The wrong side of the river

 

“Aghor Medicine: Pollution, Death, and Healing in Northern India”, published in 2008, is one of the few scholarly studies of the notorious Aghori, a Hindu sect based at Benares (Varanasi). The author, Ron Barrett, is an anthropologist who joined the Aghori during the course of his Indian fieldwork. The foreword is written by Jonathan P Parry, another anthropologist who studied the sect. To an American audience, the Aghori are most known from Reza Aslan´s bizarre encounter with their “cannibalistic” rituals (which was actually shown on CNN), or perhaps from Dakota of Earth´s all-Indian peregrinations on YouTube. Since the book was published long before the Aghori´s encounter with social media, it sheds very little light on this more recent situation. My impression is that Barrett is describing a very untraditional Aghori lineage, which has strongly de-emphasized the controversial elements usually associated with the sect, in favor of social work and piecemeal societal reforms. The lineage he describes even has an ashram in California and some American disciples (including, as already pointed out, the author himself). I noticed that all Aghori shown in the book are clean-shaven, while the ones shown on CNN or YouTube usually spout hair and beards (and very large hash pipes)…

The Aghori are usually classified as Shaivas and Tantrikas. Their historical origins are obscure, but there is probably some connection to the “kapalikas”, another Shaiva Tantra tradition, named after the habit of its followers to beg for food using bowls made of human skulls. The patron deity of the Aghori is Lord Dattatreya, interpreted as an antinomian form of Shiva. However, they also worship the Goddess, usually in her ferocious form as Kali. At Benares, the Aghori has traditionally been associated with the Dom caste of attendants at funeral pyres, a caste considered low and impure in the Hindu hierarchy. Note, however, that the Aghori themselves can be Brahmins or Kshatriyas. The sect has achieved notoriety due to its lurid practices, which include coprophagy (the eating of human excrement) and necrophagy (the eating of human corpses). Most of the time, however, the Aghor sage seems busy drinking alcohol and smoking hash. At least if the local town gossip is to be believed! Sitting on top of a corpse while meditating is another classic sadhana of this particular group. The point of these “left hand” Tantric practices is to learn to practice “non-discrimination” and overcome the fear of death, thereby gaining spiritual enlightenment. With this comes a large amount of spiritual power (shakti). Note that shakti can be personalized as Shakti, another name for the Goddess.

The lineage described in “Aghor Medicine”, Kina Ram, goes back to the 18^th century, when it was founded by Baba Kina Ram, described in the lineage legends as a miracle-worker and fighter on behalf of the poor and oppressed. Baba Kina Ram was associated with the Tantric goddess Hinglaj Devi, who revealed the location of the sacred pond Krim Kund to him at Benares. Krim Kund is still operational, forming part of the lineage´s central ashram. In more recent times, the two most important Kina Ram leaders have been Burhau Baba and Sarkar Baba. The former was a burly and unruly Aghor traditionalist, and is often depicted in the local lore as chasing children, “blessing” his devotees by hitting them hard with a stick, and drinking profusely. Already before his death in 1978, Burhau Baba´s authority seems to have been undermined by his heir-apparent, Sarkar Baba, who started a reformation of the group´s activities. Sarkar Baba turned the Kina Ram Aghori into a mixture of ashram and social relief organization. Heavy drinking and smoking was discouraged, antinomian activities curtailed (albeit not entirely abolished), and the practice of doing sadhana at midnight in charnel grounds (around animals habituated to eat human flesh) was replaced by another practice considered equally dangerous and polluting in a Hindu context…

Yes, that would be aiding lepers.

While leprosy is indeed a dangerous disease, it´s not particularly contagious and can be cured by modern medicine. The problem in India is that anyone who catches it will be stigmatized for life, and this even if they are completely cured of the condition. Lepers and former lepers are shunned by their own families, can´t get married, and are often forced to leave their home towns. Many lepers are forced into poverty and begging, which in turn reinforces the idea that leprosy is somehow “caused” by these things (and bad karma in general). Seeking treatment is difficult, since leprosy clinics are often easily spotted, and passers-by assume that everyone who enters them is indeed a leper. Rumors about their condition quickly spreads. In Indian folk superstition, harmless skin diseases such as vitiligo are associated with leprosy and are therefore met with the same social sanctions. By socializing with people afflicted by leprosy and various skin conditions, the Kina Ram Aghori are therefore deliberately “polluting” themselves in almost “left hand Tantra” fashion!

Bathing in Krim Kund was said to miraculously cure leprosy long before Sarkar Baba´s reformation, but today, the healing properties of the Aghori pond form an important part of the new regimen at the ashram. The lineage has also established a “treatment facility” for leprosy sufferers at the “wrong” (inauspicious) side of the Ganges river. It´s relatively close to a modern treatment facility, but although the medical care there is for free (and can actually cure leprosy), the Aghori facility has more patients. “Curing” the social stigma of the disease takes precedence over its actual cure. A leper who spends years at an “ashram” might be said to carry out a difficult religious duty, thereby (perhaps) lessening the stigma of his or her family. A cured ex-leper (and his entire family) still carries the curse. Other paradoxes are also at work. The Aghori may be “polluting” themselves by associating too closely with leprosy patients, but a holy man who “pollutes” himself is said to acquire immense shakti precisely by daring to tread where no ordinary man can go. Indeed, the supposed ability of an Aghor to cure leprosy is derived precisely from the fact that he can stand being “polluted” by them. The status of the Kina Ram Aghori is enhanced by the presence of lepers at their ashrams…but the status of *the lepers* doesn´t seem to change appreciably.

Which doesn´t mean that the Kina Ram Aghori aren´t social reformers. They arguably are, although their progress is slow. For instance, Sarkar Baba abolished dowry among his supporters, and widows can get the higher status of renunciates within the group. At the same time, the new respectability of the reformed Kina Ram lineage also creates pressures to conform to Hindu orthopraxy. To finance the lineage´s schools, orphanages and “treatment” facilities, the Kina Ram Aghori have created a large network of important contacts. Barrett claims that the lineage is supported by several former Indian state governors, and a former prime minister (he never names him or her). At an Aghori-related religious festival, the author ran into a former high-ranking civil servant from Nepal. Perhaps ironically, he even met a real medical doctor among the devotees! Meanwhile, the ashram in Benares is no longer as open as it used to be to the low-caste Dom. An entrance at the “river” side of the ashram has been closed, leaving the entrance at the “smarter” urban side the only one left. The Dom used the former.

The book´s title is “Aghor Medicine”, but if you´re looking for detailed descriptions of actual remedies, you won´t find them here. The Aghori, apparently like most Indians, are pragmatic and “pluralistic” in their approach to medicine. They aren´t “against” so-called English medicine, but it seems that Ayurveda is the preferred approach. Or rather a revised form of it, since the Kina Ram lineage has changed many Ayurvedic potions, citing Sarkar Baba´s “divine inspiration”. Also, they play down the anti-leprosy statements in classical Ayurvedic scriptures. However, the most important part of Aghor healing isn´t this or that medical potion (dawa) but rather the blessing (duwa) bestowed through it by the Aghor holy man. Without the duwa, the dawa is pointless. And as already explained above, the most salient feature of any cure is the (attempted) removal of the social stigma attached to the disease. Or as Barrett puts it: “Disease discrimination is itself an illness”.

With that, I end this blog post.