History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.245

v5.c72.245

It will be seen that the disposal of the dead in ancient India was divided into four stages viz. cremation, collecting the charred bones and depositing them underground in an urn, expiatory rites (called Śāntikarma) and erection of a monument over the bones. The last was not necessarily done in every case. The Andhau Inscription of the time of Rudradāman in the year 52 (probably of the śaka era) refers to the erection of a staff (lasti i e. yasti) as a funeral monument to the memory of a sister, brother and wife by Madana son of Sihila (vide E I. Vol. 16 pp. 23-25). In a long passage of the Brahmapurāna quoted by Aparārka (pp. 885-886) it is stated that the charred bones of a cremated person should be collected in an urn and deposited at the root of a tree or cast in the Ganges, that the place of cremation should be purified with cowdung and water, that a puskaraka tree should be planted there or an edūka (a structure) should be built over it.⁵⁸⁰