Antyesti

For Final rites in Sikhism, see Antam Sanskar.
An 1820 painting depicting a Hindu funeral.

Antyesti (IAST: Antayeṣṭi, Sanskrit: अन्त्येष्टि) literally means "last sacrifice", and refers to the funeral rites for the dead in Hinduism.[1] This rite of passage is one of traditional Saṃskāras in the life of a Hindu.[2] It is also referred to as Antima Sanskar, Antya-kriya, Anvarohanyya, or as Vahni Sanskara.[1]

The details of the Antyesti ceremony depends on the region and age of the dead.[3] A dead adult is typically cremated, while a dead child below the age of puberty is typically buried.[4][5]

Etymology

Antayeṣṭi (अन्त्येष्टि) is a composite Sanskrit word of Anta and Yesti, which respectively mean "last" and "sacrifice".[6] Together, the word means the "last sacrifice". Similarly, the phrase Antima Sanskara literally means "last sacred ceremony, or last rite of passage".[7]

Scriptures

A Hindu cremation rite in Nepal. The samskara above shows the body wrapped in saffron on a pyre.

The Antyesti rite of passage is structured around the premise in ancient literature of Hinduism that the microcosm of all living beings is a reflection of a macrocosm of the universe.[8] The soul (Atman, Brahman) is the essence and immortal that is released at the Antyeshti ritual, but both the body and the universe are vehicles and transitory in various schools of Hinduism. The human body and the universe consist of five elements in Hindu texts – air, water, fire, earth and space.[8] The last rite of passage returns the body to the five elements and its origins.[4][8] The roots of this belief are found in the Vedas, for example in the hymns of Rigveda in section 10.16, as follows,

Burn him not up, nor quite consume him, Agni: let not his body or his skin be scattered,
O all possessing Fire, when thou hast matured him, then send him on his way unto the Fathers.
When thou hast made him ready, all possessing Fire, then do thou give him over to the Fathers,
When he attains unto the life that waits him, he shall become subject to the will of gods.
The Sun receive thine eye, the Wind thy Prana (life-principle, breathe); go, as thy merit is, to earth or heaven.
Go, if it be thy lot, unto the waters; go, make thine home in plants with all thy members.

—Rigveda 10.16[9]

The final rites of a burial, in case of untimely death of a child, is rooted in Rig Veda's section 10.18, where the hymns mourn the death of the child, praying to deity Mrityu to "neither harm our girls nor our boys", and pleads the earth to cover, protect the deceased child as a soft wool.[10]

Traditional practices

A dead adult Hindu is mourned with a cremation, while a dead child is typically buried.[4] The last rites are usually completed within a day of death. His or her body is washed, wrapped in white cloth if the dead is a man or a widow (red if her husband is still alive),[5] the two toes tied together with a string, a Tilak (red mark) placed on the forehead.[4] The dead adult's body is carried to the cremation ground near a river or water, by family and friends, and placed on a pyre with feet facing south.[5]

The eldest son, or a male mourner, or a priest – called the lead cremator or lead mourner – then bathes himself before leading the cremation ceremonial function.[4][11] He circumambulates the dry wood pyre with the body, says a eulogy or recites a hymn in some cases, places sesame seed or rice in the dead person's mouth, sprinkles the body and the pyre with ghee (clarified butter), then draws three lines signifying Yama (deity of the dead), Kala (time, deity of cremation) and the dead.[4] The pyre is then set ablaze, while the mourner's mourn. Once the pyre is well-ignited the lead cremator and the closest relatives may circumambulate the burning pyre one or more times. The concluding action by the lead cremator, during the ritual, typically includes kapala kriya, or the ritual of piercing the well-incinerated skull with a stave (bamboo fire poker) to make a hole or break it, so as to release the spirit.[12]

All those who attend the cremation, and are exposed to the dead body or cremation smoke take a shower, as soon as possible after the cremation, as the cremation ritual is considered in Hinduism as hygienically unclean and polluting.[13] The cold collected ash from the cremation is later consecrated to the nearest river or sea.[11]

In some regions, the male relatives of the deceased shave their head and invite all friends and relatives, on the tenth or twelfth day, to eat a simple meal together in remembrance of the deceased. This day, in some communities, also marks a day when the poor and needy are offered food in memory of the dead.[14]

Cremation ground

The cremation ground is called Shmashana (in Sanskrit), and traditionally it is located near a river, if not on the river bank itself. Those who can afford it may go to special sacred places like Kashi (Varanasi), Haridwar, Allahabad, Sri Rangam, Brahmaputra on the occasion of Ashokastami and Kanya Kumari to complete this rite of immersion of ashes into water.[15]

Modern practices

Cremation of the dead by Hindus in Ubud, Bali Indonesia.

Both manual bamboo wood pyres and electric cremation are used for Hindu cremations.[16] For the latter, the body is kept on a bamboo frame on rails near the door of the electric chamber.[17] After cremation, the mourner collect the ashes and consecrate it to a water body, such as a river or sea.

