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Appendix Six Rites of Passage and Death Ceremonies

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]


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