Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c15.s4: Funeral Obsequies

Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c15.s4

Language: English

Funeral Obsequies

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Dead bodies were cremated and shrines and stūpas (thūbha lena) were built over the ground in the Jain and the Buddhist age. The body was cremated with sandal wood, aguru, turukka, ghee and honey and after the flesh and the blood was consumed by fire, the bones were taken and the stūpas (ceiyathūbha)¹⁸³ were erected. Paying homage to the dead (maḍagapūyana) and mourning (runnasadda) are mentioned.¹⁸⁴

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¹⁸³ The Tittira Jātaka (No 438), III, p. 537 mentions topes of sand (tālukathūpa), also Paramatthadīpanī, the com on the Udāna, p. 97, cf. the funeral ceremonies in the Rāmāyaṇa (IV, 25, 16 ff)

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¹⁸⁴ Ava. Bhā. 26, 27, Hari. Ṭī p 133, Ava. cū 157, 222 f.

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Jain texts refer to another custom when the dead bodies were not duly disposed of, but were left uncared for at the mercy of wild beasts and birds.¹⁸⁵ Besides, sometimes according to the instructions of the king, the ascetics had to leave a dead body in a hollow (agada), lake or a flowing river or by the side of these places.¹⁸⁶ Mention has been made of giddha-piṭṭhaka, a kind of death in which a person threw himself among the corpses of human beings, elephants, camels, donkeys, etc., and allowed his body to be devoured by vultures. The bodies of criminals and the indigent were also thrown away to rot when vultures and jackals fed on them.¹⁸⁷ There are also references to the burial of corpses. This custom was in vogue among the mlecchas, who did not cremate the dead bodies but burried them at the burial ground (maḍagagiha : maḍagalena). Such burial houses existed in the country of Dīva and Jona.¹⁸⁸

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¹⁸⁵ Mahā. Ni. p. 25; cf. Lalitavistara, p. 265.

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¹⁸⁶ Bṛh Bhā. 3. 4824.

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¹⁸⁷ See Supra, p. 174

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¹⁸⁸ Nisī. cū. 3, p 330, Āca cū 370

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The Chedasūtras have laid down elaborate rules for disposing of the dead body of the Jain sādhu.¹⁸⁹ It is stated that after the death of a monk, one monk should go in search of a bier to carry the corpse and should inspect the cremation ground (thandila) where the proper direction should be chosen for the disposal of the dead. The corpse should be covered with a clean white cloth, and as far as possible be taken out during day or night as the case may be after the monk dies. The corpse should be carried by monks, or by laymen in a cart, or with the help of the Mallas or by the Cāṇḍālas.¹⁹⁰ Then after being carried to the cremation ground, with the permission of the keeper of the cemetery, the corpse should be disposed of duly.¹⁹¹

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¹⁸⁹ See Viṣvagbhavanaprakṛtam Bṛh vū. 4, 29 and its Bhāṣya 5497-5565.

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¹⁹⁰ Vya. Bhā. 7. 449-462, p, 79 f. Manu (X. 55) also asks the Cāṇḍālas to carry out the corpses of persons who have no relatives.

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¹⁹¹ Vya. Bhā 7 442-440 p. 78ff; also Ava Nir. Dīpikā, Vol. II, 95 ff; Āta cū. II, pp. 102-9, Bhagvatī Ārādh. 1974-2000. For the disposal of the dead see also Law, India Described p. 193.

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The ceremony of taking out the body of the dead (nīharaṇa) including the child was performed with great pomp (iddhisakkhāra) and many funeral rites (mayakacca) were performed on the occasion. Annual or monthly feasts were given in honour of the departed.¹⁹² Mention has been made of offering the piṇḍa to the fathers. We are told that on the anniversary day the Brāhmaṇas were invited for feast.¹⁹³

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¹⁹² Nisi. cū. 11, p. 709; Nāyā. 14, p. 151; cf. Matakabhatta Jātaka, No. 18, (I, p. 166), Mahābhārata, I, 134; 136; Rāmāyaṇa, VI. 114. 101 ff.

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¹⁹³ Uttarā. 13, p. 194a.

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Among the various causes of death the following are mentioned: swallowing the tālapuṭa poison, brandishing the sword on one’s shoulders, hanging on a tree, fastening one’s neck with a slab of stone and throwing oneself into the sea, and entering into fire.¹⁹⁴ Among other kinds of suicides mention is made of falling down from a mountain¹⁹⁵ (giripaḍiyaga), falling down from a tree, committing suicide in a desert, swinging from a mountain (giripakkhandolaya), jumping into a desert, entering into water (jalapavesika), swallowing poison,¹⁹⁶ committing suicide with a weapon (satthovāḍitaka) or by hanging (vehānasia). Then sallekhanā or voluntary submission to death was another custom in vogue among the Jain monks who ended their life for attaining higher world by withholding from food and drink.¹⁹⁷

Linked texts (5)

Jātaka — Pāli
Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit
Mānava Dharmaśāstra — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit
Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit