India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c11.s3.15

c11.s3.15

ŚRĀDDHA—Reference has already been made to the fire *kavyavāhana* (III.2.65) to carry oblations to the manes. The *Piṭris* are mentioned as *devatās*, deities to whom oblations called *pitryam* were offered (IV.2.31). The *śrāddha* ceremony held in the Śarat season (the *Pitṛipaksha* in Āśvina) has been mentioned as *śāradika śrāddha* (IV.3.12). One who dined at a *śrāddha* was marked out as *śrāddhī*, *śrāddhika* (*śrāddham-anena bhuktam*, V.2.85), but Kātyāyana points out that the epithet was applied to that person only for that particular day (II.389). The necessity for this term seems to have arisen from the fact that the *śrāddha-bhojī* was required to perform some purificatory rites on that day. A *śrāddhika* Brahmachārī would be marked out from other students and would get leave from his class for performing *japa*, etc.