Rituals
Tarpana
Funerary Rituals
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Origin 800 BCE to 500 CE
Tarpana is the offering of water, poured from the hands with sesame added for the ancestors, to satisfy the gods, the sages and above all the departed forebears; the word means a satisfying or a slaking. It is a component of the daily rites of the initiated and swells into a duty of its own at Pitru Paksha, at eclipses, and on pilgrimage to the sacred rivers, where the offering made standing in the Ganges or at the confluence at Prayagraj is held especially efficacious. It commonly accompanies shraddha but is a distinct act, water rather than rice, and can be performed where the fuller rite cannot. Like shraddha it turns on the conviction that the dead depend on the living and that the tie between the generations is kept up by these small, repeated gifts.
Facts
Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginThe Indian subcontinent 3 Historical OriginHistory of Dharmasastra roots the water offering rite in Vedic era ancestor worship, the pouring of water to the pitrs recorded as an obligation alongside the more elaborate Shraddha rites in the classical Hindu ritual literature. 4 Form
Implements and MaterialsPerformed with cupped hands or a small vessel pouring water, often mixed with sesame seeds, toward ancestors and deities in a prescribed direction and posture. 4 Attributions
TraditionBanaras: City of Light situates tarpana within the Hindu tradition of ancestor veneration, a water libation offered to deceased forebears that pilgrims perform in great numbers along the Ganges at Banaras. 1 PurposeOffers water, and sometimes sesame seeds, to deceased ancestors to nourish them in the afterlife and to discharge the living descendant's ritual debt to the departed. 2 Meaning
Literal MeaningDerives from the Sanskrit tarpayati, to satisfy, naming the rite for its purpose, offerings of water made to satisfy ancestors and deities alike. 2 Practice
Who Performs ItHouseholders, those living in the world 2 ObligationObligatory on those who meet its conditions 4 Solitary or Communal Text
Source TextIts procedure for offering water to ancestors is set out among the reference entries of the multi volume Encyclopedia of Hinduism, alongside the broader Vedic and post Vedic ancestor rites it belongs to. 2 Learn More
Water for the Ancestors
Tarpana is the offering of water to satisfy the gods, the sages and above all the ancestors (pitrs), poured from the cupped hands, traditionally with sesame seeds added for the ancestral portion, while their names and lines are recalled. It is a daily observance for some, part of the morning rites of the devout, and takes on special importance at particular times, during the fortnight of the ancestors, at eclipses, and at sacred bathing places along rivers, where pilgrims perform tarpana for their dead.
Closely bound up with the fuller death and ancestor rites such as shraddha, it expresses the same conviction that the departed depend on the offerings of their descendants and that this care is an ongoing duty of the living. The simplicity of the act, water let fall from the hands with a few words, makes it among the most accessible of the ancestral rites, and it remains widely performed wherever Hindus gather at holy waters.
Daily Practice Beside an Annual Fortnight
Tarpana differs from the more elaborate shraddha rites in frequency and setting rather than in the powers it addresses: for initiated men who maintain the traditional daily observances, tarpana is folded into sandhyavandanam, the twilight prayers recited at fixed points of the day, making the offering of water to ancestors, sages, and gods a routine, near daily component of ordinary religious life rather than a rite reserved for special occasions, in clear contrast to shraddha's more periodic and occasion bound character.
Alongside this daily thread, the Hindu calendar sets aside a specific annual period, Pitru Paksha, the fortnight of the ancestors, falling in the lunar month before the autumn festival season, during which tarpana and related ancestral offerings are considered especially important and are observed by many households that do not perform the rite daily the rest of the year, treating the fortnight as a concentrated annual occasion for an obligation that in principle could be discharged at any time. This combination of a routine daily obligation for the initiated few and a widely observed annual season for households generally reflects how thoroughly ancestral offering is woven into the calendar at more than one register, a continuous quiet thread running underneath an annual period of heightened, more widely shared attention to the same underlying duty.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Originates in Language
Related To
Tarpana is a component of the daily rites of the initiated and swells into a duty of its own at Pitru Paksha.
Tarpana commonly accompanies shraddha but is a distinct act, water rather than rice.
Sources
1. Banaras: City of Light
Diana L. Eck, Alfred A. Knopf, 1982On offerings at the river
2. Encyclopedia of Hinduism
Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.), Routledge, 2008Encyclopedia of Hinduism, s.v. ancestorView the Source 3. An Introduction to Hinduism
4. History of Dharmasastra, Volume V
P. V. Kane, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1958Kane, History of DharmasastraView the Source 4. History of Dharmasastra, Volume V
P. V. Kane, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1958On tarpanaView the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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