Skandapurana 5.221

English (machine translation) 5.221

Language: English

5.221.1

Bhartṛyajña said: / For those who meet death by a weapon, or even accidental death, / and for those who died of disease, or met death by poison,

5.221.2

and for those burnt by fire, or who met death in water, / and for those killed by snakes, tigers, horns, or even hanging,

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for them a śrāddha must be performed on the fourteenth day, O ruler of men. / When it is performed on that [day], their satisfaction derived from that fortnight arises.

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Ānarta said: / Why is the fourteenth [tithi] prescribed for the śrāddha of those killed by weapons, / and not on the day of others? Tell me about this doubt.

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They do not praise the ekoddiṣṭa [rite], but rather the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa. / Why must it be performed there? Tell me this in detail.

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Why is the pārvaṇa [rite] not performed when that day arrives, / especially in the fortnight of the departed spirits, even if the entire śrāddha is performed?

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Bhartṛyajña said: / In the Bṛhatkalpa of old, O king, there was a great asura named Hiraṇyākṣa, / mighty, heroic, terrifying to all the gods.

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Brahmā was pleased by him through performing various austerities, / especially in the dark fortnight when the month of Nabhasya arrived.

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Brahmā said: / I am pleased with you, child; ask whatever you wish. / I shall grant even what should not be given; therefore, ask without delay.

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Hiraṇyākṣa said: / Bhūtas, pretas, piśācas, rākṣasas, daityas, and dānavas, / starving, constantly beg of me, O lotus-born one.

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When a śrāddha is performed in the fortnight of the departed spirits, when the sun is in Virgo, / on a single day there should generally be satisfaction lasting for a year.

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Therefore, grant that day to them today, O lotus-born one; / by that, all of them, having attained satisfaction, will remain [content] for a year, O Grandfather.

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The glorious Brahmā said: / Whatever man offers a śrāddha to his own ancestors / on the fourteenth day in the fortnight of the departed spirits, when the month of Nabhasya arrives,

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it shall undoubtedly belong to the pretas, rākṣasas, bhūtas, and others, / and to those others mentioned by you, by my word.

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And those who died an untimely death, and those killed in battles, / when an ekoddiṣṭa is offered by their sons, their satisfaction will take place.

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Having spoken thus, Brahmā then vanished from sight; / and Hiraṇyākṣa, delighted, went to his own abode.

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And why the ekoddiṣṭa śrāddha is offered by men on that day / for those killed by weapons—I shall tell you that reason.

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Those who are killed by weapons in battle with an unhesitating mind / while fighting—those men are not born again in the mortal world.

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But those who are killed with their backs turned, intent on fleeing, / those men become pretas: this the Grandfather said.

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Even those facing [the enemy] who utter miserable words while being struck, / or who feel remorse when shattered by blows,

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they too become pretas here: so said Svāyambhuva Manu. / For wavering of the mind sometimes occurs even to heroes.

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Out of uncertainty regarding them, a śrāddha must be offered on that day by their own sons, / and also for all embodied beings who died an untimely death.

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Since the state of a preta arises [for them], therefore that day of śrāddha / is proclaimed, O best of kings, as especially fit for a śrāddha.

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Why an ekoddiṣṭa must be performed by men on that day / even after the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa—I shall tell you that reason.

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If one's own father has somehow fallen into the state of a preta, / for the sake of his satisfaction a śrāddha must be performed on that day, O king.

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The paternal grandfathers and others are never entitled to a śrāddha on that day; / if one gives out of delusion, it is seized by the rākṣasas,

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and by the bhūtas, pretas, and dānavas, by Brahmā's word, O king. / Therefore, only an ekoddiṣṭa must be performed here, and not a pārvaṇa.

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On the fourteenth day of the ancestors' fortnight, when the sun is in Virgo, / the grandfather does not receive [the offering] together with that father at that time,

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nor his father, O king, and likewise the great-grandfather.

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For this reason, O king, a pārvaṇa [śrāddha] is not prescribed; / for when that day arrives, [such a] śrāddha would become futile.

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Not with brahmins originating from another place should śrāddha rites and vows / be performed by a Nāgara [brahmin], but with Nāgaras; otherwise, it would become futile.

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The śrāddha that is performed by those devoted to rites among Nāgaras / with brahmins originating from another place certainly goes entirely in vain.

Even if fallen from good conduct, Nāgara [brahmins] are fit for the śrāddha. / If a fellow kinsman is found, even if he is like an ox, / what need is there for many other brahmins who have mastered the Vedas and Vedāṅgas?

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Thus ends the two hundred and twenty-second chapter, titled "Description of the Determination of Śrāddha on the Fourteenth [Day] for Those Slain by Weapons, in the Ritual of Śrāddha," in the Māhātmya of the Sacred Field of Hāṭakeśvara, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the auspicious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.

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Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit