The Kalasha of Hindu Kush
- Nov 11, 2013
- 18 min read
Why are the Kalash important?
There are three reasons why the Kalash are important in the study of Eurasian prehistory:
– Their mountainous habitat contributed to isolation and relative immunity from historical population movements
– Their non-Islamic religion has definitely preserved them from recent gene inflow
– Their language is unique within the Indo-Aryan family, and it often considered today as part of a separate Dardic family of Indo-Iranian in addition to the more populous Iranian and Indo-Aryan families.
The Kalash are crucial for those interested in the origins of Indo-Iranians, and the fact that they are, indeed, a simple West/South Asian mix is not without significance for that question.
The Kalasha of Hindu Kush
The Indo-Iranian languages, also known as the Aryan languages,constitute the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European language family. It is also the largest branch, with more than 1 billion speakers stretching from Europe (Romani) and the Caucasus (Ossetian) eastward to Xinjiang (Sarikoli) and Assam (Assamese) and south to Sri Lanka (Sinhalese).
Indo-Iranian consists of three groups: Indo-Aryan, Iranian and Nuristani. Nuristani languages are generally regarded as an independent group, as one of the three sub-groups of Indo-Iranian, following the studies of Georg Morgenstierne (1973, 1975). However, sometimes it is classified in the Dardic languages branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, while another theory characterized it as originally Iranian, but greatly influenced by the nearby Dardic languages.
The languages are spoken by tribal peoples in an extremely isolated mountainous region of the Hindukush, one that has never been subject to any real central authority in modern times. This area is located along the northeastern border of Afghanistan and adjacent portions of the northwest of present-day Pakistan. These languages have not received the attention Western linguists like to give them. Considering the very small number of peoples estimated to speak them, they must be considered endangered languages.
There are five Nuristani languages, each spoken in several dialects. Major dialects include Kata-vari, Kamviri, and Vai-ala. Most of the Nuristanis in Pakistan speak Kamviri. These are influenced by, and sometimes classified as, Dardic languages; but this is more of a geographical classification than a linguistic one.
The Dardic languages or Dardu are a sub-group of the Indo-Aryan languages natively spoken in northern Pakistan’s Gilgit Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern India’s Jammu and Kashmir, and eastern Afghanistan. Kashmiri is the most prominent Dardic language, with an established literary tradition and official recognition as one of the national languages of India.
Waigali is a language spoken by the Kalasha of the Waigal Valley in Afghanistan’s Nuristan Province. The native name is Kalaṣa-alâ ‘Kalasha-language’. “Waigali” refers to the dialect of the Väy people of the upper part of the Waigal Valley, centered on the town of Waigal, which is distinct from the dialect of the Čima-Nišei people who inhabit the lower valley. The word “Kalasha” is the native ethnonym for all the speakers of the southern Nuristani languages.
Kalaṣa-alâ belongs to the Indo-European language family, and is in the southern Nuristani group of the Indo-Iranian branch. There are approximately 10,000 speakers of Kalaṣa-alâ. Kalaṣa-alâ is closely related to the Tregami language, or Gambiri, a language spoken by the Tregami people in the villages of Gambir and Katar in the Watapur District of Kunar Province in Afghanistan, with a lexical similarity of approximately 76% to 80% according to one estimate.
Tregami belongs to the Indo-European language family, and is on the Nuristani group of the Indo-Iranian branch. Ethnologue estimates its speakers at 1,000 (1994). Its speakers are overwhelmingly Muslim, and literacy rates are low: Below 1% for people who have it as a first language, and between 5% to 15% for people who have it as a second language.
Note that there is close connection between Kalaṣha-alâ and Kalaṣa-mun, which is spoken in Pakistan’s southern Chitral District. These two languages descend from different branches of the Proto-Indo-Iranian language. According to linguist Richard Strand the Kalasha of Chitral apparently adopted the name of the Nuristani Kalasha, who at some unknown time extended their influence into the region of southern Chitral, translated as field in the native language Khowar.
The Kalasha-mun, are a Dardic indigenous people residing in the Hindu Kush mountain range south west of Chitral District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. They speak the Kalasha language, from the Dardic family, a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-Aryan branch, itself part of the larger Indo-European family, and are considered a unique tribe among the Indo-Aryan peoples of Pakistan.
