Cremation Ground

Literally a place where bodies are cremated, but in Hindu culture it also has a
significant symbolic meaning. The cremation ground is pervaded by associations with death and impurity
(ashaucha), making it an intensely
inauspicious place that is often believed
to be inhabited by malevolent wandering spirits. The cremation ground is usually located at the boundary of a
community, both to remove any contact
with this source of inauspiciousness
from everyday life and perhaps to symbolically deny the reality of death by relegating the cremation ground to the
margins of the “settled” world.
One well-known exception to this
rule occurs in Benares, where the cremation ground at Manikarnika Ghat is
in the middle of the city. This prominence symbolically forces the inhabitants to confront the reality of death, but
since Benares is also the home of the
god Shiva, it also raises the hope that
death will bring final liberation of the
soul (moksha). Similarly, although most
people avoid the cremation ground as
inauspicious, certain religious adepts
voluntarily choose it as their place of
residence and religious practice. This
may include certain types of ascetics
who are simply emulating terrifying
forms of Shiva who are said to reside in
cremation grounds. Practitioners of the
esoteric ritual tradition known as tantra
may live in a cremation ground to assert
the radical unity of all reality and transcend the concepts of purity and impurity, which they consider artificial. See
also cremation.