DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0311
Death, Funeral Riles, and Ancestor-worship. 299
surmounted by the payment of an exorbitant sum to some
Brahmans who at length consented to bear the body to the
burning-ground.
This explains the unwillingness of the Hindus to leave
their own country and caste.
The burning of the corpse is the next act in the drama.
A proper spot for the erection of the funeral pile must be
chosen. It must be well purified by the sprinkling of holy
water. A kind of altar is then made with earth, and the
Homa ceremony is performed by casting grain into the sacred
fire with the due repetition of Mantras.. Then the funeral
pile is constructed with TulasI and Palasa and sandal-wood.
Five Pindas or balls of rice are placed on the deceased man's
body, which is made to face the north, and the eldest son
or his representative applies the fire to the wood, reciting
Rig-veda X. 17. 3—'May the guardian deity Pushan convey
thee hence on thy distant road; may he deliver thee to the
Fathers etc'
Not very long ago, if the dead man had a faithful wife
(sati) she often gave proof of her devotion by allowing her
living body to be burnt with her husband's corpse; and the
Garuda-purana is profuse in its eulogy of the devoted woman
who so sacrifices herself and thereby secures eternal bliss in
heaven for herself and her husband. Sometimes also a
widowed mother burnt herself with the body of an only son.
When the body is half-burnt the skull ought to be cracked
with a blow from a piece of sacred wood. The idea is that
the soul may not have been able to escape through the
aperture at the top of the head, and that the cracking of
the skull may open a crevice and facilitate its exit.
In the case of the death of a holy man whose body is
buried and not burnt, the necessary blow is given with a
cocoa-nut (sri-phala) or with a sacred conch-shell (sahkha).
A story was told me with great seriousness of a sorcerer at
Lahore who made it the business of his life to make a collec-
surmounted by the payment of an exorbitant sum to some
Brahmans who at length consented to bear the body to the
burning-ground.
This explains the unwillingness of the Hindus to leave
their own country and caste.
The burning of the corpse is the next act in the drama.
A proper spot for the erection of the funeral pile must be
chosen. It must be well purified by the sprinkling of holy
water. A kind of altar is then made with earth, and the
Homa ceremony is performed by casting grain into the sacred
fire with the due repetition of Mantras.. Then the funeral
pile is constructed with TulasI and Palasa and sandal-wood.
Five Pindas or balls of rice are placed on the deceased man's
body, which is made to face the north, and the eldest son
or his representative applies the fire to the wood, reciting
Rig-veda X. 17. 3—'May the guardian deity Pushan convey
thee hence on thy distant road; may he deliver thee to the
Fathers etc'
Not very long ago, if the dead man had a faithful wife
(sati) she often gave proof of her devotion by allowing her
living body to be burnt with her husband's corpse; and the
Garuda-purana is profuse in its eulogy of the devoted woman
who so sacrifices herself and thereby secures eternal bliss in
heaven for herself and her husband. Sometimes also a
widowed mother burnt herself with the body of an only son.
When the body is half-burnt the skull ought to be cracked
with a blow from a piece of sacred wood. The idea is that
the soul may not have been able to escape through the
aperture at the top of the head, and that the cracking of
the skull may open a crevice and facilitate its exit.
In the case of the death of a holy man whose body is
buried and not burnt, the necessary blow is given with a
cocoa-nut (sri-phala) or with a sacred conch-shell (sahkha).
A story was told me with great seriousness of a sorcerer at
Lahore who made it the business of his life to make a collec-