Garudapurana 2.35

The glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa, [chapter] 35.
Tārkṣya said: / Tell me another doubt of mine, Janārdana: / when some man's mother has met her death,

and the paternal grandmother is living, and likewise the paternal great-grandmother, / and the paternal great-great-grandmother as well, and the father is devoted to his mother;

and likewise the maternal great-grandfather and the maternal great-great-grandfather— / with whom is that mother united? Tell me this, O Lord!

Śrī Kṛṣṇa said: / I will explain the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa once more, O bird: / one should certainly unite her with Umā, Lakṣmī, and Sāvitrī.

Three are known as rice-ball eaters, three are remembered as discarders, / three are the wipers of the rice-ball remnants, and the tenth is seated in the row.

These are known as the ancestors in the paternal and maternal lineages; / the sacrificer delivers ten ancestors who went before and ten who come after.

At first he becomes a sapiṇḍa when the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa is performed; / the last, who is the great-great-grandfather, is to be known as the discarder.

The last is known as the discarder, and the first becomes a wiper of remnants; / but he who is the last wiper becomes seated in the row.

The sacrificer is one, ten are before, and ten are after; / thus these ancestors are known to be twenty-one in number.

For him who performs the supreme śrāddha in the world according to the rules, / [success] arises, there is no doubt; hear also the fruit thereof:

The father gives sons, O bird, [even] if the lineage has been broken; / he who is his great-grandfather becomes a giver of oblations.

When a śrāddha is performed, these virtues are recorded in the propitiation of the ancestors; / the great-great-grandfather grants abundant food and other goods.

For the man whose lineage is severed in the mortal world, O bird, / he dwells in a terrible hell, like an elephant sunk in mud.

He is born in other wombs, such as trees and creeping creatures; / without progeny, he is certainly not liberated from hell here.

His teacher, his pupil, or a kinsman, even though living far away, / should perform the Nārāyaṇa-bali for him with devotion.

Purified of all sins, he is certainly released from hell; / he dwells in the heavenly realm; here no doubt should be entertained.

Starting with Dhaniṣṭhā, this group of five asterisms, / ending with Revatī, is always censured and ever inauspicious.

Cremation must not be performed then among all castes, beginning with Brahmins; / water is not offered then; misfortune certainly arises; / the funeral procession should not be carried out if the kin are stricken with grief.

Otherwise, everything must be done for him after the Pañcaka [period]; / [otherwise] torment arises for his sons and gotra-kinsmen.

Ruin occurs in the house of one who has died under these asterisms; / or rather, his cremation is prescribed even within the asterism,

which is performed for men on account of an immediate offering; / cremation that makes an immediate offering at a sacred bathing-place is meritorious and best.

It must be performed strictly by Brahmins, accompanied by mantras and according to the rules; / then effigies are cast near the corpse:

four [effigies] made of darbha grass, consecrated with mantras by Brahmins; / then the cremation is to be performed together with those effigies.

Then, at the end of the period of impurity, the son should perform an excellent propitiatory rite.

That man who dies during the Pañcaka asterisms does not attain a [good] destiny; / one should offer sesame seeds, cows, gold, and ghee on his behalf.

A gift is given to Brahmins to destroy all afflictions; / and at the end of the period of impurity, by virtuous sons, that ghost attains a [good] destiny.

Vessels, shoes, an umbrella, a gold coin, two garments, / and a priestly fee are given, O Brahmin, which liberates from all sins.

For children, the elderly, and the sick who die during the Pañcaka asterisms, / an obstacle arises for whoever does not perform the rite.

One must avoid exactly eighteen things in a rite for a ghost: / blessings, double blades of darbha grass, the syllable Oṃ, offering a single rice-ball,

offering into the fire, the leavings of food, the śrāddha to the All-Gods, / the scattered food, the utterance 'svadhā', nor should one utter the word 'pitṛ';

one should not utter the word 'anu', nor perform the invocation, nor wave a firebrand; / one should not make a border, nor circumambulation, nor dismissal;

the twice-born should not offer sesame oblations into fire, nor the final full oblation; / if one performs the Vaiśvadeva rite, the performer goes to a low realm.

The set known as the sixteen unclean śrāddhas is as follows: / at the place [of death], at the doorway, halfway on the road, at the funeral pyre, in the corpse's hand,

the fifth for the spirits dwelling in the cremation ground, the neighborly one, / the sixth is taught at the collection of bones, and ten rice-balls for the ten days; / this is proclaimed as the first set of sixteen śrāddhas.

Hear from me of another, the second middle set of sixteen, O Tārkṣya; / precisely eleven śrāddhas are to be performed here according to the rules:

the śrāddhas to Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva, and the others, and another set of five śrāddhas; / thus those who know the truth declare this set of sixteen.

Twelve monthly ones, the śrāddha on the eleventh day, / the one that occurs at three fortnights, and the two unfilled ones, O bird—these make sixteen.

Having performed the first for the purification of the corpse, and the other three sets of sixteen, / one should join him to the ancestors by forty-eight [offerings] to purify the ancestral row.

He who is bereft of the forty-eight does not share in the row once united; / forty-eight śrāddhas destroy the state of a ghost.

At least with forty-nine [śrāddhas] he may sit in the company of the ancestors; / in truth, the union [with them] should be joined through forty-nine śrāddhas.

(Now the rite for the corpse:) / There, binding of the corpse's hands and feet must be done on the litter; / if the rite is not performed in this manner, it leads to subjugation by a piśāca.

When a corpse is removed at night, the realm becomes free from fear; / one should not abandon the corpse, for if abandoned, misfortune arises from harmful contact.

If someone eats casually upon hearing that a corpse is lying within the village, / that food is to be considered like meat, and that water like blood.

Betel, a tooth-stick, eating, enjoying sexual union, / and offering rice-balls should be avoided while a corpse is lying within the village.

// (35.44) / Bathing, giving gifts, silent recitation, fire offerings, libations, and worship of the gods, / according to the duty of kinsmen, are for purification while a corpse is lying within the village.

// (35.45) / Such is the custom of kinsmen and relatives, O King of Birds; / neglecting the duty of kinsmen, one is tainted by the sin of the ghost.

Thus ends the thirty-fifth chapter, entitled 'Determination of the Sapīṇḍana and Rites for the Corpse,' in the conversation between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa, in the firmly established Pretakalpa, in the Uttarakhaṇḍa of the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa.