Death rites pujas (अंत्येष्टि)
Shraddh, Tarpan, Pind Daan and Asthi Visarjan — the rites a family keeps for those who have gone.
If you have arrived here in the days after a death, this page is meant to be enough on its own: what each rite is, when it is kept, what the family needs to have ready, and how to reach a pandit who does this work with care.
- Asthi Visarjan अस्थि विसर्जन — the immersion of ashes, with the sankalp read before it
- Shraddh श्राद्ध — the annual rite kept on the tithi of a death
- Tarpan तर्पण — water offered with sesame, kept daily through Pitru Paksha
What death rites asks of a family
What follows a cremation is a sequence with its own timing, and the family is usually arranging it while least able to. Asthi visarjan, the immersion of the ashes, is kept within a few days where it can be, though the tradition allows longer when the family must travel to a tirtha for it.
The immersion is done on flowing water and is generally accompanied by tarpan and the first of the shraddh rites, so the visit is one arrangement rather than three. There is nothing to prepare at home and nothing offered afterwards.
The annual shraddh begins from this — kept on the tithi, each year — and the rites at Gaya, where the family may go once, are held to complete what the annual one continues. Every page here keeps the quiet register: none of it is described as achieving anything, and none of it is offered as consolation.
The rites
Questions families ask
How soon can a pandit come?
Within a day in the cities we serve, and usually the same evening if you call. Say on the call that it is for ancestral rites and the request is handled first.
Can rites be performed if we cannot travel to Gaya?
Yes. Shraddh and Tarpan are kept at home anywhere. Pind Daan is traditionally kept at Gaya; families who cannot travel keep it at a local ghat with the same sankalp.
Who in the family should perform it?
Traditionally the eldest son, and in his absence any child or close relative. Pandits will guide you on the day; no one is turned away for not knowing.
What is included in the price?
The pandit’s dakshina, the vidhi and the samagri he carries. Ghat charges at Gaya or Varanasi, where they apply, are shown as their own line before payment.
