Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c12.s1.26

v2.c12.s1.26

When talking about Indian funerals, the book wrote that people wailed and cried pitifully in funerals, where they tore their clothes, pulled their hair and beat their foreheads and chests. The clothing system was the same and mourning term lasted a long time. In terms of mourning and funeral, there were three rites: firstly, cremation, ie burning the body on fire; secondly, water burial, ie floating body on water; and thirdly, field burial, ie abandoning the body in forest to feed the beast. It introduced that posthumous title and punishment were forbidden after the death of a king and explained folk customs such as bathing of mourners, drowning the dead, funeral of monks and so on. Xuanzang’s records of Indian folk customs were detailed and accurate.