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The Hindu funerals on the ghats of the Ganges are unlike anything that we are familiar with in the Western world. I guess the closest thing to it would be a cremation, but even that lacks the depth of belief that goes along with the the funerals here in Varanasi.

Before describing the details of the funeral it is good to have a little background on Varanasi itself. Varanasi is a city that stretches along the river Ganges, its waterfront dominated by ghats or steps leading down to the water. The city is said to have been founded by Shiva and is known as the City of Light, a place where the Gods and Goddesses come down to Earth. When someone dies in Varanasi they are said to achieve instant enlightenment, or moksha. The elderly come here in their final days and seek out shelter in temples and wait out their final days on Earth before dying. The religious traditions in Varanasi stretch in one continuous line through history back to the sixth century BC.

Given its long history with the death of the human body, the funeral process is well established. There are two burning ghats (areas where the bodies are cremated) along the river and in order to accommodate the dead, funerals are taking place 24 hours a day throughout the year. The two burning ghats are a little bit different, the southern ghat can be used by anyone who wishes to have there funeral here in the traditional way, regardless of religion or caste. There are some muddy banks along the water here where the poor are burned and then a little higher up the bank of the river is a circular stone platform where the more wealthier families can choose to have the funeral take place. The cost for using the higher platform is 5000 Rs, which is about $170 Canadian (£63 Sterling). Each family must pay for the wood that the bodies are burned on, wood prices can range from 150 Rs per kilo ($5 Can, £1.9) to 3000 Rs per kilo ($100 Can, £38), depending on the quality and type of wood. The amount of wood needed is said to be 360 Kilos, although this amount may be inaccurate based on the source of information. The wealthier families will choose to burn the body in sandalwood, where as the poor will be burned with low quality wood. The family will buy the wood from one of the wood sellers and then a platform will be made where the body is laid on top.

The body must be brought for funeral no more than 5-7 hours after death, this is largely due to the heat of Varanasi which speeds up the decomposition of the body which quickly begins to smell. Before the body is laid on the wood pile, it is first washed in the river to purify it, one of the family members is chosen to go into the water with the body. This person will shave off their hair (except in cases where the person is Brahmin, or of the highest caste, they will wait until 10 days after the funeral to shave their hair). When the elected family member emerges from the water they remove their clothes and wrap them selves in white cloth, a sign of purity. The body of the dead is also wrapped in cloth for washing and burning and the body is not openly visable, at least initially. After the body has been cleansed in the river it is then brought up on the bank and left to dry out for a couple of hours following which it is then laid on the pile of wood that has been prepared. The elected family member then lights long pieces of dried grass with a holy fire from the nearby temple, they return to the body and pass around it five times to release the soul of the dead body. The five circles around the body represent the elements; fire, earth, water, air and spirit. The pile of wood is then set alight. The whole process of burning takes about 3 hours, at which point the remains are sent into the water. Within a short amount of time the cloth on the body burns away and the body becomes clearly visible, an emotional sight for someone who is not used to seeing this. It is very important, according to Hindu belief, that no one cries around the body during the funeral or the soul of the dead will not want to leave because it senses the sadness of those near to it. For this reason the women are not allowed near the body during the funeral process, even if the dead is the deceased husband of the woman.

Up until 32 years ago it was not uncommon for the widowed woman of the dead to throw herself onto fire of her dead husbands burning body. This is now illegal under Indian law. While this seems shocking, life for the widow in the past would have been unpleasant. She would not be allowed to remarry, must look after herself and must support herself without any help and would be largely left alone. They must also only dress in white. Things are a bit different today where it is acceptable for the widow to remarry a man who has lost his wife. The process of the widow throwing herself on the fire was generally more common in areas of Rajastan, rather than in Varanasi.

Once the body has burned on the open fire for about 3 hours the ashes are then sent out into the water, the final fate is then decided by the fish. Once the bodies remains are in the the Ganges the fish will eat any of the remaining bits of body and it is then the fish who will tell the gods whether the body is pure and should go to Nirvana, or whether the soul is not pure and should need to be reborn again. If the soul of the person is pure then the fish shall be reborn as a human.

That is very basically the process and beliefs surrounding the funeral process. One significant thing is that not all people have a funeral in this way on the Ganges (according to Hindu belief), certain people may not be burned, this is because it is believed that certain people are already pure and do not need to be burned. There are 5 different types of people:

The first type of person that may not be burned is a holy man, they are already pure. The second type of person is a child under 9 because it is believed they are already pure through innocence. The third type of person that cannot be burned is one who is bitten and killed by a snake, they are already purified by the gods who have caused the snake bite. The Fourth type of person is a Leper who has no fingers or feet, they are pure through circumstance since they cannot steal or do anything bad because they are physically incapable of such things. The fifth type of person that cannot be burned is one who has small pox, theses people it is believed have already been taken by the gods since they were pure enough to not need to live out the remainder of their life. So what happens to these bodies? They are wrapped in white cloth, tied to a heavy stone and dropped in the middle of the Ganges. Can you imagine what sort of nightmarish scene it must be at the bottom of the river? Steff and I have seen this type of funeral and it is slightly shocking.

As a final note on this; the Indian government has built an electric crematorium near to the river but the Indian people do not want to use it, they prefer the traditional methods of cremation. This modern facility hangs over the area where the traditional funerals are held, relatively unused.