The cremation.

When the cremation ground is reached, the activities preliminary to the cremation itself are begun. This phase of events is called the liko kriya , "the [death] work done at the feet." For the upper thars a member of the Cyo thar (level XI) acts as, it is said, "a sort of a priest" to direct the activities during the liko kriya . For the other thars the work is directed by a phuki or death guthi member. The kuta : is placed on the ground so that the head of the corpse is to the south. A paste made of water and ma baji —fragments that are residues of the beating of fried rice to make baji , and which is used only on this occasion—is formed into three mounds at the feet of the body by the kriya putra , who, faring the body, kneels to its feet. The three mounds are considered to be sacrificial offerings, bali , to, respectively, crows (the mound to the left), to the preta (the spirit form that the soul of the dead person will take; the mound at the center), and to dogs (the mound to the right). The crow and the dog are considered as representatives or messengers of Yama, and are so represented in later death ceremonies. Now, as part of the offering, water is poured near each of the three mounds.

Four clumps of grass with soil still clinging to the roots are placed at the borders of the area on the cremation ground where the funeral pyre is to be erected. They are arranged so as to be at the head, feet, and right and left shoulders of the body, as the clay oil lamps had been at the time of death. The funeral pyre is assembled by the death guthi members. The cremation is considered by Brahmans to be a "Vedic fire sacrifice," a yajna^[*] . The four clumps of grass and earth are said to represent the four Vedas. When the pyre is completed the kuta : is lifted and carried three times around it. The pulu and the cloths covering the body (except for the cloth covering the genitals) are removed, and the body is removed from the kuta :, placed on the funeral pyre, and covered with dry straw. Now the chief mourner takes a torch and, igniting it from the

flame of the torch held by the Cala(n), circumambulates the body three times. An inflammable mixture of sandalwood, camphor, and clarified butter is placed at the corpse's mouth, and it is here that the kriya putra applies the flame to begin the cremation. Now a bundle of straw is ignited at the flames at the mouth and then used to set fire to the pyre itself.

As the pyre and corpse burn, the climactic moment comes with the cracking of the head of the corpse, at which time the soul of the corpse leaves in the form of a preta to begin its postmortem journey and transformations.^[60] The kriya putra throws offerings (which may include barley, parched rice, kiga :, clarified butter, and leaves of the Ficus religiosa ) into the fire at the time of the cracking of the skull.^[61] When the body has been reduced to ashes and bone fragments, the fire is extinguished. The ashes and bone fragments are brought to a tirtha in the river near the cremation grounds. The kriya putra enters the water and throws some of the ashes in the four cardinal directions. He then puts some of the ashes and bone from the head into the clay soil at the river bottom.