大唐西域記 2.21

2.21

終沒臨喪，哀號相泣，裂裳、拔髮、拍額、椎胸。服制無間。喪期無數。送終殯葬，其儀有三：一曰火葬，積薪焚燎。二曰水葬，沈流漂散。三曰野葬，棄林飼獸。國王殂落，先立嗣君，以主喪祭，以定上下。生立德號，死無議諡。喪禍之家，人莫就食；殯葬之後，復常無諱。諸有送死，以為不潔，咸於郭外，浴而後入。至於年耆壽耄，死期將至，嬰累沈痾，生涯恐極，厭離塵俗，願棄人間，輕鄙生死，希遠世路。於是親故知友，奏樂餞會，泛舟鼓棹，濟殑伽河，中流自溺，謂得生天。十有其一，未盡鄙見。出家僧眾，制無號哭，父母亡喪，誦念酬恩，追遠慎終，寔資冥福。

Every one who falls sick fasts for seven days. During this interval many recover, but if the sickness lasts they take medicine. The character of these medicines is different, and their names also. The doctors differ in their modes of examination and treatment.
When a person dies, those who attend the funeral raise lamentable cries and weep together. They rend their garments and loosen their hair; they strike their heads and beat their breasts. There are no regulations as to dress for mourning, nor any fixed time for observing it.
There are three methods of paying the last tribute to the dead: (1) by cremation — wood being made into a pyre, the body is burnt; (2) by water — the body is thrown into deep flowing water and abandoned; (3) by desertion — the body is cast into some forest-wild, to be devoured by beasts.
When the king dies, his successor is first appointed, that he may preside at the funeral rites and fix the different points of precedence. Whilst living they give (their rulers) titles according to their character (virtue); when dead there are no posthumous titles.
In a house where there has been a death there is no eating allowed; but after the funeral they resume their usual (habits). There are no anniversaries (of the death) observed. Those who have attended a death they consider unclean; they all bathe outside the town and then enter their houses.
The old and infirm who come near to death, and those entangled in a severe sickness, who fear to linger to the end of their days, and through disgust wish to escape the troubles of life, or those who desire release from the trifling affairs of the world and its concerns (the concerns of life), these, after receiving a farewell meal at the hands of their relatives or friends, they place, amid the sounds of music, on a boat which they propel into the midst of the Ganges, where such persons drown themselves. They think thus to secure a birth among the Devas. Rarely one of these may be seen not yet dead on the borders (of the river).
The priests are not allowed to lament or cry for the dead; when a father or mother of a priest dies they recite their prayers, recounting (pledging) their obligations to them; reflecting on the past, they carefully attend to them now dead. They expect by this to increase the mysterious character of their religious merit.