Chapter 6

What the living can do

Much of the death-section turns from the traveller to the living — what the family is told to do after a death

The offerings

Within the death-section, the Garuda Purana spends more time on the living than on the dead — on what a family does with its hands in the days after a loss.

The pindas, first: the rice and water of the first ten days, which the text says feed the one who has gone while his new body is forming.

Then the shraddha — the rite of shraddha, "faith" — in its two forms: one for the person newly dead, one for the line of ancestors they are about to join.

Then the gifts: food, sesame, water, cloth, and above all the ritual gift of a cow to a worthy recipient, which the text says carries the dead across the Vaitarani.

The joining

On the twelfth day — this text's preferred timing — comes sapindikarana: the offering for the newly dead is merged with the offerings for the ancestors, and by that act the dead joins the line of the pitris.

From that day the family owes him something different. Not the sharp work of grief — the long work of remembering. The yearly shraddha on the death tithi, the lunar date of the death. The fortnight of Pitri-Paksha each year, when the whole line is fed at once.

The chapter moves the way the mourning is meant to: from doing something for the dead, to carrying them.

Who does it

By tradition the rites fall to the son, and the text is written with that assumption, and with assumptions about lineage and birth that belong to its time.

Later and modern practice varies widely: depending on community and circumstance, other relatives — daughters and the women of the family among them — may also perform the rites.

The instruction under the instruction is the part that travels: someone must do the remembering, and the doing is itself the point.

Note: The Garuda Purana devotes far more space to funerary and mourning ritual than to the afterlife journey. Core elements: the ten days of pinda offerings; individual preta-shraddha and ancestral shraddha; and sapindikarana, whose defining act is the ritual merging of the newly dead person's offering with those of the ancestors — this recension prefers the twelfth day while acknowledging later timings. Also the vaitarani cow-gift (godana), and vrishotsarga, the release of a bull in the deceased's name, to which the text attaches particular importance. After sapindikarana the deceased is honoured through the annual shraddha and the yearly Pitri-Paksha fortnight. Eligibility to perform the rites traditionally falls to the son, with historical assumptions about lineage, caste and gender; later and modern practice has broadened this considerably.

Source: the Preta-Kalpa of the Garuda Purana (with the Vedic and Upanishadic accounts for contrast), What the living can do

Now — how much stayed with you?

Fact

The rite performed for the dead, whose name means "faith", is called?

Puja
Havan
Arati
Shraddha

Read the whole story — The rite of faith

Shraddha takes its name from shraddha, "faith".

It is done in two forms: one for the person newly dead, one for the ancestral line.

Together, on the twelfth day, they make sapindikarana.

Fact

The rice-ball offering made for the dead is called?

Prasada
Pinda
Naivedya
Bhoga

Read the whole story — The rice-ball

For the first ten days the family offers a daily pinda with water.

The text says these feed the one who has gone while the new body forms.

The pinda is the heart of the early rites.

Fact

Which gift is said to carry the dead across the Vaitarani?

A gift of gold
A gift of land
The ritual gift of a cow to a worthy recipient
A gift of grain to birds

Read the whole story — The cow at the river

Among the gifts is the ritual gift of a cow to a worthy recipient.

The text says it carries the dead across the Vaitarani.

The gift made by the living is the ferry under the one who has died.

Fact

Vrishotsarga is the ritual —

release of a bull in the dead person's name
lighting of a lamp for a year
feeding of a hundred brahmins
planting of a tree

Read the whole story — The released bull

Vrishotsarga is the release of a bull in the deceased's name.

The text attaches particular importance to it.

In the Garuda death-text it belongs especially to the eleventh-day rites.

What happened?

What is the defining act of sapindikarana?

The offering for the newly dead is merged with the offerings for the ancestors
A new name is given to the dead
The pyre is relit
The family fasts for a day

Read the whole story — The merging

On the twelfth day the offering for the newly dead is merged with the ancestors' offerings.

By that act the dead joins the line of the pitris.

From then he is an ancestor, not a preta.

Fact

The yearly fortnight especially devoted to shraddha and offerings for the ancestors is called?

Navaratri
Kartik
Pitri-Paksha
Shivaratri

Read the whole story — The fortnight of the fathers

After sapindikarana, annual remembrance continues.

There is the yearly shraddha on the death tithi.

Pitri-Paksha is the annual fortnight especially devoted to ancestral shraddha and offerings.

Fact

On what day is the annual shraddha performed?

On the first of the month
On the death tithi
On the anniversary in the civil calendar
On any convenient Sunday

Read the whole story — The death tithi

The annual shraddha is kept each year.

It falls on the tithi of the death — the lunar date, not the civil one.

It is the long work of remembering.

The texts disagree

Who traditionally performs the rites — and has that changed?

Only a hired priest, always
Only the eldest daughter
No one; the rites are optional
The son is the principal traditional performer; the text itself names substitutes such as the wife, brother, kinsman or disciple when no son is available, and later practice widens participation further

Read the whole story — Who does it

The son is treated as the principal performer of the rites.

But the Garuda Purana itself already names substitutes when no son is available — including the wife, brother, kinsman or disciple.

Later and modern practice has widened participation further, including daughters and other relatives in many communities.

Why is that?

What does this telling call "the instruction under the instruction"?

That someone must do the remembering, and the doing is itself the point
That the priest must be paid first
That the rites must be done in Sanskrit
That only the twelfth day matters

Read the whole story — The instruction under the instruction

The rules name a performer and a day.

Under them is the part that travels between times and places.

Someone must do the remembering, and the doing is itself the point.

Riddle

On the twelfth day I stop being a restless spirit between places and take my seat among the fathers. Who am I?

The chief mourner
The priest
The one who has died
Chitragupta

Read the whole story — Taking the seat

Until the twelfth day the dead is a preta.

Sapindikarana merges his offering with the ancestors'.

From then he is a pitri, an ancestor.