Kalasha language is classified as a member of the Chitral sub-group, the only other member of that group being Khowar, also known as Chitrali, an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic branch, spoken by 240,000 people in Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the Ghizer district of Gilgit-Baltistan (including the Yasin Valley, Phandar Ishkoman and Gupis), and in parts of Upper Swat.
The Norwegian Linguist Georg Morgenstierne wrote that Chitral is the area of the greatest linguistic diversity in the world. Although Khowar is the predominant language of Chitral, more than ten other languages are spoken here. These include Kalasha-mondr, Palula, Dameli, Gawar-Bati, Nuristani, Yidgha, Burushaski, Gojri, Wakhi, Kyrgyz, Persian and Pashto.
Since many of these languages have no written form, letters are usually written in Urdu, Pakistan’s national language. Many Nuristani people now speak other languages, such as Persian and Pashto–two official languages of Afghanistan & Chitrali in Pakistan.
Morgenstierne believes that in spite of similarities, Kalasha is an independent language in its own right and not a dialect of Khowar. Currently about 5,000 people speak Kalasha and it is considered critically endangered by UNESCO.
It is suggested that the Dards are the linguistic descendants of the bearers of proto Rigvedic culture ca. 1700 BC, pointing to features in certain Dardic dialects that continue peculiarities of Rigvedic Sanskrit, such as the gerund in -tvī.
During Swati rule (1858–1955), the Dard people were dominantly Hindu and frequent small scale jihad against Dard might have been a routine. Today the majority of Dardic peoples are Muslims, with a significant population of Kalash. Dardic religion in Indian Ladakh, particularly in the villages of Da and Hann, retains marked traces of the pre-Buddhist animistic religion, Bon-chos.
The Kalash tribes found in Chitral, are exceptional in having retained their ancestral polytheistic religion and are protected by the Government of Pakistan. In the 1970s there were a number of forced conversions. However, during the last two decades, protection by the Pakistani government has seen the Kalash double in number.
Kalash people are divided equally between the adherents of Islam and polytheism. Kalash religion is similar to the religion that was practiced by Rigvedic aryans. Kalash have retained most of the Proto-Indo-Iranian religion (Indo-European religion). The Kalash people are unique in their customs and religion.
The Hindukush area shares many of the traits of IIr. myths, ritual, society, and echoes many aspects of Ṛigvedic, but hardly of post-Ṛigvedic religion. Kalash culture and belief system differs from the various ethnic groups surrounding them but is similar to that of the neighboring Nuristanis in northeast Afghanistan. The isolated Kalash have received strong religious influences from pre-Islamic Nuristan.
The neighboring Nuristani people, an Indo-Iranian-speaking ethnic group native to the Nuristan region of eastern Afghanistan, of the adjacent Nuristan (historically known as Kafiristan) province of Afghanistan, once practiced the same ancient Indo-Iranian polytheistic Vedic religion as the Kalash until they were conquered and converted to Islam in the late 19th century by Emir Abdur Rahman Khan.
It is likely that if their region of Pakistan had been under Afghan, and not British, rule these people would have been forcibly submitted to Islam like their Nuristani cousins across the border 100 years ago. As it is I assume that at some point I may have to update these posts with the note that Pakistani Taliban forcibly converted the few thousand remaining Kalash to Islam.
Religion may be a critical explanation for this isolation, because the similarly isolated Burusho of northern Pakistan are not nearly as inbred. Though the Burusho are speakers of a linguistic isolate, they adopted Islam ~500 years ago, and so are likely to have intermarried more frequently with outsiders.
By the late 19th century much of Nuristan had been converted to Islam, although some evidence has shown the people continued to practice their customs. Over the years the Nuristan region has been the site of numerous war activity that has led to the death of many endemic Nuristanis and has seen an inflow of surrounding Afghans to claim the vacant region, who have since admixed with the remaining natives. The Kalash of Chitral maintained their own separate cultural traditions.
Kafir is a denigrating Arabic term used in an Islamic doctrinal sense, usually translated as “unbeliever,” “disbeliever,” or “infidel.” The term refers to a person who rejects God in Islam or who hides, denies, or covers the “Islamic version of truth.” The practise of declaring another Muslim as a kafir is takfir.
The Nuristani people were formally known as Kaffirs of Kafiristan before the Afghan Islamization of the region. Moreover their native name was Kapir, due to the lack of a “P” in Arabic, they coincidentally were called Kafirs, which was incorrect but again correct since they were polytheists, moreover Henotheists.
