DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0312
300 Death, Funeral Rites, and Ancestor-worship.
tion of the skulls of dead men which had not been properly
cracked in this manner at death and so retained the spirits of
the deceased inside. The peasantry in the neighbourhood
fully believed that he was able to make use of these spirits
for magical purposes, and that he could force them to execute
his behests.
During the process of cremation ah oblation of clarified
butter ought to be offered in the fire and a Mantra repeated
entreating the god of fire to convey the deceased man to
heaven. When the body has been consumed all present at
the funeral bathe or purify themselves with ablutions. Sesa-
mum and water are then offered while the name and family
of the deceased are again repeated.
Finally, a few leaves of the Nimba-tree (Nim) are chewed
by all and the funeral procession returns home, the women
walking first and the men behind. Meanwhile the pyre and the
products of combustion are left undisturbed to a future day.
The Garuda-purana directs that if a man dies in a remote
place, or is killed by robbers in a forest and his body is not
found, his son should make an effigy of the deceased with
Kusa grass and then burn it on a funeral pile with similar
ceremonies.
On the fourth day after cremation the relatives return to
the burying-ground, and assembling at the pyre perform the
'bone-gathering' (asthi-safic'aya) ceremony. Three circum-
ambulations are made around the ashes and a Mantra from
the Yajur-veda (beginning Yamaya tva, XXXVIII. 9) is re-
peated. The calcined bones are then placed in a kind of
urn or earthen vessel; a cavity is dug in the ground and the
vessel deposited in it. Next a Pinda is offered over the ashes
for the removal of the suffering supposed to have been caused
by the act of cremation. Then after a few days the vessel
is removed from the cavity in order that the ashes and bones
may be carried away and thrown into some sacred river—if
possible the Ganges. 'Whatever sins,' says the Garuda-
tion of the skulls of dead men which had not been properly
cracked in this manner at death and so retained the spirits of
the deceased inside. The peasantry in the neighbourhood
fully believed that he was able to make use of these spirits
for magical purposes, and that he could force them to execute
his behests.
During the process of cremation ah oblation of clarified
butter ought to be offered in the fire and a Mantra repeated
entreating the god of fire to convey the deceased man to
heaven. When the body has been consumed all present at
the funeral bathe or purify themselves with ablutions. Sesa-
mum and water are then offered while the name and family
of the deceased are again repeated.
Finally, a few leaves of the Nimba-tree (Nim) are chewed
by all and the funeral procession returns home, the women
walking first and the men behind. Meanwhile the pyre and the
products of combustion are left undisturbed to a future day.
The Garuda-purana directs that if a man dies in a remote
place, or is killed by robbers in a forest and his body is not
found, his son should make an effigy of the deceased with
Kusa grass and then burn it on a funeral pile with similar
ceremonies.
On the fourth day after cremation the relatives return to
the burying-ground, and assembling at the pyre perform the
'bone-gathering' (asthi-safic'aya) ceremony. Three circum-
ambulations are made around the ashes and a Mantra from
the Yajur-veda (beginning Yamaya tva, XXXVIII. 9) is re-
peated. The calcined bones are then placed in a kind of
urn or earthen vessel; a cavity is dug in the ground and the
vessel deposited in it. Next a Pinda is offered over the ashes
for the removal of the suffering supposed to have been caused
by the act of cremation. Then after a few days the vessel
is removed from the cavity in order that the ashes and bones
may be carried away and thrown into some sacred river—if
possible the Ganges. 'Whatever sins,' says the Garuda-