Dasaha ... and beyond !

The "tenth" day is a big day for the rituals.

The entire family gets together. The common Kriya is done in the morning. The eldest son, after the Kriya waits near the river, while the entire extended family, friends, relatives get together and come to the river bank.

None of them would have shaved or cut nails for all those 10 days, nor even gone to temple or done any thing celebratory - including eating food that they like !

They all shave at the river bank. Take a dip and offer water to the soul. Wear new white clothes.

The process finishes around 5PM. It depends on how many close relatives one has. Till that time everyone fasts. Then they eat some food together.

This is the day when the heads, mustache everything of the sons are shaved completely. The Janoi / sacred thread,  changes side to the usual, purified. The lamp is taken off.

The sand on which the lamp is kept, belief goes, when the lamp extinguishes there would be "foot print" of the animal that the soul has gotten in to. The soul after staying up  for 10 days, finds another body.

I remember when my maternal grand father died, the burning lamp drew up the oxygen from the sand and made a picture that looked like a bird foot - and my mom gave up eating chicken for ever.

So, this time before anyone analyzed / imagined any *foot print* I shouted - "none". Its a Moksha  !

And picked up all the sand.


The Eleventh day - some more rituals. More around cooking specific food. But one major change noticed this day in the slokas - instead of addressing the dead as "preta" it changes to "deva".

Meaning the unhappy soul becomes Godly !

The twelveth day -

The mourning family eats the food they like. The official end of the mourning and rituals.
The bones are safely kept inside a small container with OIL, which works as a preserver.

After a year it would have to be put in river Ganges....