History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.115.1

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.