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A self-indulgent bit of meaningless drivel
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Old Babble
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2005
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November
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- Images of Kolkata
- Things that I miss from back home...But really don...
- The Daily Path
- Wont you be my neighbor?
- Andy's Kolkatan Love Den
- A movie going experience
- Provoking thought of the day
- On fags and trannies
- Andy's Work Plan
- Sukhii Jonmodin (Bangla for Happy Birthday - I Think)
- Things I've had to adjust to while living in India
- Does anyone else have a problem with this?
- A cultural perspective on a cultured evening
- Random Kolkata Images
- A day at the cemetery
- Halloween - Kolkata Style!!
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November
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4 comments:
Question:
So did Kolkata not exist before the British? and if it did where did they use to bury people?
It dawns on me that I know nothing about Indian death rituals.... Tell us more Andy, tell us more....
My dear Alan, when you ask about "Indian Death Rituals" are you asking about Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Sikh, Jain, or tribal Indian groups?
For the sake of simplicity and because they constitute the majority let's just say you are asking about Hindu Death Rituals and Beliefs:
"Hindus believe that cremation (compared to burial or outside disintegration) is most spiritually beneficial to the departed soul." This is based on the belief that the "astral body" will linger "as long as the physical body remains visible." If the body is not cremated, "the soul remains nearby for days or months"The only bodies that are not generally burned are unnamed babies and the lowliest of castes, who are returned to the earth.
http://mailerindia.com/hindu/veda/index.php?death
History of Kolkata
When the British grew tired of the charms of the trading town of Hooghly in 1686, they moved downstream to three villages - Kolikata, Sutanuti and Gobindapur. Led by Job Charnock, an English merchant, the established a factory at Sutanuti on August 24, 1690, the date accepted as the foundation day of modern Calcutta. The British then went on to build a single post out of the three villages. Ten years later, a fort was built near what is today known as BBD Bag and the consolidated city of Calcutta was set up.
If anyone from my Indian collective would like to clarify or expand now is the time.
"Hindus believe that cremation ... yada yada yada". Most Hindu traditions evolved from some ground realities of life on the Indus and Ganga plains. Due to the hot, muggy climate, a dead body doesn't last very long. Burying bodies is simply ecologically unfavorable. It would pollute groundwater, spread disease (that the person probably died from) and waste fertile agricultural land. Throw in the philosophical belief that the body and soul are separate. After death, and after some rituals to honor the departing soul, a body is treated pretty much like organic waste and disposed off in the most efficient, sanitary way possible - cremation. The ashes are then cast into a river. Cremation is usually carried out atop a pile of logs, but these days, electric cremetoria are common in urban areas.
Of course, other faiths follow their own practices but these are practices that evolved outside the sub-continent. A rather unusual one is followed by the Zoroastrian faith. They leave their dead atop a "tower of silence", to be picked clean by vultures. That's their way of returning their dead to the elements.
Thanks for the clarification! And for the slight stab at my complete lack of knowledge about the second most populous nation in the world (I think, this is in question too, because of the whole complete lack of knowledge thing…. But it is densely populated, I am pretty sure about that) I will have to try to read more and do some self education on India, and its many cultures.
Your Blog is so helpful… not only do I get to keep up with the gossip in your life, but I get an education too, something rare for a boy from the backwoods swamps of rural north Florida.
Hope you are having a great day!
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