that they were both induced by experience within the city and, at the same time, motivated aspects of the city's order as ways of dealing with those particular states of mind. We hope, as we stated there, to deal with these topics at length elsewhere. [BACK]

1. This thar includes four named subsections: Dho(n), Bajimayo (also called Wo[n]) and Bata. [BACK]

2. Two of the thar s included here among the Jyapus are craft thar s—Ka:mi, woodworkers, and Loha(n)ka:mi, stoneworkers. Tuladhar, a merchant group, is sometimes considered separately from this group, but at about the same level. We have included it here. [BACK]

3. This thar is also referred to as "Kalu." [BACK]

4. This thar and the following one, Muguthi^{[ *]} , are grouped together for some purposes as Maha(n), and have important ceremonial functions. The history and functions of this group are discussed in connection with the Biska: festival. [BACK]

5. See note 4, above. [BACK]

6. This section consists of ten thar s, all of which are considered at the same level by the higher jat s, but each of which considers itself higher than the other groups in the section. They do not interdine or intermarry. Pasi is now sometimes said to belong as an eleventh at this level, but it was lower in the past. [BACK]

7. Although considered at the same level as Jugi by many people at higher levels, Danya is considered by both the Jugi and the Danya themselves to be at a level lust below the Jugi. [BACK]

8. After each thar name in this list, its macrostatus level is given in square brackets. [BACK]

1. Examples of a wide range of North Indian systems are presented in Karve (1968), Berreman (1963), Dumont (1962), Vatuk (1969), and Fruzzetti and Östör (1976). [BACK]

2. As Gérard Toffin (1975 a ) has remarked, almost all of the terms used to designate Newar kin categories are of North Indian origin, and have cognates in Nepali and/or in other North Indian Sanskritic languages. A few terms (he is following Benedict [1941] here) seem to be of Tibeto-Burman origin, and some others having no obvious connection with either Tibeto-Burman or North Indian vocabulary may be taken to be of local origin. Benedict lists as terms of Tibeto-Burman origin: ma for Mother, ba for Father, ni for Father's Sister, ta for Older Sister, and a somewhat dubious term, ca , for Son. Assuming this list to be exhaustive, Toffin is left with some residual terms, paju, kae , and chui , among others, which he takes to be of local origin. Toffin observes that the terms of non-North Indian origin are found only among the Newar terms for consanguineal kin. [BACK]

3. We follow here the presentation of kinship categories used for other North Indian systems by Vatuk (1969) and Fruzzetti and Östör (1976). [BACK]

4. The following conventional abbreviations will be used here: F, father; M, mother; B, brother; Z, sister; S, son; D, daugther; H, husband; W, wife; y, younger; and e, elder. Thus, FeBW stands for "Father's elder Brother's Wife. [BACK]

5. Newar usage permits the distinction of focal kin from extended kin in ambiguous contexts by terms such as "true brother", etc. in distinction to a " phuki brother," or a " tha:thiti brother," etc. [BACK]

6. We follow here the convention of using capitalized English kinship terms as approximate glosses for the Newari terms whose extent and boundaries usually differ from those English terms. [BACK]

7. The term bajya is used in some other Newari dialects and in Nepali. [BACK]

8. In some North Indian systems FF and MF have different terms of reference; in others they have, as in Newari, the same term of reference. [BACK]

9. Tapa : (or Tapa : in some Newari dialects) means "distant." [BACK]

10. For some speakers aya: aja is not used, and members of this generation are included with group 1d. Nepali (1965, 263) cites an "archaic term" for aya: aja , " iya aja ." The source he gives, Wright ([1877] 1972), seems misattributed. [BACK]

11. The term bajye (cognate with the Nepali term bajei ) is used in some Newari dialects. [BACK]

12. Referents MM and FM have separate terms in some other North Indian systems. [BACK]

13. Mother's Husband other than Abwa , ego's presumptive biological father, is referred to and addressed as bwaju. Ju is an honorific particle. [BACK]

14. Terms deriving from ta- , large, and ci- and ca -, small, are generally used in Newar kinship terminology to designate older and younger. The terms have many variants. Father's elder Brother may, for example, be referred to as tharhibwa, tarhiba, taribwa, dhwabwa (from another root), etc. In some forms the particle mha , or "person," can be incorporated into the term, giving tarhimhaabwa , tarhikamhaabwa , etc. [BACK]

