The words used in an ancestral rite, and what each one means

Three parties. The person the rite is performed for, the priest who performs it, and the ancestors it is offered to. The words below name each of them and the lines that connect them.

Yajaman

यजमान yajaman — the person on whose behalf a rite is performed, and in whose name the priest speaks. In an ancestral rite the yajaman is usually a child of the person who has died. It is the word the priest will use for you.

Purohit

पुरोहित purohit — the priest who performs a rite for a family. He says the sankalp, makes the offerings in the family’s name, and tells the yajaman what to do at each step.

Tirtha purohit

तीर्थ पुरोहित tirtha purohit — a purohit who belongs to a particular tirtha and performs rites there for the families who come. The tirtha purohits of a place are its own priests, as distinct from the priest a family may have at home.

Brahmin

ब्राह्मण brahmin — a person of the priestly class. The purohit is a brahmin. At the close of an ancestral rite, by custom, brahmins are fed and given gifts, and that is counted as part of the rite rather than as something after it.

Gotra

गोत्र gotra — the family line, passed down from father to son. It is said out loud in the sankalp so the offering reaches the right family.

Aatma

आत्मा aatma — in the tradition, what continues after the body dies. The rites are offered on its behalf.

Pitru

पितृ pitru — the ancestors, and the word for a family’s own departed elders. After death, and after the rites that follow it, the departed are counted among the pitru. Shraddh and tarpan are offered to them.

Shraddh is the name of the whole rite. Tarpan and pind daan are its two main offerings, and the other words here name its parts. The last word here, asthi visarjan, is a rite for the dead that comes before any of them.

Shraddh

श्राद्ध shraddh — the rite for the dead. By custom it is performed on the tithi of a death each year, and on the days of the year kept for the ancestors. Tarpan and pind daan are its parts.

Tarpan

तर्पण tarpan — the offering of water to the ancestors. Water mixed with til is poured from the hands, facing south, in the names of the departed.

Pind daan

पिण्डदान pind daan — the offering of pinda, balls of cooked rice, to the named ancestors. It is the fuller form of the ancestral offering, and tarpan is performed with it.

Sankalp

सङ्कल्प sankalp — the formal declaration at the start of a rite, in which the priest states out loud who is making the offering, for whom, where, and on what day. Without it the offering has no named recipient.

Arghya

अर्घ्य arghya — the offering of water made in welcome to a guest, and in a shraddh to the ancestors who have been invoked. In the offering to the ancestors til takes the place of barley.

Svadha

स्वधा svadha — the word spoken over an offering to the ancestors. In a shraddh it is said with the permission of the invited brahmins.

Savya

सव्य savya — the ordinary way of wearing the sacred thread, over the left shoulder. It is how it is worn in rites for the gods and in daily life.

Apasavya

अपसव्य apasavya — wearing the sacred thread over the right shoulder instead of the left, the reverse of savya. It marks a rite as one for the ancestors rather than one for the gods.

Deva tirtha

देव तीर्थ deva tirtha — the part of the hand used for the offering to the gods, as distinct from the pitru tirtha used for the ancestors.

Prajapatya tirtha

प्राजापत्य तीर्थ prajapatya tirtha — the part of the hand used for the offering to the sages, as distinct from the pitru tirtha used for the ancestors.

Pitru tirtha

पितृ तीर्थ pitru tirtha — the part of the palm between the thumb and the first finger. Water for the ancestors is poured over this part of the hand, and not from the fingertips.

Kaakbali

काकबलि kaakbali — a share of the offering set aside for the crows. It is part of the rite, not something done after it.

Vidhi

विधि vidhi — the order in which a rite is performed, step by step, as the priest knows it. Each rite has its vidhi, and the vidhi differs between regions and between families of priests. When a family asks how a rite is done, the vidhi is the answer.

Asthi visarjan

अस्थि विसर्जन asthi visarjan — the immersion of the ash and bone gathered after a cremation, given to the water at a tirtha. It belongs to the rites that follow a death, and it is not one of the ancestral rites.

Water, sesame, grass and rice, in the main. The words below name each thing the priest uses and say what it is for.

Pinda

पिण्ड pinda — a ball of cooked rice, pressed by hand and offered to a named ancestor. Pinda are set down on darbha during the offering, and at a river tirtha they are given to the water when it is done. In some families they are made of flour rather than rice, and the priest says which is used where he performs. The rite that offers them is pind daan.

Til

तिल til — sesame seed, and in the rite the black seed. It goes into the water poured in tarpan, and into the pinda.

Darbha

दर्भ darbha — a stiff grass, also called kusha, used all through the rite. The priest wears a ring of it on his finger, the offerings are set down on it, and it is held in the hand while the water is poured.

Tilodak

तिलोदक tilodak — water with til in it. It is what is poured in tarpan. The word joins til and udak, which means water.

Akshat

अक्षत akshat — whole grains of rice, unbroken. They are set out with the offerings and given from the hand at points through the rite.

