The sixteenth and last of the traditional
life-cycle ceremonies (samskaras),
comprising what can be described as
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Antyeshthi (“last rites”) Samskara
A woman prepares a deceased man for cremation.
This ritual is one stage of the antyeshthi samskara, the traditional Hindu funerary rites.
funerary rites. These rites are not a single action, but a series: deathbed rites
for the dying person, cremation for the
corpse, asthi-sanchayana (gathering
the ashes), sapindikarana (assimilation
to the ancestors), various memorial rites
known as shraddhas, and asthivisarjana (immersing the ashes in
a sacred river).
These rites have a twofold purpose.
The first is to get rid of the corpse,
which is a source of contagion and
impurity (ashaucha), and thus to protect the living from the dead. The second is to ease the passage of the dead
person’s spirit into the next world.
Aside from these functions, performing familiar and ceremonial rites for
the dead undoubtedly gives psychological relief to the living and aids in
the process of grieving. What follows is
merely an overview of these rites; for
more detailed information see the
individual entries.
Ritual activities are the most concentrated during the first ten days
after death, which is believed to be the
period of greatest impurity.
Cremation usually takes place on the
day of death, not only to prevent
decay and disease in a hot climate but
also to destroy the body so it will not
be reanimated by a wandering spirit.
Gathering the ashes (asthi*-sanchayana) is done on the second or
third day. In earlier times they would
have been kept in a safe place, sometimes for years, until a relative visiting
a sacred river could perform asthi-*visarjana (immersing the ashes); with the
advent of modern transportation, this
is generally performed a few days
after death.
During this ten-day period, the
spirit is given symbolic nourishment to
help build a “new” body. On the
eleventh day, the family performs the
first of the memorial ceremonies
known as shraddhas; in this case an
ekoddishta shraddha is performed in
which brahmin guests, considered
surrogates for the ancestors, are fed.
On the twelfth day after death, the
family performs the rite of
sapindikarana, through which the
deceased is incorporated into the
ranks of the ancestral spirits (pitr) and
is thus no longer considered a restless
spirit. This is followed by anniversary
shraddhas at regular intervals during
the first year; after this period there is
an annual shraddha once a year during
the Pitrpaksha (“fortnight of the
ancestors”), the waning moon period
in the lunar month of Bhadrapada
(August–September), which is solely
devoted to such memorials. For further
information see Pandurang Varnan
Kane (trans.), A History of
Dharmasastra, 1968; and Raj Bali
Pandey, Hindu Samskaras, 1969. For
accounts of modern practice, see
David M. Knipe, “Sapindikarana: The
Hindu Rite of Entry into Heaven,” in
Frank E. Reynolds and Earle H. Waugh
(eds.), Religious Encounters with
Death, 1977; Lawrence Babb, The
Divine Hierarchy, 1975; and Anne
Grodzins Gold, Fruitful Journeys, 1988.