Skandapurana 5.214

The seers said: / Now tell us, O Sūta, the procedure of the rite of ancestral offerings, / in detail, O highly fortunate one, so that it may become imperishable. (1)

At what time should the śrāddha be performed by those devoted to the ancestors? / With what kind of brahmins should it be done, and likewise with what substances, O highly intelligent one? (2)

Sūta said: / For this purpose the great sage Mārkaṇḍeya was questioned long ago, / O foremost of brahmins, by Rohitāśva, the son of Hariścandra. (3)

When Hariścandra had gone to heaven and Rohitāśva remained as king, / the best of sages, Mārkaṇḍa, on the occasion of a pilgrimage to sacred fords, (4)

arrived at the holy confluence of the Sarayū for the sake of ritual ablution. / Having bathed there and satisfied the ancestors and the gods according to the rules, (5)

he entered that charming city, Ayodhyā, true to its name. / Rohitāśva also, hearing that the lord of sages had arrived, / set out quickly on foot toward him over a great distance. (6)

Then, having bowed to him with his head, standing with folded hands, / filled with modesty, he spoke a sweet word: (7)

“Welcome to you, O best of sages, again a hearty welcome, O sage! / I am blessed, I have acquired merit, I have attained the highest state, / since my hair has been purified by the dust of your feet!” (8)

Having spoken thus and then taking hold of his hand as a support, / he went to that assembly hall containing a great throne. (9)

Then, having seated that sage upon the throne, the best of kings / sat on the surface of the earth and stood with folded hands. (10)

Then, standing bent low with modesty, he spoke sweetly: / “O foremost of brahmins, even for one devoid of desire, what is the cause of your arrival? (11)

Speak that truthfully; I shall do it for you now. / Even what should not be given I will give to you who have come to my house, O lord.” (12)

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / “We have come here on the occasion of a pilgrimage to sacred fords; / I shall go again tomorrow to the holy confluence of the Sarayū. (13)

Even by those devoid of desire, righteous, foremost twice-born ones are to be visited. / Therefore it was said by brahmins knowing the Purāṇas, having the vision of scripture: (14)

‘Seeing a righteous king, and likewise a self-manifest liṅga, / and a river flowing to the ocean, one is freed from the sin born of that day.’ (15)

Having spoken thus, that best of sages then made an inquiry, / seeing that tiger among kings standing before him endowed with modesty: (16)

“Are your Vedas fruitful? Is your learning fruitful? / Is your wife fruitful? Is your wealth fruitful?” (17)

Rohitāśva said: / “How would the Vedas be fruitful? How would learning be fruitful? / How would a wife be fruitful? How would wealth be fruitful?” (18)

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / “The Vedas bear fruit in the agnihotra; learning bears fruit in good character and conduct; / a wife bears fruit in pleasure and a son; wealth bears fruit in giving and enjoying. (19)

Knowing thus, O great king, you ought not to act otherwise. (20)

These four duties have been told by me to you, / just as they are to be performed by one desiring both worlds.” (21)

Having spoken thus, he then narrated varied tales before him, / especially of ancient royal seers and divine seers. (22)

Then, at the conclusion of a story, O best of twice-borns, / King Rohitāśva questioned that best of sages: (23)

“O venerable one, I wish to hear the procedure of the rite of ancestral offerings, since / many differences among the twice-born are seen in the performance of the śrāddha.” (24)

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / “This is true, O highly fortunate one, what I am asked, O best of kings. / Many differences of the śrāddha are established according to the differences of the Vedic branches. (25)

Therefore I will tell you the settled conclusion which of old by Bhartṛyajña / was declared to the ruler of Ānarta as the proper characteristic of the śrāddha. (26)

Going to Bhartṛyajña seated comfortably in the grounds of his hermitage, / the ruler of Ānarta bowed down and then said: (27)

Ānarta said: / ‘Now tell me, O holy one, the procedure of the śrāddha desired by the ancestors, / by which my ancestors, propitiated by the śrāddha, attain satisfaction. (28)

What time is prescribed for the śrāddha? Tell me what substances / are fit for the śrāddha and what other pure things, O best of twice-borns, / are to be employed by those desiring the highest satisfaction of the ancestors? (29)

What kind of brahmins, O holy one, are proclaimed fit for the śrāddha, / and what kind are to be avoided? Tell me everything in detail.’ (30)

Bhartṛyajña said: / ‘I shall declare to you the unsurpassed procedure of the śrāddha, / hearing even which, O great king, a man may obtain the fruit of a śrāddha. (31)

The śrāddha must always be performed by a wise man on the wane of the moon, / if there is the eldest creation and offspring, O king. (32)

Just as those afflicted by cold desire fire and warm coverings, / so do the ancestors, emaciated by hunger, desire the disappearance of the moon.’ (33)

Just as men stricken by poverty desire wealth, / so the ancestors, emaciated by hunger, desire the waning of the moon.

