History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.33

v5.c72.33

*FUNERAL RITES* (antyestī) are a saṁskāra. Antyesti is one of the 16 (or more) saṁskāras of a twice-born person performed with Vedic mantras according to Manu II. 16, Yāj. I. 10, Jātūkarṇya⁴³⁹. These saṁskāras were formerly performed for women also (Āśv gr I. 15.12, I. 16 6, I. 17-11, Manu II. 66) but without Vedic mantras (except in marriage) and for sūdras also (Manu X. 127, Yāj I. 10) but without Vedic mantras. The Baud. P. S. III. 1.4 states that there are two saṁskāras of every human being and they are like a debt i e. they must be performed, just as a debt must be discharged viz the saṁskāra on birth and the one on death (mṛtasaṁskāra). Funeral rites and rites after death varied according as the deceased was an āhitāgni (one who had consecrated the śrauta fires) or one who had only kindled the smārta fire, or one who had neither the śrauta fires nor the smārta fire, or a woman, a child, an ascetic (*parivrājaka*), or one dying in a distant land or one dying by accident or committing suicide &c. The śrauta and gṛhyasūtras differ among themselves in many details even on the same topic and the procedure becomes more elaborate in medieval and later times. It would be impossible to state all the differences on each topic in this section. A separate volume would have to be written for the purpose of setting out all the variations and additions from ancient times to modern times, to discuss why and how they arose or were made, to compare the various sūtras and to compare these again with the purāṇas and medieval digests, and to appraise their worth or usefulness. All that can be attempted here is to give the bare outlines of the procedure in different sūtras, smṛtis and digests by way of sample in a chronological order. The Nirṇayasindhu (p. 569 ) expressly says that the last rites differ in each Śākhā, though certain things are common to all 439a Chronological conclusions have been drawn about the relative ages of the sūtras ( as Dr. Caland does), of the smṛtis, purāṇas and nibandhas from the presence or absence of this or that detail or the elaboration of this or that ritual But with all respect to the industrious scholars of the West such conclusions are often tentative or misleading and are purely subjective in many cases and are often due to ignorance or loss of ancient works.