Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 3 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 3 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
The Kadir dead are buried in a grave, or, if death occurs in the
depths of the jungles, with a paucity of hands available for digging,
the corpse is placed in a crevice between the rocks, and covered over
with stones. The grave is dug from four to five feet deep. There
is no special burial-ground, but some spot in the jungle, not far
from the scene of death, is selected. A band of music, consisting of
drum and fife, plays weird dirges outside the hut of the deceased,
and whistles are blown when it is carried away therefrom. The old
clothes of the deceased are spread under the corpse, and a new cloth
is put on it. It is tied up in a mat, which completely covers it, and
carried to the burial-ground on a bamboo stretcher. As it leaves the
hut, rice is thrown over it. The funeral ceremony is simple in the
extreme. The corpse is laid in the grave on a mat in the recumbent
posture, with the head towards the east, and with split bamboo and
leaves placed all round it, so that not a particle of earth can touch
it. No stone, or sepulchral monument of any kind, is set up to mark the
spot. The Kadir believes that the dead go to heaven, which is in the
sky, but has no views as to what sort of place it is. The story that
the Kadirs eat their dead originated with Europeans, the origin of it
being that no one had ever seen a dead Kadir, a grave, or sign of a
burial-place. The Kadirs themselves are reticent as to their method
of disposing of the dead, and the story, which was started as a joke,
became more or less believed. Mr. Vincent tells me that a well-to-do
Kadir family will perform the final death ceremonies eight days after
death, but poorer folk have to wait a year or more, till they have
collected sufficient money for the expenses thereof. At cock-crow on
the morning of the ceremonies, rice, called polli chor, is cooked,
and piled up on leaves in the centre of the hut of the deceased. Cooked
rice, called tullagu chor, is then placed in each of the four corners
of the hut, to propitiate the gods, and to serve as food for them
and the spirit of the dead person. At a short distance from the hut,
rice, called kanal chor, is cooked for all Kadirs who have died,
and been buried. The relations and friends of the deceased commence
to cry, and make lamentations, and proclaim his good qualities, most
of which are fictitious. After an hour or so, they adjourn to the
hut of the deceased, where the oldest man present invokes the gods,
and prays to them and to the heaped up food. A pinch from each of
the heaps is thrown into the air as a gift of food to the gods, and
those present fall to, and eat heartily, being careful to partake of
each of the food-stuffs, consisting of rice, meat, and vegetables,
which have been prepared.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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