Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/231

 BURNING THE DEAD 187 and earthly part of them by fire, and afterwards to attract to himself the immortal part of them, and to raise their souls to heaven." In these words there is a reference to burning as a Greek custom, but it seems to have been in use only for the great men among them. The Hindus express themselves in a similar way. There is a point in man by which he is what he is. This point becomes free when the mixed elements of the body are dissolved and scattered by combustion. Regarding the return of the immortal soul to God, the Hindus think that it is effected partly by the rays of the sun, the soul attaching itself to them and ascend- ing with them, and partly by the flame of the fire, which raises it to God. Some Hindus used to pray that God would make his road to himself as a straight line, be- cause this is the nearest road, and there is no other road upwards save the fire or the ray. Similar to this is the practice of the Ghuzz Turks with reference to a drowned person; for they place the body on a bier in the river, and make a cord hang down from the foot of the corpse, throwing the end of the cord into the water. By means of this cord the spirit of the deceased is to raise him- self for resurrection. The belief of the Hindus on this head was confirmed by the words of Vasudeva, which he spoke in the Bhagavadgita regarding the sign of him who is liberated from the fetters of bodily exist- ence. " His death takes place during the northern revolution of the sun from the winter solstice to the summer solstice, and during the white half of the month, between lighted lamps, that is to say between