Garudapurana 2.5

The venerable Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa—[Chapter] 5. / The Blessed Kṛṣṇa said: / Having burned the deceased person in this way, having bathed and offered sesame water, / the women should go in front and the men should walk behind.

They should chew neem leaves while weeping and calling out his name; / sipping of water must be performed while standing on a stone.

All of them, having entered the house—the sons and sapiṇḍas—/ should remain for ten nights, O bird, for that period is the impurity.

All of them, eating food that has been bought or received, should sleep separately; / they should have food without alkaline or salt, and should immerse themselves for three days.

Eating no meat, celibate, they should sleep on the ground, / not touching one another, refraining from giving gifts and recitation of the Veda,

unwashed, with downcast faces, dejected, devoid of pleasures; / they avoid massaging the limbs and combing the hair.

They should eat from an earthen vessel or one made of leaves, / and they should fast for one day or for three days.

Garuḍa said: / It is said, 'They are impure.' What, O Lord, is the characteristic / of impurity, and for how long must men affected by it remain so?

The Blessed Kṛṣṇa said: / It is that which is to be removed by time and other means, which swiftly prohibits / piṇḍa offerings, Vedic study, gifts, and the like; it is indeed a special state attached to the person.

Impurity due to death is prescribed for ten days among sapiṇḍas; / in the case of birth it is just the same, for those who desire thorough purity.

At birth, purification of समानोदक (samānodakas) is held to be after three nights; / after the remainder of a death-impurity, those who offer water are purified after three days.

From birth until the appearance of teeth, [purification is] immediate; until the tonsure ceremony, it is declared to be one night; / until the investiture of vows, three nights; beyond that, ten nights.

Impurity has been described to you in brief; I speak of the present topic: / for three days water and milk should be placed in the open air in an earthen vessel,

with this mantra: 'Bathe here, drink here, O descendant of Kaśyapa,' / upon three sticks bound with ropes, for his gratification at night at a crossroad.

On the first day, or on the third, or on the seventh or ninth day, / the collection of bones must be performed on that day together with the members of his gotra.

After that, touching the limbs of the sapiṇḍas is prescribed; / and they are fit for all rites, as are those of equal water oblations.

One should offer the funeral rice-ball outside, without darbha grass, / having prepared the boiled rice in the northeast, having bathed with a concentrated mind.

On the ground for those without funerary rites, and on kuśa grass for those who had rites, / one should offer nine rice-balls attentively over nine days.

Having offered the tenth rice-ball, one becomes pure at the end of the night, / whether of a different clan or the same clan, whether a woman or a man.

He who offers on the first day must complete the ten days; / he should offer [it] with rice, barley meal, or greens.

Whatever substance [is used] on the first day should be used for the ten days. / An offering of a single handful of water is prescribed for as long as the impurity lasts;

or the offering on any day should match the number of that day. / Over ten days, O bird, fifty handfuls of water [are offered] at the end;

or, increasing by two each day, O bird, the handfuls of water again become one hundred. / But when impurity lasts three days, then ten handfuls of water [are offered]:

three handfuls of water on the first day, / four on the second day, and three on the third day.

When there are a hundred handfuls of water, O bird, then thirty [are offered] on the first day, / forty on the second day, and thirty on the third day.

Thus the handfuls of water are to be divided between the two methods. / In all rites for ancestors, the son is primarily qualified.

The sprinkling of the rice-ball, as well as flowers, incense, and the like, are [offered] silently. / When the tenth day has arrived, one should perform a bath outside the village;

there garments, hair, beard, and nails are to be discarded. / A brahmin is purified by touching water; a kṣatriya, his mount;

a vaiśya, his goad or reins; and a śūdra, his staff, once the rite is completed. / And tonsure is to be performed by the sapiṇḍas who are younger than the deceased.

The set of sixteen is to be performed with sixteen rice-balls, and the first impure set / is made of these [balls] up to the tenth day from death.

The rice-balls that the sons and others offer over the ten days / are divided each day into four parts, O best of birds:

by two parts the body is formed, by the third the attendants of Yama / are satisfied, and by the fourth [the deceased] himself lives.

