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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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