Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/232

 188 THE ARAB AL-BIRUNI ON HINDU RELIGION conjunction and opposition (new moon and full moon), in the seasons of winter and spring." A similar view is recognized in the following words of Mani: " Other religious bodies blame us because we worship the sun and moon, and represent them as an image. But they do not know their real nature; they do not know that the sun and moon are our path, and the door whence we march forth into the world of our existence into heaven, as has been declared by Jesus." So he maintains. People re- late that Buddha ordered the bodies of the dead to be thrown into flowing water. Therefore his fol- lowers, the Shamanians, throw their dead into the rivers. According to the Hin- dus, the body of the dead has the claim upon his heirs that they are to wash and embalm it, wrap it in a shroud, and then burn it with as much sandal and other wood as they can get. Part of the burned bones are brought to the Ganges and thrown into it, that the Ganges may flow over them as it flowed over the burned bones of the children of Sa- gara, thereby releasing them from hell and bringing them to paradise. The remainder of the ashes is thrown 8URYA, THE HINDU SUN -GOD. From Moor's Hindu Pantheon.