History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.14

v5.c73.14

As stated below (p. 347) with regard to the Ṛgvedic passages, it was on account of the supposed power of pitṛs to benefit or harm the living that the cult of the dead became a prominent feature in primitive societies. Offerings and ceremonies which may have in most ancient times been prompted in part at least by the desire to placate the ancestors are continued as tokens of pure affection and remembrance. Various beliefs about pitṛs are mentioned⁷⁵⁸ in post-Vedic literature. The Baud. Dh. S. II. 8. 14 summarizes a brāhmaṇa text stating that pitṛs move about in the form of birds. The Auśanasa-smṛti and Devala quoted by the Kalpataru say the same thing. In the Vāyupurāṇa⁷⁵⁹ it is stated that at the time of śrāddha the ancestors enter the brāhmaṇas (invited) after assuming an aerial form and that when the best of brāhmaṇas are honoured with clothes, foods, gifts, eatables, liquids, cows, horses and villages, pitṛs become pleased. Manu III. 189 and the Auśanasa-smṛti also support this notion that pitṛs enter the invited brāhmaṇas. The Matsyapurāṇa (18. 5-7) enjoins: piṇḍas should be offered to the departed for twelve days after death, since they serve him as food on his journey and give him great satisfaction. Therefore, the soul leaving the dead body is not taken to the abode of the departed for twelve days (after death), the departed spirit hovers near his house, his sons, his wife for twelve days. Therefore for ten days after death milk (and water) should be placed (hung up) in space for ten nights for reducing all torments (or troubles of the departed) and for the removal of the fatigue of the journey (that the departed spirit has to make). The Viṣṇudharmasūtra⁷⁶⁰ (20. 34-36) provides "the departed spirit enjoys in the world of *pitṛs* the food offered in śrāddha with the utterance of the word '*svadhā*'; whether the departed is in the state of a god or in the place of torments (Hell) or in the form of a lower animal or a human being, the śrāddha food offered by his relatives reaches him; when śrāddha is performed, the performer and the departed soul both certainly secure vigour (or prosperity)."