Garudapurana 2.26

The holy Garuḍa Purāṇa — [Chapter] 26. / Garuḍa said: / Speak the truth, O best of gods, having shown mercy to me, O Lord! / When should one perform the sapiṇḍana for deceased creatures?

Where do they go when sapiṇḍana is done? Where is the destination when sapiṇḍana is not done? / You ought to tell: with whom is the union of balls of rice made for a woman and for a man?

How do a woman and a man achieve supreme union together? / How can the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa of women take place while the husband is alive?

How do they go to the husband's realm or to the realm of heaven, O Lord of gods? / How is the śrāddha performed in the case of self-immolation on the fire? How should the release of a bull be?

How should the gift of a water-jar be made once the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa is performed? / Please tell me out of grace, for the benefit of the worlds, O Lord.

The Blessed Lord said: / I shall explain duly the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa, O bird. / Whatever a mortal performs for up to a year, O best of birds—

when the sapiṇḍana has then taken place, he goes to the realm of the ancestors. / Therefore, the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa of the father must be performed by the son.

When a full year is completed, he should perform the merging of the ball of rice; / by virtue of the rule of merging the ball of rice, the anniversary of the day of death becomes an ongoing duty.

The joining of the rice ball at the end of a year is settled, O tiger among birds; / when the union of the rice ball is performed, the deceased spirit then goes to the supreme state; / having completely cast off that designation, he then becomes [one of] the company of ancestors.

Or, at three fortnights or six months, he should unite him with the great-grandfathers, / taking into account prosperity-rites, marriages, and other ceremonies ordained for one's own gotra.

One should not perform a marriage when the householder has died; / a mendicant does not take alms as long as [the heir] has not performed the sapiṇḍana.

Even within one's own gotra one is impure so long as one does not merge the rice ball; / from that merging, the term 'preta' ceases, O King of Birds.

Because family traditions are manifold, and because the lifespan of men wanes, / and because of the instability of the body, the twelfth day is commended.

Whether one maintains the sacred fire or maintains no sacred fire, one should perform sapiṇḍana on the twelfth day.

On the twelfth day, or at three fortnights, or at six months, or in a year— / the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa has been declared by the seers who perceive the truth.

For one who has a son, an ekoddiṣṭa must never be performed; / after the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa, wherever [an offering] is given,

in every such case it must be performed for three [ancestors]; otherwise one is a slayer of the ancestors. / Even if incapable, one should perform the pārvaṇa for the three, as declared by the sage.

On that day and on that day, one should perform it since it begins with the grandfather; / because of ignorance of the days and months, the pārvaṇa is therefore desired.

There is no offering together with the ancestors for one whose [subtle] body has not been formed; / through these sixteen śrāddhas, the deceased spirit becomes liberated.

For one without a son, one should not perform sapiṇḍana at all, nor for women; / and as long as she lives, a virtuous wife should not perform sapiṇḍana [with others].

For a bride consecrated here in the Brāhma and other [approved] forms of marriage, / the rites of offering rice balls and water must be performed under the husband's clan name;

but for a maiden married in the Āsura and other [unapproved] forms of marriage, / one should perform the rites of offering rice balls and water under the father's clan name.

The sapiṇḍīkaraṇa rite for a father must always be performed by a son; / in the absence of a son, it may be the wife; in the absence of a wife, a uterine brother,

a brother, a brother's son, a sapinda, or a disciple. / Having performed the sapiṇḍana rite, one should then perform the nāndīmukha rite.

For a childless man, O Bird, the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa rite / must be performed by a younger brother, a brother's son, or the wife.

If among brothers born of the same father even one has a son, / Manu declared all of them to be fathers of sons through that son.

For all childless men, the wife should perform the sapiṇḍana rite, / or she may have it performed by an officiating priest or the family priest.

Even if he has [only] undergone the tonsure and the investiture, he should perform the father's śrāddha; / he should utter the svadhā-call, but not the syllables of the Veda.

The sapīṇḍīkaraṇa of a woman should be performed by the three [ancestors] beginning with the husband; / [or] by the father's brother, nephew, or younger full brother.

For those ghosts for whom sapīṇḍīkaraṇa has been performed before a year, at the transition [period], or upon the completion of a year, / there should be no separate rite.

Once sapiṇḍana is performed, my child, separation is indeed condemned; / whoever offers a separate piṇḍa becomes a killer of his ancestors.

When sapīṇḍīkaraṇa has occurred, separation is not appropriate; / if a separate piṇḍa has subsequently been offered, he should perform sapiṇḍana again.