15. In Bhaktapur the wide extension of these terms to a large class of male kin of the generation senior to ego does not include Father's Sister's Husband, jica paju (see item 4, below, this list), who is classified as -bwa in some other Newar communities. In contrast to most other North Indian systems, but like Nepali, Mother's Sister's Husband is included under this term and thus classified as a -bwa . This is reflected in further Newari extensions, MZHBW, for example, being classified with Father's Sister ( nini ) rather than with Mother's Sister as it is in some other North Indian systems such as Bengali. [BACK]

16. The elder/younger differentiation of those male kin of the first ascending generation related through Father is based on their relative ages in relation to Father's age, those related through Mother are designated as ''elder" or "younger" in relation to Mother's age. [BACK]

17. Father and his siblings may be referred to as ranked in an absolute (rather than relative) order using Nepali ordinals, such as jethabwa , "the eldest Father in my Father's household" or mahilabwa , the "next eldest." A similar ranking can be used for ego and his or her same-sex siblings, for ego's Mother and her Sisters, ego's Mother's Brothers, etc. [BACK]

18. This term is a compound of jica , "bridegroom," implying men married to the out-marrying women of the phuki , and paju , whose genealogical referent is Mother's Brother. In some Newari dialects FZH is called bwa (Toffin 1975 a ). In some North Indian systems FZH is a masculine form of the term for FZ, and is thus not amalgamated terminologically to either FB or MB. [BACK]

19. Mama is a homophone of the unrelated North Indian and Nepali term for Mother's Brother. [BACK]

20. These terms are preceded by terms for older or younger: tarima(n), tarhikhamha, cicarbi-ama(n) , etc. The qualification is based on whether the Father's Brother to whom alter is married is older or younger than Father. [BACK]

21. As Toffin (1975 a ) has remarked, in contrast to other North Indian kinship systems the term maleju is not simply a feminine form of the term for Mother's Brother but an Independent term. [BACK]

22. In some North Indian kinship systems one of the extensions of this term, MZHZ, is said to be grouped, as it is by Newars, with Father's Sister (e.g., in Uttar Pradesh [Vatuk 1969]). In other North Indian kinship systems it is said to be grouped with Mother's Sister (e.g., in Bengal [Fruzzetti and Östör 1976]). [BACK]

23. This term is a compound of jica , "bridegroom," a man married to the out-marrying women of the phuki , and daju , a term for older Brother used also in Nepali [BACK]

24. This term is a compound of jica and bhaju , a term of respect, usually used for an older or higher-status male. In some other Newari dialects jica bhaju is jilaja(n) . [BACK]

25. Tata is used in some other Newari dialects and by some of the Chathariya in Bhaktapur. [BACK]

26. From Tata , "Elder Sister," plus -ju , an honorific suffix. [BACK]

27. People who are junior to ego are often referred to or addressed by their given names without any qualifying kin term. People senior to ego are sometimes referred to or addressed by their given names plus their kin term (e.g., Kamela ta:ju ) when it is necessary to differentiate them from other kin in the same category. [BACK]

28. Variants include bhaumaca, bhaumasta , and bhamaca . The latter term is usually used to refer to or address a new wife in the household. [BACK]

29. This term is a compound of kae , Son, plus the diminutive particle -ca . [BACK]

30. The use of the terms kaeca, mhyaeca^{[ *]} , and bhe(n)ca involve significant differences from other North Indian systems, including Nepali. See Bhe(n)ca (item 18, below). [BACK]

31. This term is a compound of mhyae plus the diminutive particle -ca . [BACK]

32. The term bhi(n)ca is used in some other Newar dialects. [BACK]

33. Bhe(n)ca is the reciprocal term and relation to paju and nini . The discriminations made by the terms kaeca , mhyaca , and bhe(n)ca among children of ego's cross-sex and same-sex siblings is not made m most of the other North Indian systems in the sources we have listed. The other systems make a distinction between Brother's Children and Sister's Children which is independent of the sex of ego. Thus in Bihari (Karve 1968) for either a male or female speaker a Brother's Son is Bhatija , a Brother's Daughter is Bhatiji , a Sister's Son is Bhanja , and a Sister's Daughter is Bhanji While the Newar terms emphasize the cross-sex relationship, the North Indian terms emphasize patrilineal versus nonpatrilineal (feminal) links. In both systems, however, the nonemphasized aspect is made clear through knowledge of the sex of the speaker. [BACK]

