JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL 
Part I.—HISTORY, LITERATURE, &e. 
No. I.—1885. 
Notes on the history of Religion in the Himalaya of the N. W. Provinces „ 
Part L — By E. T. Atkinson, B. A., F. R. G. S., B. C. S. 
(Concluded from page 103, No. 1 of 1884.) 
Funeral Ceremonies. 
The ceremonies to be observed at funerals are found in the Preta - 
manjari , the authority on this subject which obtains in Kumaon. This 
work opens with the direction that when a person is in extremis his 
puroliita should cause him to repeat the hymn to Vasudeva and the 
smarana in which the names of Rama and S'iva occur, and after these 
make the dasaddna or bestowal of ten things in accordance with the 
sutra* :—‘ The learned have said that cattle, land, sesamum, gold, clari¬ 
fied butter, apparel, rice, molasses, silver and salt are included in the 
ten gifts.’ In bestowing the dasaddna , the sick man or in his stead the 
purohita first rinses his mouth and consecrates the arglia and then repeats 
the prdndydma as already described. The meditation or dhydna appro¬ 
priate is that known as the S'riparamesvarasmrita or meditation on the 
Supreme being as distinguished from and above his particular manifes¬ 
tations as S'iva and Vishnu. This is followed by the sankalpa or dedi¬ 
cation of the gifts with the same mantra as used in the Ganesa -pujd 
(Om Vishnu , &c.), ending with the prayers that there may be a removal 
* Go-bhu-tila-hiranydjya-vdsodhdmja-guddni cha raupyam lavanam ity dhur dasa- 
ddndni pandituh. 
A 