Over nine days and nights the body reaches completion: / the head of the deceased is formed by the first rice-ball,

the ears, eyes, and nose by the second, in brief, / and the neck, shoulders, arms, and chest by the third, in order;

by the fourth rice-ball, the navel, penis, and anus, / and the knees, shanks, and two feet always by the fifth;

all vital points by the sixth, and the channels by the seventh; / teeth and body hair by the eighth, and semen by the ninth;

by the tenth, completeness, satisfaction, and the cessation of hunger. / I shall tell you the middle set of sixteen; hear me, O Vainateya.

Eleven beginning and ending with Viṣṇu, O bird, / and the five śrāddhas to the gods—this is the middle set of sixteen.

If, by bad counsel, an offering to Nārāyaṇa is undertaken as the cause, / it should be performed on the eleventh day, and the bull-release also then.

For whatever deceased person a bull is not released on the eleventh day, / his ghost-state remains permanently fixed, even if hundreds of śrāddhas are offered.

Whatever offering of rice-balls is made without performing the bull-release, / one should know all of it is fruitless; it does not reach the deceased.

There is nothing else on the face of the earth equal to the bull-release. / A son, wife, daughter's son, father, or daughter

must certainly perform the bull festival immediately after his death. / For whomsoever a bull accompanied by four heifers is released,

adorned according to rule, his ghost-state ceases to be. / If on the eleventh day a bull cannot be obtained,

a wise person, having made that bull of flour with darbha grass, should release it. / If at the time of the bull-release there is an absence of a bull in any way,

having fashioned a bull from clay or darbha grass, one should release it. / On the eleventh day, one should give whatever was dear to him in life.

A bed, a cow, and the like should be given for the sake of the deceased; / one should feed many brahmins to appease the hunger of the deceased.

I shall tell of the third set of sixteen; hear it, O Vainateya: / twelve monthly rites, the first [śrāddha], the six-month rite,

and the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa—this is considered the third set of sixteen. / On the twelfth day, at the end of three fortnights, at six months, monthly, or yearly,

they declare this third set of sixteen according to differences of opinion. / He for whom these sixteen funeral śrāddhas are not offered,

his ghost-state remains fixed, even if hundreds of śrāddhas are offered. / The first [śrāddha] is proclaimed on the eleventh or twelfth day,

and the pure monthly rite at the beginning of each month on the lunar day of death, O bird. / Lessened by one or three days, O son of Vinatā,

the śrāddhas are performed in the month, the six months, the year, and at three fortnights. / Then the sāpiṇḍya rite for men may take place at the full year, at its half,

at three fortnights, on an auspicious occasion, or on the twelfth day. / Because of the endless variety of family duties and the decline of human lifespan,

and because of the instability of the body, [performing it] on the twelfth day is praised. / Hear from me, O king of birds, the rule regarding the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa rites:

that too is to be performed according to the rule for single-ancestor rites, O Kaśyapa. / One should prepare four vessels supplied with sesame seeds, perfume, and water.

One vessel is for the deceased, and three vessels are for the ancestors; / one should pour the vessel of the deceased into the three vessels of the ancestors, O bird.

One should offer four rice-balls, and merge the first into the others. / From then on, the deceased indeed shares the status of an ancestor.

When that deceased person has attained the state of an ancestor, O lord of birds, / one should worship the ancestors preceding him with all the rites of śrāddha.

When ascending the same funeral pyre and when dying on the same day, / there is no separate sāpiṇḍya for a woman; it occurs with her husband when she has died.

There is identity of cooking, identity of time, and identity of performer, O bird, / for husband and wife in śrāddhas and in cremation together, without doubt.

If she mounts the pyre on a lunar day other than her husband's day of death, / then, when her day of death arrives, one should unite her with a separate rice-ball,

and every year one should complete it simultaneously.

For one whose sapindī-karaṇa takes place before the full year, / the monthly offering and water-pot should still be given for the entire year.

The navaśrāddha, the sapindī-karaṇa, and the sixteen śrāddhas / must be performed by one [son] alone, even when the property has been divided.

Sāpiṇḍya [may be performed] with paternal grandmothers, and likewise with maternal grandfathers; / sāpiṇḍya for a woman is also taught with her husband according to different circumstances.

