History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.168

v5.c72.168

⁵³⁴ According to the Parsi scriptures burying a human corpse in the earth was a grave sin and if the body was not disinterred there was no atonement in the case of a professor of the law of Mazda or one who had studied it and if he did not disinter it within six months or within a year, he was liable to receive five hundred or a thousand stripes respectively Vide Vendidad, Fargard III (S B E Vol. 4 pp 31-32). Corpses were to be laid down on the summits of mountains to be devoured by birds and dogs and the exposure of corpses was the most striking practice of the Mazdean profession (S B E Vol IV part 1 Intro p XLV).