Kāfiristān is a historical region that covered present-day Nuristan Province in Afghanistan and its surroundings. Kafiristan took its name because the inhabitants of the region, which are closely related to the Kalash people, known as Kafirs by the Muslim population of Chitral, were non-Muslims and were thus known to the surrounding Muslim population as kafirs, meaning “infidels”.
The word “kafir” has also been suggested to be linked to Kapiś (= Kapish), the ancient Sanskrit name of the region that included historic Kafiristan. According to the theory, the name may have then mutated at some point into the word Kapir, and once again into the word Kafir.
The earliest references to Kapisa, located south-east of the Hindukush, included and is related to Kafiristan, appear in the writings of fifth century BC Indian scholar Pāṇini. Pāṇini refers to the city of Kapiśi, a city of the Kapisa kingdom, modern Bagram. Pāṇini also refers to Kapiśayana, a famous wine from Kapisa. The city of Kapiśi also appeared as Kaviśiye on Graeco-Indian coins of Apollodotus I and Eucratides.
The Kashmiri Pandits who follow the shaivist sect of Hinduism, are a non-dardic people and should not be confused with the authentic Kashmiri Dards, who are predominantly Muslim and Kalash.
Kalash – Haplogroups
The extreme long branches leading to the Kalash and Mozabites are almost certainly a function of endogamy and inbreeding. Their allele frequencies diverged from nearby populations because of isolation. But notice the nearby populations of the Kalash. They’re northwest South Asian. In many ways if you removed the drift and endogamy from the Kalash I suspect you’d been left with a group very similar to their Pathan neighbors.
In the north of Pakistan, some individuals also frequently show a strikingly europoid appearance. The most well-known of these populations where theses characteristics are visible are the Burushos of the Hunza valley (speaking a non-indo-european language, Burushaski) and the Kalash in the Hindu-kush.
Because of their light skin and hair both the Kalash and Burusho have inspired claims that they are “lost white tribes.” The Kalash, the Burusho and the Nuristani claim to be descendants of the Alexander‘s army (another legend of the Kalash also claim a link with the Kushan), but so far the genetic tests have not seen any link with Greek or Macedonian populations (Very few tracks have been found among the Pathans (a.k.a. Pashtun) of Pakistan though).
It is quite possible that these south Asian populations are actually partly the visible remains of the ancient Indo-iranian populations that probably came from central Asia during bronze age and mixed with the local populations, as the DNA tests have revealed that populations of bronze age south Siberia, strongly supposed to have been early Indo-europeans, had such characteristics.
The Italian Archaeological Mission on Wednesday discovered an ancient cemetery dating back thousands of years at Odigram, Swat — a site experts believe was built between 1500 BC to 500 BC. A total of 23 graves have been excavated at the site that seems to be an ancient cemetery, indicating that they belonged to the pre-Buddhist era.
It clearly indicates that Swat Valley was thickly populated at that time. Most probably they were the Dards (a group of people defined by linguistic similarities and not a common ethnic origin, predominantly found in Eastern Afghanistan) and these Dards were somehow linked culturally to the people presently living in Kohistan and Kalash valleys. They probably spoke the Indo-European languages. We can say that the present culture of Kalash and Kohistan in Chitral valley can be linked with the ancient culture of Swat.
A variety of NRY Haplogroups are seen among the Burusho. Most frequent among these are R1a1 – a lineage associated with Central/Southern Eurasians and likely related to the Bronze Age migration into South Asia c. 3000 BCE; and R2a, probably originating in South/Central Asia during the Upper Paleolithic. The subcontinental lineages of haplogroup H1 and haplogroup L3 are also present, although haplogroup L, defined by SNP mutation M20, reaches a maximum of diversity in Pakistan.
Other Y-DNA haplogroups reaching considerable frequency are haplogroup J2, associated with the spread of agriculture in, and from, the neolithic Near East, and haplogroup C3, of Siberian origin and possibly representing the patrilineage of Ghenghis Khan. Also present at lower frequency are haplogroups O3, an East Eurasian lineage, and Q, P, F, and G.
Among the Burusho South Asian Y haplogroups predominate, but there are some representatives of Central Asian (C-M217) and East Asian (O3) haplogroups as well. The Burushos completely lack haplogroup G2a, which is well represented among the nearby Kalash and Pashtun populations.
