What is shraddha?
Shraddha is the rite of remembrance for parents and ancestors. The word comes from shraddha, “faith”: what is given with faith. The family offers water with sesame seeds, balls of rice or flour (pinda) and food, says the names of the father, grandfather and great-grandfather (and, in many families, of the mothers too), feeds guests and gives to people in need.
Shraddha is not one of the samskaras. The samskaras are rites of passage, done once in a life, and the last of them is antyeshti, the funeral. Shraddha begins after the funeral and goes on every year. The first year has its own rites; after it, families keep the yearly day of the death, the new-moon day, and the fortnight of the ancestors, Pitru Paksha. The day of each shraddha is a tithi, so it comes from the panchang for the family's own city.
Traditions differ, and the Arya Samaj does not keep shraddha for the dead at all. The family priest's guidance comes first.
Written for Pujadeep and checked against the sources listed.
Find the tithi of a death from its date, and its day each year
What each tradition says
Grihya Sutras (Ashvalayana and Paraskara)
The Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra names several kinds of shraddha: on the new-moon day, for a special wish, at a happy event, and for a single person who has recently died. Learned and upright guests are invited, bathed and seated as representatives of the Fathers. The performer pours water with sesame seeds, and offers it with the words “Father, this is thy Arghya. Grandfather, this is thy Arghya. Great-grandfather, this is thy Arghya.”
The Paraskara Grihya Sutra describes the first year after a death. On the eleventh day the family feeds an odd number of guests. Some, the text says, make offerings to the one who has died separately for a year, and then join that person to the Fathers, so that the line of three generations goes on. Every day of that year, food is set out for the one who has died.
Sources for this reading
- Hermann Oldenberg (tr.), The Grihya-Sutras, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 29, Oxford, 1886), Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra IV.7.1–13: the Parvana, special-wish, Abhyudayika and Ekoddishta shraddhas; Brahmanas seated “as representatives of the Fathers”; sesame water; “Father, this is thy Arghya. Grandfather, this is thy Arghya. Great-grandfather, this is thy Arghya.” Oldenberg died 1920: public domain. (pp. 250–252; pp. 250 and 252 (leaves n261, n263) checked on the page images)
- Oldenberg, Grihya-Sutras Part I (SBE 29, 1886), Paraskara Grihya Sutra III.10.48–55: a meal for an uneven number of Brahmanas on the eleventh day; Pinda offerings to the deceased separately for one year before admitting him to the common offering to the Fathers (Oldenberg's note: the Sapindikarana); “Every day he shall give food to him (i.e. to the deceased person)”. Public domain. Retold in our words. (p. 359 (leaf n370), checked on the page image)
Dharmashastra (Manu)
Manu counts the offering of water to the Fathers (tarpana) among the five daily duties of a householder. It can be simple: “Let him daily perform a funeral sacrifice with food, or with water, or also with milk, roots, and fruits, and (thus) please the manes.” Once a month, on the new-moon day, comes a fuller shraddha. Manu advises a small company of guests, not a large one, so that each is honoured with care.
Sources for this reading
- Georg Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 25, Oxford, 1886): III.70 (Tarpana, the sacrifice to the manes, among the five great sacrifices); III.82, quoted; III.122–123 (the monthly shraddha on the new-moon day); III.125–126 (“even a very wealthy man shall not be anxious (to entertain) a large company”). Bühler died 1898: public domain. (III.70 (p. 87); III.82 (p. 90, leaf n235, checked on the page image); III.122–126 (pp. 97–98))
Later custom (as recorded in 1883)
Monier Monier-Williams recorded the customs of his time. The shraddha for a parent who has recently died is done within the first month, then in a simple form every month for a year, and again on every anniversary. Shraddha is also done at happy events: a wedding, the naming of a child, the first haircut, and entering a new home. The month of Bhadrapada, and above all the fortnight of the ancestors, is held the best season for it. That fortnight is the waning half of Bhadrapada where the month ends at the new moon, and of Ashvina where it ends at the full moon. The banks of sacred rivers, Varanasi and Gaya the best places. A woman may perform one of the kinds he lists.
The customs also make room for a family that cannot find a priest or guests. In a “gold shraddha” (hiranya shraddha) a gift of money takes the place of a meal. In a “darbha shraddha” a figure of kusha grass takes the place of the guest who stands for the Fathers.
