India. Funeral traditions.

Funeral ritual in India. Cremation of bodies on the banks of the Ganges. The rite of purification after the funeral. 

  Funeral in India, as well as all other major ceremonies painted religious spirit. The most widespread religion of this wonderful country has been and remains Hinduism. Death of a person in this religion is regarded as his most recent sacrifice. For an Indian burial rite is final. Rare Europeans could look at this spectacle without a shudder.

  Body of the deceased is usually burned on a pyre. However, sometimes exceptions are made - for children and for wandering ascetics. They are usually buried in the ground or immersed in water, tying stones. Before you send the deceased on fire, it is washed, dressed in new clothes or just wrap cloth. The body is then tightly tied to a stretcher, and to the sound of drums are to the cremation ground - shmashanu. The best time to calculate burial astrologers, so the funeral procession in India can be seen as the dawn, and late at night. Cremation is most often done near water. In some regions of the dead before the burning again dipped in water and allowed to dry on the shore, while constructed pyre.

  After the body of the deceased had dried, it untied from the stretcher, completely stripped and give clothes shmashana servants. Deceased lay on the funeral pyre. Here it is important that the head was sent to the south, where, according to Hindu belief, is the realm of death. Bonfire on all sides draped straw, firewood, wood chips. If the deceased is rich, the fire can add spices and sandalwood, which were immediately sold for ordinary rupee. Then you have to make a sacrifice to the spirits. Usually it is a simple rice balls that late trays, and the remnants distribute ministers. At this time, the priest reads a mantra which repel evil spirits and ask for mercy from the Pits - deity of death.

  After that comes the most difficult moment of the burial ceremony - the ignition of the fire. This must be done or the eldest son, or someone close male relatives of the deceased. With a burning torch in his hand, he bypasses the woodpile clockwise three times (in some regions - seven times), and ignites it in the head. Women close to the fire are not allowed. Managing ceremony priest reads the Vedic mantras fire god Agni, and asks him to transmit the spirit of the deceased "path trodden by the gods."

  Body, with a good fire, and the required amount of wood is burned for two hours. However, given that the wood in India are expensive, then do not always fire burns body. After burning through three days relatives take ashes in a special vessel and lowered it into the water. But if the fire was not too good, it is often in the river is not only dust, but the remnants of the limbs or bones of the deceased.

  As a rule, every self-respecting Indian wants to be burned after his death on the banks of the Ganges. It is the dream of many devout Hindus. But if the deceased is poor, he does not always have enough money for expensive fire, and at low cost to poor burn standing next to the crematorium. In this case, the body often burns down to the end, and is thrown into the sacred Ganges. It is understood that around shmashanov you can see wild dogs, which, to the horror of Europeans consume unburned flesh.

  After completion of the sad ceremony mourners are considered unclean, so they need to pass a rite of purification. It lies in the fact that they have to wear white clothes in mourning for ten days. Men are required to completely shave his mustache and beard during this same period.

  It should be noted that in former times was distributed terrible custom of sati - with the deceased burned his widow. Often it acquired the character of self-immolation, that is a widow burned themselves on their own. Fortunately, Hindu reformers were able to ban sati in 1829. However, even to date occasionally float facts of his conduct.