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After death rituals in Hindus?
If an orphan Hindu dies at a place where his relatives cannot reach, how should his last rights be performed and who will lit the pyre?
4 Answers
- 8 years agoFavorite Answer
After death,The chief mourner now performs arati, passing an oil lamp over the remains, then offering flowers. The male (or female, depending on the gender of the deceased) relatives carry the body to the back porch, remove the clothes and drape it with a white cloth. (If there is no porch, the body can be sponge bathed and prepared where it is.) Each applies sesame oil to the head, and the body is bathed with water from the nine kumbhas, dressed, placed in a coffin (or on a palanquin) and carried to the homa shelter.The dead person is washed at home, anointed with salve of sandalwood, *** *** powder and vibuthi, and clothed in white. The young children, holding small lighted sticks, encircle the body, singing hymns. The women then walk around the body and offer puffed rice into the mouth to nourish the deceased for the journey ahead. A widow will place her Mangalsutra (wedding pendant) around her husband's neck, signifying her enduring tie to him. The coffin is then closed. If unable to bring the body home, the family arranges to clean and dress it at the mortuary rather than leave these duties to strangers. The ritual homa fire can be made at home or kindled at the crematorium.
The body is laid in a coffin and covered with flowers before it is driven to the crematorium. In north Indian tradition, three bowls of barley flour are now prepared. The first bowl is placed on the head of the deceased before being carried into the crematorium. The second is placed on the chest during the procession from the hearse. The third is placed on the stomach after arriving in the crematorium. In the crematorium, a small candle or oil lamp (diwali lamp) is lit, which the main mourner holds in his hand while carrying a container of water on his shoulder. He circles the dead person three times, and a hole is made in the container each time he goes around.The coffin is then moved to the cremation room (Shamshan ghat). Only men go to the cremation site, led by the chief mourner. Two pots are carried: the clay kumbha and another containing burning embers from the homa. The body is carried three times counterclockwise around the pyre, then placed upon it. All circumambulating, and some arati, in the rites is counterclockwise. If a coffin is used, the cover is now removed. The men offer puffed rice as the women did earlier, cover the body with wood and offer incense and ghee. With the clay pot on his left shoulder, the chief mourner circles the pyre while holding a fire brand behind his back. At each turn around the pyre, a relative knocks a hole in the pot with a knife, letting water out, signifying life's leaving its vessel. At the end of three turns, the chief mourner drops the pot. Then, without turning to face the body, he lights the pyre and leaves the cremation grounds. The others follow. At a gas-fueled crematorium, sacred wood and ghee are placed inside the coffin with the body. Where permitted, the body is carried around the chamber, and a small fire is lit in the coffin before it is consigned to the flames. The cremation switch then is engaged by the chief mourner.
- bastienLv 45 years ago
Hair on the top is dealt with as an adornment and as an emblem of arrogance. on the dying of an elderly guy or woman in a relatives, the Hindus evaluate the youngsters of the relatives to no longer be egoistic in nature yet be humble, committed and submitted to nature. so that they choose them to renounce their adornment and arrogance in humiliation. besides the indisputable fact that it quite is ironic that they compel or enable women persons persons to shave their head on the dying of husband. those days some sort of reform is undertaken and few learnt Hindus do no longer shave the heads of their women, on the dying of husband - a compromise of concepts with the time.