I shall tell you the time for the navaśrāddha; listen, O Kaśyapa: / on the day of death, at the place of death, O bird, one should arrange a śrāddha.

And the second [is performed] on the road, wherever a rest was made; / then at the place where the bones are collected, the third śrāddha is said [to be done].

Likewise on the fifth, the seventh, the eighth, and the ninth, / and on the tenth and eleventh: these indeed are the nine śrāddhas, O bird.

And these nine śrāddhas, together with the third set of sixteen, it is taught, / should likewise be performed by men according to the ekoddiṣṭa rite.

On the first day, or the third, on the fifth, likewise the seventh, / and on the ninth and eleventh, the navaśrāddha is declared.

These six are spoken of here, or they may be nine according to ritual practice; / these have been declared to you by me according to the different opinions of the sages.

The conventional view is approved by me, [though] the etymological view is preferred by some here. / On the first and second, one pavitraka should likewise be offered.

The piṇḍa should be offered to the deceased after the twice-born have eaten; / the query there is 'abhiramyatām' by the patron and the twice-born.

At the conclusion, 'May it be imperishable for so-and-so' is to be uttered; / learn from me the ekoddiṣṭa, which is traditionally taught as lasting for up to a year.

The sixteen śrāddhas that follow after the sapindī-karaṇa / one may perform according to the ekoddiṣṭa rite, or without a pārvaṇa.

As one would perform them annually, so should he perform those as well. / On the eleventh and twelfth days, the deceased eats for two days.

Whether for a woman or for a man, one should offer the piṇḍa [saying] 'to the preta'; / but once sāpiṇḍya has been performed, the designation 'preta' ceases for that person.

The offering of a lamp must be performed outside the house for up to a year; / food, a lamp, water, clothing, or whatever else is given,

bestows satisfaction [when offered] with the word 'preta' until the sapindī-karaṇa. / The annual ritual duty has thus been declared in brief to you by me, O son of Vinatā.

Now understand from me how the journey to the abode of Vaivasvata [takes place]: / on the thirteenth day, immediately after the rites of hearing,

like a serpent seized by the skin, O Tārkṣya, he is seized by Yama's servants; / he travels alone upon that road like a captive monkey.

He assumes another body, which has a form moving before the wind; / that [body] is born from the piṇḍas for the sake of punishment, whereas the other body was born from the parents.

It has the same size, age, condition, and form as his previous existence. / In terms of measure, it is eighty-six thousand yojanas:

such is to be known as the intermediate road between the realms of Yama and mortals. / Two hundred yojanas, / together with forty-seven,

and an additional half-krośa, he travels each day there; / thus in three hundred and forty-eight days,

he goes to the city of Vaivasvata, dragged along by Yama's attendants. / As the road is thus to be traversed in sequence, that which happens

to those devoted to sin—hear that in detail, O younger brother of Aruṇa. / Delivered on the thirteenth day, bound with exceedingly terrible bonds,

by [the messenger] of Yama who holds a goad in hand, with a face crooked by a frown, / bewildered by blows of the staff, he is dragged toward the southern quarter.

Along a road rough with kuśa grass, thorns, ant-hills, stakes, and stones, / and likewise blazing with fire, in places formidable with hundreds of pits,

parched by the blazing sun, burning, and infested with biting insects, / he is dragged by Yama's messengers, who terrify with howls like jackals.

The evildoer proceeds along that dreadful path to Yama's abode; / while his body is burning, he suffers great destruction.

While his limbs are being devoured, and torn dreadfully, / and cut into pieces, the creature endures misery for a very long time.

Even though he has entered another body as a result of the ripening of his own karma, / hear from me about the sixteen cities along that path:

Yāmya, Sauripura, Nagendrabhavana, Gandharva, Śailāgama, / Krauñca, Krūrapura, Vicitrabhavana, Bahvāpada, Duḥkhada, / Nānākrandapura, Sutaptabhavana, Raudra, Payovarṣaṇa, / Śītāḍhya, and Bahubhīti: these are the sixteen cities not seen [in life].

