Tini

In Bhaktapur's status hierarchy there is one thar placed below the Pa(n)cthariya level and above the great mass of Jyapu or farming thar s.

This is the Sivacarya ("Acariya of Siva") thar , whose members are priests, in Brahmanical phrasing, "a kind of lower Brahman." The priests of these families (and their members in general) are called "Tini."^[17] It is said that the Tini exist only in Bhaktapur and in some surrounding villages. In the other Newar clues their special functions are performed by Karmacaryas.^[18] In Bhaktapur a Tini priest is required during two important rites of passage. He is necessary for the performance of a purificatory fire ceremony, the gha:su: jagye ceremony, among middle and upper thar s, performed (depending on the particular thar 's customs) on the eleventh or twelfth day after a death (app. 6). The Tini priest makes a fire on the cheli of the house. Offerings to the fire are considered as offerings to Siva (which is sometimes given in partial explanation of the thar name of the Tini, "Sivacarya"). In the course of this fire ceremony the Tini makes a meat-containing offering of samhae to the fire. It is believed that the smoke of the fire will penetrate the house and drive out the evil influences of illness and death.^[19] Members of the family and at least one representative from each household of the extended phuki (who have shared in the death pollution) hold their hands over this fire to purify themselves and the members of the households whom they represent. In the course of the gha:su: jagye ceremony the Tinis have (in contrast to Karmacarya priests) the right to read verses from the Veda, which they possess in a simplified version in manuscripts passed on in their families. They also have the right to transmit, know, and use Vedic mantra s. The other important general community use of the Tini is as one of the necessary assistant priests to the Brahman (the others being Acajus and Josis) during the mock-marriage ceremony, the Ihi ceremony (app. 6).

The Tinis are the purohita s, the family priests, of the families of the Bha thar , a thar of borderline clean status, whose members have, as we will see below, their own contaminating priest-like function. In terms of their right to know Vedic mantra s and read the Veda, their status, by traditional criteria, would approximate the Brahmans. Tinis are explained as being a "kind of Brahman" probably "fallen" because of some irregular marriage, although in contrast to the Josis with their Taleju functions, the connection to the Rajopadhyaya Brahmans themselves seems much vaguer. In contrast to the work of the Josis as astrologers, which Brahmans say that they could do but delegate to others, Brahmans say that they themselves could not perform the gha:su: jagye ceremony without losing their Brahman status. This is because that ceremony has to do with the removing of pollution, a pro-

cedure that always depresses the status of those who do it. This illuminates both the anomalously low status of the Tinis—they are lower than any of the other upper-status sections—Brahmans, Chathariya, and Pa(n)cthariya—and their protective or surrogate function for the high-status Rajopadhyaya Brahmans.