The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c35.2

v2.c35.2

THERE is nothing in Vedic literature to encourage the view, which has been so energetically contended for in connexion with western civilization, that the custom of burning the dead is one which denotes an essential distinction of race, as contrasted with the practice of burying the dead.¹ The burning of the dead is set over against the burying of the dead in the Rigveda ² merely as two legitimate alternative methods, and this is the state of affairs throughout the history of India. Burning is normally preferred, the chief exceptions being very holy ascetics and infants under two years of age,³ but the existence of burial cannot be denied for any period. Moreover it is important to note that the double practice of burial or burning is recorded of many other objects which it is desired to dispose of, owing to their dangerous character. Nor is it to be doubted ⁴ that the primitive use of fire in this case was that of removing the dread substance, which burial could also effect. The idea that burning was necessary to take the soul to heaven is not Vedic: the Rigveda proves that from the earliest recorded period the unburnt dead went to heaven no less than the burnt.