Methods of Disposal of the dead in Vedic /Harappan period
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1) Funeral practices during the Harappan period included both burial and cremation, with cemeteries located outside residential areas for public health reasons. 2) A variety of burial styles were used, including coffin burials, pot burials containing ashes or bones, and inhumation of full skeletons. Cremation was also practiced. 3) The largest Harappan site, Dholavira, featured seven distinct burial styles including rectangular graves, cists, cairns, stone circles, and six large hemispherical tumuli resembling early stupas.
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Methods of Disposal of the dead in Vedic /Harappan period
- 1. Literary and Archaeological Investigation on the Funeral Practices during Harappan Times Psycho-analytical reasons for this practice ‘archaeological remembrance’ The location of the cemeteries is invariably outside of the main habitational mound. Hence, it may be inferred that there were specially designated areas for funerary practices and mortuary rites, outside of the residential zone.
- 2. • The logic and the rationale behind this segregation can indubitably be attributed to issues pertaining to public health. • This ideation had a significant impact on the layout of the Harappan cities, which is also reflected in the Rg Vedic hymn. • The archaeological evidence on burial practices from some Harappan sites has been detailed below: • Coffin burial. • At Harappa, Cemetery R-37 is situated on a flat land some 75 meters due south of Cemetery H, and it has yielded 57 graves. • The grave-pits • At the Harrapan site of Ropar (in Ambala district), a number of graves have been excavated. The grave-pits measured 8ft.x 3ft. on an average, and were dug to a depth of2ft.
- 3. • At the site of Kalibangan Burial practices revealed two methods: • a). internment of the complete skeleton in a well defined grave. • b). pot burials. • burial was revealed here in a rectangular brick-lined grave. • This grave seemed specially prepared as it was lined on all four sides with mud-bricks and then plastered, Burial having brick lining and plastered on all four sides, Kalibangan, After B.B.Lal
- 4. • Pot-burials • At Kalibangan which were of two types are characterized by the complete absence of human bones. • The pot-burials from Kalibangan can therefore be assigned to the category of ‘symbolic’ or ‘token’ burials, • Where as pot Burial from Sukotada have bones and and associated potteries Pot Burial with remains of bones and its plan and cross-section. Surkotada. After J.P.Joshi
- 5. • At Lothal, Three joint burials of a male and female were also revealed here, which was viewed as an evidence of the practice of sati. • A hypothesis dismissed by H.D. Sankalia on the premise that the very act of sati entailed self-immolation IAR, 1958-59 . p.14. • Sankalia, H.D. (1963). Prehistory and Proto history in India and Pakistan. Bombay. p.168. • The Rgveda does not endorse the practice of sati, or self- immolation (Rg Veda X.18.8-9). • The Harappan site of Dholavira has revealed as many as seven varieties of burial patterns, perhaps with the most varied forms and structural patterns ever, the listing of these burial types as put forward by R.S. Bhist.
- 6. The rectangular memorial burial-type constitute the largest category. The second burial-type, in terms of numbers are the cists. Cists having coffin and burial pottery (memorial burial) Dholavira After R.S. Bisht
- 7. • The third type of burial structure is the cairn. • The next group of burial structures at Dholavira is the stone lined circles. • The fifth group is formed by the fractional burials. • Regarding the burial method of inhumation, as obtained from the cemetery at Dholavira, only a single female skeleton has been found. Inhumation burial Dholavira After R.S. Bisht
- 8. The singularly most important sepulchral structure reveled in the archaeological investigations at Dholavira are the six hemispherical tumuli. Excavated rock cut chamber of Hemispherical tumuli and its Plan and cross-section . Dholavira . After R.S. Bisht
- 9. Excavated rock cut chamber of Hemispherical tumuli (Sàra Rathacakra citi) and its Plan and cross-section . Dholavira . After R.S. Bisht
- 10. • The Vedic texts too indicate the coexistence of two funerary practices, viz., agnidagdha (i.e. cremation) and anagnidagdha (i.e. burial practices). The above two terms are described as, • Ŗgveda X.15.14 “They who, consumed by fire or not cremated, joy in their offering in the midst of heaven,-………. • Both in the Ŗgveda and the Atharvaveda there is the reference to the bhūmi-gŗha, (house of earth), indicative of the earth as the receptacle for receiving the body for burial. • The Satapatha Brahmana too has a reference to a ‘burial place’ or smasâna, to serve the dead as a house or monument. This house or monument was provided with savânna, for it is for the ancestors that food is prepared ‘whence it is smasânna, for smasânna is what is mystically called smasâna. • The conceptualization of a home for the dead has an allusion in the cist burial as found in Dholavira, • while a monument for the departed souls, namely the hemispherical tumuli, again from Dholavira, can be correlated with the stūpa. Ŗgveda VIII.89.1. Atharvaveda V.30.14; XVIII.2.52
- 11. • The hemispherical tumuli at Dholavira can trace its genesis to the Vedic act on the construction of a sepulchral mound. • The procedure for the construction of the monument to the dead, i.e. śārīrika, • Evolution of caitya yåpa and caitya vçkùa from Vedic citi
- 12. A diagrammatic representation of the development of the rudimentary stūpa structure is attempted below. : Stage –1 (having kamu and vedi ) Stage –2 (having kamu, vedi and yupa) Stage –3 (having kamu, vedi, yupa and chhatra Showing gradual development of stūpa
- 13. • The Harappans buried their dead with a north-south orientation, as the south direction. • Commenting upon the esoteric idea behind orientation James Mellaart thought that ‘ the orientation everywhere usually denotes the route which the dead must take on leaving the body, whether it be towards the final destination of the soul or away from its earthly abode and the dwelling of the living’. • While from Harappan sites the norm is a north-south orientation, but deviations from this general rule are not wanting, as in Ropar where a north-west to south-east orientation has been noted. • At Dholavira it appears that the body is oriented in relation to the royal mound perhaps due to the belief that the king represented the sun’.
- 14. The attempt at a Literary and Archaeological Investigation on the Funeral Practices during Harappan times has probably thrown up more questions than answers, more dimensions for discussion, and fuelled the unceasing desire to delve into the depths of mŗtyu (death) which continues to fascinate the human mind from the dawn of history till today. In India, today cremation has become the single most important practice for the disposal of the dead, but vestiges of post cremation burial are evident in the construction of monuments as samādhi, stūpa or losţaciti; the latter over the mortal remain of ascetics and the latter over those of the modern counterparts to the kings.