34. In some other Newari dialects this is Bha:ta . Occasionally in farming and lower thar s mija(n) , "man," is used for Husband rather than bha:ta . [BACK]

36. This must be differentiated from the term for Husband, bha:ta . [BACK]

37. There are some minor alterations in a few kinship terms when combined with sasa or bhata . Thus HeB, who is ara for Husband, becomes dara bhata . Wife's elder Brother, who is referred to as ara by the Wife, is sasa daju . Certain secondary forms of kinship terms are sometimes conventionally used as primary forms for some of the affinal terms. [BACK]

38. Toffin (1975 a ) discusses this compound term, jica paju , at some length. It "opens a breech in the North Indian or Nepalese system in which a person cannot be at the same time a consanguineal and affinal relation; [the term] reflects a rule of marriage with a double cross-cousin" (ibid., 144). Note that the Pahari system of Sikanda also uses a single term, mama , (elsewhere restricted to Mother's Brother) for both Mother's Brother and Father's Sister's Husband (Berreman 1968, 413). [BACK]

1. We will use "he" throughout for simplicity of description of puja procedures. In temple visits and daily worship the worshipers are both men and women. For the more elaborate pujas the principal worshiper is almost always male. [BACK]

2. At this point in the household worship of a dangerous deity a sacrifice would be made (chap. 9). [BACK]

3. The term " prasada " used by itself implies an edible offering taken back from a deity. Other offerings taken back after being offered to a deity unless their nature is clear from the context are specified as "flower prasada ," " sinha(n) prasada ," etc. Prasada is often shared with others who did not perform the ritual themselves, or who may not have been present. The taking of prasada is popularly explained as a way of keeping the deity in a continuing presence with an individual. Prasada has connections with the idea of cipa (chaps. 6 and 11). [BACK]

4. Manandhar (1976, 230) derives the term from the Sanskrit dharana^{[ *]} , ''keeping, maintaining," and defines the term as "fulfilling a vow." [BACK]

5. The clay dishes and pots that are also used are listed by our informants with the expendable materials noted below. [BACK]

6. "Unhusked" is used throughout this book to mean "with the husk removed," and not "still in the husk." [BACK]

7. Kiga: is, as we have noted, presented to the deity at the climax of a puja . It is regarded not as a food offering, but as the presentation of a pure and valuable material. [BACK]

1. Toffin (1984) and Nepali (1965) deal with Newar samskara s in some detail among the communities they studied. [BACK]

2. The hair-shaving rite, the Busakha , was traditionally only done as as an independent rite, that is separate from the following Kaeta Puja rite, by the macrostatus groups I through IV, who also have Tantric Dekha , sometimes considered in itself to be a samskara . The Jugi do not have the Busakha , but they do have the Dekha . The macrostatus levels from XIV and below do not do the Ihi mock-marriage, nor for other reasons did the Rajopadhyaya Brahmans m the past. The other samskara s are said to be performed by all levels. The Rajopadhyaya Brahmans perform, in addition, some extra traditional Brahmanical samskara s. [BACK]

3. The jata : will be placed on a person's forehead at the time of cremation, and is supposed to represent the record of the karma he or she has accumulated during his or her lifetime. [BACK]

4. This is done among the Brahmans on the twelfth day after birth. [BACK]

5. The phrase literally means causing an infant to touch or to be brought in contact with cipa (contaminated food, in this case boiled rice) fed to it, and thus contaminated, by a superior member of the family. For the significance of this see chapter 11. [BACK]

6. Most of the samskara s (like certain pujas ) have one or more critical moments that are astrologically calibrated to a definite moment, the sait . These sait s are indicated by some, often dramatic, emphasis m the ceremony and often represent the instant of some change of status. [BACK]

7. This phase derives from another traditional samskara , the Niskarmana^{[ *]} or "first outing," which was traditionally sometimes combined with the rice feeding ceremony. The use of the mother's brother to take the child out of the house was one of the traditional procedures (Pandey 1969, 87f.). [BACK]

8. The girls' special rites of this period are the menarche rites, thus emphasizing their differentiated gender characteristics. [BACK]

9. All thar s in Bhaktapur do some version of the Kaeta Puja , but many of the lower thar s do not, it is said, do the Busakha . [BACK]

10. In local counting an infant is "one" (or more precisely in his first year) at birth, and thus each of these numbered ages represents one year less than it would be in the Western system. We follow Newari (and Nepali) usage. [BACK]

