काट्टो,काट्टु,काटी,काटेको साझा खोजी..... . Excerpts from Library. Katto and the Funeral Priest The Funeral Priests are a special group of Brahmans –Mahabrahmans. The specialist that conducts the ritual is not only acting in service for the deceased’s soul and family, theFuneral Priest himself becomes the pret or pitr – the deceased’s soul – and he is worshipped as the deceased. Even before the chief mourner shaves his head, the Mahabrahman should be shaved as if he was the pret himself. The Funeral Priest is also consubstantial with the deceased. The Nepali royal and aristocratic funerals are the most explicit rituals in this regard (Parry 1980), and particularly the katto-ritual whereby a Brahman priest eats parts of the king’s body. “Katto” means literally “something not worth eating”. Traditionally it is a part of the dead body, and in particular the brain, which is eaten. The kattopriest is seen as a “sin eater”. By eating the “uneatable” the priest becomes declared as an outcaste, and he is banned and chased out of Kathmandu valley. The ceremony ensures the salvation of the king’s soul, and the deceased’s body takes spiritual form on this day. The role of the Mahabrahman is crucial because he enables the soul to cross towards the other world. The gifts to the Funeral Priest are in fact a symbolic representation of the gifts to the deceased, or more correctly, they are identical because the idea is that the departed receives the gifts in the next world. The ideal gift is all the standard requirements needed for use in daily life for one year – everything from food, clothes, furniture, money, and so on. This has its rationale in the idea that the Funeral Priest is the deceased at the moment he receives and accepts the gift. The power to bless and curse the deceased enables the priest to negotiate and take advantage of the size of the offering, emphasising that the gift will be received by the pret, and thus, the family has to offer a lot.