Mortuary Rituals of Kolhi Community

Abstract

This is an anthropological study of “Mortuary Rituals of Kolhi community”. This study is about rituals by which people deal with death. In all societies, when a person dies, family, friends, and neighbors respond in structured, patterned ways to the death. Cultural guidelines determine the treatment and disposal of the body and prescribe a period of mourning for close relatives. Death is among the many events that may lead to a psychotic break or nervous breakdown, especially when mourning and grief are not satisfactorily resolved. Death is a significant event in any culture, but the cultural ways of handling the highly stressful conditions related to it vary immensely. Death stimulates emotions and activities are different in each culture. This study is about the different funerary rituals of Kolhi community, belong to Hindu religion. This study focuses the different ways through which people perform those rituals, and describes the various religious and cultural beliefs behind those death rituals. Study describes the social and religious significance of the mortuary rituals, how those rituals maintain the solidarity and social organization of the community. It illuminates the complex interplay among cultural models, social actions and individual experience. Funerary rite not only embodies social order and cultural values but also enhances social integration and control of the individual by offering a stage on which to enact and instill such order and values. This study is about what induces people, both overtly and covertly, to comply with mortuary tradition, what role culture plays in shaping their actions and thoughts, and how people respond to cultural guidance and constraints. This study elaborates the role of Kolhi women in ritual performance, and it describes the various mortuary rituals performed by women. It explains the different behaviors men and women of Kolhi community perform during the death ceremonies. As we know change in surroundings has strong effects on people, so this study also discusses impacts of social change on the belief system of those people and their ritual performance, and investigates what underlies the persistence of Kolhi’s mortuary traditions. This study looks into the variations in death ceremonies according to age, gender and social status, and focuses on the influence of those rituals on people’s life.