Of the sixteen samskaras which encompass a Hindu life the last one is performed for the dead by their sons or grandsons or relatives. Many passages in the Puranas and Dharmasastras extol the role of the son in the life of devout Hindu. The present book deals with the rite of Sraddha and vindicates the popular belief that Sraddha, being an important topic, forms an integral part of Hindu Dharmasastra. The belief in the after-death survival of deceased ancestors and their separate world belongs to the Indo-Iranian period and as such is pre-Vedic. Ancestor-worship for one's prosperity, continuation of one's race, is as old as the Rgveda. Contents Preface, Introduction, The Antyesti Samskara, Appendices, Glossary

A rare treatise on the dead & what happens next as per the Hindu belief None wants to face it though all know they cannot escape. This book may help understand death and realize the importance of life. 'Jatasya Hi Dhruvo Mrityuh'-All those who are born are bound to die. Despite this people fear death. The thought of leaving this planet and the failure of existence create fear. A person who understands the true nature of death realizes that it is only a stage in the life cycle and not a curse. To get this realization demands a different perspective. Unlike Hebraic faiths and bodycentric cultures that believe in the linear existence of life, Hinduism believes in the cyclic concept. The concept of the immortality of the lifeenergy or soul and the karmic cycle form the core of Hindu spiritualism. All Hindu scriptural texts, from the Vedas to Nibandha (treatises on rituals) discuss them at length. The focus is to liberate the soul from the body and overcome the cycle of birth and death. The Hindu Book of the Dead discusses all the concepts, beliefs and traditions found in these texts as well as the secular classical works about death and its meanings critically. The significance of various funeral rites and rituals and their relevance for the soul and for those who are alive have also been explained. What are those rituals and their meanings and how the soul tries to overcome the cycle of life and death? Where the journey ends? The body is dead but the soul still has to travel. The book tries to explain the What, Why, Where and How of what is described as death. It also presents a comparative picture of the beliefs and traditions held by other faiths and cultures.

Burning the Dead traces the evolution of cremation in India and the South Asian diaspora across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through interconnected histories of movement, space, identity, and affect, it examines how the so-called traditional practice of Hindu cremation on an open-air funeral pyre was culturally transformed and materially refashioned under British rule, following intense Western hostility, colonial sanitary acceptance, and Indian adaptation. David Arnold examines the critical reception of Hindu cremation abroad, particularly in Britain, where India formed a primary reference point for the cremation debates of the late nineteenth century, and explores the struggle for official recognition of cremation among Hindu and Sikh communities around the globe. Above all, Arnold foregrounds the growing public presence and assertive political use made of Hindu cremation, its increasing social inclusivity, and its close identification with Hindu reform movements and modern Indian nationhood.