Hindu communities outside India

Discrimination in the colonial era

Hindu brought into Trinidad as indentured laborers for plantations between 1845 to 1917, by the British colonial government, suffered discriminatory laws that did not allow cremation, and other rites of passage such as the traditional marriage, because the colonial officials considered these as pagan and uncivilized barbaric pratices. The non-Hindu government further did not allow the construction of crematorium.[18] After decades of social organization and petitions, the Hindus of Trinidad gained the permission to practice their traditional rites of passage including Antyesti in the 1950s, and build the first crematorium in 1980s.[18]

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, it was formerly illegal to conduct a traditional outdoors Hindu cremation under the 1902 Cremation Act, with Hindus having to cremate their dead in indoor crematoriums instead. In 2006, Daven Ghai, a British Hindu who had been refused the right to have a traditional funeral by Newcastle City Council, brought a case to court in which he claimed that the current law did in fact allow open air cremations, so long as they were in some enclosed building and away from the public.[19] A High Court ruling disagreed with his claim, and the-then Justice Secretary Jack Straw stated that the British public would "find it abhorrent that human remains were being burned in this way." Nonetheless, upon taking it to the Court of Appeals in 2010, the judge, Lord Justice Neuberger, ruled that such a cremation would be legal under the 1902 Act, so long as it was performed within a building, even an open-air one.[19] Upon his victory, Ghai told reporters that "I always maintained that I wanted to clarify the law, not disobey or disrespect it" and expressed regret at the amount that the trial had cost the taxpayer.[19] He stated that he was thankful that he now had "the right to be cremated with the sun shining on my body and my son lighting the pyre" and he and other Hindus and Sikhs in the country had begun investigations into finding a site upon which they could perform the funerary ceremonies.[20]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Antayesti Cologne Sanskrit Digital Lexicon, Germany
  2. ↑ Pandey, R.B. (1962, reprint 2003). The Hindu Sacraments (Saṁskāra) in S. Radhakrishnan (ed.) The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol.II, Kolkata:The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, ISBN 81-85843-03-1, p.411 to 413
  3. ↑ Rajbali Pandey (2013), Hindu Saṁskāras: Socio-religious Study of the Hindu Sacraments, 2nd Edition, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120803961, pp. 234-245
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Carl Olson (2007), The Many Colors of Hinduism: A Thematic-historical Introduction, Rutgers University Press, ISBN 978-0813540689, pp. 99-100
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 J Fowler (1996), Hinduism: Beliefs and Practices, Sussex Academic Press, ISBN 978-1898723608, pp. 59-60
  6. ↑ anta, yASTi Monier Williams Sanskrit English Dictionary] Cologne Sanskrit Digital Lexicon, Germany
  7. ↑ antima, saMskara Monier Williams Sanskrit English Dictionary] Cologne Sanskrit Digital Lexicon, Germany
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Terje Oestigaard, in The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial (Editors: Sarah Tarlow, Liv Nilsson Stut), Oxford University Press, ISBN , pp. 497-501
  9. ↑ Sanskrit: ऋग्वेद: सूक्तं १०.१६ Wikisource;
    Sukta XVI - Rigveda, English Translation: HH Wilson (Translator), pp. 39-40;
    Wendy Doniger (1981), The Rig Veda, Penguin Classics, ISBN 978-0140449891, see chapter on Death
  10. ↑ Sukta XVIII - Rigveda, English Translation: HH Wilson (Translator), pp. 46-49 with footnotes;
    Wendy Doniger (1981), The Rig Veda, Penguin Classics, ISBN 978-0140449891, see chapter on Death
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Carrie Mercier (1998), Hinduism for Today, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199172542, p. 58.
  12. ↑ Rajbali Pandey (2013), Hindu Saṁskāras: Socio-religious Study of the Hindu Sacraments, 2nd Edition, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120803961, page 272
  13. ↑ George Castledine and Ann Close (2009), Oxford Handbook of Adult Nursing, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199231355, pages 757-758
  14. ↑ Colin Parkes et al (2015), Death and Bereavement Across Cultures, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415522366, pp. 66-67.
  15. ↑ Christopher Justice (1997), Dying the Good Death: The Pilgrimage to Die in India's Holy City, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0791432617, pp. 39-42
  16. ↑ Hiro Badlani (2008), Hinduism: Path of the Ancient Wisdom, ISBN 978-0595701834, p. 292.
  17. ↑ Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (2007), Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Routledge, ISBN 978-0700712670, p. 38.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Marion O'Callaghan (1998), "Hinduism in the Indian Diaspora in Trinidad", Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 2-10.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Taylor, Jerome (2010-02-10). "Hindu healer wins funeral pyre battle". The Independent (London). Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  20. ↑ Roy, Amit (2010). "UK funeral rights for Hindus". The Telegraph.

External links