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A pyre (Ancient Greek: πυρά, romanized: purá; from πῦρ (pûr) 'fire'), [1] [2] also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite or execution. As a form of cremation, a body is placed upon or under the pyre, which is then set on fire.
Sati or suttee [a] is a practice, a chiefly historical one, [1] [2] in which a Hindu widow burns alive on her deceased husband's funeral pyre, the death by burning entered into voluntarily, [3] by coercion, [4] [5] or by a perception of the lack of satisfactory options for continuing to live. [6]
Death by burning is an execution, murder, or suicide method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment , and many societies have employed it as a punishment for and warning against crimes such as treason , heresy , and witchcraft .
The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David (1787) Forced suicide was a common means of execution in ancient Greece and Rome. As a mark of respect it was generally reserved for aristocrats sentenced to death; the victims would either drink hemlock or fall on their swords. Economic motivations prompted some suicides in ancient Rome.
Later that afternoon at 4 pm, Vajpayee was cremated with full state honours at Rashtriya Smriti Sthal near Raj Ghat, and his pyre was lit by his foster daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya. [9] [10] Thousands of people and many dignitaries attended his funeral procession, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind.
Funeral coin is used for coins issued on the occasion of the death of a prominent person, mostly a ruling prince or a coin-lord. Funeral games are athletic competitions held in honor of a recently deceased person. [12] Funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant ...
Once the pyre is ablaze, the lead mourner and the closest relatives may circumambulate the burning pyre one or more times. The ceremony is concluded by the lead cremator, during the ritual, is kapala kriya , or the ritual of piercing the burning skull with a stave (bamboo fire poker) to make a hole or break it, in order to release the spirit.
A priest or priestess was not allowed to enter the house of the deceased or to take part in the funerary rites, as death was seen as a cause of spiritual impurity or pollution. [7] This is in line with the Greek idea that even the gods could be polluted by death, and hence anything related to the sacred had to be kept away from death and dead ...