What is shraddh?
Shraddh is a family's own rite for its dead. Tarpan and pind daan are parts of it. This page says who it is for, when it is performed, what is offered, and the order of the rite as the Garuda Purana gives it.
श्राद्धshraddh
the rite performed for one's departed ancestors
Table of contents
Practice varies
Families and regions keep the rite in different ways. The account on this page follows the Garuda Purana. A family's own order, told to the priest, is the one he follows.
Section I
Who is a shraddh performed for?
A shraddh is performed for one’s own dead, the father among them. The Garuda Purana has the offerings made to the grandfather and the great-grandfather, in the father’s line and in the mother’s line, so the mother’s grandfather and great-grandfather are named at the same rite.
The word for them in the rite is पितृ pitru, the family’s own departed elders. After death, and after the rites that follow it, the departed are counted among the pitru, and it is to the pitru that a shraddh is offered.
Section II
When is a shraddh performed?
On a set of occasions, and on the annual day. Among the occasions the Garuda Purana lists are the new-moon day, अमावस्या amavasya, the day on which the moon is not seen, and a marriage in the house. It also lists the start of the dark fortnight of Bhadrapada, which is Pitru Paksha, the sun’s passage into Cancer and into Capricorn, the two equinoxes, and an eclipse. Through the fortnight of Pitru Paksha the text has a shraddh performed on each day, from the first day to the new moon.
Beyond these there is the annual shraddh. By custom a family keeps it on the तिथि tithi of the death, the day of the lunar calendar on which the person died, in the lunar month the death fell in. A tithi falls on a different day of the ordinary calendar from one year to the next, which is why the priest opens a पञ्चाङ्ग panchang, the Hindu calendar of tithis, to find it.
Section III
What is offered?
Water, til, darbha, rice and ghee. The Garuda Purana has water offered for the hands and seats of दर्भ darbha, the stiff grass also called kusha, for the ancestors who are invoked. Barley is scattered, and the अर्घ्य arghya, the offering of water made in welcome, is given. In the offering to the ancestors तिल til, black sesame seed, is used in place of barley. Then boiled rice soaked with ghee is offered, and rice mixed with til, the offerer facing south.
In the tradition the rice offered to a named ancestor is pressed into a ball, with til in it, the पिण्ड pinda, and the offering of it is पिण्डदान pind daan. Pind daan is one part of a shraddh, not the whole of it. तर्पण tarpan, the pouring of water mixed with til from the hands, is another part, and it can also be performed on its own.
The share set aside for the crows is part of the rite too. काकबलि kaakbali is a share of the offering set aside for the crows, a portion of the cooked food prepared for the rite. It is not bought separately and it uses nothing the offering does not already use. Some of the Puranas have the pinda, once offered, given to the crows, given to cows, or cast into the water. Where in the order the share falls differs between families and between regions, and the priest sets it out where the order he follows has it.
Section IV
Who performs a shraddh, and who officiates?
Two different parties. A shraddh is a family’s own rite, and the offerings are made in the name of one member of the family. The word for that person is यजमान yajaman, and it is the word the priest uses for the person he is performing for. The 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 yajaman’s name and the family’s गोत्र gotra, the family line passed down from father to son, and the names of the ancestors the rite is for, are spoken in it.
The Garuda Purana treats the invited brahmins as a party of their own. A ब्राह्मण brahmin is a person of the priestly class, and the पुरोहित purohit, the priest who performs a rite for a family, is one. They are invited the day before, through other brahmins. They are seated in a set arrangement, facing east for the gods and north for the ancestors. At the close they are given दक्षिणा dakshina, the gift given to the priest at the end of a rite, and are then dismissed. The rite is made in the family’s name. The invited brahmins are a separate party, seated, given dakshina and dismissed. The text keeps the two apart, and the order below is the text’s.
Section V
How is a shraddh performed?
The invitation
The brahmins are invited the day before, and the invitation goes through other brahmins.
The seating
Two brahmins are seated facing east at the vessel for the gods, and three facing north at the vessels for the ancestors. The same arrangement is made for the mother's line.
The invocation
Water is offered for the hands, and seats of darbha. The ancestors are invoked with mantra, and barley is scattered.
The arghya
The arghya, the offering of water given in welcome, is given to the invoked ancestors. For the ancestral vessels til is used in place of barley.
The rice offering
Boiled rice soaked with ghee is offered, and rice mixed with til, the offerer facing south, to the grandfather and the great-grandfather, in the father's line and in the mother's line.
Dakshina and svadha
The invited brahmins are given dakshina. With their permission the yajaman says svadha (स्वधा), the word spoken over an offering to the ancestors.
The close
The ring of darbha is untied, the brahmins are dismissed, and the yajaman walks round the ground. What remains of the offerings is given to a cow, a goat or a brahmin, or put into fire or water.
Section VI
Explore more guides
What is pind daan?
The offering of pinda within a shraddh, what a pinda is made of, what goes with it, and where the offering is made.
Tarpan for the ancestors
The offering of water within a shraddh, what is in the water, the part of the hand it is poured over, and what is spoken as it falls.
Who performs a shraddh?
Whose rite a shraddh is, whose duty it is by custom, what the tradition provides when he cannot carry it out, and what the priest needs to know.
Glossary of the ancestral rites
Every word on this page, from arghya to yajaman, written in Devanagari and explained in plain English.
Section VII