Samagri

सामग्री samagri — the materials a rite needs, taken together: the til, the darbha, the rice and everything else the priest lays out before he begins. Usually the priest arranges it.

Dakshina

दक्षिणा dakshina — the gift given to the priest at the close of a rite, in money or in kind. By custom it is counted as part of the rite rather than as a payment for it.

By custom on the tithi of the death each year, in Pitru Paksha, and on the new moon, in the afternoon. The words below say how each of those is found.

Tithi

तिथि tithi — a day of the lunar calendar, counted from the new moon and from the full moon rather than from midnight. A tithi can begin and end at any hour of the clock day, which is why a panchang is needed to find it. By custom the tithi of a death, in the lunar month the death fell in, is the day its shraddh is kept on each year, and it falls on a different day of the ordinary calendar from one year to the next. The fifteen tithis of a fortnight, in order, are Pratipada, Dvitiya, Tritiya, Chaturthi, Panchami, Shashthi, Saptami, Ashtami, Navami, Dashami, Ekadashi, Dvadashi, Trayodashi and Chaturdashi, and then Purnima, the full moon, or Amavasya, the new moon. The dark half of a month, from the day after the full moon to the new moon, is its Krishna paksha, and the bright half its Shukla paksha.

Amavasya

अमावस्या amavasya — the new moon, the tithi on which the moon is not seen. It is a day for ancestral rites through the year. The amavasya that closes Pitru Paksha is Sarva Pitru Amavasya.

Bhadrapada

भाद्रपद Bhadrapada — the lunar month in which Pitru Paksha falls, between August and October of the ordinary calendar. Its dark half is the fortnight kept for the ancestors.

Ashwin

आश्विन Ashwin — the lunar month that follows Bhadrapada, between September and November of the ordinary calendar. A tithi is named with its month, so a panchang gives a day in this month as Ashwin and the tithi together.

Sarva Pitru Amavasya

सर्वपितृ अमावस्या Sarva Pitru Amavasya — the amavasya that closes Pitru Paksha, kept by custom for all the ancestors of a family together, including those whose tithi is not known. It is the same day as Mahalaya Amavasya.

Pitru Paksha

पितृ पक्ष pitru paksha — the fortnight of the year kept for the ancestors, running from the day after a full moon to the new moon that follows it, in September or October. Shraddh is performed in it for the departed of the family.

Mahalaya

महालय mahalaya — another name for Pitru Paksha. Mahalaya Amavasya is its last day, and it is the same day as Sarva Pitru Amavasya.

Aparahna kaal

अपराह्ण काल aparahna kaal — the part of the day, roughly from midday to mid-afternoon, that is kept for the ancestral rites. The priest sets the time within it.

Muhurat

मुहूर्त muhurat — a time chosen from the panchang as right for beginning a rite or an undertaking. The priest chooses it. For an ancestral rite the time that matters is aparahna kaal, and the muhurat, where one is set, falls inside it.

Panchang

पञ्चाङ्ग panchang — the Hindu calendar of tithis, which gives the tithi and the other parts of each day for a given place. It is what a priest opens to find the date of a shraddh and the hours of aparahna kaal. Panchangs differ a little from region to region, and a priest uses the one his region follows.

At a tirtha, on a ghat, or at a kund. Three words for the places the rites are performed, and Ramkund at Nashik is all three. The fourth word here, snan, is the bath taken at such a place, and it is not one of the rites.

Tirtha

तीर्थ tirtha — a place of pilgrimage, and in the oldest sense a crossing place on a river. A rite performed at a tirtha is held to carry more weight than the same rite at home, which is why families travel for it. Ramkund is a tirtha for the ancestral rites.

Ghat

घाट ghat — the flight of stone steps leading down into a river, and the bank they stand on. Rites are performed on the ghat, at the water’s edge. Ramkund sits on the ghats of the Godavari at Nashik.

Kund

कुण्ड kund — a tank or pool of water with stone sides and steps, fed by a river or a spring. At Nashik the ancestral rites are performed at Ramkund, a kund on the Godavari. At Trimbakeshwar the bathing is at Kushavarta Kund.

Snan

स्नान snan — a bath, taken as a rite in a river or a kund at a tirtha. A bath is something a person does himself. A snan is not one of the ancestral rites.

Three words for what the tradition holds the rites to be for. This page says what each word means, and attributes the belief to the tradition that holds it.

Pitru dosh

पितृ दोष pitru dosh — a condition tradition attributes to the ancestors not having received their due. By tradition that due is the rites themselves, kept on their days.

Sadgati

सद्गति sadgati — release, or a good onward passage for the dead. The word joins sat, meaning good, and gati, meaning going. Tradition holds that the rites for the dead help the departed towards it.

Punya

पुण्य punya — merit, in the tradition’s own accounting. It is the good that is held to come from a right act, a gift, or a rite performed properly, and it is spoken of as something earned and kept by the person who does the act.