Somebody died

While in Udaipur, we decided to walk out along the shore. We saw women washing their hair in the gross water. After they seemed to be all clean, they all lined up to go in to a church and ring a bell. I asked a passerby what was going on. He said someone had died. I don't profess to be up on Indian tradition and have not read anything about it. But this is what I perceive to happen. When someone dies, everyone needs to go to the church to pray for them. Before they do that, they need to be cleansed. The women and men have to do this separately. So, in Udaipur, the women come down to the filthy river to do the cleansing. Once they are clean, they go in to a church, or actually a temple, to pray and ring a bell to a God. Then, they go back to the person's house who died. It was interesting to witness this.