Hindu Sacrifice and Its Leftovers

Exploring Transgressive Religiosity

Abstract

This article aims to analyze Hindu sacrificial rituals and related stories in South India and Sri Lanka and understand the nature of “transgressive religiosity.” These rituals are roughly divided into two types: sacralization and desacralization. Rituals of sacralization provide a person with a way of approaching a deity and acquiring its power. Rituals of desacralization, on the other hand, try to remove sin or pollution from him or her. While in the former case, distribution and consumption of sacrificial leftovers full of divine power are a significant part of the rituals, leftovers of the latter case, which have absorbed sin or pollution, are simply discarded outside a house or temple. In some rituals, however, their leftovers are discarded, but they are not performed for desacralization. I suggest that this is because the rituals (bali) aim to appease fierce deities such as Vedic ones. In the case of Śiva worship, the leftover is called nirmālya and given to Caṇḍa or Caṇḍeśvara. While he is a fierce manifestation of Śiva, Caṇḍa is also considered a devotee/saint of Śiva. Caṇḍa's act of chopping the legs of his father is not a criminal act, but an act out of devotion to Śiva. I suggest that receiving nirmālya, which should be discarded in normal contexts, is another act of showing devotion to Śiva. Receiving the leftovers of sacralization rituals has a social function to unite devotees under one deity, but receiving the leftovers of desacralization rituals expresses a fanatic and individualistic devotion (bhakti) to a deity. From the point of view of religious history, the latter is more important than the former.