Vi­jay Ma­haraj

Pitri Paksh, al­so known as Shradh, is a sa­cred pe­ri­od in the life of Hin­dus ded­i­cat­ed to ho­n­our­ing and ap­peas­ing an­ces­tors. Fam­i­lies and in­di­vid­u­als per­form rit­u­als to ex­press grat­i­tude and ful­fil their du­ties to­ward de­part­ed an­ces­tors.

Pitri Paksh is a two-week pe­ri­od start­ing Sep­tem­ber 27 to Oc­to­ber 10, 2026; it falls dur­ing the dark fort­night of Ash­win. Pitri means de­part­ed an­ces­tor and Paksh means fort­night.

The rit­u­als of Pitri Paksh are usu­al­ly per­formed by a male fam­i­ly mem­ber.

Pitri Paksh can be traced back to an­cient In­di­an his­to­ry, its roots em­bed­ded in the Ma­hab­hara­ta. Through Shradh, fam­i­lies not on­ly pro­vide peace to their an­ces­tors, but al­so re­move ob­sta­cles that might arise from un­ful­filled du­ties to­ward them.

Dur­ing the pe­ri­od of Pitri Paksh, Hin­dus pay homage to their an­ces­tors of­fer­ing Tarpana, wa­ter with black sesame seeds, of­fer­ing of rice balls, along with sesame seed and bar­ley flour, Pin­da Daan.

Pin­da — ball made of rice, bar­ley, sesame seed, ghee, sym­bol­ic of the phys­i­cal form.

Daan — gift, giv­ing with sin­cer­i­ty and with­out ex­pec­ta­tions.

An­na Daan is the cer­e­mo­ny of feed­ing holy men, food to the poor and hun­gry, the liv­ing.

To­geth­er, Pin­da Daan and An­na Daan com­plete the act of Shrad­ha.

The sig­nif­i­cance of Daan, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing Pitri Paksh, is found in many of the Hin­du Scrip­tures.

The Garu­da Pu­rana de­scribes food do­na­tion as the high­est form of char­i­ty, ef­fec­tive for the lib­er­a­tion of the soul.

The food cooked dur­ing the pe­ri­od of Pitri Paksh must be veg­e­tar­i­an and in­vari­ably a sweet dish, such as sweet rice (rice pud­ding) which is said to sat­is­fy the Pitris. At least three gen­er­a­tions of our de­part­ed loved ones must be ho­n­oured.

Dai­ly of­fer­ings of Tarpan should be done dur­ing this two-week pe­ri­od. Some per­sons make of­fer­ings for a few days, whilst oth­ers on the fi­nal day, which is re­ferred to as Sar­va Pitri Amavasya.

Sar­va, mean­ing “All,” and Pitri means “An­ces­tors,” it is the day to pray for every mem­ber of an­ces­tral lin­eage, it is a uni­ver­sal day to pray for every­one, not just di­rect fam­i­ly mem­bers.

Sar­va Pitri Amavasya is the most im­por­tant and fi­nal day of Pitri Pak­sha, ded­i­cat­ed to ho­n­our­ing, re­mem­ber­ing and seek­ing bless­ings from all de­part­ed an­ces­tors. It is es­pe­cial­ly im­por­tant for an­ces­tors whose ex­act death an­niver­sary date is un­known or the an­nu­al Shrad­ha rit­u­als are missed for any par­tic­u­lar rea­son.

Hin­dus are born with debts owed to God, Sages and An­ces­tors; the per­for­mance of these rites on the par­tic­u­lar day clears the debts owed to one’s fore­fa­thers.

Prayers and of­fer­ings per­formed on this day help re­move ob­sta­cles and neg­a­tiv­i­ty from the fam­i­ly.

The rit­u­als are be­lieved to pro­vide so­lace to the souls of an­ces­tors, el­e­vate their sta­tus in the af­ter­life, and in­voke their bless­ings for the well-be­ing of the liv­ing. Here are some of the key rit­u­als and their sig­nif­i­cance:

• Aasan Shud­di: The process of pu­ri­fy­ing the seat where the rit­u­als will be con­duct­ed. It sym­bol­is­es the sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion of the space where the an­ces­tors are in­voked.

• Sha­reer Shud­dhi: A rit­u­al pu­rifi­ca­tion of the body to cleanse and pre­pare the in­di­vid­ual for the of­fer­ings to be made to their an­ces­tors.

• Pavtrikaran: The pu­rifi­ca­tion of wa­ter, which plays a cen­tral role in the rit­u­als, as wa­ter is con­sid­ered a sa­cred medi­um for con­nect­ing with the an­ces­tors.

• Gan­ga Ah­va­han: In­vok­ing the di­vine riv­er Gan­ga and sym­bol­i­cal­ly bring­ing its pu­ri­fy­ing wa­ters to the rit­u­al space.

• Shikha Band­han: Ty­ing a sa­cred thread of­ten made of Kusha grass, on the wrist or fin­ger of the in­di­vid­ual per­form­ing the rit­u­als. It sig­ni­fies the con­nec­tion with the an­ces­tors.

• Swasti­vachan: In­vok­ing bless­ings and aus­pi­cious­ness to en­sure the smooth con­duct of the rit­u­als.

• Shan­ti Path: Recita­tion of prayers for peace and har­mo­ny, both for the liv­ing and the de­part­ed souls.

• Sankalp: A solemn de­c­la­ra­tion of the in­di­vid­ual’s in­tent and pur­pose for per­form­ing the rit­u­als, in­clud­ing the names of the an­ces­tors be­ing ho­n­oured.

• Dev Tarpan, Rishi Tarpan and Pitra Tarpan: Of­fer­ing obla­tions of wa­ter and oth­er sa­cred sub­stances to var­i­ous cat­e­gories of be­ings, in­clud­ing Gods, sages and an­ces­tors.

• Pind Daan: A sig­nif­i­cant rit­u­al where rice balls mixed with sesame seeds and bar­ley are of­fered to the an­ces­tors. It sym­bol­is­es pro­vid­ing sus­te­nance to the de­part­ed souls.

• Panch Grass Rit­u­als: Us­ing five types of sa­cred grass­es dur­ing the rit­u­als to cre­ate a sym­bol­ic bound­ary and con­nect with the an­ces­tors.

Pitri Paksh is an op­por­tu­ni­ty for fam­i­ly mem­bers to come to­geth­er, make of­fer­ings to an­ces­tors, par­take in a fam­i­ly meal, strength­en­ing the fam­i­ly bond.