1870.] On the Funeral Ceremonies of the ancient Hindus. 255 



old ghi, and, without looking at the urn, places it on the spread 

 grass, invokes the manes, wipes the urn with a bit of old rag, 

 sprinkles some water with an udumvara branch, or from a jar, 

 having covered his own person with an old cloth, and then buries 

 the urn with bricks laid over it. 



Some charu rice is then cooked, sanctified by a mantra, and while 

 the chief mourner repeats five others, is put on the five sides of the 

 urn. Sesamum seed and barley are now scattered around, some herbs 

 put on the mound and more bricks added. Water should subse- 

 quently be sprinkled on the place, a prayer should be addressed to 

 the gods, a branch of the varuna tree and a lot of brick-bats, a sami 

 branch, and some barley, should be placed on the mound, and the 

 dead be invoked to translate himself to whichever region he likes. 

 "Go to the earth, go to the void above, go to the sky, go to the 

 quarters, go to heaven ; go, go to heaven, go to the quarters, go to 

 the sky, go to the void above, go to the earth, or go to the waters, 

 wherever embodied thou canst live with the good and in peace."* 



A few holes being now dug round the mound, the ceremony of 

 burial is completed. The operations, it will be seen, though oft- 

 repeated and tedious, are of the simplest kind possible ; the prayers 

 are throughout addressed for the sensuous enjoyment and ease of 

 the dead, and no where is any indication given of a desire for spi- 

 ritual benefit, liberation from the wheel of transmigration, salva- 

 tion or beatitude. Even sin is lightly looked upon, and the prayer 

 for redemption from it, is slight and casual. The whole ceremony 

 is of the most primitive type, and bespeaks an epoch of remote 

 antiquity. It is worthy of note also that the double ceremonial of 

 first incineration and subsequent burial, was common among the 

 Greeks, Romans and other ancient Aryan races, and that in the 

 fifth century before Christ, the remains of S'akya Buddha were dis- 

 posed of in the same way. 



The last ceremony I have to notice is called s'antikarma or rites 

 for the well-being of the living. It should be performed on the 



* sf^T 3i^p?rfT^ t^i f^ T^e f^n 3i=^ *paNr i^jt^ f^;% 



