Bison Horn Maria- Mrittu aur Sharan

Abstract

Aside from birth, the only thing that is guaranteed to happen to every person on the earth is death. Having knowledge that we all have to face it someday, creates in most of us, images of it that are negative and disturbing, which evoke feelings of fear and anxiety. Besides, the fact, that, in our lifetime, we all have to witness the death of the people we love, imparts pain and hence, there is a widespread reluctance to discuss dying. For these ultimate problems of human life, faith plays a vital role in prescribing ways of making sense of and responding to these concerns. Every religion provides its members with rituals to accompany life’s biggest transition, which is death. This project focuses on the death rituals and the concepts of afterlife in the Bison Horn Maria tribe of Bastar, Chhattisgarh. In addition to the belief in rebirth, Bison Horn Marias have a concept that , the soul of the dead, has two aspects of it, one which is positive and need to be kept inside the house, and the other one being negative, needs to be out of the house at any cost. The place where the negative aspect of the soul resides, is further seen as a memorial pillar for the dead. The end product of the field research is a documentary film, which tries to capture , the rituals of remembering the dead as a matter of routine in their daily lives, and the commemoration ceremonies for the dead in them, which helps the individuals within the community, in accepting the reality of death and acts as a medium for support for those in grief.