History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.143

v5.c72.143

There were rules prohibiting certain persons from offering water to the deceased and also directing that water should not be offered to certain deceased persons. Impotent⁵²¹ persons and the like, thieves of gold, *vrātyas*, those who follow forbidden conduct and women that kill their own foetus or husband and that drink the kind of liquor (forbidden to them) should not offer water to a deceased person. Yāj (III. 6) provides that water should not be offered to and no āśauca observed for heretics, for those who do not belong to one of the four āśramas, to thieves, to women who kill their husbands or who are guilty of prostitution or who drink *surā*, or who commit suicide. Manu (V. 89–90) is to the same effect. Gaut Dh. S. ⁵²² 14. 11 provides that in the case of those who start (through anger) on the Great journey, who commit suicide by fasting or by means of a weapon or by fire, by poison, in water, by hanging or falling from a precipice or tree, there is no cremation, no āśauca, no offering of water or piṇḍa. Haradatta on Gaut. 14. 11 quotes three verses from Brahmapurāṇa that those who die of a brāhmaṇa's curse or black magic and those who are *patitas* are dealt with in the same way. But Aṅgiras (q. by Mit. on Yāj. III. 6) says that if one dies by water or fire or the like through inadvertence, there was āśauca for him and *udakakriyā* was performed. Vide Vaik. Sm S. V. 11 for a long list of persons who must not be cremated. In the Mahābhārata the rites of cremation have been described frequently e. g. the cremation of Pāṇḍu in Ādiparva, chap 127 (the body was carried in a *śibikā* covered on all sides, there were musical instruments, the royal parasol and chowries were carried in the procession, distribution of wealth to mendicants, carrying the dead body to the bank of the Ganges on a charming sylvan spot, bathing the body, applying sandalwood paste to it), of Droṇa in Strīparva, chap 23.38-42 (three *Sāmans* were sung, his pupils with Droṇa's wife in front went round the funeral pyre, going to the Ganges); of Bhīṣma in Anuśāsana 169 10-19 (fragrant resins were used on the pyre, his body was covered with fine clothes and flowers, an umbrella and chowries were held over the body, Kaurava women fanned the body with fans, *sāmans* were sung); of Vasudeva in Mausalaparva 7. 19-25; of killed warriors in general in Strīparva, chap. 26. 28-43 and of Kuntī, Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Gāndhārī in Āśramavāsikaparva, chap. 39. In the Rāmāyaṇa (Ayodhyā, chap 76 verses 16-20), it is said that the funeral pyre for Daśaratha was made with sandalwood, *aguru* and fragrant resins, with Sarala, Padmaka and Devadāru (pine) wood and various fragrant substances were heaped thereon, then Daśaratha's body was placed on the pyre and that Kausalyā and other women followed the corpse in *śibikās* and conveyances according to their status.