Kilis 7 Aralık Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi

Abstract

In this article, which examines the “ritual purification practices” carried out through “water, fire and soil” after death in religious traditions and cultures, the descriptive, comparative and historical method of the history of religions, as well as the phenomenological method, has been used. Most of the purification practices seen in religions as an observable reality are related to birth, marriage, death, etc. It is shaped around transition periods. As a matter of fact, when we look at the historical process, societies have seen the “death event”, which is the last major change in human life, as the disruption of both the social and cosmic planes. At the same time, it is believed that dead bodies leave extreme uncertainty and contamination around them as they pass from the living world to another “unknown world”. On the other hand, salvation from the chaos and contamination that is believed to occur after death was only possible through ritual purification. In line with this understanding, based on religious traditions and cultures resorting to post-death purification practices, which is the last of the transition periods is the deceased. The idea lies in purifying the soul from the pollution of the profane world, facilitating the soul’s transition to the realm of purity where it truly belongs, protecting the boundaries of the categorical distinction between what is unclean and what is unclean and purifying the individual and the society from the pollution that occurs around death. Practices such as giving water to the dead, sprinkling water on the dead, washing them or sprinkling soil on them, burying them in the ground and burning them in the fire, which are seen in burial procedures in religions, are all manifestations of this understanding. The symbolic tools used in post-death ritual purification practices are almost countless. So much so that from “natural phenomena” such as water, river, lake, sea, ocean, sunlight, fire, smoke, embers, ash, soil, mud, stone, sand, rock to light, lamp, oil lamp, candle, incense, icon, staff etc. Many other “artificial objects” were used extensively in the performance of rituals. Especially in the history of religions, the elements “water, fire and earth”, which we encounter at every stage of creation, have been used in purification rituals for thousands of years as the source of primordial purity. It also made us think that any contact with these elements, which clean material dirt due to their chemical properties, would provide spiritual purification to human beings. Therefore, drinking water, entering water, sprinkling water, washing, bathing, etc. which is considered sacred after death. All ritual actions; that symbolizes “renewal” and “return to primordial purity”. Fire, another element used in purification practices, is also a powerful source of ritual purity. After contact with the corpse, the unclean person may have to walk around the fire, pass between two fires, jump over the fire, and be exposed to its smoke. Additionally, objects and clothes belonging to the dead can be burned in a fire, smoked or the body can be sent off on its final journey with fire. Again, with the discovery of agriculture, the element of soil managed to take its place at the center of religious life, just like water and fire. Seen as a source of ritual purity, soil was used extensively, especially in the post-mortem burial process. In this context, from ancient civilizations to the present day, death has been the most common source of pollution in religions, and contact with corpses has been considered unclean and dangerous. In this case, those who prepared the body for burial, those who dug the grave and those who attended the funeral ceremony were also subjected to ritual purification. Although different purification practices with different names are seen in the religions studied, the causal common points of the religions in their orientation towards post-death “purification rituals” are generally similar to each other. Even though human beings have lived in very different geographical regions on earth, they have generally had similar experiences, belief structures and religious experiences. Particularly as a result of the human relations established between societies and the influence of previous beliefs, similar perceptions regarding the “understanding of pollution and purification” after death have become visible all over the world. This is why purification rituals performed with the same common idea have similar formal characteristics in the Mesopotamian civilizations and their neighbours, the Hittite, Roman, Greek and Egyptian societies. Likewise, the understanding of ritual purification is almost similar in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Shintoism. On the other hand, it is noteworthy that the ritual purifications seen in the continents of Asia, America, Australia and Africa, which have no historical or geographical ties, are similar.