________________
it
may
lie lightly upon, and may defend, his remains, is clearly enjoined, but it is possible that it may refer only to the ashes and remaining bones after burning, the collection and formal burial of which is always directed. We have here also the analogy of other ancient people, by whom we know the dead were burned and the ashes entombed, over which a mound or monument was raised.
And again:
OF THE HINDUS.
Moerentes altum cinerem et confusa ruebant, Ossa focis tepidoque ornabant aggere terræ.
*
279
At pius Æneas ingenti mole sepulcrum Imponit
And a common funeral inscription was:
Sit tibi terra levis;
although nothing but the reliquiæ were to be pressed upon.
So far, therefore, it is possible, that the verses refer only to the burying of the ashes and the bones, and that the bodies were burned. There are other passages in favour of this view of the subject, whilst the Grihya Sútras are sufficiently explicit. The following directions for the burial of the dead are derived from
the Sútras of Áswalayana; and as they differ in many respects from the actual practice described by Mr. Colebrooke in the seventh volume of the Asiatic Researches, and are obviously of a much more ancient
[Essays, p. 97.]
