Offtrack: Rajkanika; Dust to Dust

Ordinary Hindus were once forced to bury their dead. The tradition continues.

At Rangaraj's first exhibition of paintings recently half of his paintings sold within four days. The proceeds will be used for his NGO projects.

Crematoriums in the region are seldom used. The backyard of almost every Hindu home in Rajkanika is the final resting place for family member.

Rites and rituals can be cruel. Take for instance a death in the family. The effort to ensure that the obsequies are in accordance with the scriptures can leave you with no time for grief, for a quiet moment of personal homage to the dead. From the samagri to the shlokas to the auspicious timings, everything has to be in strict conformity with the procedures laid down by the priests. Except perhaps in Rajkanika. In this picturesque region in Kendrapara district of Orissa, there is of course the collective chanting of Ram naam, the singing of bhajans, the pujas, the tonsuring of heads, the hundred and one small things you must not forget. What is not there is that intensely poignant moment when the funeral pyre is lit and family members watch with tears in their eyes as the flames slowly consume the body. For the Hindus here have made a clean break with tradition: they bury the dead.

"It is in death that Rajkanika differs from the rest of the country," confirms Yudhisthir Mallick, an elderly resident. It is also perhaps the sole claim to fame for a region that has little else to show except poverty and backwardness. Not that customary community crematoriums don't exist. There are a couple of them, one at Kalikapur, the other at Badagada. But rarely are funeral pyres lit here. In Rajkanika, the backyard of almost every Hindu home is also the final resting place for family members.

The people of Rajkanika do not think that their practice of burying the dead makes them lesser Hindus. "We are as proud of our religion as any other Hindu," explains Mrutyunjaya Samal, a lawyer. The presiding deity of the region, Durga, is invoked with as much respect and zeal as anywhere else. Like all Hindus elsewhere in the country, Hindus here too meticulously observe the important festivals. Rajkanika celebrates with the rest of Orissa the state's own special event, the Rojo festival, in June when religious fervour reaches a crescendo. The devout believe that this is a time when the earth menstruates. The farmers, therefore, put aside their ploughshares and stop tilling the land. It is a time for pujas and every home offers special prayers.

One thing must be said, however. The practice of burying the dead has less to do with religion than with local history. According to old timers of the area, the rajas of Rajkanika were tyrants who treated their subjects as lesser mortals. This divide was perpetuated through rather insidious means. For example, only members of the royalty were permitted to build pucca houses in Rajkanika. It was perhaps inevitable therefore that the privilege of cremating the dead should also have been reserved for royalty. Ordinary subjects would have to make do by burying their dead.

"Old habits die hard," says Sadananda Mallick of the fact that the rajas no longer exist but the custom does. In the backyard of his home are the graves of his father Dharanidhar and mother Sukodei, those of his grandfather and great grandfather just a few feet away. "When I die, I too will find a place there," he says with certainty. He, like many others who've bucked tradition all these years, does not believe that rituals are of vital importance once you are dead. "Pura, puta, pakha (burn, bury or throw away), whatever the means of disposal, once dead you are dead forever."

Of late, some families have begun to cremate their dead. But funeral pyres continue to remain the exception in Rajkanika. So much so that when Ramakanta Bal, a prominent communist leader of the region who spent his lifetime fighting the tyranny of the rajas, died two months ago he too was buried just as the royalty had dictated.

The practice of burying the dead may go against Hindu tenets but there is a positive aspect to it. Cremations are costly, and wood and ghee alone would cost as much as Rs 1,000. A burial comes almost free. For the impoverished inhabitants of the villages around Rajkanika, dying, thanks to royal whims, is a thousand times cheaper.