The Invisible Path of Karma in a Himalayan Purificatory Rite

Arik Moran

doi:10.3390/rel9030078

Abstract

Indic rites of purification aim to negate the law of karma by removing the residues of malignant past actions from their patrons. This principle is exemplified in the Kahika Mela, a rarely studied religious festival of the West Himalayan highlands (Himachal Pradesh, India), wherein a ritual specialist assumes karmic residues from large publics and then sacrificed to their presiding deity. British officials who had ‘discovered’ this purificatory rite at the turn of the twentieth century interpreted it as a variant of the universal ‘scapegoat’ rituals that were then being popularized by James Frazer and found it loosely connected to ancient Tantric practises. The However, observing a recent performance of the ritual significantly complicated this view. This paper proposes a novel reading of the Kahika Mela through the prism of karmic transference. Tracing the path of karmas from participants to ritual specialist and beyond, it delineates the logic behind the rite, revealing that the culminating act of human sacrifice is, in fact, secondary to the mysterious force that impels its acceptance.

Highlights

At some point in the mid-1930s, a British civil servant by the name of William Herbert Emerson (1881–1962) wrote an ethnography of the West Himalayan Khas ethnic majority on the basis of extensive first-hand experiences in the highlands of present day-Himachal Pradesh, India.1 In the ninth chapter, Emerson described a unique rite of purification that simulated what was once ‘most certainly’ an actual act of human sacrifice
An outline of the basic form of Khas expiatory rites and the social position of the Kahika Mela’s ritual specialists is presented as background for the detailed narrative of the performance observed in August 2016
The Kahika Mela falls within a broad range of purificatory rites involving scapegoats that have been recorded in the Kullu Valley since as early as the 1860s

Summary

Introduction

At some point in the mid-1930s, a British civil servant by the name of William Herbert Emerson (1881–1962) wrote an ethnography of the West Himalayan Khas ethnic majority on the basis of extensive first-hand experiences in the highlands of present day-Himachal Pradesh, India. In the ninth chapter, Emerson described a unique rite of purification that simulated what was once ‘most certainly’ an actual act of human sacrifice. As the details of the mela reveal, the ritual specialists’ capacity for nullifying karmic residues connotes a distinction between the type of divine power (shakti) attributed to male and female entities, a distinction that holds the key to deciphering the purpose of the ritual procedures enacted in course of the mela After this introduction, an outline of the basic form of Khas expiatory rites and the social position of the Kahika Mela’s ritual specialists is presented as background for the detailed narrative of the performance observed in August 2016. The role of the female ritual specialist, obscure in earlier accounts, is addressed, wherein her partner is offered in sacrifice to the host community’s presiding deity An assessment of her actions in light of an early variant of the rite that is recorded in colonial sources concludes the analyses, suggesting the culminating act of human sacrifice is, secondary to the mysterious transformation that accompanies it, and that impels the host deity to accept the offering

The Ritual and Its Specialists

The Kahika Mela in Laran Kelo

16 August

Purification by Perforation

Disposing ofThe

The kardar sacrifice