Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c6.144

v1.c6.144

“ When the body (of the dead man) is burned, he feels a strong glow, and when it is beaten, torment, and when it is cut up, very awful torment. When (the body) is moistened, the (dead) person suffers very long-lasting pain through the ripening of his deeds, although he has gone into another body.” Still more remarkable, perhaps, is the tale of the king’s young son whose soul and its life is still so fully stirring in the buried body. Chavannes, *Cinq cents contes*, etc., iii, p. 218. That the man whose soul is gone feels what is done to his body is indeed a view which is found in various places, and in agreement with the passages just named the dead man, according to Mohammedan belief suffers under the wailing of his kindred. Negelein, p. 24. The soul is looked on, indeed, by the Moslem as united with the body before the burial, and also for the first night in the grave. Garnett, *The Women of Turkey*, etc., ii, 492 ; 495 f. ; Lane, *Arabian Society*, etc., 263 ; M. Horten, *Die relig. Gedankenwelt d. Volkes im heut. Islam*, pp. 280, 284 f. We are even told of them : “For a whole year the bond lasts between the spirit and the body laid in the grave.” Negelein, p. 25. (Though I have not been able to look up his authority. But see M. Horten, loc. cit., 296-300.) This reminds us of the Indian doctrine that the dead man only reaches Yama’s city after a full year has gone by. A very general idea is that the dead man goes on staying a shorter or a longer time in his former house, or near to it ; indeed, even those who have been taken among the “ fathers ”—to say nothing of the Pretas—are well known in India to approach the offerings to the forefathers ; and in particular “ one day in the year is free for the dead ”, in the middle of the rainy season ; then Yama lets all his subjects go off to the world of men. Caland, *Totenverehrung*, 43-46. See also Dubois-Beauchamp 3, p. 488 ; Vasistha, xi, 39 f. ; Visnu, lxxviii, 51-53 ; Mārk.-Pur., x, 75 ; Garudapurānasārod., i, 55. According to the two last the dead man is allowed to stay twelve days longer near his former abode, and take his nourishment from the pious gifts ; then he is led away to Yama’s city ; Dubois speaks of ten. The difference is probably to be explained by the varying length of the “ uncleanness ” of the kindred, depends, that is, first of all on the caste. See Caland, *Toten- und Bestattungsgebräuche*, 81-84, also in Dubois ; Crooke, *Anthropos*, v, p. 461 (five days among the Baidyas in south Kanara, cp. 463). Further matter in Negelein ; then Sartori, *Ztschr. d. Ver .f. Volksk.*, Bd. 18, p. 375 ; Sartori, ibid., Bd. 4, p. 424 ; Krauss, ibid., Bd. 2, p. 180 at bottom ; Krauss, *Slav. Volksforschungen*, p. 111 ; Freiligrath’s *Gesicht des Reisenden*, etc.