11. " Angsa " is said by local Brahmans to mean aga(n) sa, "secret hair." Its ''secrecy" is indicated by keeping the head covered with a cap in ordinary public settings after the Busakha . The uncut tuft of hair is said to be a remnant of "birth hair'' and to represent the lineage and the lineage deity. In this conception the Buddhist monk (and the monk's derivative m Bhaktapur, the Vajracarya priest) with his completely shaved head and the Sadhu with his uncut hair—and thus no distinguishing angsa —both negate the image of orderly descent and phuki solidarity and, thus, the defining solidarities and oppositions symbolized in the queue. The angsa was previously not cut at all, but rather worn long and twisted into a coil. Now it is trimmed and kept short. [BACK]

12. Following the Busakha Brahman boys must now have their heads shaved in each of the subsequent major purification ceremonies that are required after a birth or death in the phuki . [BACK]

13. Brahman ceremonies have two additional astrologically determined saits in the course of their Kaeta Puja or Upanayana . One is for the proper time for cutting the boy's nails. The other is at the stage of the Brahmanical sequence when a Josi must touch the boy to release him from his condition of hyper-purity. [BACK]

14. Bura(n) is used in various phrases, for example, in bura(n) jya , ritual activities done by farmers at the proper astrological time in connection with the rice harvest. Its derivation is not known to our informants, but is used m phrases suggesting some major and important traditional work. Taegu (sometimes written tegu ) means to persist m doing something. [BACK]

15. In recent years wealthy middle-level families had begun to employ Brahman purohitas for some of the earlier samskara s. [BACK]

16. For the Chathariya and Pa(n)cthariya, who had completed the Busakha four days previously, the Busakha is given more soctal emphasis than the Kaeta Puja itself—the preparations may be more elaborate, it may be attended by more guests, and in contrast to their Kaeta Puja celebration, it is followed by a large feast. [BACK]

17. When the Kaeta Puja is done at an early age, say, five or seven, as it is sometimes by the nonpriestly upper-level thar s, the sacred thread is not given, as the boys are considered to be too young. In these cases the thread is given at a special ceremony, a Dya: Dekha , or "God initiation" (the god m question being the family lineage god) when the boy is eleven or thirteen years of age. Some Chathariya and Pa(n)cthariya individuals never formally take the sacred thread. This does not prevent them from having advanced Tantric initiations. [BACK]

18. The Kaeta Puja is often remembered later as an emotionally significant time of transition, when the freedom of a boy's earlier life is suddenly lost. He must be careful in his contacts with lower-caste children, cannot share food with most of them, and cannot touch those of the lowest ranks. He must now wash ritually before eating, and must become more involved m family worship. He can now attend cremations and can see some of the forms of the lineage deities. In some thar s with special professions it is now that he may begin to learn the rituals associated with the profession, and may have more formal instruction in the profession itself. In discussions and reminiscences, the association of nakedness now covered by the loincloth and the growing urgency for control of sexual feelings is salient. Local Brahmans comment on the traditional and persisting importance of this, "Now the time for study has arrived. One must not have sexual intercourse during this time, because if one has become sexually aroused by a woman one is unable to study." The covering of the genitals with the loincloth is also associated with the idea of proper modesty and shame. From this time on being seen naked—as one was during the Busakha and Kaeta Puja ceremonies—eating improperly, becoming dirty or ritually polluted, are matters of salient shame and embarrassment. [BACK]

19. Other "Newar samskara s" are the old-age rites (see text below). [BACK]

20. Because of the presence of the mock-marriage, we must differentiate the later marriage ceremony with a human spouse as "true," "genuine," "real," etc., marriage. [BACK]

21. The Rajopadhyaya Brahmans still include the kanya dana , the gift of the premenarche virgin daughter, as part of their true marriage ceremonies. However, as marriage of premenarche girls is now legally prohibited and as in orthodox dharma the Brahman girls must nevertheless marry before menarche, the Brahmans now use a simple form of mock-marriage. It is usually called sinha(n) chaekegu , "the offering of sin(ha) pigment" and, occasionally, Ihi. Sinha(n) pigment is applied to the foreheads of a group of young Brahman girls in the same way as it is given during a true marriage, in conjunction with a simple puja . The girl is then said to be married to the gods. [BACK]

22. On formal written invitations to true marriage, however, the word " Ihi " is used as an anachronistic formal form to refer to the Byaha . [BACK]

