A cremation ritual

[N. Ganesan]

I have a question whether the following cremation ceremony is
recorded in "Hindu"/Buddhist/Jain literatures of ancient times.
Also, anything similar in ethnographic literature recorded by
anthropologists. Thanks in advance.

Among Kongu Vellalas in the Western part of the Tamilnadu,
traditionally barbers and washermen serve important functions
in key life rituals. On the third day of a cremation funeral,
close male relatives, barbers, ... go to collect the bones left.
in a vessel. These bones will be put in a flowing river,
usually kAviri, vAn2i(bhavAni) or noyyal/kAJci, and then
the barber pours milk at the foot of a green tree, called
pAccai that has milky sap, and then the barber exclaims "poli, poli".

Online Tamil Lexicon:
poli-tal  poli-tal poli-tal 01 1. to flourish, prosper, thrive;
2. to be enlarged; to appear grand, as from dress; to swell in size,
as rice in boiling; to grow full; 3. to abound, increase; 4. to
bloom, as the countenance; to shine; 5. to be high, great or
celebrated; 6. to be auspicious or fortunate; 7. to live long and
prosperously,  used as a benediction;

Is this "poli" ceremony signify that "let the soul/spirit of the
deceased person go and reside in the tree"?

Incidentally, barbers serve as bards of the Kongu region. They sing
the oral epic in praise of Kongu vellalas:
Brenda Beck a) Elder brothers story, an oral epic of Tamil /
collected and translated by Brenda E.F. Beck
Madras, India : Institute of Asian Studies, 1992. 2 v.
b) The three twins : the telling of a South Indian folk epic /
Brenda E.F. Beck., Indiana University Press, c1982. 248 p.

Regards,
N. Ganesan

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