Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/90

60 "O thou deceased! these two dogs have four eyes each, and a strange colour. Go past them quickly. Then proceed by the beautiful path to those wise forefathers who spend their time in joy and happiness with Yama."

These verses give us some idea of the belief in future happiness as it prevailed among the Hindus of the Vedic Age. The rites of cremation and burial are alluded to in the following passages:—

"O fire! do not reduce this deceased to ashes; do not give him pain. Do not mangle his skin or his person. O fire! send him to the home of our fathers as soon as his body is burnt in thy heat."

"O thou deceased! go to the extended earth who is as a mother; she is extensive and beautiful. May her touch be soft as that of wool or of a female. You have performed sacrifices; may she save thee from unrighteousness.

"O earth! rise up above him, do not give him pain. Give him good things, give him consolation. As a mother covers her child with the hem of her garment, so cover the deceased.

"Let the earth, raised on him as a mound, lie light. Let a thousand particles of dust rest on him. Let them be to him as a house filled with butter, let them form a shelter to him."

It remains only to allude to one more remarkable verse of this hymn, the eighteenth in the tenth book, which distinctly sanctions the marriage of widows:—

"Rise up, woman, thou art lying by one whose life