DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0290
278 Death, Funeral Rites, and Ancestor-worship.
respects be compared to the Roman Catholic masses for
the dead. The first Sraddha—to be afterwards described—
is performed very soon after the funeral rites, and is always
a costly affair.
In England, the religious services at a funeral occupy
about half an hour, and the entire ceremony, with all its
attendant circumstances, is performed in the present day at
little cost.
In India, the funeral ceremonies of the older members of a
family1 occupy ten days, and with the succeeding Sraddha
rites—carried on with the help of Brahmans and including
the feasting of numberless guests and the distribution of
presents—may involve an enormous expenditure. I found
that the cost to even the poorest respectable person was
forty rupees, and that any one well-to-do in the world
would incur the everlasting obloquy of his family and friends
and be almost excommunicated from society if he spent
less than six thousand or seven thousand rupees on the
funeral of a father and in the carrying out of all the other
necessary ceremonies consequent on his death. It is well
known that the expenditure incurred on such occasions by
rich Bengal Rajas and Zamlndars of high family has often
impoverished them for the remainder of their lives. In-
stances are on record of a single funeral and Sraddha costing
a sum equivalent to .£120,000, the greater part of that amount
being squandered on worthless Brahmans, indolent Pandits,
hypocritical devotees, and vagabond religious mendicants.
In truth, the expenditure of time, money, and energy
needed to satisfy public opinion before a man is held to
have discharged the debt due to a deceased father, and
before he is relieved from the long course of fasting and
mourning he is expected to undergo, constitutes an evil
which has gradually grown till it has become a veritable
curse to the country, and one of the principal bars to any
1 The funeral rites of children are much simpler and shorter.
respects be compared to the Roman Catholic masses for
the dead. The first Sraddha—to be afterwards described—
is performed very soon after the funeral rites, and is always
a costly affair.
In England, the religious services at a funeral occupy
about half an hour, and the entire ceremony, with all its
attendant circumstances, is performed in the present day at
little cost.
In India, the funeral ceremonies of the older members of a
family1 occupy ten days, and with the succeeding Sraddha
rites—carried on with the help of Brahmans and including
the feasting of numberless guests and the distribution of
presents—may involve an enormous expenditure. I found
that the cost to even the poorest respectable person was
forty rupees, and that any one well-to-do in the world
would incur the everlasting obloquy of his family and friends
and be almost excommunicated from society if he spent
less than six thousand or seven thousand rupees on the
funeral of a father and in the carrying out of all the other
necessary ceremonies consequent on his death. It is well
known that the expenditure incurred on such occasions by
rich Bengal Rajas and Zamlndars of high family has often
impoverished them for the remainder of their lives. In-
stances are on record of a single funeral and Sraddha costing
a sum equivalent to .£120,000, the greater part of that amount
being squandered on worthless Brahmans, indolent Pandits,
hypocritical devotees, and vagabond religious mendicants.
In truth, the expenditure of time, money, and energy
needed to satisfy public opinion before a man is held to
have discharged the debt due to a deceased father, and
before he is relieved from the long course of fasting and
mourning he is expected to undergo, constitutes an evil
which has gradually grown till it has become a veritable
curse to the country, and one of the principal bars to any
1 The funeral rites of children are much simpler and shorter.