Chapter 15 The prestigious death meal
These Ganga water rites are often combined with a big after-death feast. Sometimes all caste fellows within the whole khera are invited to a big death meal called barva. The Chelana villagers call the death rituals celebrated on the twelfth day after death Barva simply because barva means twelfth. (Barahva in Hindi.)
The Rajasthan government made such big feasts illegal and Ganges water celebrations was combined with the death meal partly to circumvent the law, as people try to continue with big feasts in order to save their honour and religious well-being. Hence, in western Rajasthan death meals, mrityo bhoj, are often called the Ganga jal bhoj, which means Ganges water meal.
The Ganga jal bhoj may or may not be a part of the Barva ceremonies, depending on the ability of the family to go to Hardvar and merge the ash within twelve days. The bus service for Hardvar pilgrims has improved to an amazing extent in recent years. Buses from Jodhpur going to Hardvar via Jaipur and Delhi passed Chelana once a day at the end of the 20th century. Therefore, it is nowadays easy to do the pilgrimage within twelve days, i.e. before the day of the Barva function, although western Rajasthan is far from Hardvar.
A Dakot family going on a pilgrimage to Hardvar
A group of brothers and cousins of the Dakot caste at Chelana went to Hardvar in 1979 for getting Ganges water, and submerging the asthi phul pieces of burnt boons of deceased relatives. Tan Dan was present, when they left the village. They went in a procession from their mohalla to an enclosed shrine in the wasteland shrub jungle just outside the village settlement.
At the head of the procession walked Pukhraj Dakot. He kept his asthi phul in a piece of cloth tied to a cord suspending from his neck. His wife's odhni was tied to his angocha, a long thin towel kept on his shoulder. His wife had a matka, clay pot, on her head with twigs of green neem.
From the shrine the ladies went home again, and the men started their pilgrimage to Hardvar. They went by bus.
Three days later the Dakot men returned from Hardvar with their Ganges water. One of the pilgrims was an agricultural scientist graduated from Udaipur University. He and his wife took part in the panthvari puja celebration. He walked in the procession with his Ganges water pot on his head, and she followed him, both tied together with her odhni and a long cloth. They and the other couples walked from the shrine in the shrub jungle to their Dakot mohalla, thus making the river Ganges to flow into the village.
The relative who had died was Bagta Ram Dakot, a farmer with a big joint family. On the twelth day after the death of Bagta Ram his family celebrated the Ganga jal shishi puja, i.e. worshipping of the bottle of Ganges water, which his son and other relative had brought from Hardvar. They carried out the Ganga jal puja also for several other relatives, who had died in the last few years. Not until now any relative had gone to Hardvar, to get the asthi phul ash submerged into the Ganges river at Hardvar, through the panda priest ceremony. Meanwhile their ash had been kept in store at Chelana.
Therefore, at the Barva function, there was a long row of whitewashed matka pots with grain. There was one or perhaps two pots for each relative who had died. Such pots are called kalash.
In the front there was a brass pot for all the members participating in the ceremony. Such a pot is called shubh kalash. It was kept for the welfare and good luck of the persons of the families still living.
At the head of the gathering, beside the kalash pots, sat the six men who had gone to Hardvar. Two of them were real brothers, the others were their first cousins and second cousins. Four of them were farmers, one was a labourer operating mechanized wells of largescale farmers. He also lived on his own small farm. The sixth brother was Moti Lal, the Government employee working with research and extension in agriculture. He participated together with his ordinary farmer relatives, more or less illiterate all of them. He fully shared their traditional life and customs on the personal level, although he was a modern scientist in his work.
The Dakots only had a feast at lunch time on the twelfth day after death. The whole ceremony was done from morning to afternoon in the same day. Then all dispersed. Although it was a large gathering with many families, no marriage was performed on this occasion.
In contrast, some castes carried out their feasts for three days inviting all the caste brethren of their area. Jat, Sirvi, Mali, Bhambi and Rebari had this tradition. Such long and big feasts can be very ruinous as hundreds or even thousands of people are fed many meals during these days. That is why the Rajasthan Government tried to stop excessive celebrations by law as a welfare measure.
The Government tried to save villagers from getting ruined on big traditional feast, whereas caste panchayats sometimes ordered a family to carry out such feast as a punishment. To inflict economic hardships on the family. That is what happened to Mango Ram's family, when they wanted to get readmitted to the Bhambi caste after the death of his independent minded father Dipa Ram.
Death rites of a Charan family at Chelana
When Shankar Dan, a Charan of the Mehru gotra, died in the 1970s, his son Pithu Dan went to Hardvar to get the symbolic part of his fathers body, the asthi phul, immersed in the Ganges river. Then Shankar Dan's soul could go to heaven. Pithu Dan returned to Chelana with Ganges water, which would be used for the death rites at his home. Before the Ganges water could enter his home, it was necessary to get the house purified by replastering the floor and cleaning all pots. Old pots were broken, and new ones brought from their jajman potter.
Meanwhile, the pot with Ganga water was kept at a temple near the Charan mohalla. It was one of the two temples built by Charans. There was one temple for the godess Karni, but the one where the water pots were kept was a Krishna temple. Lord Krishna of the Vaishnav Hindus was worshipped there. The temple was built by the Mehru Charans. Also those of the Detha gotra used it, but no other villagers. Worshipping Krishna was a new phenomena among Maru Charans, at least the Krishna of the Vaishnav tradition, which was popular in the Hindu core regions around Ganges and Yumana. It was hardly done by the Charans before the 20th century, Tan Dan thought, at least not by the Dethas.
