258 On the Funeral Ceremonies of the ancient Hindus. [No. 4, 



miserable passport to heaven. Dr. Wilson was the first to suspect, 

 in 1856, in a paper published iB the Journal of the Royal Asiatic- 

 Society (Vol. xvi, p. 201 ), that "it had reference to some procession, 

 one possibly accompanying the corpse, but had nothing' whatever to 

 do with consigning live females to the fire ;" and, for a guess, it was 

 as close as it well could be. The late Sir Raja Eadkakauta Deva 

 wrote a reply to this paper, in 1858, and in 1867, in a foot-note 

 about three times larger than the paper to which it is attached, a 

 writer, in the same periodical, (Vol. II, N. S. pp. 184-191,) entered 

 into an elaborate verbal and punctilious criticism, but the cere- 

 mony for which the stanza was intended or to which it was applied, 

 was left undetermined. In Raja Rsdhakaata's letter to Dr. Wil- 

 son, a quotation was given from the Sutras of Bharadvaja which 

 gave the real clue to it, but none noticed it at the time. The 

 true bearing is now made manifest, for, I believe, few will ven- 

 ture to question the authority of Baudhayana in such a matter. 

 His words are — athaitdh patnayo nayane sarpishd sammris'anti : " Now 

 these women smear their eyes with butter." Bharadvaja says, 

 strindm anjalishu sampdtdnavanai/atimdndririti : " For placing of 

 the sampata in the hands of the women the mantra Imd ndrih, 

 Sfc." According to A's'valayana, the verse should be repeated by 

 the chief mourner when looking at the women after they have ap- 

 plied the collyriuin ; imd ndriravidhavdh supatnirityanjand ikslieta. 

 This difference is due evidently to the authors belonging to 

 different sakkas. Anyhow, it is abundantly clear that the verse 

 was not intended to recommend self-immolation, but to be addressed 

 to female mourners, wives of kinsmen, having their husbands living, 

 not the widow, to put on collyrium, or to look at them after 

 the operation. The Prayoyahdra says, tatah sampdtapdtramddd- 

 ya sabhatrikastrmdm anjalishu sampdtam avanayati, " then taking the 

 sampata patra he places it on the hands of the women who have 

 husbands, with the mantra imdh, fyc." 



The reading of the stanza appears differently in different recen- 

 sions. According to Raghunundana, as given in the Seranipur 

 edition of his works, and in my MS. it is as follows : — 



