Hindu Beliefs and Traditions

Reincarnation is the archetypical belief and cremation is the archetypical practice for death among Hindus throughout India. This has been so for centuries, if not millennia. David Knipe explains the link between the belief in reincarnation and the practice of cremation. In one complete round of rebirths, the Atman (soul) makes five transitions, five being arguably the most sacred number in the Hindu worldview just as three holds that place in the West. The Atman travels from sky to earth by rainfall, from plants to men, from men to women, from women to bodily form, and by way of cremation back to the sky to begin the process anew. This account of reincarnation and the relevance of cremation to that process illustrate the holistic nature of the Hindu worldview in which humans are within the cosmos but are not viewed as having either the power or the right to fully control either their individual destiny or the environment.

The earliest references to Hindu death rituals are found in the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, the Vedas being the oldest continuously used religious texts in the world. More detailed accounts are found in the Garuda Purana. In broad terms, the guidelines in these texts continue to be followed. However, there are also departures from those guidelines that reflect the passage of time and regional and local culture. Caste, stage of life, gender, and other factors, such as level of prosperity and makeup of the household of the deceased, also bear on the performance of death rituals. For example, someone whose job or income does not allow for him or her to perform the full set of rituals is not expected to do so. However, while some observers find no fault in such behavior, others may attribute any subsequent misfortune suffered within the family to failure to properly honor the deceased.

With regard to death rituals, the principle of varna-ashrama-dharma (caste stage of life-duty) is especially evident in the disposal of the dead by means other than cremation for certain categories of people. Corpses of young children and of sadhus, or holy men, are to be buried because they do not require the purification provided by Agni (fire both as a form of energy and as a form of god). The corpses of victims of epidemics or snakebites [Page 561]are to be lashed to a bamboo stretcher and placed on a river, ideally the Ganges (a.k.a. Ganga). Explanations for these departures from cremation vary. By not burning the corpse of one who has died of disease, family members are said to avoid courting the wrath of the evil spirits who caused the person to die. By not burning the body of a snakebite victim and instead placing it in the care of Ganga, there is the possibility that the goddess Ganga might restore life to the individual.

Shraddha (Death Rituals)

Hindu death rituals serve the needs of both the dead and the living. For the recently deceased, the rituals remove pollution and facilitate the journey to Yama, Lord of the Dead, and to the next bodily form in this world. For the living, the rituals serve to remove the pollution they face on the death of a family member and help them to achieve peace of mind. In a larger sense, for all concerned, the rituals work toward restoring the balance that was disrupted by death.

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