Note 101 — P (Continued) (continued 3)

The funeral rites of the Pishāratis are very peculiar. The corpse is seated on the ground, and a nephew recites the ashtākshara, and prostrates himself before it. The body is bathed, and dressed. A grave, nine feet deep and three feet square, is dug in a corner of the grounds, and salt and ashes, representing all the Panchabhūtas, are spread. The corpse is placed in the grave in a sitting posture. As in the case of a Sanyāsi, who is a Jivanmukta, or one liberated from the bondage of the flesh though alive in body, so a dead Pishārati is believed to have no suitable body requiring to be entertained with any post-mortem offerings. A few memorial rites are, however, performed. On the eleventh day, a ceremony corresponding to the ekoddishta srādh of the Brāhman is carried out. A knotted piece of kusa grass, representing the soul of the deceased, is taken to a neighbouring temple, where a lighted lamp, symbolical of Maha Vishnu is worshipped, and prayers are offered. This ceremony is repeated at the end of the first year.101