Sources for this reading
- Monier Monier-Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India, Part I (London: John Murray, 1883), “Sraddha Ceremonies”: shraddha at “the marriage of a son or daughter, on entering a new dwelling, on naming a child, on performing tonsure” (quoting the Vishnu Purana III.13); the twelve kinds of the Nirnaya-sindhu, among them Sapindana, which “may be performed by a woman” (p. 305); Hiranya-Sraddha and Darbha-Sraddha; the Ekoddishta for a recently deceased parent, before the end of the first month, monthly for a year “and again at every anniversary” (p. 306); the Pitri-paksha in Bhadra or early Asvina, and Benares and Gaya (p. 308). Monier-Williams died 1899: public domain. His own judgements are not repeated. (pp. 304–308; pp. 305, 306 and 308 (leaves n320, n321, n323) checked on the page images)
- Wikipedia, “Pitru Paksha” (revision 1377408832, read October 15, 2026): the fortnight is the waning half of Bhadrapada in the amanta reckoning of southern and western India, and of Ashvina where the purnimanta calendar is followed. Cited for the two ways of naming the month; no date is taken from it.
Arya Samaj (Dayananda Sarasvati)
The Arya Samaj counts sixteen samskaras, from conception to cremation, and keeps no rite for the dead after the cremation. Dayananda taught that loving remembrance is due to ancestors who lived good lives, and that the daily duty to the Fathers (pitri yajna) means care and service for living parents and grandparents.
Sources for this reading
- Lala Lajpat Rai, The Arya Samaj (London: Longmans, Green, 1915): Dayananda's statement, “The sanskars are sixteen in number … Nothing should be done for the departed after the remains have been cremated” (p. 88); Dayananda “did not recommend ancestor-worship, in the sense in which it is carried out by the Hindus in popular belief”, but loving remembrance of virtuous ancestors and service of living parents and grandparents (p. 131); Pitri yajna, “Some daily act of service towards one's parents” (p. 133); the sixteen Sanskars ending with cremation (p. 134). Lajpat Rai died 1928: public domain. (pp. 88, 131, 133 and 134 (leaves n121, n166, n168, n169), checked on the page images)
For families far from home (practice today)
A shraddha can be kept wherever the family lives. Ask the family priest or the local temple which rite the family keeps and what it needs. Find the tithi of the death once, and the panchang for the family's own city gives the day each year; the Pitru Paksha guide on this site gives the fortnight for that city. Families in different countries may then keep the same tithi on different calendar dates.
At home, the core is small: a bath, a clean place, a lamp, water with sesame seeds offered with the names of the parents and grandparents, a meal the person loved, and food given to a guest or to people in need. Manu allows even water alone each day. If no priest can come, the old customs already allow a gift of money in place of a meal, or a figure of kusha grass in place of the guest. Ask the local temple whether it can arrange the rite. Some families also ask a priest in India, for example at Gaya, Varanasi or the family's home town, to perform it for them. A shraddha is an act of love and thanks: it asks for faith, not for great expense.
Sources for this reading
- Bühler, The Laws of Manu (SBE 25, 1886), III.82: daily offering “with food, or with water, or also with milk, roots, and fruits”; III.125–126 against a large company. Public domain. (III.82 (p. 90, leaf n235), checked on the page image; III.125–126 (p. 98))
- Monier-Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India (1883): Hiranya-Sraddha, a gift of money “when no Brahman can be found who wishes to be fed with cooked food”; Darbha-Sraddha, “in the absence of Brahmans as representatives of the Pitris, an effigy of a Brahman is made with Kusa grass”; shraddhas at Gaya and Benares (pp. 306, 308). Public domain. (pp. 306 and 308 (leaves n321, n323), checked on the page images)
Sources
- Monier Monier-Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India, Part I (London: John Murray, 1883): a shraddha is a gift to the Pitris “offered with faith (Sraddha)” (Nirnaya-sindhu, pp. 303–304); funeral rites are called “the last sacrifice” (antyeshti), and both funeral and shraddha rites offer balls (pinda) of rice or flour and water (p. 285). Monier-Williams died 1899: public domain. (pp. 285 (leaf n300, checked on the page image) and 303–304 (OCR text))
- Monier-Williams (1883), the samskaras of the Grihya Sutras and Manu: twelve purificatory rites, from conception (garbhadhana) to marriage (vivaha); shraddha is not among them (p. 353). Lajpat Rai, The Arya Samaj (1915), p. 134: sixteen sanskars “beginning with conception and ending with cremation after death”. Lists of the samskaras differ; none of these lists includes shraddha. (Monier-Williams p. 353 (OCR text); Lajpat Rai p. 134 (leaf n169 of aryasamajaccount00lajp), checked on the page image)
Samskaras and family rites
We give no muhurat for this rite. The family priest and the family’s own custom guide it.
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Source and licence
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- Written for this site from the sources listed here, and checked against them. Free to quote with credit.
- Checked
- Checked against the sources listed, October 15, 2026.