Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Pier of The Dead

We have a word 'marghat' usually a place near 'shamshaan'. Hindus cremate their dead except those who die of snake bite or some unknown illness. All the dead whether in body or as ash are then immersed in water. Shamshaan is a cremation ground. Earlier it used to be at the edge of a pond, a river or any body of water not anymore. Ever since electric crematoriums have been constructed the need of water body is done away with. Now people collect the ashes of the dead and take it to water body for immersion. 'marghat' is the place where this final act is played out. It is fascinating word made up of 'mar' meaning dead and 'ghat' a contraction of the word 'ghaat' meaning a small pier therefore 'marghat' means 'pier of the dead'. Significance the word 'marghat' should not be lost. A pier is place where people are ferried to far off places across a body of water so does 'marghat' means a place where dead are ferried across an unknown monolithic space which we can only speculate.... 




Death after all is journey into unknown.........