H I N D O 
After finishing thefe libations to fatisfy the manes of 
the deceafed, they quit the river, and lhift their wet 
clothes for other apparel ; they then lip water without 
fwallowing it, and, fitting down on the turf, alleviate their 
forrow by the recital of the following or other l'uitable 
moral fentences, refraining at the fame time from tears 
and lamentation : 
“ Foolifh is he who feeks permanence in the human 
ftate, unfolid like the Item of the plantain-tree, tranfient 
like the foam of the fea.”—“ When a body, formed of 
five elements, to receive the reward of deeds done in its 
own former perfon, reverts to its five original principles, 
what room is there for regret?”—“The earth is perilh- 
able, the ocean, the gods themfelves pafs away: how 
fhould not that bubble, mortal man, meet deftruftion ?” 
.—“ All that is low mull finally peril'll; all that is ele¬ 
vated mull -ultimately fall; all compound bodies mull 
end in diflolution, and life is concluded with death.”— 
“ Unwillingly do the manes of the deceafed tafte the tears 
and rheum lhed by their kinfmen; then do not wail, but 
diligently perform the obfequies of the dead.” 
After thefe ceremonials, the nearell of kin of the de¬ 
ceafed gathers his allies, and performs an offering on the 
cccafion. He Ihifts the facerdotal firing to his right 
jfhoulder, turns his face towards the fouth ; fprinkles the 
bo»es and allies with cow’s milk ; and, ufing a branch of 
the Sami, or Butea tree, inftead of tongs, firft draws out 
from the allies whatever remain of the bones of the head, 
and afterwards of the other bones fuccelfively ; fprinkles 
them with perfumed liquids, and with clarified butter 
made of cow’s milk; and puts them into a calket made 
of the leaves of the Palaja : this he places in a new 
earthen velfel, covers it with a lid, and ties it up with 
thread. Choofing fome clean fpot where encroachments 
of the river are not to be apprehended, he digs a deep 
hole, and fpreads cufa-grafs at the bottom of it, and over 
the grafs a piece of yellow cloth; he places thereon the 
earthen velfel containing the bones and alhes of the de¬ 
ceafed, covers it with a lump of mud, together with 
thorns, mols, and mud ; and plants a tree in the excava¬ 
tion, or railes a mound of mafonry, or makes a pond, or 
erefts a ftandard. He, and the reft of the kinfmen, then 
bathe in their clothes, which concludes the ceremony. 
The neareft relation of the deceafed is alio bound to 
perform the offering or oblation of the funeral cakes. 
Railing a (mall altar of earth, and marking lines over it, 
as praflifed for other oblations, he takes a cake in his 
hand, and, naming the deceafed, fays, “ May this firft fu¬ 
neral cake, which fliall reftore thy head, be acceptable to 
thee.” He next offers an earthen velfel full of tiia and 
water near the funeral cake, and fays, “ May this Velfel of 
tila and water be acceptable to thee.” 
For principal perlbns ten days of mourning are ufuaily 
obferved ; on each of which, funeral cakes, together with 
libations of water and tila, mull be offered as on the firft 
day. But the add refs to the deceafed varies each time. 
On the fecond day the prayer is, “May this fecond cake, 
which fliall reftore thy ears; eyes, and nofe, be accept¬ 
able.” On the third day, “ this tliird cake, which fliall 
reftore thy throat, arms, and.breaft.” On the fourth, 
thy navel and organs of execration on the fifth, “ thy 
knees, legs, and feeton the fixth, “ all thy vitalscn 
the feventh, “ all thy veinson the eighth, “ thy teeth, 
nails, and hair;” cn the ninth, “thy manly ftrength;” 
on the tenth, “ May this tenth cake, which ftiall fully fa- 
tisfy the hunger and thirft of thy renewed body, be ac¬ 
ceptable to thee.” During this period, a pebble wrapt 
up in a fragment of the deceafed’s Ihroud, is worn by the 
heir lufpended on his neck. To that pebble, as a type of 
the deceafed, the funeral cakes are offered. 
If the mourning laft three days only, ten funeral cakes 
mult be-nevertheiefs offered, three on the firft and third 
days, and four on the fecond ; if it lafts no more than 
one day, ten oblations mull be made at once. 
