YARANASI, INDIA: By 6:30 a.m., six bodies were burning on the high beds of logs on the bank Of the Ganges River, fires crackling, ashes flying. Families gathered around the burning pyres, as though around’ campfires, When the fires died, workers threw the Ashes into the river. Downstream, men and women were brushing their teeth in the river. Men were lathering their Chests with soap, their heads with shampoo. Others were soaping and Washing copper pots. Still others were washing clothes. They stood and, with loud slaps, beat clothes against slabs of slate in the water.

They did not worry, they said, about pollution from ashes or about the bodies, of both humans and animals, that were deposited daily into the river.

“This water cleans the mouth well,” said Santos Kumar Singh, 18, holding a toothbrush. “It’s better than tap water because it’s not processed. It’s also better in taste.”

Even further downstream, Dipak Kumar Kanojia, 35, stood in the river and rubbed soap on to clothes. “This water gets clothes more clean than any other water,” said Kanojia, who washes his neighborhood’s clothes there daily.

Hindus believe that the Ganges is the world’s most sacred river and that those who bathe in its waters achieve purity. Similarly, those whose bodies are deposited seven men burned an orange and gold cloth over a small pyre. It was in memory of their mother and grandmother, Dulari, 95, of Varansai. “My grandmother died of leprosy, so we didn’t bam her body; yesterday we put it into the river,” said Narayan, 30, her grandson, “But some family members want a burning as a type of memorial, so we’re burning chapatth powder,” Chapatti is a type of bread.

In Hinduism, victims of leprosy, as well as dead children and animals, ‘are not cremated, Their bodies often are thrown into the river. Farther along the sacred river, it seemed like a beach. Sunbathers under straw umbrellas rubbed Suntan oil into their skin. Children played. Vendors sold incense and tea, But reminders of the religious aspect of the river were all-around. Cows, the sacred animals of Hinduism, munched on wreaths of marigolds along the river banks. A man facing the river in a yoga position chanted a mantra. The picture was of a mingling of the sacred and worldly, of death and life, of animals and people, of filth and purity.

(“San Jose Mercury News”).

Article extracted from this publication >>  February 19, 1993