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Death and Life-Giving Waters: Cremation, caste, and cosmogony in karmic traditions
Terje Oestigaard
In this original work, the author aims to develop a synthetic perspective for enhancing the understanding of the roles death and life-giving waters have in the constitution of society and cosmos in karmic traditions through a material culture study of death and funeral practices as cultural, ritual, and religious processes in parts of Nepal, Bangladesh, India, and the Indus Valley.
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Front Cover
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Title Page
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Copyright
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Preface
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Table of Contents
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List of figures
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Introduction
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Part 1: Cremating Death – Creating Life
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Chapter 1: Cremations, kings, and katto
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Chapter 2: Sacrifices of kings – Constructions of castes and cosmos
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Chapter 3: Meditation upon death and digestion of the dead
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Chapter 4: Paradoxes of purity and pollution
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Part 2: The Sisters Kali and Ganga
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Chapter 5: “I am on my dharma, but Kali is on my karma”
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Chapter 6: Castes without Brahmans
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Chapter 7: Water burials of Mother Goddesses
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Chapter 8: Hindus in a Muslim World
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Part 3: Reality, Materiality, and Spirituality
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Chapter 9: River and rain – Waters of life and death
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Chapter 10: The hydrological circle – Cosmos and copulation
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Chapter 11: Myth and materiality – Mind in matter
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Chapter 12: Shivaratri, sadhus, and sewage
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Chapter 13: Status and flesh – Conceptualising corpses
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Part 4: Archaeology of Water-Worlds
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Chapter 14: Pashupatinath as living traditions and cultural heritage
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Chapter 15: Rebirth and water in ancient Greece and India
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Chapter 16: Exposure, purity, and Zoroastrianism
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Chapter 17: Religious syncretism at Taxila
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Conclusion
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Appendixes and Literature
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Appendix A
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Appendix B
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Appendix C
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Appendix D
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Appendix E
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Literature
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Citable Link
Published: 2005
Publisher: BAR Publishing
- 9781841716985 (paperback)
- 9781407327839 (ebook)
BAR Number: S1353