Hindu Death Practices and Ancestor Worship in Tamil South India

This lecture offers an overview of the diverse Hindu death practices characteristic of different communities in Tamil-speaking South India. Although some communities emphasize cremation, reincarnation, and liberation, others bury their dead and later sponsor little-known rituals to invite deceased relatives back into the world to take up residence as permanent deities in their family’s home shrines. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research in South India, this lecture discusses the ongoing ritual relationships that families maintain with their dead and reflects on the social and religious possibilities these relationships create in a rapidly changing, globalizing India.