History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.162

v5.c73.162

A few words must be said about the proper places for the performance of a śrāddha. Manu (III 206-207) lays down that the performer should make efforts to secure a spot sloping to the south and smear it with cowdung, a spot that is pure and unfrequented (by many persons) and that the Fathers are pleased by śrāddha at naturally clean spots or the banks of rivers and spots that are unfrequented. Yāj. I. 227 very briefly puts the requirements by saying that the place of śrāddha should be covered on all sides, should be pure and sloping to the south. Śaṅkha says:⁸⁴⁹ 'one should not perform śrāddha on the backs of bulls, elephants and horses, nor on raised earth platforms nor on land owned by others.' The Kūrmapurāṇa states⁸⁵⁰ 'Forests, sacred mountains, holy places, temples—these have no (definite) owner and they cannot be private property (of any one)'. Yama provides⁸⁵¹ 'if one offers śrāddha to his *pitṛs* in spots belonging to others, that śrāddha rite is destroyed by the pitṛs of the owner of those spots. Therefore, a man should perform śrāddha on holy spots, on river banks, in sacred places and particularly in land belonging to himself, in bowers near hills and on mountain tops' The Viṣṇudharma-sūtra chap 85 mentions numerous holy places and then adds 'in these and other *tīrthas*, big rivers, on all natural sandy banks, near streams, on mountains, in bowers, forests, groves and spots that look charming because of being smeared with cowdung (śrāddha may be performed)' Śaṅkha (14 27-29) states 'whatever is given in holy Gayā, in Prabhāsa, Puṣkara, Prayāga, in the Naimiṣa forest (on the Sarasvatī), on the banks of the Ganges, Yamunā, Payoṣṇī, on Amarakantaka, on Narmadā, in Benares, in Kurukṣetra, Bhṛgutuṅga, on the Himālaya, on Sapta-Veṇī, on Ṛṣikūpa—all that becomes inexhaustible.' The Brahmapurāṇa (220. 5-7) also specifies river banks, lakes, mountain tops, sacred spots like Puṣkara as the proper places for śrāddha. The Vāyupurāṇa, chap 77 and Matsya 22 contain long lists of sacred places, countries, mountains in relation to srāddhas. The Kalpataru (śrāddha p. 40) and Sr. P. p. 147 state that special characteristics of the tīrthas in the several countries that are declared to be fit places for srāddha should be understood from the inhabitants of those various countries.