Only woman in Mysuru to dig burial pits

Shilpa P | NT

For 65-year-old Neelamma, the only woman in Mysuru who digs burial pits/ graves and has dug over 2,000 of them since 2005 at Veerashaiva burial ground in Vidyaranayapuram, being a woman is only a gender matter and age just a number. She has been living where she works with her family from 1991, and “will only leave the place dead”, for she has signed a document donating her body to the JSS Medical College here.

Neelamma who hails from Kaththegala village of Sargur taluk in Mysuru district, was married in 1975 to MC Bavaraju, a mechanic. It was in 1991, owing to financial issues, that they had to move to the burial ground with their two sons 15 and 13 years old. Her husband took up the job to dig burial pits. Since then, this final abode of humans has been home to her and her family. For nearly 10 years, they lived in a dilapidated hut and later in an open ‘mantapa’. Later, they moved to a small shelter built by the MCC.

It was in 2005, after her husband died due to cardiac arrest that she took up the job of digging graves. She has nourished her children, with the money earned from digging burial pits, and now her elder son works as an electrician in Mysuru, while the younger one works in JSS Engineering College in Bengaluru. Neelamma digs 10 to 20 burial pits a month. And, “it was in April 2021 that I had to dig a maximum of 41 burial pits,” Neelamma recalls. She has been honoured by several institutions including Rangayana of Mysuru for her service.

When asked if she is not scared to live there, she said, “When we came to this burial ground for the second anniversary ceremony of my father-in-law, I had requested my husband to move out of the place soon after the ceremony was done. Soon, we had to come and live here. It is here that I derive utmost peace. I was never worried of ghosts. It is the place where lord Shiva lives, so ghosts have no place here. Although I was worried about miscreants when we lived in the mantapa, but soon realised that this place is no less than a temple, so none comes here with negative energy. There are a few snakes, but they don’t harm us,” she smiled.

When asked if she ever regretted to choose this profession, she said, “I have studied till class 5, so I wouldn’t have got a better job. I had the responsibility of family, when my husband died, so it was inevitable to take this up. Every job has its own dignity. No work is less as long as one is earning righteously. I am happy that I am earning my livelihood on my own. All that human needs is two square meals, a decent place to live, comfortable clothes to wear and a peaceful, healthy life. God has given all that to me through this job,” she said.

When asked if it isn’t disturbing to see one grieving for their loved ones’ loss being here, “It hurts. Even now, until the body that comes here is cremated, we find it hard to eat food. But death is the ultimate truth.”