Among some low castes, an earthen pot is broken on the village boundary and another in the burning ground.[164]
Some break an earthen pot at the village gate on their way back from the cemetery after the performance of shrāddha.[165]
In some places, the earthen pots placed on the spot where the corpse is laid in the house are broken at the village gate.[166]
In some low castes two earthen pots are placed on the village boundary on the twelfth day after death, and broken by children.[167]
Some carry the funeral fire in a black earthen jar as far as the village gate, where the jar is broken and the fire carried in the hand, by one of the mourners, to the burning ground.[168]
According to some, this breaking of an earthen pot is a symbol indicating that the connection of the deceased with this world has broken or ceased.[169]
Others hold that it indicates the disintegration of the constituents of the body into the elements of which it was formed.[170]
There are others who are of opinion that the messengers of the god of death are satisfied with the breaking of an earthen pot after an offering to them of six rice balls and water.[171]
When a death takes place in a family, a prāna-poka or death-wail is raised by the chief mourner, who is joined afterwards by the other relatives.[172]
The prāna-poka is believed to open the gates of heaven for the admission of the soul.[173]