Storia do Mogor 261: Funeral Ceremonies of the Hindus for their Dead.

261

All Hindus burn their dead, except the infamous sect of the Lingam. These bury the bodies, not in their temples — for that, in this country, would be the most abominable sacrilege that could be committed — but in a field distant from their dwellings. As to all other castes, they also burn them in a field distant from the town or village, which each locality has set apart expressly for this purpose.
The mode of burning the body is as follows : First of all, no Brahman, however rich he may be, is allowed to die within his house, for in their belief all within it would be thereby defiled. This is the reason that before he expires they carry him into a courtyard, and there place him under a sort of gallery, which every house has for the purpose. Should it happen that the Brahman dies a sudden death within the house, they carry the body at once, with all imaginable haste, and place it under the gallery alluded to. Then, breaking all the earthen vessels in the house, all the inmates quit it, and do not re-enter it until it has been well rubbed over with cowdung, and until, as one may say, the interdict has been removed by a number of ceremonies, used by them for this purpose.
When a Brahman dies, all his female relations and female friends stand in a circle, and with their stomachs bared beat themselves severely with their two hands, weeping for the dead ; and, moving round, they sing a song learnt for the purpose. It is extremely well suited to the conditions of the time and place in which they find themselves. After they have been round three times in this fashion, they bathe the body, dress it in new clothes, put some ground sandal-wood on the forehead, and then deposit it in a sort of coffin which is quite open. It may be interjected here that this coffin is made just as our handbarrows for manure, constructed like them from pieces of wood tied together with straw. Then four Brahmans carry the body to the burning-ground. They are preceded by a sort of shrine, highly ornamented and covered with flowers. Having arrived at the cemetery, they perform for him all the usual ceremonial, and burn him with all the solemnities that I have remarked upon in regard to their marriages.
After the body has been burnt, the Brahmans bathe their bodies, and wash the pieces of cloth which they used for clothing themselves. All dripping as they are, they put these on again and return home. Thence they proceed to the house of the deceased, where a feast is given. On that day it is served under some palm-trees, which they say represent the deceased. There for the space of ten days all the friends and relations weep for the deceased ; each of the nearest relations gives a sort of petticoat they call a panes (punjam) to the deceased's widow, and his brothers subscribe and give her a half-moon of silver.
On the tenth day, after loud lamentation, the deceased's widow flings her arms round the neck of another widow, weeping and displaying all imaginable signs of grief. Meanwhile, all the other widows present cut off the piece of gold attached to her neck, which they call a tali. It should be noted that no married women may take part in this act, which constitutes the woman a widow.
Every year upon the anniversary of her husband's death a young widow performs a holocaust, feeds four or five Brahmans, and if she is rich she also gives them clothes. She does the same every month at the new moon, but with less expense and formality. Whatever is essential in funerals of the Brahman caste is also common to the other castes. This is the reason that I shall not say anything special about them, and I pass on to the opinions held about Europeans, known to them under the name of Farangis.