Haplogroup G1 is the South and Central Asian branch of haplogroup G. While G2a men migrated west to Anatolia and Europe in the Neolithic, their G1 cousins migrated east to Persia and India. Only very rare cases of G1 have been found in Europe, including in Britain, Germany, as well as most of southern, central and eastern Europe. How did these G1 lineages get there ?
Central Asia became a merging zone for southern G1 and J2 lineages with northern R1a lineages during the Bronze and Iron Ages. New hybrid peoples were formed, like the Scythians, who once controlled an empire ranging from northern Pakistan to Xinjiang and to Ukraine.
Haplogroup G2a is assumed to be about 20,000 years. The majority of the men in this category have not been comprehensive tested, especially for the new clade G2a1b. Tis subgroup includes people of the Zagros mountains in Western-Iran, the Azeris in northwest Iran, many inhabitants of the Southern Caucasus and further in Pakistan including the Kalash people, and people living in the Balkan area of Europe.
Haplogroup G2a3b1 represents the majority of haplogroup G men in most areas of Europe west of Russia and the Black Sea. To the east, G2a3b1-except in the Caucasus Mountains area-is just a large or small minority among G persons in such locales as Turkey, the Middle East, Iran, the southern Caucasus area, China and India.
Most Europeans belong to the G2a subclade, and most northern and Western Europeans more specifically to G2a-L141.1 (or to a lower extend G2a-M406). About all G2b (L72+, formerly G2c) Europeans are Ashkenazi Jews. G2b has also been found around Afghanistan, probably as an offshoot of Neolithic farmers from the Levant.
Various estimated dates and locations have been proposed for the origin of Haplogroup G. The National Geographic Society places haplogroup G origins in the Middle East 30,000 years ago and presumes that people carrying the haplogroup took part in the spread of the Neolithic Two scholarly papers have also suggested an origin in the Middle East, while differing on the date. Semino et al. (2000) suggested 17,000 years ago. Cinnioglu et al. (2004) suggested the mutation took place only 9,500 years ago.
Haplogroup G2a(SNP P15+) has been identified in neolithic human remains in Europe dating between 5000-3000BC. Furthermore, the majority of all the male skeletons from the European Neolithic period have so far yielded Y-DNA belonging to this haplogroup. The oldest skeletons confirmed by ancient DNA testing as carrying haplogroup G2a were five found in the Avellaner cave burial site for farmers in northeastern Spain and were dated by radiocarbon dating to about 7000 years ago.
At the Neolithic cemetery of Derenburg Meerenstieg II, north central Germany, with burial artifacts belonging to the Linear Pottery culture, known in German as Linearbandkeramik (LBK). This skeleton could not be dated by radiocarbon dating, but other skeletons there were dated to between 5,100 and 6,100 years old.
The most detailed SNP mutation identified was S126 (L30), which defines G2a3. Haplogroup G2a was found also in 20 out of 22 samples of ancient Y-DNA from Treilles, the type-site of a Late Neolithic group of farmers in the South of France, dated to about 5000 years ago.
The fourth site also from the same period is the Ötztal of the Italian Alps where the mummified remains of Ötzi the Iceman were discovered. Preliminary word is that the Iceman belongs to haplogroup G2a2b (earlier called G2a4).
A genetic study published led by Firasat (2007) on Kalash individuals found high and diverse frequencies of :Haplogroup L3a (22.7%), H1* (20.5%), R1a (18.2%), G (18.2%), J2 (9.1%), R* (6.8%), R1* (2.3%), and L* (2.3%). Haplogroup L, Haplogroup H, and Haplogroup R1a are thought to have originated from prehistoric South Asia, while the others is related to Caucasus.
Over 70% of the Brahmins (highest caste in Hindusim) belong to R1a1, due to a founder effect. The distribution of the R1a1 Y-chromosome Haplogroup, and in particular its correlation with the Brahmin caste in India, provides strong confirmation of a theory deriving Hinduism from Central Asia. R1a is the dominant Y-chromosome haplogroup among Slavic speakers, the group now dominating the ancient homeland of Indo-European. The only other group among which R1a is particularly prominent is the Hindu Brahmins of India.
The decade-long debate as to which Eurasian region possessed the most diverse, hence oldest, STR values within R-M17, the most common subclade within the family of Y DNA lineages referred to as R1a or R-M420, has been effectively put to an end with the discovery of R-M17 sub-clades. The pattern implies that an early differentiation zone of R-M17 conceivably occurred somewhere within the Eurasian Steppes or the Middle East and Caucasus region as they lie between South Asia and Eastern Europe”, from where “South Asian’ Z-93 and “European” Z-283 sub-clades differentiated and spread in opposite directions.
