All this is easily understood by a modern; but who are the Agnates?
On the day of the funeral, all the agnates shave their heads.
The other agnates then do the same, and proceed in Indian file, males in front and females in the rear, to the corpse.
On the following day, all the old pots are thrown away, and the agnates eat rice cooked with margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves.
A meal, called pithapona (bitter food), consisting of rice and margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves, is partaken of by agnates only.
All the agnates should be present on the tenth day, and perform tharpana (oblations of water).
The period of death pollution is eleven days, and the agnates are freed from it by a bath on the eleventh day.
On the eleventh day, all the agnates bathe, and are touched with ghī (clarified butter) as a sign of purification.
But the descendants of such persons will only be Agnates, if they satisfy the conditions which have just been described.
If there were no children, the estate passed to the agnates, and in default of agnates, to the gentiles of the deceased owner.