23. The divine spouse is often erroneously given both in written and popular accounts as Siva, who, represented as a bel fruit, is for Bhaktapur the "witness" to the marriage. Another deity, Suvarna^{[ *]} Kumara, is referred to m one of the traditional names used elsewhere for the mock-marriage, "Suvarna^{[ *]} Kumara marriage." This name, also known m Bhaktapur, does not at present reflect any actual reference to that deity in the Ihi ceremony itself. One phase of Bhaktapur's ceremony is called a "Suvarna^{[ *]} Kumara puja " but refers primarily to Visnu^{[ *]} . In relation to the Newar Buddhist Ihi ceremonies observed by Michael Allen (1982, 184), Allen was told that Suvarna^{[ *]} Kumara himself was the divine bridegroom. [BACK]

24. Ihi in itself does not prevent optional marriage of premenarche girls, but premenarche marriages are and seem to have been for some time at least, in fact, rare (chap. 6). [BACK]

25. An exception to this is the occasional sponsorship of the ceremony by a Brahman whose daughters would not have participated in the ceremony. [BACK]

26. This sequence may be related to the traditional Mrdaharana ceremony, the "bringing of earth or clay. . .. [to be used] for growing sprouts" [in a pot] performed in South Asian tradition a few days before weddings (Pandey 1969, 209). Stevenson (1920, 65f.) describes for weddings in Kathiawar^{[ *]} clay pots brought by a potter to a temple where they will be used m the subsequent wedding ceremony. "Some Hindus," she comments, "consider this a fertility rite, and if the child born of the marriage is deformed, they say the potter's thumb must have slipped" (ibid., 65). [BACK]

27. When there are many girls, a purified public area may be used for the ceremonies and the procedures modified slightly. [BACK]

28. The Nauni, a woman of the barber thar , will paint their nails, as she will in subsequent major purifications. This represents a transition in the girls' purification procedures to the adult form and corresponds to a similar change for boys at the time of their Kaeta Puja . [BACK]

29. The placement of the Bhuismha(n) is done m the Ihi before the kanya dana ceremony signifying the marriage; in the actual Newar marriage this ceremony is done after the ritual action that signifies the moment of transformation into the married state. [BACK]

30. Desa means "city" and bah , "sacrificial offering." [BACK]

31. This initiation is not necessary for the upper-status thar s who present their children to the family lineage deities m the form of the Aga(n) Deity at the time of the Namakarana ceremony on the twelfth day after the birth of a child. [BACK]

32. Barha (Kathmandu Newari, Barae or Barhae ) has the sense of "ritual restrictions." Cwa(n)gu means to continue in a state or activity; taegu , an auxiliary verb of many uses, also has the sense of continuing an activity, with a somewhat more active nuance than cwa(n)gu . [BACK]

33. G. S. Nepali remarked in his study made in the late 1950s that the Barha cwa(n)gu was gradually being adopted among his informants, replacing the premenstrual Barha taegu (1965, 113). [BACK]

34. According to Bennett (1983, 215) Indo-Nepalese women were previously "hidden in a dark room away from the sun . . . and out of the sight of all males for the first three days of [all] their periods," and thus not only for their menarche ceremony. Such subsequent menstrual isolation is not done by Newars in Bhaktapur now, nor is it known to our informants as a previous practice. [BACK]

35. The rice powder and oil represent cosmetics. The girls had applied the mixture as a cosmetic during the Ihi ceremony. Now this gift symbolizes that they can wear cosmetics like a married woman. [BACK]

36. Betel nuts are widely used as messages about changes in ritual status. See the discussion of marriage in the text below. [BACK]

37. There are three life-cycle events—birth, death, and the menarche ceremonies—which cause a group pollution. However, while the entire phuki is polluted in birth and death—a shared pollution that Is one of the defining characteristics of the phuki group—the extent of pollution m Barha cwa(n)gu or Barha taegu varies according to the custom of the particular thar . In some thar s all the phuki are polluted; in others, only the parents of the girl. [BACK]

38. The interpretive emphasis on the dangerous power of the girls at menarche, rather than the dirty contamination that might be assumed to be associated with menstrual blood, is noteworthy. The emphasis seems to be (directly for the menstruating girls, and by a metaphorical extension for the preadolescent girls) on the danger to others of the girl's nascent sexual feelings and the feelings they may now arouse in men as (for the true menarche girl) legitimate sexual objects. Compare the discussion of menstruation in chapter 6. [BACK]

