Boatman of the Dead

 

Kailash Choudhari is a boatman and member of the Dome caste in Varanasi, India. The Dome have for centuries been proprietors of the cremation industry. Depending on who you ask, they either live at the lowly end of the caste system, or beyond the confines of societal mores. Kailash and I spoke one night on his boat, moored off Harishchandra Ghat, one of the two cremation grounds of Varanasi. The following text condenses a conversation that lasted long into the night.

 

My family has burned the dead for over forty-five centuries. We perform the same ritual now as we did when Lord Shiva gave us the eternal flame to light the first pyre. Every member of my family has lived and died on the burning ghats. We were raised to work the fires, and our sons will inherit the tradition. Our dome community believes that we are the lords of this earth. Without our fire ceremony, dead bodies could not burn in the proper way, and humanity would be powerless in the face of death.

Half of our community is here on Harishchandra Ghat, and the other half is over at Manikarnikha Ghat. The only difference is that the other ghat is for burning Hindus only, while here we’ll cremate anybody. We burn Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Brahmins, anybody at all. We’ve even burned dozens of Europeans. Some of them died here, and others had their bodies shipped here by post.

In our community, the men are involved in the cremation business while the women take care of the home and children. We enjoy our job. Nobody orders us around. If I don’t want to work for some reason, my brothers and cousins will take over my share so I can have a break. Everyone helps each other out. We love our freedom here.

Now I want to tell you about the burning ritual. When a person dies in Varanasi, people bring the body here within a few hours. There are two reasons for this. First of all, we Indians are religious people. Our holy texts say that we should perform the death rituals quickly, because the soul wants to be released. Secondly, India is a very hot place, and dead bodies start to smell quickly. That is why we take the body to Mother Ganga and wash it as soon as possible. Then we set the body somewhere around the ghat here, to give the family time to think and say any final words before the cremation begins.

Usually the funeral has a sad mood. But in our Hindu culture, when somebody over eighty years old dies, the family is happy, because that is the age of a good death. So they bring the body here with singing, dancing, drumming, and drinking, and we all have a good time while the body burns.

We have three places to cremate bodies depending on how much money the family can pay. That round platform is only for rich people. When they are cremated, their rings, earrings, and gold teeth burn along with their bodies. Every morning when we sweep up the ash, we search through it and collect anything precious. We sell it and use the money to buy drink and whatever else we might want.

To begin the burning ritual, the family must buy a new silver and gold shroud. This cannot be used again, because after the funeral it is polluted. Then the family buys wood logs from one of the shops along the road that leads down to the ghat. For one body, we need a lot of wood, more than three hundred kilos. The family brings the logs, and we stack them into a bed. The body is put face-up on top of the logs, and we cover it with smaller pieces of wood.

The main problem we have is that there is no forest left around Varanasi, so wood is very expensive. We have to get it from Hampi, which is over a thousand kilometers away in the South. The transfer of wood can cost as much as one hundred fifty rupees per kilo. Poor families used to buy only twenty or forty kilos of wood to burn their relatives. That amount of fire only chars the limbs, so the rest of the body had to be thrown into Mother Ganga. In Varanasi people are always swimming and drinking the water, and naturally we did not like seeing floating limbs, heads, or whole bodies. Now there is a law to make sure that all the bodies are fully burned.

Sandalwood, which is the most expensive, can cost a thousand rupees per kilo. You need some sandalwood for the cremation rituals, but poor families cannot even think about something so expensive. They just buy a bit of powder to sprinkle around the body.

A man who is the husband, son, or brother of the dead person must shave off his hair. This is a way of paying respect to the dead person’s soul. He bathes in Ganga to purify himself and changes into pure white dress. When he is ready, he goes to our temple near the ghat to buy the holy fire.

Our tradition is that any pyre must be lit by the flame given to my family’s temple by Lord Shiva. The fire is our most important property. Because it is holy, we have no fixed price. People can pay in gold, rice, or whatever. Even one rupee is enough. We only demand that an honest amount is given. So if you are rich, you must pay a hefty amount for this fire that has been burning for over forty-five centuries. Some have paid millions of rupees for it.

The man chosen for the ritual carries the fire in his right hand down to the body. He walks around his dead relative five times, once for each of the elements that compose our body: earth, fire, water, wind, and soul. Then he lights the pyre. As the body burns, the soul comes out through the open mouth. It takes about three and a half hours for a normal body to burn.

I have seen many miracles while the bodies burn. For us, it is nothing unusual. We often see souls dancing in the fires. They are happy to be free, so they dance and play like children. Once, during the day, a burning body stood up and tried to speak to us. Its mouth opened, but no words came out. It was very strange, because we did not know what the soul wanted to say, or why it was unhappy to leave that body. After a while it lay back down in the fire, and the soul came out of the mouth as usual.

When the cremation is finished and the wood has burned down, the man performing the ceremony takes five pots of Ganga water and pours them over the ashes. In the ashes he writes the numbers nine and four. These numbers signify that the dead relative is finished with this earth. Then he takes the last pot of water and throws it over his shoulder so that it breaks behind him. This signifies that the relationship between the family and the dead person is over. He must take care not to watch the pot fall, otherwise when he sleeps at night, he might be haunted by visions of the dead one.

The family collects the ashes and throws them into Mother Ganga. Anywhere else in the world, the ash left over from cremation is just powder and pieces of bone. But here, there are two parts of the body that never burn. For a man, it is the center of the chest. For a woman, it is the hip. These places are where men and women have the energy of Lord Shiva in their bodies.

In Hindu religion, there are six types of people who do not need to be purified by fire. While they were alive or as they died, they became pure, so they can go straight into Ganga. These are sadhus, victims of smallpox, victims of snake bite, young children, pregnant women, and lepers. It is my job to handle the bodies of these special people. I have to be ready whenever a body should arrive. So I just drink and wait, day and night.

The family or whoever brings the dead must come with a large stone which we will use to anchor the body. When we row to the middle of the river, it is my duty to say the mantra and tell them how to perform the ritual. We drop the body and it sinks into the mud below. The bodies do not stay down there forever. The fish and turtles eat the flesh, and only the clean white bones remain. Every year the monsoon floods the river, and the current takes everything out to sea. Nothing rotten remains in Mother Ganga.

I myself do not fear death at all. Not only me – most Indians have no fear. That is why we wear the gamcha scarf. It signifies that we know we will die, but not where or when. This piece of cloth is our coffin. We do not need anyone to help us. As we die, we can cover ourselves. It means we accept death at any time.

 

 

 

 

Click to view the photo series, The Cremation Grounds of Varanasi

 

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