What is tarpan, and how is the water offered?

Til. तिल til is sesame seed, and in the rite the black seed. Water with til in it is तिलोदक tilodak, and that is what is poured in tarpan. The Garuda Purana has til used in place of barley in the offering to the ancestors, and it is the til that marks the water as theirs.

The Dharmasindhu gives a short form of the offering for a person who cannot perform the long one. In it the words spoken ask that the gods, the sages, the ancestors and all living people be satisfied, from Brahma down to a blade of grass, and all the ancestors with them, the mother’s line with the father’s. They ask that the water with til in it be for every family gone before.

From the hands, over one of three points on the palm, one for each of the offering’s three recipients. A तीर्थ tirtha is a place of pilgrimage, and in the oldest sense a crossing place on a river. On the hand it is used more narrowly, for the point through which a particular offering is poured. The point for the ancestors is the पितृ तीर्थ pitru tirtha, between the thumb and the first finger, and water for them is poured over it and not from the fingertips. The gods have their own point, the देव तीर्थ deva tirtha, and the sages theirs, the प्राजापत्य तीर्थ prajapatya tirtha.

On whether one hand or both are used, the old schools differ. Some have the water offered from the right hand alone, and others have it poured from both hands held together, and the priest follows the practice of his own Vedic school.

For the men of the family who are named, and for the mother, the father’s mother and the father’s grandmother, the water is poured three times. For the other women of the family who are named the count is different, and the priest knows it. गोत्र gotra is the family line passed down from father to son, and every departed has one. The यजमान yajaman is the person in whose name the rite is made. With each pouring the name of the departed is spoken, and the departed’s own gotra, and how the departed was related to the yajaman. The offering is made to one ancestor at a time, and the words are what name that ancestor.

For the pouring the sacred thread is worn over the right shoulder instead of the left. Wearing it there is अपसव्य apasavya, and wearing it on the left, as it is worn for the gods and in daily life, is सव्य savya. Apasavya joins apa, away from, and savya, so the word itself names the reversal, and it marks the offering as one for the ancestors rather than one for the gods.

South, and onto darbha, into a vessel or into the river. By tradition the south is the quarter of the ancestors, and every offering to them is made facing it. दर्भ darbha is a stiff grass, also called kusha. By custom the water is let fall onto darbha spread on the ground or into a vessel, and a person who performs the offering standing in the river pours it into the stream. On the details the old texts differ, and the priest follows his own.

Ramkund at Nashik is a tirtha for the ancestral rites, and it sits on the घाट ghat, the steps down to the Godavari. The rites are performed there at the water’s edge, and at Ramkund the rites are performed through the year.

Every day, by tradition, and within every shraddh. The daily offering is made for the gods, the sages and the ancestors, in that order, and families that keep the daily rite keep it that way. Within a shraddh tarpan is one of the two main offerings. By custom a shraddh is kept on the तिथि tithi of the death. A tithi is a day of the lunar calendar, and the shraddh is kept on the one the death fell on, and on the days of the year kept for the ancestors. पितृ पक्ष pitru paksha is the fortnight of the year kept for the ancestors, and the tarpan is performed through it with the shraddh.