In southern Asia, haplogroup G is found in concentrations of approximately 18% to 20% of Kalash, approximately 16% of Brahui, and approximately 11.5% of sampled Pashtun, but in only about 3% of the general Pakistani population. The many groups in India and Bangladesh have not been well studied. About 6% of the samples from Sri Lanka and Malaysia were reported as haplogroup G, but none were found in the other coastal lands of the Indian Ocean or Pacific Ocean in Asia.
The presence of G2b in the these areas may be accounted for by several several separate theories, each with their own time scale. It does seem very likely that G2b originated in the Near East, in Anatolia or Syria, and spread both eastward and westward from there.
One often stated idea is of a direct Israelite ancestry for the Pashtuns as a whole. These stories were disseminated in Medieval times for religious reasons, and as part of the competition between the Mughals and the Pashtuns. However, this does not negate a possible Medieval Jewish origin for some of the Pashtun sub-tribes, but this would depend on the frequency of G2b among the Pashtuns, since any Jewish genetic admixture in relatively recent times would have been limited in scope. In 2012 Haplogroup G2b was found at a frequency of 60% out of a sample of 5 Pastuns in the Wardak region of Afghanistan. This is likely due to a local founder effect.
G2b is a major Y chromosome haplogroup, and yet unique.It was found among Pashtuns and on much lower scale among all major Jewish groups, Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians.
G2b presents more mysteries regarding its origin and distribution than virtually any other major Y haplogroup. Haplogroups that are rare in certain regions are more common in another, and have rather clear origins in other places where they are more commonly found. G2b has none of these obvious characteristics. It is most common by far in a region where it arrived very recently, but rare in other regions; including its likely area of origin. The distribution of G2b is sparse and dispersed, with almost no G2b haplotypes found in very large intervening regions. This pattern appears to be unique among Y haplogroups.
The extreme rarity of G2b in northern Pakistan could indicate that G2b in this area originates outside the region and was brought there in the historic period, perhaps from further west (Pakistan was part of both the Achaemenid Persian Empire, conquered by Alexander the Great, and then formed a part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom). These two reported Pakistani G2b haplotypes are quite divergent from the Ashkenazi Jewish clade, and therefore do not at all indicate a recent common origin. The Turkish G2b is somewhat closer, but not identical.
It remains to be seen if testing will reveal G2b haplotypes in other populations — this is some indication that G2b occurs at low levels in the Near East. All G2b men tested so far have a rare null value for the DYS425 marker, (a missing “T” allele of the DYS371 palindromic STR), the result of a RecLOH event, a finding not yet seen among most other G haplotypes. Among Jews in Israel drawn from many areas of the world, G2b constituted 3.7% in one study.
A genetic study published led by Firasat (2007) on Kalash individuals found high and diverse frequencies of haplogroup J2. The precise region of origin for haplogroup J-M172 remains a topic of discussion. However, at least within a European context, Anatolia and the Aegean seem to be source regions, with haplogroup J2 having perhaps arisen in the Levant/ Middle East with the development of agriculture.
As to the timing of its spread into Europe, Di Giacomo points to events which post-date the Neolithic, in particular the demographic floruit associated with the rise of the Ancient Greek world. Semino et al. derived older age estimates for overall J2 (having used the Zhivitovksy method c.f. Di Giacomo), postulating its initial spread with Neolithic farmers from the Near East.
However, its subclade distribution, showing localized peaks in the Southern Balkans, southern Italy, north/ central Italy and the Caucasus, does not conform to a single ‘wave-of-advance’ scenario, betraying a number of still poorly understood post-Neolithic processes which created its current pattern. Like Di Giacomo, the Bronze Age southern Balkans was suggested to have been an important vector of spread.
Both E-M78 and J-M12 have been used in studies seeking to find evidence of a remaining Greek presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan, going back to the time of Alexander the Great.
An extensive analysis of Y diversity within Greeks and three Pakistani populations – the Burusho, Kalash and Pathan – who claim descent from Greek soldiers allowed us to compare Y lineages within these populations and re-evaluate their suggested Greek origins. This study as a whole seems to exclude a large Greek contribution to any Pakistani population, confirming previous observations. However, it provides strong evidence in support of the Greek origins for a small proportion of Pathans, as demonstrated by the clade E network and the low pairwise genetic distances between these two populations.
