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Death Rituals
The burying of the dead appears to have been a common custom
amongst all the non-Aryan people of Assam. Hindu influences have induced some of them
to take to burning. Tribes like the Akas, the Adis, the Dafla's and most of the
Nagas bury the dead. The Ahoms before they embraced Hinduism used to bury
their dead. The Mikirs and Deuris also burn their dead. But among the Bodos all the three customs
are prevalent. Some of them burn their dead; some bury them, a
third section simply takes the dead to the burial ground and leaves them there. The
Dafla's, after burial, take up arms and shoot arrows in all direction
to drive the evil spirits away. The Dowaniyas will burn the dead if he is over 20
and bury him if he is under 20; the Fakials will burn the deceased if he is
above 15 and bury him if he is under 15. Death considered unnatural is not given
the usual treatment, the Adis will not offer food at the grave of pregnant
woman or a man killed in an accident; the Deuris will not burn a man
who has died of an epidemic but first bury him and then exhume the skeleton. The
Khasis and the Rabhas follow both the custom of burying and burning. The Ao
Nagas erect a high machan and place the dead body on it and expose it to be
eaten by crows and vultures or to rot away; formerly they used to burn a fire
below to render the body dry and help it wither away.
Most of the tribes believe in world or life after death
where the spirit of the dead goes. Some of them also believe in the rebirth
of the spirit in another form. If a Lalung baby cries too much, they suppose
that some dead member of the family must have been reborn. When a Mikir
baby is named after its grandfather, it is supposed that the dead old
man is reborn as his grandson. The most wonderful speculation about rebirth
is that of the Daflas and the Bodos. To the Daflas the colourful
butterflies are the spirits of the dead. when an unmarried Bodo young
man dies, a banana tree is planted near his grave so that his life after
death becomes more fruitful than has been the case hitherto. When a Bodo
woman dies, a pipal branch is planted near her grave in the
hope that in her rebirth she will be blessed with a luxuriant growth of
hair. Before burial or cremation, water is poured and red threads placed
between the lips of the dead, that will make in rebirth, the lips thin
and red, a sign of beauty.
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