ABSTRACT
Before talking about the rites and afterlife beliefs of the Hindus in general one must remember that Hinduism has evolved over a period of over 5,000 years and changes, both historically and culturally, over the years have impacted Hindu religious patterns including funerary rites and beliefs. For instance, a growing number of Hindus today, who consider themselves modern, call themselves philosophical Hindus and do not observe any funerary rites as prescribed in the sacred texts and have devised novel ways to mark their respect for the dead. Some of my own relatives and friends cremated the body of their loved one and then immersed the remains in a nearby body of water. They then fed a number of poor people in the neighborhood and did not observe any period of pollution or purification after the mandatory pollution period normally expected of a follower of Hinduism. So there are the orthodox Hindus, on the one hand, who follow the prescribed rituals as laid down in what are known as the Gr̥hyasūtras (c. 500 BCE–200 BCE), and then you have the modern Hindus as shown above, while in between are a number of Hindus who have their own varied ritual observances. Since Hinduism has no single authority as a church or a single sacred scripture there is a freedom for the rituals and observances to evolve according to the times and one’s convenience.
