Ancestor veneration

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale, the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

Read the lines from Kubla Khan, one of the greatest poems that were written by S. T. Coleridge. Coleridge describes Xanadu as a beautiful place, full of pleasure and violence in the poem. What strikes the reader as they sail along with the poet through the beautifully composed poem, is the belief in ancestors and their voices and prophecies. In the poem, the ancestors prophesy war in the city of Xanadu. The beauty of Xanadu looms under this fear. Prayers to ancestors, the fear of ancestors and the blessings of the ancestors, and their intervention in the life of people are referred to in many pieces of writing in literature. Homage to ancestors is something that one understands is a very old belief. People visit the graves of their loved ones, place flowers on the grave, offer prayers, and seek solace. Movies have poignant scenes of people remembering their ancestors and crying and praying to them, engage in a dialogue with their ancestors, sit quietly beside their graves, or at times experience the presence of their departed loved mates as they sit in solitude. Termed as ‘ancestor veneration’, the belief is found worldwide and one reads about it in Chinese, Greek, and Roman literature to list a few.

While on literature, one play that has a compassionate spirit that performs all the functions that his master to who is obliged to; is Arial in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Singing beautifully and ensuring that his master and his family are reunited, we see Arial as a delight who brings good to the world of Prospero. Likewise is the poem of Edgar Allan Poe titled, Spirits of the Dead. It is a simple poem that describes the sadness of the mourner and the departed and their engagement in a dialogue. In Amy Tan’s The Joy luck Club, there is a subtle reference made to the ‘invisible strength’ drawn from the mother and of evil spirits. Greek literature reads a lot into spirit possession, mediation by spirits, and rituals.

Religious practices in some of these countries also prove how families respect and pray to their dead ancestors. In fact, in some of these countries, praying to the ancestors is a regular practice and is done with a lot of respect and faith. I quote historian R. Dawson who talks about the connection between the living and the dead as he explains in Ancestor Worship in Ancient Egyptian Religion: “Ancestor worship was seen by the mass of the people as a reciprocal arrangement between the dead and the living, in which the latter looked after the supposed physical needs of the former, while in return the ancestors benignly participated in the affairs of the living, receiving news of important events such as births and betrothals, and advising and conferring benefits upon their descendants. They were still thought of as part of the family in the same way as the bureaucratically organized gods of the popular religion were an extension of the political order reigning on earth. (154). The Chinese and the Egyptians also worshipped and prayed to the dead and ancestors' worship was a part of the religious belief and practices.

Reminiscing and going back to my childhood days, I remember my mother speaking with a tone of resignation each time she had a headache and that which happened whenever she draped a new sari. Between the headaches, she would tell us about how she believed that her older sister who had passed away very early in life apparently would be jealous that she was draped in a new sari. So we grew up believing that the dead could do harm to people, like giving my mother a bad ache. When we were capable of better understanding, there were instances in the family which became the base for believing that the dead could also do good to people. For instance, there were times when the family was weighed down with challenges and when they got miraculously solved, my father would speak of how the ancestors probably had blessed the family to the extent of even influencing the gods. This was overwhelming to us children then. As we grew older and we witnessed death very closely in the family, there were talks about funerals and whether the funerals were done as per ritual or not, and if it was properly done. And if there were matters of concern thereafter, then there were talks about how there was a need to ask for support and help from the dead.

Down south of India, especially amongst the people of Tulunadu is the tradition of remembering the deceased of the family once a year in one particular month of the year. The month of Aati on the day of the Amavasya, which is of significance in Hinduism, is when the ancestors and deceased souls are prayed to and worshipped. Amavasya is the time when there is no moon and when the light of the moon is absent, it is believed that the sunlight reaches the dead. On that day, it is believed that the dead come down and visit the earth and meet with their descendants. Families get together and pray to their ancestors and the dead and also cherish the memories of their loved ones. This is followed to this day in the form of prayers to the ancestors and the dead on one particular day of the year in Tulunaduand that which is termed Agel balasuna. One day in the year is called Aati in the Tulu calendar which is observed to honour the dead. A parallel to this month in Japanese Buddhism is the Bon festival observed to honour the departed.

A string of connected dots between cultures of various countries that draw mankind together irrespective of their rituals and traditions as we read about ancestor veneration practiced in some form or the other. Glorious past and rich cultures that seem to be fast fading…….