The Charans did not take Krishna as their own god, as long as they lived in their own nomadic culture of the Baldia type. Rather, they considered Krishna as a kind of pastoral nomad from the Gujarat region, who in his youth migrated with his cattle to the Braj region around Mathura, the river plains of Yumana and Ganga. For the Maru Charans, Hinglaj Mata of the Makran coast and her many incarnations within the Charan caste were the main deities. The Maru Charans and the Charans of Gujarat must have been familiar with Dvarka, though, the ageold pilgrim centre of Krishna worship in this region. The legend tells that Krishna ruled a small kingdom from Dvarka. The town is situated on the shore of the Arabian sea in western Gujarat.
Before leaving Chelana for Hardvar the villagers went in procession headed by a drummer. They walked from the home of the dead to a point in the northern-most part of the abadi area at the Lohar mohalla. It was the ritual place for taking farewell of the pilgrims going to Hardvar with the asthi. (In Marvari asthi, in Hindi phul.) The villagers used to walk from there all the way to Hardvar.
In the early 20th century Chelana villagers travelling far could take the train from Umed or go on horse back, but it was more pious to walk on foot. In those days they had to collect many persons asthi, as they were poor and had to save money before they could afford such a rite.
Nowadays, when the villagers have more cash and there is a frequent bus service, the Chelana villagers go instantly at each death, Tan Dan told. (In 1999)
A few days later Pithu Dan's family performed the Barva ceremony twelve days after Shankar Dan had died. Ganges water was sprinkled on the food. The pot with the sacred water was kept in a basket in the middle of the gathering. They carried out the havan rite. Most of those present were Charans, especially Mehru Charans.
The Mehru Charan ladies were in parda. Bahus were all in parda, but not young girls who were daught
ers of the Chelana village. They were more natural in behaviour and could smile now and then.
How a Rathore family at Chelana celebrated their after death function
In 1981 an old Rathore lady died at Chelana. She was the sister-in-law of Praduman Singh, Ravi Dan's friend. Her husband was a retired judge. Tan Dan attended the after death ceremonies, which included both the Barva ritual and the Ganga Jal Bhoj meal.
It was a highly respected Rathore family, so the function was carried out by three priests. One of them came from a town, something most unusual for functions of this kind at Chelana. He was the chief priest of the ceremony and sat in the middle without a shirt. He was a Brahmin pandit with the reputation of being unusally skilled in this field. Next to him sat in white turban Mohan Sevag, the family priest of the Rathore family. He was also a Brahmin pandit, but contrary to the pandit in the middle he was a simple village Brahmin. He had inherited his position, as his family and the Rathore family had a jajman relationship which had lasted for generations. He was basically a farmer, who owned a part of the old Jagirdari land of the Brahmins, and he was more skilled in agriculture than in priestcraft, Tan Dan thought. All the same, he did participate in the ceremony, as it was his duty, and the only way to get the jajman dan, i.e. the religious donation to the family priest.
Giving dan to Brahmins was considered good for the client also, as he got puni by such an act. A reward in future life for a good deed.
At the religious functions of his other jajman families, Mohan Sevag used to be the officiating priest, not just an assistant, as he was at this function. Then he carried out all the ceremonies to the best of his ability. He managed somehow, although not quite as well as the city pandit sitting in the middle did at this function.
The third priest, sitting in white turban to the right of the others , was a Sad by caste. He was the temple priest of the Rathore mohalla, and managed the two old temples outside the Thikana gate, whereas the third temple at that place, the temple with a golden knob on the top, was in charge of a Brahmin, who resided there. At his temple the god Sat Narayanji was worshipped. The two temples next to it were for Krishna, who was called Thakurji by the Chelana villagers. The Sad priest had brought a small bell, ghanti, and a few other metal items from his Thakurji (Krishna) temple at the Rathore mohalla. Their display and use was considered an important part of the death ceremony and he kept the items on a tray covered with red cloth.
The youngest son of the deceased lady, and his wife wearing a red odhni, sat also on the ground around the place were several ceremonial objects were displayed. They carried out the Ganga jal worship. His sister gave him a few items required for the worship such as grain and some water.
The Ganges water was kept in a bharni, i.e. the aluminium vessel that sparkled in the sunshine under an orange cloth. Villagers in western Rajasthan regard the orange-coloured cloth as a symbolic skirt of the godess Ganga, who was present at the ceremony in the shape of water brought from the sacred river. That is why they had dressed the bharni bottle with an odhni cloth, i.e. the head cover and veil used by Rajasthani village women. They call it Ganga Mai ro cheer.
Tan Dan had heard this explanation of the custom of covering the Ganges water bottle with an orange cloth from many villagers in western Rajasthan.
Green tender wheat plants were kept in a brown clay pot between two big white pots. The wheat seed had been sown on the third day after death. It is the day when relatives go to Hardvar. After daily watering and care, the seedlings had sprouted quite well up to the 12th day after death, the day of the Barva ceremony. The cultivation of these wheat seedlings was a part of the ritual. Such wheat is called javaara in Marvari.
A big clay pot covered with white cloth was put on each side of the pot with wheat seedlings. The kalash pots. Some grain are put in kalash pots. At death ceremonies there is usually two kalash pots, when the death of a single person is celebrated, but more when the ceremony is for several persons. At marriage there are four kalash pots. On the other side of the havan fire, the family had put the shubh kalash pot. From that pot green leaves appeared. The shubh kalash pot was a gift from the family potter to the mourning family. A greeting of good wishes and omen. The potter family regularly provided this Rathore family with clay pots on a jajman basis.
The havan fire of the Barva worshipping ceremony had burnt out when the family carried out the Ganga water function. It was the sacred fire the Brahmin priests used for their worshipping rites.
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