The Story of Indian Karni-Bharni Paintings — Karni-Bharni is a compound word. It means ‘reap as you sow’ in Hindi. Karni is translated to deeds, and Bharni is return in Hindi. This is the philosophy of Karma, which every Indian is aware of, but I am referring to a painting tradition here. …

Marsiya is the poetry tradition of the Islamic world — Each language has its own relationship with pain. And when sorrow exceeds the limits of what can be expressed emotionally, it often takes the form of poetry. Marsiya is that poetic form of grief in Arabic and Urdu. The marsiya is an elegiac poem recited to express emotions on the…

How artists imagined his death over twenty-three centuries — A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient. — Alexander the Great After a long and tiring campaign, Macedonian King Alexander’s army began a long march back home from India in 326 BCE. But Alexander got sick in Babylon and had to stay there to get better. Unfortunately, his health deteriorated further, and he died on 11 June 323 BCE. …

Movies portray battles as glorious, but they were quite gory and brutal — Films often glorify medieval battles, but fighting with bladed weapons was scary. The words that best describe them are slicing, chopping, cutting, cleaving, incising, and piercing. These words today identify with the job of a postmortem surgeon. In truth, blade fighting was a violent, brutal, ferocious, and incredibly effective method…

Attendants, pets, and valuables were part of burial in Moidams — India is home to pyramid like structures called Moidams. These tombs in Assam are actually graves of kings and their families. Tai-Ahom clan, who migrated from China in the 12th century, was the builder of these tombs. …

Not every culture allows women to take part in the last rites — This story is about women’s non-participation in funeral rites and rituals. In various cultures, they have to fight to attend the cremation or the burial of their loved ones. Patriarchs stop them with labels of traditions and religious protocols. Especially in most Asian societies, historically, performing funerary rituals has been…

Color of Grief and Mourning — Google doesn’t offer an accurate answer to the queries like ‘what color should I wear to a funeral?’ or ‘can I wear color to a funeral?’ And reaching consensus is really difficult, mainly due to the perception of death in different cultures and traditions. Primarily dependent on the climatic conditions…

Professional Mourners can grieve for you if.. — A person trained in the funeral etiquettes can mourn the death of a stranger. They can lament and deliver a eulogy or help comfort the grieving family. They are professional mourners or moirologist. Sometimes they perform openly, and at times, they act discreetly. Professional mourning is mostly a gendered occupation…

What To Do And How To Plan When Someone Dies — We seldom incorporate deaths in our plan when we pan out the curves of our lives. That is why when death happens near us, we find ourselves almost clueless. Can we have a definitive to-do checklist of things that needs our attention after someone dies? …