There, going to Yāmyapura and crying out 'O my son, my son!', / he continually wails 'Alas, alas!', remembering his own evil deeds.

On the eighteenth day, O Tārkṣya, he reaches that city, / where there is the river Puṣpabhadrā and a pleasing banyan tree.

There he desires to rest, but those guards do not allow it. / Offered on the ground by his son out of affection or pity,

he eats the monthly piṇḍa, and then proceeds to Sauripura. / As he walks, tormented by blows from clubs, he laments in this way:

'No reservoir of water was made by me then for the satisfaction of humans, beasts, or birds; / no pasture was made for the satisfaction of cows! O body, suffer what was done by you!'

There the king named Jaṅgama can change his form at will; / out of fear born from the sight of him, he eats the piṇḍa with dread.

At forty-five days, [he eats the piṇḍa] accompanied by water offered on the ground, and then departs. / As he walks, tormented by sword strikes, he laments in this way:

'No daily gift was given, no daily food given to cattle, nor was a book of the Veda and śāstras given; / the path taught by the Purāṇas was never pursued! O body, suffer what was done by you!'

Having arrived at the city of Nagendra and eaten the food of that kind / offered in the second month by his relatives, he then departs.

As he walks, struck with the hilts of swords, he laments in this way: / 'Everything has fallen into the hands of others, for me, the crown jewel among fools!

Human birth was attained by me through a great accumulation of merit!' / When the third month arrives, [he reaches] the lovely city of Gandharva.

Having eaten the third monthly piṇḍa there, he departs. / As he walks, struck on the path with the tips of [their weapons], he wails in this way:

'Nothing was given by me, no oblation made into the sacrificial fire, no austerity practiced in a cavern of the snowy mountain, / the great water of the Gaṅgā, alas, was never frequented! O body, suffer what was done by you!'

In the fourth month he reaches Śailāgama; there, O bird, / a continuous rain of stones falls upon him.

Having consumed the fourth monthly śrāddha offering, he creeps forward there, / constantly lamenting as he falls, terribly tormented by stones and other [hazards]:

‘Neither the path of knowledge, nor the path of yoga, nor the path of ritual action, nor the path of devotion was pursued, / nor did I hear anything from the company of the righteous. O body, cross over what was done by you!’

Then in the fifth month, O Kaśyapa, he goes to Krūrapura; / having consumed the water and the rice-ball given on the earth, he proceeds to Krūrapura.

As he goes along, struck down on the path with sharp blades, he laments thus: / ‘Alas, mother! Alas, father! O brother! O sons! Alas, alas, my wives!

I was not instructed by you, [and so] I have arrived at such a state!’ / To him as he laments in this way, the messengers of Yama say:

‘Where is your mother? Where is your father, fool? Where is your wife? Where is your son or friend? / Consume what was earned by your own karma, you fool! They have long departed on the path.

You know that provisions for the journey are the full strength of travelers; without provisions, one cannot strive for a state in the next world. / You must certainly travel by that road on which there is not even buying or selling.’

Having consumed the rice-ball with water at Krauñcapura at the semi-annual offering minus a few days, / resting for just a single ghaṭī, he proceeds to Vicitranagara.

As he goes along, pierced by the point of a pike, he laments thus:

‘Where do I go? I cannot walk! Alas, life has gone; for one dead, there is indeed no second death!’ / Lamenting in this very way, having assumed a body fit for torture, the traveler proceeds on the path.

In that Vicitranagara, there is an earthly king named Vicitra; / satisfied there by the six-month rice-ball offering, he proceeds onward.

As he goes along, afflicted by the point of a spear, he laments thus:

‘Is there no mother, brother, father, or son of mine, / who might deliver me, a sinner falling into the ocean of sorrow?’

As he travels on that path, there lies the auspicious Vaitaraṇī, / a hundred yojanas wide, filled with pus and blood.

As he arrives there, boatmen, fishermen, and others are seen; / they say, ‘If a cow for the Vaitaraṇī was gifted by you, / board this boat and cross the river with ease!’

There, he by whom a cow was gifted crosses it with ease indeed; / he who gave nothing is seized by the hands of the boatmen and dragged.

