#Cremation pyre full#

She is enshrined in a temple for all to see, even admire, and learn from. What we do know is that she is equated not so much with war and violence (all gods with weapons are) but with the gory aspects of death вЂ“ the decay, the rot, the wandering wailing ghosts. She is often confused with Kali, who spreads her tongue to drink the blood of Ratkabhija, the asura who can replicate himself every time drop of his blood touches the ground. Is she the same goddess as Kotravai, referred to in Tamil literature, found in dry lands and battle grounds? Is she the Vedic Nritti, who lives in the Southwest corner of the village, right next to the crematorium, residence of Yama, the god of death, guardian of the South? Is she Mrityu, goddess of death, in the Mahabharata, who is assured that humans die because of their karma, not because of her? We really donвЂ™t know. In the Ellora caves, we find her image again, seated on a pile of corpses. She is closely linked to scorpions, dogs, and crows. She is surrounded by ghosts or pretas, and vetalas (who possess dead bodies) and pisachas (who possess the living). She wears garlands of human heads around her neck. She is bedecked with entrails of the dead, their severed limbs. In one of her many arms she holds a cup to drink blood of those she kills. Why is she picking her tooth? Does she eat the flesh of those she kills. A characteristic feature is her picking her teeth delicately with her left hand, while she holds a sword in her right.

Her decaying skeletal body is described as kankala sharira. She is visualised as gaunt, with fangs, and protruding eyes. However, her origins are very mysterious. The goddess is commonly described as killer of Chanda and Munda, and her story is traced to the 7th-century Devi Purana. One of the oldest temples in India is the 8th-century Betal Deula in Bhubaneshwar.

#Cremation pyre full#

In folk literature as well epics such as Mahabharata, there are detailed gory descriptions of the battlefield, full of corpses, dogs, vultures and crows, weeping widows and of cremation grounds, with blazing fire around which there are ghosts, goblins and even gods of death, such as Vaitala, Bhairava and Chamunda, besides Tantrik practioners such as Siddhas who seek to learn and gain spiritual and occult power by facing death, fearlessly. Over 2,500 years ago, his bones collected after his cremation were divided between kings and placed in 84 stupas around the country. Images of the Buddha lying down as he dies is part of Buddhist art. In North India, Rajputs mark the spot where kings and queen are cremated with grand pavilions known as chattris.

In South India, in many communities, people sing and dance in processions as the dead body, kept in a sitting posture, makes its way to the burial ground. Travel websites invite tourists to Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi to see the Hindu funeral ritual on the river bank, a few metres away from the Bollywood-style Ganga aarti. The funerals of the Gandhi family has asserted their Hindu roots, one that has been relentlessly challenged by WhatsApp groups that claim to be followers of Hindutva. Mahatma GandhiвЂ™s funeral was shown to the whole world. Hindu funerals have been a public spectacles for centuries. This approach to crisis is very Hindutva, but not Hindu. Their strategy reminds us of abusive parents begging neighbours to respect family privacy but clicking a family portrait at the neighbourhood studio, with a garish backdrop, to hide the household horror from future generations. Instead, Hindutva supporters are now claiming that the foreign media is disrespecting Hindus by showing images of overcrowded crematoriums on their front pages, arguing that it reeks of Orientalism. Many of these deaths could have been prevented, if we focused on science, on oxygen, and vaccines. The truth of death вЂ“ of hundreds of bodies floating down the Ganga and thousands being cremated in funeral pyres across India, which reveals not the virulence of a virus, but the incompetence of an extremely powerful government that was too pompous to take the warning signs seriously. Hindutva is a 19th-century political ideology that proclaims itself to be the defender of Hinduism. Published on 17th May, 2021, in Scroll.in.