Whoever performs an ekoddiṣṭa rite after having performed sapīṇḍīkaraṇa, / leads both himself and the ghost to the realm of punishment.

For up to a year the rite should be performed with name and gotra by the wise man: / the daily vessel, food, and the gifts of the steps; / but once sapīṇḍīkaraṇa has occurred, he should have them given to only one.

Having counted [the offerings] of the annual rite, food together with water, / and a vessel filled with water, O bird, should be given to a brāhmaṇa.

At the end of the piṇḍa, all his sustenance for the year according to one's capacity [is provided]; / having a divine body and seated in a celestial chariot, he goes happily to the abode of Yama.

While the father is alive, there is no sapiṇḍatā for the son; / likewise, there is no sapiṇḍana for women while the husband is alive.

When a devoted wife ascends the fire on the fourth day, / on the day of her husband should be performed whatever [rites pertain to her], such as the release of the bull.

An appointed daughter belongs to the husband's gotra before the birth of a son; / after the birth of a son, she returns again to the father's gotra.

For husband and wife there is always oneness; if she ascends the fire, / the son should perform a separate śrāddha on his day of death.

If they die childless on the same day on one funeral pyre, / he should perform separate śrāddhas, [but] sapiṇḍana together with the husband.

With separate piṇḍas for the couple, along with the husband, / one is not smeared with great faults; this word of mine is true.

If a husband and wife have ascended one funeral pyre and met their end, / one should prepare a single cooking, but offer the piṇḍas separately.

On the eleventh day, the release of the bull, the sixteen preta-śrāddhas, / the gifts of vessels and steps, and the great gifts— / he should perform them separately for a year, so that the ghost attains satisfaction for a long time.

For those who have died within the same gotra, whether woman or man, / one should make a single altar, but offer the oblations separately.

The śrāddha that is on the eleventh day, the separate piṇḍas and feeding— / with one cooking for husband and wife, but for others it is condemned.

With only one cooking the son performs the śrāddhas; / he should make a single scatter-offering, but give many piṇḍas / at a sacred ford, during the dark fortnight, or during an eclipse of the moon or the sun.

When a woman, having reached her husband, burns [with] the corpse, / the fire burns the limbs; it does not torment the soul at all.

Just as the impurity of metals being blown upon is burned away, / so a woman burns away her body in the fire, which is indeed like nectar.

In an ordeal and the like, a person with a divine body becomes pure; / he is not burned at all by heated oil, iron, or fire.

Likewise, she who is united with her husband is never burned; / when he is dead, her inner self, though dead, has attained oneness [with him].

If, abandoning union with her husband, she dies elsewhere, / she does not go to the world of her husband until the dissolution of all beings.

Abandoning mother and father, endowed though they are with wealth, / and following her dead husband, she rejoices in happiness for a long time.

For the measure of three and a half crores of divine years, / for that length of time she resides in heaven together with the stars perpetually.

At the end of that, that devoted wife, having attained great affection with her husband, / wanders in the world and is born in a family of enjoyers.

A woman lawfully wedded who does not thus join her husband / suffers birth after birth, ill-natured and speaking unpleasant words;

she becomes a bat, a house lizard, an iguana, or a two-headed snake, / having abandoned her own husband and followed another man.

Therefore, by every effort a woman serves her own husband / in thought, word, and deed, whether he is dead or living.

The woman who commits a sin against him, whether he is living or dead, / becomes unfortunate and incurs widowhood birth after birth.

Whatever fruit is given with faith to the gods and the ancestors / is obtained from worship of the husband; therefore, she should perform the worship of her husband.

When this is done, O best of birds, she dwells in the world of the ancestors for a long time; / as long as the sun and the moon exist, she is equal to the gods in heaven.

Then, having become long-lived, they are born into an extensive family; / just as a devoted wife does not experience the sorrow of losing a husband.

All this has indeed been told by me to you, O king of birds; / I will tell the specific [rite] that grants happiness to the deceased.

All the sapiṇḍana up to a year having been performed on the twelfth day, / one should perpetually perform anew the monthly pot-and-food offering.

There is no redoing of what is done, except for the rite for the dead, O bird; / whatever man performs [a rite already done], what was previously done is ruined.

For the deceased alone he may perform it again; the preta attains imperishable [satisfaction]; / every month pots filled with water and cooked rice should be given.

And if, before the growth [period], O Tārkṣya, a son performs sapiṇḍana, / even so he should give one piṇḍa, food, and a jar with water every month.

Thus ends the twenty-sixth chapter, named 'The Exposition of Sapiṇḍana', in the Pretakalpa, in the Dharmakāṇḍa, in the second section of the latter half of the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa, in the dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa.