Vi­jay Ma­haraj

Pitri Paksh is de­rived from the San­skrit word ‘Pitri’, mean­ing an­ces­tors, and ‘Paksh’, mean­ing phase or fort­night. Hin­dus are ex­pect­ed to ho­n­our their par­ents, grand­par­ents and great-grand­par­ents while alive and de­ceased. This pe­ri­od is sa­cred in Hin­du cul­ture, span­ning 16 days, where homage, ho­n­our­ing de­ceased an­ces­tors, and ac­knowl­edg­ing our grat­i­tude for be­ing here.

The dark fort­night of Ash­win is called Pitra Paksh; in 2025, it falls dur­ing the pe­ri­od 8th to 21st Sep­tem­ber.

Dur­ing this pe­ri­od, Hin­dus pay re­spect, homage through dai­ly of­fer­ings of Tarpan, wa­ter, black sesame seeds, of­fer­ing of rice balls with sesame seeds and bar­ley flower, Pin­da Daan and Shraad­dha. How­ev­er, some Hin­dus make of­fer­ings for a few days, oth­ers a week or the last day, when of­fer­ings can be made to all an­ces­tors.

The rit­u­als of Pitri Paksh are per­formed by the el­dest son or a male mem­ber of the fam­i­ly. Pitri Paksh can be traced back to an­cient In­dia his­to­ry, its roots em­bed­ded in the epic Ma­hab­hara­ta. The no­ble war­rior Kar­na, up­on his death in the Ma­hab­hara­ta, his soul as­cend­ed to Heav­en. How­ev­er, in­stead of re­ceiv­ing food that he yearned for, he was show­ered with gold and jew­ellery. Kar­na ap­proached Lord In­dra—God of rain, storms, war, ruler of the Heav­ens, and queried his ce­les­tial of­fer­ings.

Lord In­dra ex­plained to Kar­na that through­out his life­time, de­spite be­ing very gen­er­ous, he nev­er of­fered any­thing to his an­ces­tors. Show­ing his deep re­morse, Lord In­dra grant­ed him per­mis­sion to re­turn to Earth for a pe­ri­od of 16 days and to per­form rit­u­als and of­fer food to his an­ces­tors.

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

Pitri Paksh is root­ed in the be­lief that the souls of de­ceased fam­i­ly mem­bers re­turn to Earth to vis­it their loved ones un­til they at­tain Mok­sha, or lib­er­a­tion from the cy­cle of birth and death. By per­form­ing rit­u­als such as Pin­da Daan and Tarpan, fam­i­ly mem­bers seek to sat­is­fy the hunger and thirst of the de­part­ed souls. These acts of ap­pease­ment are es­sen­tial to en­sure that the souls can tran­si­tion to a state of Mok­sha, break­ing free from the eter­nal cy­cle of life, death and re­birth.

Pitri Paksh al­so holds sig­nif­i­cance for in­di­vid­u­als af­fect­ed by Pitri Dosh, a per­ceived curse from de­ceased an­ces­tors that can dis­rupt one’s life and goals. To al­le­vi­ate or elim­i­nate Pitri Dosh, fam­i­ly mem­bers or in­di­vid­u­als per­form rit­u­als and of­fer food dur­ing Shrad­ha rit­u­als. The food must be veg­e­tar­i­an with a sweet dish, such as sweet rice, which is said to sat­is­fy the Pitris. At least three gen­er­a­tions of de­part­ed loved ones are ho­n­oured.

There are un­der­tak­ings that are in­aus­pi­cious dur­ing this pe­ri­od, in­clud­ing yag­nas, pu­jas, en­gage­ments/mar­riages, new con­struc­tion and new busi­ness deals. This is sim­i­lar to what is not done dur­ing the pe­ri­ods of Ad­hik Maas or Khal­maas.

A new­born birth dur­ing Pitri Paksh is cel­e­brat­ed joy­ous­ly as a pos­i­tive, lucky mes­sage from an­ces­tors; it is thought that the new­born marks the birth of a de­ceased an­ces­tor in a dif­fer­ent soul. Death dur­ing Pitri Paksh sig­ni­fies a soul de­part­ing while the liv­ing are ho­n­our­ing an­ces­tors. Death dur­ing this time does not nec­es­sar­i­ly bring ill for­tune, but rather a spir­i­tu­al op­por­tu­ni­ty to en­sure peace for the de­ceased.

Pitri Paksh has evolved over the cen­turies to adapt to chang­ing times and lifestyles. In to­day’s world, while tra­di­tion­al rit­u­als are still ob­served with de­vo­tion, there is a grow­ing aware­ness of the im­por­tance of main­tain­ing an­ces­tral con­nec­tions, even in the face of glob­al mi­gra­tion and tech­no­log­i­cal ad­vance­ments.

Tech­nol­o­gy has played a sig­nif­i­cant role in pre­serv­ing an­ces­tral con­nec­tions. Fam­i­lies scat­tered across the globe can now par­tic­i­pate in Pitri Paksh rit­u­als through video con­fer­enc­ing and vir­tu­al of­fer­ings, en­sur­ing that the sa­cred tra­di­tions are up­held even in dis­tant lands.

Pitri Paksh is a time-ho­n­oured tra­di­tion that high­lights the deep-root­ed con­nec­tion be­tween the liv­ing and their an­ces­tors. It is a pe­ri­od of re­flec­tion, rev­er­ence and re­mem­brance, where rit­u­als are per­formed to ho­n­our and seek bless­ings from de­part­ed souls.

The Bhag­wat Pu­ja, at the heart of Pitri Paksh, re­mains un­changed, the recog­ni­tion that the bonds of fam­i­ly and her­itage ex­tend be­yond the phys­i­cal realm, and the be­lief in the en­dur­ing pres­ence and in­flu­ence of our an­ces­tors in our lives. It is a re­minder that, in ho­n­our­ing our past, we find strength and guid­ance for the fu­ture, en­sur­ing a con­tin­u­ous thread of love, re­spect and tra­di­tion through the gen­er­a­tions.

May the ob­ser­vance of Pitri Paksh bring peace, pros­per­i­ty and spir­i­tu­al growth to all.