On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s12.3

v1.c8.s12.3

At the obsequies for a departed one [the relatives] wail and weep, rending their clothes and tearing out their hair, striking their brows and beating their breasts. There is no distinction in the styles of mourning costume, and no fixed period of mourning. For disposing of the dead and performing the last rites there are three recognized customs. The first of these is cremation, a pyre being made on which the body is consumed. The second is water-burial, the corpse being put into a stream to float and dissolve. The third is burial in the wilds, the body being cast away in the woods to feed wild animals.