Varanasi: Kashi Christians cremate bodies, bury ashes

VARANASI: The pandemic has transformed life beyond imagination, changed the basic precepts, and even blurred religious traditions and centuries-old rituals of performing last rites in Varanasi, known as the city of salvation, for the safety of all.
The devastating pandemic has killed many in the city and bodies are being cremated and buried in PPE kits.

Many citizens from the Christian community also lost the battle to the deadly virus, but their families are not burying them now. Instead, they are adopting the Hindu tradition of cremating the bodies on ghats of the Ganga and taking the ashes in urns to the graveyard for entombment. Coffins are gone, funerals are mute.
Since the beginning of the second wave, at least six bodies were cremated and ashes taken to the Christian graveyard at Chaukaghat for burial, Father Vijay Shantiraj, secretary of Banaras Christian Cemetery Board, told TOI on Monday.

“The Christian population in Varanasi is over 3,000. Normally, one or two deaths are reported in the community per month, but more than 30 have died in the last 45 days when Covid cases started surging. The reason for many of these deaths could not be ascertained,” he said.
“When someone dies in Christian community, prayers are held at home and later at church by keeping the body in a coffin before burial. However, nowadays, as precautionary measures we are ensuring that minimum persons come in contact with the body for safety and to prevent any likely spread of infection,” said Fr Shantiraj.
“Some people got infected and died of Covid, and their families consulted us since they were not in favour of burying the body. We suggested that the bodies can be cremated and ashes can be buried,” he said.
So far, six Christian families took bodies of their kin to CNG crematorium at Harishchandra Ghat directly from the hospital and cremated them. The ashes were collected and buried after prayers, Fr Shantiraj added.
When the annual special prayers will be offered at the cemeteries on November 2, we will pray at these graves also, he said.
“I don’t recall any instance before this in my life, when bodies were cremated and ashes buried,” he added.