He is pecked by sharp-beaked crows, herons, and owls. / For human beings, the gift [of a cow] at the end for the Vaitaraṇī is beneficial, O bird.

When gifted, she burns away all sin and leads one to my world. / When the seventh month arrives, the dead man reaches the city of Bahvāpada.

He goes on after consuming the seventh-month rice-ball with water; / as he goes along, afflicted by blows from iron clubs, he laments thus:

‘Nothing was gifted, nothing was offered into the fire, no asceticism performed, no holy bath taken, no good done! / O foolish soul, suffer according to the kind of karma you have performed!’

Then, in the eighth month which brings suffering, having consumed the rice-ball with water, / he proceeds, O Tārkṣya, to the city of Nānākrandapura.

And on the journey, afflicted by blows from pestles, he speaks out: / ‘Where are the meals coaxed by my wife with charming, sweet words,

and where is this slaughtering with arrows, spears, and pestles?’ / Then, in the city of Nānākrandapura, eating the rice-ball given in the ninth month,

he weeps piteously and utters varied cries of agony. / In the tenth month, the offering given [sustains him], and from there [he goes] to Sutaptabhavana.

Creeping along, struck by blows from plows on the road, he laments thus: / ‘Where is the massaging of my feet by the soft hands of my son,

and where is the dragging of my feet by the messengers [of Yama] with hands like thunderbolts?’ / Consuming the rice-ball and other offerings of the tenth month there, he creeps onward.

When the eleventh month is completed, he goes to the city of Raudra; / as he goes along, tormented across his back, he laments:

‘Where was I, tossing and turning from moment to moment on a bed of cotton down, / and where again is my back beaten with sticks wielded by the hands of soldiers?’

Having consumed the rice-ball and offerings given there on the earth, he proceeds from there / to the city named Payovarṣaṇa, O egg-born one.

As he goes along, struck upon the head with axes, he laments thus: / ‘Where was the pouring of scented oil by the tender hands of servants,

and where is the pain in the head caused by axes in anger by the followers of the god of death?’ / There, intensely miserable, he consumes the śrāddha offering of the eleventh month.

Then, when the full year is completed, he goes to the city rich in cold; / as he goes along, his tongue severed with a knife, he weeps:

‘Where was the description of exquisite sweetness through affectionate words, / and where now, as soon as a word is spoken, is the cutting off of the tongue by sword-blades?’

Consuming the annual offering of rice-balls and other gifts there, he creeps forward; / resorting to that body born of the rice-ball offerings, which produces great fear,

he reveals his sins and condemns himself. / A woman also grieves in this very same way on this path.

From there, not very far away, he goes to the city of Yama, / which extends forty-four yojanas in width.

There are thirteen doorkeepers there, indeed named Śravaṇas; / they are pleased by the Śravaṇā-rites, but otherwise they would become enraged.

Then, there he quickly beholds Yama, red-eyed, resembling a heap of split collyrium, / amidst Death, Time, the Ender, and others;

with a face formidable with fangs, a terrifying appearance with knitted brows, / the sovereign surrounded by deformed, dreadful faces and hundreds of diseases,

with mighty arms wielding a staff, holding a noose in his hand, exceedingly dreadful. / Then the creature goes to an auspicious or inauspicious destination assigned by him.

The sinner goes to a sinful destination, as was told to you before; / but those who give umbrellas and sandals, and those who give dwellings,

and those who perform virtuous deeds, they then behold Yama / of gentle appearance, adorned with earrings, bearing a crown, and endowed with splendor.

Indeed, on the eleventh and twelfth days, at the six-month mark, and at the annual rite, / one should feed many brāhmaṇas, for there the hunger is great.

While alive, O bird, he who does not accomplish his own purpose, which has been shown by sons, wives, and others, / suffers later in this very way.

All this has been related to you: the journey to Saṃyaminī, / and the duties for the year have been told to you. What else do you wish to hear?

Thus ends the fifth chapter, titled ‘Description of the Annual Rites, the Path to the Realm of Yama, the Torments, and so forth,’ in the dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Garuḍa, in the Pretakalpa of the Dharmakāṇḍa, the second part of the Uttarakhaṇḍa of the glorious Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa.