The old Devala law-book — fragments 6: Ancestral rites
English (machine translation) 6
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Ancestral rites
6.1
By this rule he should perform the śrāddha once a year, or twice or four times as his faith allows, or every month, or every day.
6.2
Likewise the giver, having invited (the Brahmins), bathed in the morning with his clothes on, should begin with new vessels, together with his kinsmen.
6.3
When the rite for the ancestors is over, covering the lamp with his hand, sipping water and washing his hands, he should feed his kinsmen with what remains; when they have eaten he should feed his own servants; afterwards he himself and his wife should eat the rest of the śrāddha.
6.4
If a Brahmin who has performed a śrāddha does not eat of it at all, the gods do not accept the offerings, nor the ancestors theirs.
6.5
At a śrāddha he should not shed tears, nor chatter or laugh together, nor be distracted, angry or anxious about anything.
6.6
One should never make a śrāddha begin with the gods nor ever end with the gods; (but) a śrāddha occasioned by a death one should begin and end with the gods.
6.7
If an obstacle arises when the single-person śrāddha is due, he should give it carefully on the same lunar day in another month.
6.8
Even with a single Brahmin one should perform the śrāddha of six rice-balls; he should have six guest-offerings given there, and likewise give the oblation to the six.
6.9
The gods drink (the water wrung) from the head (of the bather's garment), the ancestors from the mouth, the gandharvas from the eyes, and all creatures from below.
Linked texts (1)
- Devalasmṛti (fragments) — Sanskrit