Concerning the praftice of Hindoo wives burning them¬ 
felves alive on the funeral pile of their deceafed Irulbandfj 
much has been laid and written. It at prefent prevails 
moll in the Mahratta dominions, and in the remote coun¬ 
tries of the ancient rajahs, where inftances of the kind 
are frequently to be met with, particularly in families of 
high diitinflion. In the territories belonging to the Eng- 
Jilh, it has, from motives of humanity, been every where 
reprelfed ; and now rarely happens there, unlefs it be done 
fecretly, or before thofe who have fufficient. authority to 
prevent it,, can be timely apprized. The Hindoo ritual 
rather recommends than requires it; as it only fays : “ It 
is proper for a woman to burn herfelf with her hulband’s 
corple;” and future blelfings are promifed as a reward 
for doing fo. But, in cafe the widow Ihould prefer to 
live, Hie is enjoined to obferve inviolable chaftity, to cut off 
her hair, and not to deck herfelf with jewels, or any other 
ornament. There are, nevertheless, fome particular cafes 
in which it is exprefsly forbidden. A woman is not to 
burn, if Ihe be with child ; or if her hulband died at a 
diftance from home, unlefs Ihe can procure his girdle and 
turban to be placed on the funeral pile. Thele the dif- 
confolate widow will at any rifque of expence or life of¬ 
ten endeavour to obtain ; and fuch is the influence of 
cuftom, that a woman of the higheft birth, brought up 
with the care and delicacy fuitable to her rank, and pofi- 
fefiing that timidity and gentlenefs of manners natural to¬ 
iler fex, and for which the women of Hindooftan are fo 
eminently dillinguilhed, will undergo this awful facrifice 
with as much fortitude and compofure, as were ever ex¬ 
hibited by any hero or philofopher of antiquity.—The 
ritual laid down for this ceremony is as follows : 
“Having firft bathed, the devoted widow, drefied in 
two clean garments, and holding fome cuia-grafs,. fips 
water from the palm of her hand. Bearing cula and tila 
on her hand, flie looks towards the eall or north, while 
the Brahmana utters the myftic word O'm. Bowing to 
Nerayana, Ihe next declares : * On this month, fo named 
in fuch a Pacflia, on fuch a tit'hi, I (naming herfelf and 
her family), that I may meet Arundhati, and refide in. 
Swarga; that the years of my ftay may be numerous as 
the hairs on the human body y that I may enjoy with my 
hulband the felicity of heaven; and fanftify my paternal 
and maternal progenitors, and the ancellry of my hufi- 
band’s father; that, lauded by the Apfarales, I may be 
happy with my lord through the reigns of fourteen 
Indras ; that expiation be made for my hatband’s of¬ 
fences, whether he have killed a Brahmana, broken the 
ties of gratitude, or murdered his friend ; thus I afeend 
my bufband’s burning piie. I call on you, ye guardians 
of the eight regions of the World ! San, and Moon! Air, 
fire, a;ther, earth, and water ! My own foul! Yama ! 
.Day, night, and twilight! And thou, confidence, bear 
witnefs. I follow my hulband’s corpie on the funeral 
pile.’ 
“Having repeated the-Sancalpa, (he walks thrice round 
the pile; and the Brahmana utters the following Man¬ 
tras : 'O'm! Let thefe women, not to be widowed, good 
wives, adorned with collyrium, holding clarified butter, 
ccnfign themleives to the fire. Immortal, not chiidlefs 
nor hulbandlefs, excellent, let them pafs into fire, whole 
original element is water.’ ‘Om! Let thefe wives, pure, 
beautiful, commit themfelves to the fire with their huf- 
band’s corpfe.” ’ 
Mr. Holwell, in his Mythology and Cofmogony of the 
Gentoos; or Hindoos, gives the following very particular 
account of a ceremony of this kind, of which he was a 
fpeftator. “ At five of the clock in the morning- of the 
'4-th of February, 174.2-3, died Rhaam Chund Pundit, of 
the Mahratta tribe, aged twenty-eight years. His widow, 
aged between feventeen and eighteen, as foon as he ex¬ 
pired, difdaining to wait the term allowed her for reflec¬ 
tion, immediately declared to the Brahmins and witnelfes 
prefent her refolution to burn. As the family was of no 
Imall confideration, all the merchants of Coflimbuzaar, - 
and her relations, left no arguments unelfayed to diliuade ' 
her 
