History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.115
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.115
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v5.c72.115.1
Many rules were prescribed as regards the carrying of the dead body. It has been seen above that the corpse was carried in a cart or on a couch by the relatives or by the servants (*dāsas*). Some sūtras, smṛtis, commentaries and other works lay down many other rules here The Rāmāyaṇa (Ayodhyā 76. 13 ff) states that on the death of Daśaratha his Vedic fires were carried by his priests before the corpse, that the dead body was placed in a palanquin (*śibikā*), that his servants carried it and that coins of gold and clothes were thrown about on the road in front of the bier (for the poor). The general rule was that members of the three higher varṇas alone should carry to the cemetery a dead body belonging to any one of those varṇas and a śūdra should not carry the dead body of a man of a higher caste (when there were men of the caste of the dead available) nor should a man of one of the three higher varṇas carry the dead body of a śūdra, and that the impurity in the case of a śūdra carrying a dead *dvijāti* or a *dvijāti* carrying a śūdra's body is determined by the caste of the dead man. *Vide* Viṣṇu Dh S 19 1-4, Gaut. Dh. S. 14 29, Manu 5 104, Yāj III 26, Parāśara III 43-45. A brahmacārin was not permitted to be a carrier of the dead body of a person or relative even of his own caste, except his parents, *guru*, *ācārya* and *upādhyāya* and he was not guilty of breaking his vows of student-hood if he carried the bodies of any one of the five mentioned above. *Vide* Vas 23.
v5.c72.115.2
7, Manu 5. 91, Yāj III 15, Laghu-Hārīta 92-93, Brahmapurāṇa (q by Par. M. I. 2 p. 278). *Guru*, *ācārya* and *Upādhyāya* are defined by Yāj. I. 34-35. If a *brahmacārin* carried the corpse of any one except the above five he was held to have swerved from his *vrata* and he had to undergo the expiation for *vratalopa*. Manu 5. 103 and Yāj. III. 13-14 state that those who merely carry a dead body of their own caste should bathe with the clothes on, then bite off *nimba* leaves, should perform *ācamana*, touch fire, water, cowdung, white mustard, place slowly a foot on a stone and then enter their house It being the duty of *sapiṇḍas*⁵⁰¹ to carry the dead body of their relative they, after doing so, had simply to bathe, to touch fire and drink clarified butter for being pure (Gaut. 14. 29, Yāj. III. 26, Manu IV. 103, Parāśara III. 42, Devala q. by Par. M. 1 2, p. 277, Hārīta q. by Aparārka p. 871). Carrying the dead body of a brāhmaṇa who has no relatives is highly extolled by Parāśara (III. 39-41) who says that a person, that thus carries the dead body of a brāhmaṇa, secures at each footstep the reward of the performance of a sacrifice and he becomes pure at once simply by plunging into water and performing prāṇāyāma, while Manu (5. 101-102) prescribes that if one carries the dead body of a person who is not a *sapiṇḍa* through affection he becomes pure after three days. The Hāralatā p.
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121 quotes the Ādipurāṇa that if a kṣatriya or vaiśya cremates the dead body of a poor brāhmaṇa or of a kṣatriya who has lost everything or of a poor vaiśya, he secures great merit and becomes pure at once after a bath. Even now generally (particularly in villages) men of the same caste carry or follow a dead body and are held to be purified by a bath with clothes on. The medieval commentaries like the Mitākṣarā stuck strictly to the extreme exclusiveness of caste by prescribing 'if a man⁵⁰² carries a dead body through affection, eats food in that family and dwells in their house he is under impurity for ten days; if he simply stays with the dead man's family but does not eat their food he is impure for three days; these rules apply when the carrier is of the same caste as the dead person But if a brāhmaṇa carries a śūdra's corpse, the brāhmaṇa is impure for a month, but if a śūdra carries a brāhmaṇa's body the śūdra is impure for ten days.' The Kūrmapurāṇa prescribes that if a brāhmaṇa carries the dead body of a brāhmaṇa for a fee or from other interested motive he becomes impure for ten days, a kṣatriya, vaiśya and śūdra doing the same becomes impure for 12, 15 or 30 days and the Viṣṇupurāṇa says that the person carrying a dead body for a fee has to become impure for the period of impurity prescribed for a man of that caste.
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It may be stated that these rules about impurity on the ground of carrying or following the carrying of a dead body of another caste are no longer enforced and it is extremely doubtful whether they were ever strictly enforced or followed Hārīta⁵⁰³ prescribes that a dead body should not be carried through the midst of a village if while going to the cemetery a village comes in the way, but it should be carried away from it. Manu, 5 92 and Vṛddha-Hārīta IX. 100-101 prescribed that the dead body of a śūdra, vaiśya, kṣatriya and a brāhmaṇa was to be taken out respectively by the southern, western, northern and eastern gates of the town or village It was provided by Yama and the Garuḍapurāṇa II 4 56-57⁵⁰⁴ that the fuel for the funeral pyre should not be carried (for higher *varṇas*) to the cemetery by a śūdra and if a śūdra did so the deceased would always remain in the state of *preta* The Hāralatā (p 121) says that if firewood is carried by śūdras still the pyre should be made by brāhmaṇas only (for a brāhmaṇa's body).
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The smṛtis and purāṇas provide that the corpse⁵⁰⁵ should be first bathed with water and then cremated, that the corpse should never be burned naked, but that it should be covered with cloth, decked with flowers and have fragrant unguents (sandalwood paste &c.), that fire should be carried in front of the corpse and one man should carry cooked food in an unbaked earthen vessel and another should deposit part of the food on the way and one should give clothes and the like to cāndālas and the like (that stay near the cemetery).