The South African Hindu Maha Sabha (SAHMS) has said funeral is a time to honour the departed with “sanskaar and discipline” and should not be used as “an opportunity to flaunt wealth”.

“In Hindu tradition, a funeral should not be an ostentatious celebration. It is a time to honour the departed with ‘sanskaar’and discipline. It is a time to focus on an appeal to the lord for salvation for the deceased. Salvation is only possible if there is detachment from material things,” said Ashwin Trikamjee, president of the SAHMS.

He said the funerals had become “nothing but an opportunity to flaunt wealth” with bagpipes and Bentley cars at the crematorium and people dressed in “English colonial-styled suits instead of the all-white cotton kurta”.

The SAHMS has received complaints about such funerals, Trikamjee said. One of the complainants said the crematoria were being turned into “a place of noise and excess” with bagpipes, drapes and red carpets, “to make more money”.

Trikamjee said such funerals, according to undertakers, can cost as much as $5,400. He said this often left the poor and destitute struggling to bury their deceased family members, because attention would be given to those who could pay for such services.