promptness of Hindu funerals

[Thrasher, Allen]

Matthew,

Thanks for the tip.  I consulted Modi's Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology and D. K. Ganguly's book of the same title (both quite fascinating), and there was no mention of legal or customary requirements for a quick funeral that would have to be overriden to perform post-mortems and autopsies in the case of homicides and suicides, which I suspect means that if there is a civil law requirement it was purely municipal for Pune.

Allen


-----Original Message-----
From: mkapstei at uchicago.edu [mailto:mkapstei at uchicago.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2011 4:31 PM
To: Thrasher, Allen; INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] promptness of Hindu funerals


It may be worth recalling in this regard that, after the massacre of the Nepalese royal family some years ago, one of the complaints that was much aired was that the requirement of swift cremation precluded the possibility of proper autopsies. The physical evidence that might have corroborated or called into question the narratives of the event was thereby irrevocably lost. 

Matthew T. Kapstein
Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies The University of Chicago Divinity School Directeur d'études Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris