‘Karu Haruchodhu’ – Transference of sins to a bull calf


Badaga funeral prayer :
Ever since I became aware of the verses of ‘Karu Harachodhu’ , I felt how nice it would be if these beautiful words could be given in English so that the present day youngsters could understand one of the most important and significant part (prayer) of Badaga funeral rites. In the process of translation, I interacted with a large number of community elders and in some cases, the very people who recited this prayer during funerals.
What surprised me is that NO ONE could give me the exact and complete meaning of these verses. Hence, the difficulty in the translation. May be this is due to the fact every word and sentence could be interpreted in many different ways. That, precisely, is what makes this prayer very special.
But one redeeming factor is that though some of the sequence and the wordings changed from village to village, the broad essence was kept in tact. What gave more satisfaction is the fact that in some villages, it was comparitively young people who conducted this prayer and they had no hesitation to refer and recite from a written source so that they did not leave out any part.
[For the original source I have consulted Dr.Rams (given in http://badaga.org) and Nakkubetta Monthly (1979 issue) and my own research]

Where I did not know or get the correct and proper meaning, I have just left them blank [dotted lines] and hope some readers will help me fill up the gaps in the near future.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Such an interesting post about Badaga funeral prayers. I always love learning about how other religions prepare their dead. It gives such great insight into other cultures. Funerals really interest me. http://www.geilsfuneralhome.com/Services/