The ancestral rites, and where to begin
A family has a set of rites for its dead, and shraddh is the one that holds the others. Tarpan and pind daan are parts of it, and Pitru Paksha is the fortnight of the year kept for the ancestors. The sankalp that opens the rite names the yajaman and the family's gotra. This page says how those fit together, and which page to read first.
Shraddh
Tarpan and pind daan are its parts
Pitru Paksha
The dark fortnight of Bhadrapada, in September or October
Name and gotra
In the sankalp, at the start of the rite
Ramkund, Nashik
The rites are performed there through the year
Section I
What are the ancestral rites?
The ancestral rites are श्राद्ध shraddh, the rite performed for one’s own dead, and its parts. A shraddh is a family’s own rite, made in the name of one member of the family, and brahmins are invited to it. A ब्राह्मण brahmin is a person of the priestly class. A shraddh has two main offerings. तर्पण tarpan is the offering of water: water mixed with तिल til, black sesame seed, is poured from the hands, facing south, in the names of the departed. पिण्डदान pind daan is the offering of पिण्ड pinda, balls of cooked rice, to the named ancestors.
By custom a shraddh is performed each year on the तिथि tithi of a death, the day of the lunar calendar it fell on, in the lunar month it fell in, and on the days of the year kept for the ancestors. At Ramkund in Nashik the rites are performed through the year.
Section II
How do the parts fit together?
A shraddh holds both offerings. Tarpan can also be performed on its own. Pind daan is one part of a shraddh, not the whole of it, and tarpan is performed with it. Every rite opens with the सङ्कल्प sankalp, the declaration in which the priest states out loud who is making the offering, for whom, where, and on what day. The यजमान yajaman is the person in whose name the rite is made. In it the yajaman’s name and the family’s गोत्र gotra, the family line passed down from father to son, are spoken.
पितृ पक्ष pitru paksha is the fortnight of the year kept for the ancestors, in September or October. Through it the Garuda Purana has a shraddh performed on each day, and by custom a family keeps the day that matches the tithi of the death.
Section III
Which page should you read first?
Start with shraddh if you want the rite itself: who it is for, when it falls, what is offered, and the order of it as the Garuda Purana gives it. Read Pitru Paksha if you are working out the day. Read gotra if the priest has asked for yours and you are not sure what it is or do not know it. Read pind daan for the offering of pinda, what a pinda is made of and where it is offered. The words this site uses for the rites are defined once, in the glossary.
The rite and its parts
Shraddh is the whole rite for the ancestors. Pind daan, the offering of pinda, is one part of it, and tarpan, the offering of water, is another. The samagri is what the priest lays out for all of them.
Shraddh
Shraddh is the rite performed for one's departed ancestors. Who it is performed for, when it falls, what is offered, whose rite it is and who is invited to it, and the order of the rite as the Garuda Purana gives it.
Pind daan
Pind daan is the offering of pinda, balls of cooked rice, to the departed. What a pinda is made of, what is offered with it, and where the offering is made, at home within a shraddh and at a tirtha such as Ramkund.
Tarpan for the ancestors
Tarpan is the offering of water to the ancestors. What is in the water, the part of the hand it is poured over, how many times it is poured and what is spoken with it, which way the offerer faces, and when the offering is made, on its own and within a shraddh.
What the rite needs
Samagri is the materials a rite needs, taken together. What the ancestral rites use, what each thing is for, and who lays it out. By custom the priest arranges it where he performs, and a family that is not present sends nothing.
When it is performed
The fortnight of the year kept for the ancestors, when it falls by the lunar calendar, which day within it a family keeps, and the part of the day the rite itself is kept for.
Pitru Paksha
Pitru Paksha is the fortnight of the year kept for the ancestors. When it falls by the lunar calendar, what is done on each of its days, which day a family keeps, and what else the fortnight is called.
Aparahna kaal
Aparahna kaal is the part of the day kept for the ancestral rites, roughly midday to mid-afternoon. How the priest finds the exact window from the panchang, why this part of the day, and which place's window governs when the family is elsewhere.
The words used, and the family line
The declaration that opens every rite, the family line it names, and the words this site uses for the rites, each written in Devanagari and explained in plain English.
What a sankalp is
A sankalp is the declaration that opens a rite, naming who the offering is for before anything is offered. Whether it is only for the ancestral rites, whose name it actually gives, and how its gotra differs from the gotra spoken later in the offering.
What a gotra is
A gotra is the family line a Hindu family traces through the father's side. What it is, why the priest speaks it aloud in the sankalp, and what happens when a family does not know theirs.
Glossary of the ancestral rites
Forty-five terms used in the ancestral rites at Ramkund, each written in Devanagari and explained in plain English. Who takes part, what the rites are called, what is offered, when and where they are performed, and what families hope for.
Whose rite it is, and from where
Whose duty a shraddh is by custom, what the tradition provides when he cannot carry it out, and how the rite is performed by a qualified priest for a family that cannot be present.
Who performs a shraddh
A shraddh is a family's own rite, made in the name of one member of the family, the yajaman. Whose duty it is by custom, what the tradition provides when he cannot carry it out, what the priest needs to know before he begins, and whether a priest can perform it for a family that cannot be there.
Shraddh from abroad
Tradition provides for the ancestral rites to be performed by a qualified priest for a family that cannot be present. What makes the rite the family's own, what the family gives the priest, where it is performed, and what is not performed in absence.
The bath, and what the rites are for
What a snan is, where it is taken and who takes it, and what the tradition holds the ancestral rites are for when a family asks about pitru dosh.
Snan
A snan is a bath taken as a rite, in a river or a kund at a tirtha. What the tradition holds a snan to be, where it is taken at Nashik and at Trimbakeshwar, who takes it, and how it stands to the ancestral rites.
Pitru dosh
Pitru dosh is a condition tradition attributes to the ancestors not having received their due. What the tradition holds that due to be, what it holds the ancestral rites are for, how the rites are performed, and what a family that asks about it tells the priest.
Where the rites are performed
What the tradition records Gaya for and what it records Nashik for, and the rite of immersion kept at Ramkund, which is not one of the ancestral rites.
Gaya and Nashik
What the tradition records Gaya for and what it records Nashik for, the Garuda Purana's account of the shraddh at Gaya, the turn the Godavari makes at Nashik, and what stays the same and what differs when the rite is performed at one tirtha or another.
Asthi visarjan
Asthi visarjan is the immersion of the ash and bone gathered after a cremation, made in the water at a tirtha. What the word means, where the rite sits among the rites for the dead, and where it is performed at Nashik, at the Asthi Vilaya Tirtha at Ramkund.