Pitru Paksha पितृ पक्ष

Pitru Paksha is the fortnight devoted to the pitris, the departed ancestors, and the tradition holds that the dead are remembered with water, food and prayer in this period. It follows the full moon of Bhadrapada and runs through the dark half, and each day corresponds to a tithi so that one performs the shraddha on the tithi when the person died. It is described as a sixteen-day period, which fits the count of the tithis. The final new moon, Sarva Pitru Amavasya, serves for those whose death date is unknown.

The rites centre on tarpana, a libation of water with sesame and barley, and pinda, balls of cooked rice offered to the departed. The Garuda Purana and the Mahabharata discuss duties owed to ancestors, and the Mahabharata story of Karna, who is said to have returned to earth for a fortnight to give the food he had never offered in life, is widely quoted as the origin of the practice. Gaya in Bihar is the most famous place for pinda dana, and Prayagraj, Haridwar, Varanasi, Pushkar and Nashik are also much used. Many families perform the rites at home with a priest and feed Brahmins, cows, crows and dogs.

The period is generally not used for weddings, house entry or new purchases, which are postponed until Navaratri. The idea behind this is more about the mood of remembrance than any danger. Communities in Bengal call the same season Mahalaya and in Maharashtra the practice is called Pitr Paksha as well. A family without access to a pilgrimage place can still offer water and food at home, and many teachers say that the sincerity of the offering is the core of it.