Antyesti

[9] The Antyesti rite of passage is structured around the premise in ancient literature of Hinduism that the microcosm of all living beings is a reflection of a macrocosm of the universe.

Those who can afford it may go to special sacred places like Puri, Gaya, Varanasi, Haridwar, Prayagraj, Srirangam, Brahmaputra on the occasion of Ashokashtami and Rameswaram to complete this rite of immersion of ashes into water.

[6] The dead adult's body is carried to the cremation ground near a river or water, by family and friends, and placed on a pyre with feet facing north.

For example, followers of Ayyavazhi sect bury the body, facing the geographic north in a padmasana position, without coffins and it is covered by sand or Namam (sacred soil) as an act austerity for the unfolding of Dharma Yukam.

[23][24][25] Many people visit Hindu pilgrimage sites to perform, Śrāddha ceremonies, like Gaya, Pehowa,[26][27][28] Kurukshetra, Haridwar, Gokarneshwar, Nashik etc.

[29] After decades of social organization and petitions, the Hindus of Trinidad gained the permission to practice their traditional rites of passage including Antyesti in the 1950s, and build the first crematorium in 1980s.

In 2006, Daven Ghai, a British Hindu who had been refused the right to have a traditional funeral by Newcastle City Council, brought a case to court in which he claimed that the current law did in fact allow open air cremations, so long as they were in some enclosed building and away from the public.

[30] A High Court ruling disagreed with his claim, and the-then Justice Secretary Jack Straw stated that the British public would "find it abhorrent that human remains were being burned in this way."

Nonetheless, upon taking it to the Court of Appeals in 2010, the judge, Lord Justice Neuberger, ruled that such a cremation would be legal under the 1902 Act, so long as it was performed within a building, even an open-air one.

[30] Upon his victory, Ghai told reporters that "I always maintained that I wanted to clarify the law, not disobey or disrespect it" and expressed regret at the amount that the trial had cost the taxpayer.

[30] He stated that he was thankful that he now had "the right to be cremated with the sun shining on my body and my son lighting the pyre" and he and other Hindus and Sikhs in the country had begun investigations into finding a site upon which they could perform the funerary ceremonies.