Death in Banaras [Paperback]

A study of Hindu death rituals and the sacred specialists who perform them in the Indian city of Banaras.The north Indian city of Banaras attracts pilgrims and mourners from all over the Hindu world as a place to die, dispose of the physical remains of the deceased or perform final rites. This book is primarily about the priests and other kinds of sacred specialists who serve them.The north Indian city of Banaras attracts pilgrims and mourners from all over the Hindu world as a place to die, dispose of the physical remains of the deceased or perform final rites. This book is primarily about the priests and other kinds of sacred specialists who serve them.As a place to die, to dispose of the physical remains of the deceased and to perform the rites that ensure that the departed attains a good state after death, the north Indian city of Banaras attracts pilgrims and mourners from all over the Hindu world. This book is primarily about the priests and other kinds of sacred specialists who serve them, about the way in which they organize their business, and about their representations of death and understandings of the rituals over which they preside.Introduction; Part I. Death and the City: 1. Through 'divine eyes'; 2. A profane perspective; Part II. Death as a Living: 3. Shares and chicanery; 4. Giving, receiving and bargaining over gifts; Part III. Death into Birth: 5. The last sacrifice; 6. Ghosts into ancestors; 7. Spirit possession as 'superstition'; Part IV. The End of Death: 8. Asceticism and the conquest of death. The author has done a superb job in combining description and analysis, his conclusions are both provocative and informative. There is no doubt that this work is a major contribution to the meager literature on the anthropology of symbolism of death and the sociology of specialists in the sacred. It is a 'must read' for those interested in topics such as death, death rituals, and pilgrimage. Choice