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The [platform] is recognized as being a temporary funerary abode. Anyone entering a house where a corpse lies or who touches the dead loses his state of purity (sudda). For that reason, too, a priest or a headman wearing a ring of office (and therefore equivalent to a priest) does not touch the corpse. Both it and the wrappings pollute anyone who comes in contact with them, as does touching any part of the [platform].

  • Source: Hockings, Paul. Mortuary ritual of the Badagas of southern India. Chicago: Chicago Natural History Museum, 2001.
  • Culture: Badaga
  • Location: Asia