1870.] On tho Funeral Ceremonies of the ancient Hindus. 263 



ante p. 247, and on the 3rd, 5th or 7th day after the cremation, the 

 widow, or the eldest widow, if there should happen to be more 

 than one, is expected to go to the burning ground and collect 

 the bones of the dead with her left hand. A's'valayana is 

 equally precise, and adds that, should the widow be removed 

 by an old servant, the chief mourner should repeat the mantra, 

 (Kartta vrishale j'apet, Sutra, 4. 2 19). The author of the Prayoga, 

 it is true, takes this direction to apply to pregnant women only who 

 should not be burnt alive, but his authority in such a case is of 

 little value, when opposed to that of the oldest Siitrakaras, and 

 the evident purport of the mantra. It may be also observed that 

 the widow is to take away the gold, bow and jewel, which are 

 put into the hands of the Brahman, Kshetriya and Vaisya dead 

 respectively — with which, according to a subsequent mantra, she 

 is to live in wealth, splendour and glory in the society of the 

 remover, in this world, and this she could not do, if she were 

 immolated. 



The mantra, as given in our text, ante page 248, is slightly 

 different from a similar stanza in the second S'ukta of the second 

 Anuvaka of the 10th Mandala of the Rig Yeda, and quoted by 

 Wilson and Max Miiller in the papers above alluded to ; the words 

 itasu and abhisambdblmva of our text being replaced by gatdsu and 

 abhisavibabhutha. The words, however, are synonymous, and there- 

 fore the difference is of no moment. The second word, a verb, is, in 

 the Rig Veda, in the third person, dual irregular, having for its no- 

 minative tvan " thou," understood, and in our text it is in the third 

 person singular, both may therefore be taken as Vedic peculiarities. 



The most important word in the mantra is didhishu, which Saya- 

 na, when commenting on the Rig Veda, took to imply impregnation 

 didhislioh garlhasya nidhdtoh. In the Aranyaka he accepts it in 

 its ordinary well-established dictionary meaning of a man " who 

 marries a widow" or " the second husband of a woman twice 

 married," as Wilson gives it. The result is a material differ- 

 ence in the meaning. The version given by Wilson is as 

 follows : — " Rise up, woman, come to the world of living beings, 

 thou sleepest nigh unto the lifeless. Come : thou hast been asso- 

 ciated with maternity through the husband by whom thy hand 