39. Betel nuts were used traditionally m Bhaktapur on several occasions as the formal notification sent to others of ritualized changes in status. They were also used at birth (in different forms for boys and girls), menarche, marriage (in various ways), divorce, and various death ceremonies. [BACK]

40. In the most significant contrast, it is during the swayambar in Indo-Nepalese marriages that the kanya dana is presented. At the climactic swayambar act of marriage (the placing of a garland of flowers around the groom's neck by the bride), the groom places bhui sinha(n) pigment on the bride's head in exactly the same fashion as the naki(n) does to the girls in the Ihi marriage. [BACK]

41. The ten betel nuts that the prospective bride gives to each household member may include five specially packaged nuts that had been sent from the groom's household. [BACK]

42. Now she is likely to be taken in an automobile waiting at some nearby accessible road. [BACK]

43. The naki(n) holds a handful of baji phoya(n) , beaten fried rice which has been soaked in water, and moves it down the bride's body from top to bottom. After each descending movement she throws the rice away. She doe this three times to the bride's left, and then three times to her right. [BACK]

44. As most marriages in Bhaktapur are from thar s at the same level, usually from within the city and often living near the groom's house, it is likely that the household women know or have seen the bride, and this and the following "viewing" of the bride may well be less embarrassing to the bride than is the case in the similar viewing of the bride in Hindu marriages in other settings where the bride usually comes from a distant community. [BACK]

45. The status is that designated by the household cipa system (chap. 6). [BACK]

46. In Jyapu and other middle-level marriages a purohita may not be present. [BACK]

47. In Brahmanical kanya marriages one common dish is used. [BACK]

48. We may note the careful balancing of the exchanges and activities—and in this case even the discomforts—between the bride's and groom's sides in all these activites. This is related to the emphasis on the equality of the giving and receiving families and the lack of an implied hypergamy, which we discussed in chapter 6. [BACK]

49. In former times the same person, carrying the marriage sukunda , had gone earlier to fetch the groom. [BACK]

50. A bura is an old man: a buri , an old woman. "' Ja(n)ko " is the same term applied to the infant's rice feeding ceremony. [BACK]

51. A ghau ,s one-sixtieth of a day, and a pala is one-sixtieth of a ghau . [BACK]

52. This is another example of the relative lack of stigmatization of widows among the Newars. [BACK]

53. We will sketch the sequence for adults. Girls who die before their Ihi ceremony and boys who die before Kaeta Puja have rites similar to those of adults at the time of dying, but are carried to the cremation grounds m the arms of a man, rather than on a kuta : carrier. The mourning ceremony that follows their death is shorter than for ceremonial adults (individuals past their Ihi and Kaeta Puja samskaras ), the phuki's purification occurring on the fourth day rather than the eleventh after the death. Infants who die before the age of three months are not cremated, but are buried in an area to the north of the city. In the case of infants, only the immediate household members incur death impurity. Among upper-level thar families following the death of children who die before Ihi or Kaeta Puja , a ceremony called the "feeding of the jwa: " ( jwa :, "a pair of animate beings," in this usage designates a contemporary of the dead child) may be held on the fifth or the twenty-first day after cremation. A Brahman purohita's child of the same sex as the deceased child is ceremonially fed and given presents. It is said that this child now m some sense continues the life of the dead child. After this ceremony there is no further special relation between the household and this child. [BACK]

54. It is considered by some to be more devout to die at the river. Some few people are brought to a ghat^{[ *]} at the central Kathmandu Valley shrine of Pasupatinatha. Note that all these places, including the cheli , are—as are the cremation grounds—outside of the ordinary ordered space of the house or of the city. [BACK]

55. For the great majority of people the most desired auspicious fates after death is to go to Visnu's^{[ *]} special heaven. [BACK]

56. Compare Tulasi Piya Day [43] (chap. 13). The leaves of the plants grown starting on this day are kept for use at the time of dying. [BACK]

57. In the association of the river with death there is, added to the idea of the force of the tirtha , an idea of the flow of the river, which is said to carry the person along with it to the next world. [BACK]

58. This introduces a double emphasis reflected in many of the death procedures, a circulation of aspects of the dead person, but a circulation that at the same time safely distances those aspects by, as here, a movement down the social hierarchy or, as in some other ceremonial elements, a movement into progressively more and more distant spatial regions. [BACK]

59. In some few thar s, notably the Jugi, women are members of funeral processions. For the great majority of thar s only men and those boys who have undergone Kaeta Puja are members of the funeral procession. [BACK]

