I am very pleased with my choice of topic for the cultural project. I became fascinated with Hindu death rituals when I encountered cremations in Varanasi. At that time, I knew very little about the cultural customs surrounding death in Hinduism. This project gave me the opportunity to explore Hindu beliefs about death; the more that I researched, the greater my interest became. Though I was familiar with the ideas of karma and reincarnation, I did not realize that Hinduism also recognizes the concepts of heaven and hell. The 28 Hells described in the Hindu texts were really fascinating. There are different hells for different sins one might commit in a lifetime. The hells are very specific and vividly described and the punishments often fit the crime; for example, those who do not share their food with others will be punished in a hell where they are eaten by and must eat worms.
In researching antyeshti, the Hindu death rites, I also learned that there exist samskaras or sacraments for other stages of a Hindu person’s life as well. This emphasizes the Hindu belief that death is simply one of many milestones in life. Hinduism embraces the importance of the soul far above and beyond that of the body. The body is seen almost as an accessory or container for the soul. I can really appreciate this perspective; as a science student it is nice to imagine that people are more than just the molecules and enzymes that make up our physical beings. This knowledge makes the Hindu reasoning for cremation quite apparent. Hindus believe that cremation will allow the soul to escape from the body more swiftly and easily. In my researching, I came across an article which indicated a Hindu person cannot donate his organs. I did not include this in my presentation, because I had not been able to find such information elsewhere. Furthermore, such a rule seems inconsistent with the Hindu concept of a separate body and soul.
Along these lines, something which made this project a bit more difficult was the lack of reputable research available about death beliefs in Hinduism. Generally I would prefer to use journals or other peer reviewed publications, but combing through all the resources available in the UR library system turned up only one very relevant article. Even that article mentioned that death in Hinduism is a rarely studied subject. Apart from beliefs described in the Hindu texts, most information seems to be passed on orally.
The concept of Sati or widow burning is certainly something I felt I should not overlook in my project, as many people have heard of this practice. It is hard to imagine that women ever did this, even harder to imagine that still today, there are rare instances of sati. Also, I cannot help but wonder if it was truly religious faith or social pressure that drove more women to commit sati. Instances of sati have decreased exponentially in recent years. This speaks to the adaptation of the culture to fit into a more globalized and modern world, as well as to the growing empowerment of women in India.
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