This study however tested only for M78, and not V13, the typical type of M78 from the Balkans. More recent and detailed analyses of E-V13 in this region have however concluded that this hypothesis is incorrect, and that the variants found there are not the types typical of the Balkans. Instead “Afghanistan’s lineages are correlated with Middle Easterners and Iranians but not with populations from the Balkans”
Discover Magazine genetics blogger Razib Khan has repeatedly cited information indicating that the Kalash are an Indo-Iranian people with no Greek or Macedonian ethnic admixture.
Presumably the Kalash are distant from other populations because of their isolation, but their relationship to other world populations will retain the same general conformation before their endogamous period.
Kalasha
Kalasha, also spelled as Kalash and kalasa (literally “pitcher, Kalasha pot”), is a metal (brass, copper, silver or gold) pot with a large base and small mouth, large enough to hold a coconut. Sometimes “Kalasha” also refers to such a pot filled with water and topped with a coronet of mango leaves and a coconut.
This combination is often used in Hindu rites and depicted in Hindu iconography. The entire arrangement is called Purna-Kalasha, Purna-Kumbha, or Purna-ghata. Each of these names literally means “full or complete vessel” when the pot is referred to as the Kalasha.
The Kalasha is used as a ceremonial object as well as a decorative motif in Indian art and architecture. The Kalasha motif was used in decorating bases and capitals of pillars from the 5th century.
The Purna-Kalasha is considered a symbol of abundance and “source of life” in the Vedas. Purna-Kumbha is preeminently a Vedic motif, known from the time of Rigveda. It is also called Soma-Kalasha, Chandra-Kalasha, Indra-Kumbha, Purnaghata, Purna-Virakamsya, Bhadra ghata, or Mangala ghata. It is referred to as “overflowing full vase” (purno-asya Kalasha) in the Vedas.
The Kalasha is believed to contain amrita, the elixir of life, and thus is viewed as a symbol of abundance, wisdom, and immortality. The Kalasha is often seen in Hindu iconography as an attribute, in the hands of Hindu deities like the creator god Brahma, the destroyer god Shiva as a teacher, and the goddess of prosperity Lakshmi.
The Purna-Kalasha is believed to be a symbol of auspiciousness embodying either Ganesha, remover of obstacles, or his mother Gauri, the goddess of household bounty or Lakshmi. The Purna-Kalasha is worshipped in all Hindu festivities related to marriage and childbirth, as a mother goddess or Devi. In this context, the metal pot or Kalasha represents material things: a container of fertility – the earth and the womb, which nurtures and nourishes life. The mango leaves associated with Kama, the god of love, symbolize the pleasure aspect of fertility. The coconut, a cash crop, represents prosperity and power. The water in the pot represents the life-giving ability of Nature.
Sometimes, a silver or brass face of the Goddess is attached over the coconut of the Purna-Kalasha. In this form, the Purna-Kalasha symbolizes the Goddess as the manifestation of mother earth with her water, minerals, and vegetation. This method of Kalash pooja (worship) has come in for Vishnu in household functions too.
The Purna-Kalasha is also worshipped at Hindu ceremonies like Griha Pravesha (house warming), child naming, havan (fire-sacrifice), Vaastu dosha rectification, and daily worship.
Other intrepretations of the Purna-Kalasha associate with the five elements or the chakras. The wide base of metal pot represents the element Prithvi (Earth), the expanded centre – Ap (water), neck of pot – Agni (fire), the opening of the mouth – Vayu (air), and the coconut and mango leaves – Akasha (aether). In contexts of chakras, the Shira (literally “head”) – top of the coconut symbolizes Sahasrara chakra and the Moola (literally “base”) – base of Kalasha – the Muladhara chakra.
A kalash is placed with due rituals on all important occasions. It is placed near the entrance as a sign of welcome. It is also used in a traditional manner while receiving holy personages.
The Kalasha is viewed as an auspicious object in Jainism. It is included in the Ashtamangala lists of both the Svetambara and Digambara sects of Jainism. Two eyes are depicted around the Kalasha, symbolising right faith and right knowledge. It is used for religious and social ceremonies. It is used in temples when certain images are being worshipped. When one enters a new home it is customary to carry the kalasha on the head reciting mantras. This ceremony is performed to welcome grace and happiness into the new home. They first appear in stone in the Kushan Empire period (65-224 AD).
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