60. It is popularly believed that until this moment the mind of the corpse is still active within the body, and thus that the person is aware of what is happening and can feel the heat and pain of the fire. [BACK]

61. Brahmans, for cremations within their own thar , perform a separate traditional "Vedic" yajña sacrifice at this time. [BACK]

62. It is said that the women of the upper thars do not begin to wail until they approach the house, while women of lower thars may begin wailing as they cross the boundary of the city or of the neighborhood. Women cry out such phrases as "Why did you leave us?," "Take me with you," "I did not see your face enough in this life; where can I go to see you now?" [BACK]

63. In upper thar families, the member of the Cyo thar who has accompanied the funeral procession and who helps direct the first phase of the cremation takes a position at the pikha lakhu , the stone marking the symbolic front boundary of the house, and swings a flaming clay oil lamp to chase off evil spirits from the kriya putra as he enters the house. [BACK]

64. The full set of activities are done by Brahmans. Chathariya, Pa(n)cthariya, and Jyapus have more abbreviated versions. The crucial activities, done by all thars , are those—depending on the particular thar —of either the fifth or seventh day. [BACK]

65. As the Bha, in fact, often does not know the proper worship procedures, he is sometimes accompanied by the kriya putra' s family purohita , who reads out the instructions from the proper paddhati (manual of instructions). [BACK]

66. This appellation is listed as one of the sixty-eight "Svayambhuva Lingas^{[ *]} " in Rao (1971, vol. 2, p. 85). [BACK]

67. It is sometimes said that the preta is, like the clay and the deity it represents, now below the surface of the earth where it is hot, and that this libation cools it. This is another example of the various parallel versions of the spirit's whereabouts and conditions referred to in the course of the death ceremonies. [BACK]

68. We will use the more familiar Sanskrit term m the following discussion. [BACK]

69. Compare Pandey, "The dead As regarded as still living m a sense. The efforts of the survivors are to provide him with food and guide his footsteps to the paramount abode of the dead. . .. The Sutras . . . prescribe that a pinda^{[ *]} or a 'ball of rice' should be offered to the dead on the first day. The ball was called ' pinda^{[ *]} ' [body, person individual] because it was supposed to constitute the body of the preta " (1969, 265). [BACK]

70. They typically talk of the illness and death of the deceased, and of his or her virtues. They urge the kriya putra to continue to do his "death work" well. [BACK]

71. This is held on the fifth day after the cremation for the Brahmans, and on either the fifth or the seventh day for Chathariya and Pa(n)cthariya, and, for the most part, on the seventh day for Jyapu and lower-ranked thar s. For those upper-level thar s that identify themselves as descending, like the Brahmans, from one or another particular gotra , the day for this ceremony is supposed to depend on the gotra to which the thar members belong. If they belong to the same gotra as the Rajopadhyaya Brahmans, it is on the fifth day. Note that in all such enumerations the day of cremation is counted as the first day. [BACK]

72. The pikha lakhu , where it will be first deposited, is under the front edge of the overhanging eaves of the house. [BACK]

73. Sraddha^{[ *]} is often written saradha in Newari. [BACK]

74. Although the elements of the sraddha^{[ *]} exist in the earlier offerings to the spirit as a preta , the sraddha^{[ *]} in its full form becomes possible with the formation of the spirit's ethereal body on this day. [BACK]

75. The body is said by local Brahmans to form day by day over ten days as follows: (1) top of head; (2) eyes and ears; (3) nose; (4) shoulders and arms; (5) chest and upper abdomen as far as the umbilicus; (6) from the umbilicus to the thighs; (7) knees, fingernails, and hair; (8) lower legs; and (9) feet. On the tenth day the body as a whole is able to eat, drink, and function. "Some of the Puranas^{[ *]} and medieval digests assert that after a man dies, the soul or spirit assumes what is called an ativahika body consisting of three of the five elements (viz, fire, wind, and akasa [space, vacuity]) that rise up from the dead body (while two—viz, earth and water—remain below), that such a body is obtained only by men and not by other beings, that with the aid of the pindas^{[ *]} that are offered to the departed at the time of cremation and during ten days thereafter, the soul secures another body called bhogadeha (a body for enjoying the pindas^{[ *]} offered) and that at the end of a year when sapindikarana^{[ *]} is performed, the soul secures a third body wherewith the spirit reaches heaven or hell according to the nature of his actions" (Kane 1968-1977, vol. IV, p. 265). [BACK]

