Travels in India (Tavernier) 125: BOOK III

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dug, into which an abundance of wood is thrown, with many drugs to make it burn fast. When this hole is well heated, the body of the husband is placed on the edge, and then his wife comes dancing, and chewing betel, accompanied by all her relatives and friends, and with the sound of drums and cymbals. The woman then takes three turns round the hole, and at each time she kisses all her relatives and friends. When she completes the third turn the Brahmins throw the body of the deceased into the fire, and the woman, having her back turned to the hole, is also pushed by the same Brahmins, and falls in backwards. Then all the relatives throw pots of oil and other drugs of that kind, as I have said is elsewhere done, so that the bodies may be the sooner consumed.
In the greater part of the same Coromandel coast the woman does not burn herself with the body of her deceased husband, but allows herself to be interred, while alive, with him in a hole which the Brahmins dig in the ground, about 1 foot deeper than the height of the man or woman. They generally select a sandy spot, and when they have placed the man and woman in this hole, each of those who have accompanied them, having filled a basket of sand, throw it on the bodies until the hole is full and heaped over, half a foot higher than the ground, after which they jump and dance upon it till they conclude that the woman is smothered.
When any of the idolaters of this Coromandel country are on the point of death, their friends do not act like those elsewhere, who carry them to die at the margin of a river or tank, so that their souls when leaving the body may be cleansed of their impurity. They simply carry them into the vicinity of the fattest cow which they are able to find.
If a cow happens to be sick the owner must convey it to the margin of a tank or river, for should it die in his house the Brahmins inflict a fine upon him.