Funeral feasts.
An important class of communal meals remaining for discussion consists in the funeral feasts.

The funeral feast seems a peculiar and unseasonable observance, but several circumstances point to the conclusion that it was originally held in the dead man's own interest.

He or his spirit was indeed held to participate in the feast, and it seems to have been further thought that unless he did so and ate the sacred food, his soul would not proceed to the heaven or god, but would wander about as an unquiet spirit or meet with some other fate.

Many of the lower Hindu castes, such as the Kohlis and Bishnois, take food after a funeral, seated by the side of the grave.

This custom is now considered somewhat derogatory, perhaps in consequence of a truer realisation of the fact of death.