Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Seite 536

496
FUNERALS OF BRAHMIN WOMEN
One is supposed to call
his father, and his grandfather.
himself Vasudeva, the second calls himself Yama, and the
The heir makes the usual
third calls himself the Sun.
offerings and libations to these personages, gives each of
them a piece of cloth, and has a meal served up to them, at
the end of which he kneads three balls composed of rice,
peas, and herbs, which are solemnly offered to the deceased
and his two ancestors.
The same ceremony is repeated on the 30th, 45th, 60th,
75th, 90th, 120th, 175th, 190th, 210th, 240th, 270th, 300th,
and 330th day after the death of the deceased. Further,
the anniversaries of the deaths of his father and mother
must be celebrated by a Hindu all his life long without fail
and each time most of the formalities just mentioned must
;
be observed and liberal gifts made to Brahmins.
At each new moon it is the indispensable duty of a man to
offer a libation of oil and water to his deceased father, as
well as to his grandfather and to his great-grandfather
I have mentioned that the pecuniary circumstances of
many Brahmins do not allow of their fulfilling to the letter
the costly obligations imposed upon a chief mourner. But
there are a great many which are obligatory and which
entail considerable expense.
Conceit and vanity, which are
such strong incentives in the minds of Brahmins, induce
l
.
many
of them to contract debts infinitely beyond their
means in order to make a show on such occasions.
The funeral ceremony for a woman is nearly the same as
that for a man.
Rather less attention, however, is paid to
a widowed mother of a family.
And much less still to a
widow who dies without children the flames of the funeral
pile have scarcely consumed the mortal remains of such a
one before she is forgotten. When a Brahmin woman dies,
the married women, kinswomen, or friends of the family
assist at her funeral ceremony, and it is they who receive
the usual presents and distributions.
The obsequies of the Kshatriyas and Vaisyas are per-
formed with nearly the same pomp as those of the Brah-
;
And also to their wives. Libations are also sometimes offered to the
maternal grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather
and their wives. Ed.
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