THE PEOPLE AND THEIR CULTURE

FUNERAL

The general custom among Hindus in regard to disposal of their dead is to cremate them. It is only children below the age of five and Sanyasis who are buried. When a person is on the point of death, it is usual for his eldest son or, in the absence of a son, a nephew or a brother, to place the dying person's head on the lap of the son or nephew or brother, as the case may be and put Ganga water (generally preserved in a sealed small jar in many Hindu households) and a leaf of the Tulsi plant in the mouth of the dying person. Some people even put a small piece of gold with Ganga water. When death takes place, the dead body is put on woollen cloth and allowed to rest there till friends, neighbours and relatives arrive. Preparations for taking the body to the cremation ground start. A bier of bamboo poles and pieces is prepared with white cloth to cover up the body on all sides. Only the head is kept open. Before putting it on the bier, it is given a bath. Two new earthen pots one to fill with water and another to carry live fire are prepared. Arrangements are made to send firewood and cowdung-cakes to the cremation ground. Now-a-days some people remove the dead bodies in a specially made hand-cart provided by Municipalities for the purpose. Betel leaves and gulal (red powder) are sprayed on the cloth covering the body and the head. Four nearest relatives of the deceased carry the body on their shoulders, led by the eldest son or a very near relative. Others follow in a procession. The leader of the party carries the funeral fire in the earthen pot in his right hand. The body is properly placed between layers of firewood and cowdung-cakes. Some sandalwood and Tulsi plant sticks are added and, in the case of the dvijas, fire is set to the heap with Vedic hymns. The mourners wait on the ground till the sound of the bursting of the skull is heard. The son and the four body-bearers take a bath, a stone is picked up as representative of the soul of the dead, water oblations to the dead are offered by friends and relatives and the party returns home with the stone, for it is required till the obsequies are over.

On the third day, some friends and relatives go to the burning place and gather the bones that might have been left with the ashes and they are thrown in the river. Those who can afford it take them to Prayag for being thrown in the sangam, i.e., confluence of the Ganga. the Yamuna and the Saraswati, or to some other holy place. On the tenth day all relatives bathe and wash their clothes. The stone is propitiated with a proper sraddha ceremony at the burning ghat. At the time of offering the rice balls to the dead, it is customary to wait for a crow to touch them. If that is done, it is regarded as an assurance that the deceased had all his earthly desires fulfilled. If not, assurances are given by responsible persons to anticipate and fulfil them. After this is gone through, the mourners bathe and return home. Sometimes in addition to the usual dakshina, presents like a pair of dhotis, and shoes, an umbrella and a cow for the use of the dead in the other world are given to Brahman.

On the eleventh day, the mourning period is over, pancagavya is sipped and fresh sacred threads are worn. On the twelfth day, what is known as the sapindisraddha is performed whereby the dead person is supposed to join his father and grandfather and that trio is remembered as the trio for sraddha purposes by the family thereafter. On the thirteenth day, a sraddha is performed when friends and relatives are invited to dinner and normal business is resumed. The tendency now-a-days is to cut down as much of the ritual as possible and remember only the anniversary. Instead of the 'sraddha with the feeding of Brahmans, etc., educated people prefer to give small donations to deserving causes in the name of the dead. The sraddha called paksa in the second half of the month of Bhadrapada is also being increasingly dispensed with as superfluous and redundant. According to orthodox custom, friends and relatives present the chief mourner with a turban and new clothes and ask him not to grieve any more. This is in consonance with the injunctions for the thirteenth day smrtis.

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