The Story of the 'Doms' - the caretakers at the cremation ghats in Varanasi

In India, the dead body of a person belonging to the majority Hindu community is almost always cremated by fire except in the case of small babies or holy men, who are buried.And a large number of dead bodies are brought to Varanasi everyday from far off places to be cremated at the ghats here. This tradition is guided by the belief that those are cremated at Varanasi will be liberated from the endless cycle of birth and death.

The Raja Harishchandra Ghat and the Manikarnika Ghat are the two cremation grounds where the dead bodies are offered to fire. Manikarnika Ghat occupies a elevated status as compared to Harishchandra ghat and it is a costly affair to cremate a body here as the 'Doms' at Manikarnika charge exorbitantly for their services.

Who are these doms?
Doms belong to the 'Dom' community of India, who are considered outcastes and mostly engage in professions such as agricultural labourers, weavers,and cremation of dead bodies.

In Varanasi, at these two ghats, the doms are believed to be very rich.They are known to charge huge sums of money for their role in the cremation of the dead.The current 'Dom Raja' of Varanasi is a multimillionaire.In the Hindu tradition, when the dead body is brought to the cremation ghat, it is the 'dom' who provides the first set of five logs of wood required for the funeral pyre.The rest of the wood is then provided by the relatives of the deceased. The 'dom' then hands over the lighted straw to the person who then lights the funeral pyre with that bunch of burning straw. IT is for these three services that the 'dom' exacts his fee which he decides at will based upon his judgement of the financial background of the deceased and his family.And they are really smart at this and are known to charge huge sums of money from the rich families who bring their dead to Manikarnika Ghat. It is said that when the dead body of the recently deceased former king of Kashi(Varanasi) was brought for cremation at Manikarnika, the dom was paid 600000 rupees and was given the rights to acres of land in lieu of his services rendered.

The 'doms' at Varanasi have become very rich over the years - thanks to this tradition. Legend has it that at one time, the great king, Raja Harishchandra worked as a helper to the Kalu dom, who tended the cremation grounds centuries ago. The king had sold himself to the 'dom'. Since then, the head of the dom's , the chief cremator at Varanasi have taken on the title 'Dom Raja' or the dom king. There are around 30 main doms and after them come the 500 odd doms, who form the second rung of hierarchy.
The doms are the keepers of the sacred fire at the cremation ground, which is never allowed to die down. Death is the constant companion of the doms, who virtually spend their entire lives at these cremation grounds.