An elderly Hindu man fighting to be allowed to have an open-air cremation in Britain took his case to London's High Court on Tuesday.
In a test case, 70-year-old Davender Ghai is appealing against a refusal to Newcastle City Council in northeast England to let him be cremated in accordance with Hindu tradition.
"As a Hindu, I believe my soul should be liberated in consecrated fire, 'Agni', after death - a sacramental rebirth, like the mythical phoenix arising from the flames anew," he said.
"I will not deny my claim is provocative, least of all in a nation as notoriously squeamish towards death as our own," added Ghai, who came to Britain from Kenya in 1958.
But he said: "I honestly do not believe natural cremation grounds would offend public decency - as long as they were discreet, designated sites far from urban and residential areas."
Cremation outside a crematorium is banned in Britain under the 1902 Cremation Act. Newcastle City Council, which refused an application by Ghai in 2006, has declined to comment before the case goes to court.
His legal team is hoping to argue during the three-day case that the British law is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
If they win it will "create a precedent for all local authorities to grant open air funeral pyres if there was demand in their area," said his lawyer, Andrew Singh Bogan.
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