76. Du is locally thought to derive from dukha , "sorrow, trouble, mourning." [BACK]

77. During the previous ten days the kriya putra and the other phuki members were not supposed to look into mirrors. [BACK]

78. The avoidance of mirrors during the period of impurity and the worship of the sun at the end of the period as an act of purification and a sign of transformation echoes some of the sequence of the menarche rites. [BACK]

79. Traditionally on this day among higher thar s the clothes that were worn by the kriya putra during the dasa kriya period were sent after the du bya(n)kegu to a special group of washermen, members of the Pasi thar , to be washed. The few remaining members of this thar do not do this now, and the clothes are now given to a member of the Nau, or barber thar , for disposal. [BACK]

80. These may include clothes, mattresses, pillows, kitchen pots for water and milk, drinking vessels, food offerings, and money. There is an emphasis on the number eleven. The Bha is given eleven milk pots, eleven waterpots, and eleven pieces of meat, the latter representing aspects of the spirit's body. [BACK]

81. It is said that men of upper thar s are not supposed to have sexual intercourse for one year after a parent dies. [BACK]

82. If the deceased person is the household head, the naya :, avoidable samskara s should not be performed during one year; for other deaths m the household, they should be deferred for forty-five days. [BACK]

83. The extended list of anniversaries of death that may require sraddha s includes the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth days, the end of the first month, the forty-fifth day, and all monthly anniversaries during the first year, as well as extra commemorations at five and one-half months and eleven and one-half months. There is a sraddha^{[ *]} on the first year's anniversary, and then at each yearly anniversary of the death. [BACK]

84. For some upper-level thar s and for all middle-level thar s the sraddha^{[ *]} performed by Brahmans and some upper-level thar s on the twelfth day is done on the forty-fifth day after death. [BACK]

85. The singleness of this pindas^{[ *]} is emphasized in accounts of this event in contrast to the multiple pindas^{[ *]} , characteristically three, which are used in other sraddha s. [BACK]

86. It is done on the eleventh day by upper-level thar s, who perform a Vrsotsarga^{[ *]} ceremony (see text below). if a Vrsotsarga^{[ *]} is not done, then the gha:su yajnña will be done on the twelfth day after the death. [BACK]

87. Gha:su is thought to derive from the Sanskrit ghara or grha^{[ *]} sudhi , the cleaning of a house. The essential cleansing agent is the smoke of a fire, which is suggested m yajña (locally spelled and pronounced jagye ), referring to a Vedic fire sacrifice. [BACK]

88. In other Newar cities the Tini thar does not exist, and the gha:su yajnña is done by a that at the Pa(n)cthariya level called, in some communities, "Gha:su Acaju." [BACK]

89. The thar name by which the Tini refer to themselves is Sivacarya, "priests of Siva." [BACK]

90. While the du bya(n)kegu purification is a typical act of restoration of "ordinary purity" following a condition of temporary impurity, these subsequent acts deal with a wider range of dangerous forces and substances than those central to the "purity complex" (chap. 11). [BACK]

91. " Dutaegu " means "to keep (something) inside." [BACK]

92. The day depends on the particular thar and its status level. "The ceremony of the sapindikarana^{[ *]} 'or uniting the preta with the pitaras ' takes place either on the twelfth day after the cremation, at the end of three fortnights or on the expiry of the year. The first day is prescribed for those who maintain the sacrificial fire, the second and the third for the rest" (Pandey 1969, 267). Sapindikaranas^{[ *]} at the end of the first year apparently do not take place in Bhaktapur. [BACK]

93. These sapinda^{[ *]} relationships are essential in considerations of marriage prohibitions, the corporate sharing of birth and death impurity, and inheritance (Kane 1968-1977, vol. II, p. 452ff.). [BACK]

94. Exactly whom the three pindas^{[ *]} represent varies according to who the principal mourner is in relation to the dead person. [BACK]

95. People of clean thar s can touch other people, including Brahmans, after the du bya(n)kegu purification. They are not supposed to touch deities, however, until after the sapinda^{[ *]} ceremony of the twelfth or forty-fifth day. [BACK]

96. There are also optional sraddhas on each monthly anniversary of the death and also after five months and one fortnight and eleven months and one fortnight. The entire series ,s done by the Rajopadhyaya Brahmans but increasingly rarely by other upper-level thar s. [BACK]