Just as farmers eagerly desire rain for the growth of their crops, / so they too eagerly desire the waning of the moon for their own satisfaction.

Just as female cakravāka birds at dawn desire the sight of the sun, / so the ancestors desire the śrāddha born of the new moon.

And whoever performs a śrāddha on the new moon even with water, or even with vegetables, / their ancestors attain satisfaction, and [their] sin is destroyed.

When the day of the new moon arrives, having resorted to the doorway of the house, / turned into wind, afflicted with hunger and thirst, the hosts of ancestors of men eagerly desire the śrāddha until the setting of the sun.

Then, when the sun has set, hopeless and filled with grief, / having sighed for a long time, they depart, reproaching the descendant of their own lineage.

Ānarta said: / For what reason is a śrāddha performed on the day of the new moon, O twice-born one? / Tell me this in detail, particularly and accurately.

O brahmin, dead men go to the state produced by their own actions. / How do they come to rely upon their son?

This very great doubt, O brahmin, resides in our heart.

Bhartṛyajña said: / This word that has been spoken by you, O fortunate one, is true: / dead men everywhere go to the state deserved by their own action.

However, how they come toward the shelter of their descendant, / that I shall tell you, so that you may not have such a doubt.

O king, some who have died here upon the surface of the earth go thus: / they are not born here among mortals as long as their lineage endures.

Moreover, those who are virtuous stay in the abode of the gods, / while those men who are sinful reside in the realm of Vaivasvata.

Having taken up another body, they enjoy the fruit of [their] action, / whether good or sinful, performed by themselves.

Indeed, for those residing in the realm of Yama, and even for those dwelling in heaven, O king, / an intense hunger and thirst arises.

O king, for three generations of men on the mother's side as well as on the father's side, / and those who are beyond them, they experience their own good and bad action, / and hunger and thirst never arise for them.

Even there, a fall occurs from that place, O protector of the earth; / due to the destruction of their lineage, they all fall back down to the surface of the earth, / just like a vessel tied with a snapping rope, left without support.

For this reason, an effort for offspring must always be made / by the wise, O lord of men, for the stability of the lineage.

Even though there are twelve kinds [of sons], O king, born of one's own body and so on, / if by fate not even one son among them is born here, / then, for the protection of the ancestors, a peepal tree should be planted with contemplation / and protected just like a son, without any distinction, O ruler of men.

As long as the earth supports that peepal tree, O ruler of men, / married together with a śamī tree, so long does the lineage also endure.

Mortals who are the progenitors of a peepal tree, having fallen down to the surface of the world, / freed from sins, attain an excellent womb, endowed with auspiciousness.

For this reason, food and water should be given daily / dedicated to the ancestors, O king, because they are traditionally regarded as consisting of that.

O ruler of men, he who eats or drinks water himself without having given water and grain to the ancestors / is a injurer of the ancestors; / even in heaven they receive neither water nor food.

If it is not given by mortal descendants, they undergo severe pain / arising from hunger and thirst; therefore, one should satisfy the ancestors.

Daily, according to his capacity, a man, O king, with milk, various kinds of foods, / and with other garments, offerings of food, flowers, and fragrant unguents,

with holy ancestral sacrifices and so forth, and with various śrāddhas— / satisfied, they bestow desired wishes residing in the heart / and the three goals of life, O great king, [these] ancestors satisfied by śrāddha.

Those wicked people who do not daily satisfy their own ancestors, O king, / are always to be known as animals on two legs, devoid of horns.

Thus ends the two hundred and fifteenth chapter, named 'Description of the Cause of the Necessity of Śrāddha' in the Rules of Śrāddha in the Māhātmya of the Hāṭakeśvara Sacred Field, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [section], in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.