History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.9

v5.c73.9

The Śrāddhakalpalatā of Nandapaṇḍita ⁷⁵⁵ (about 1600 A. D.) enters upon an elaborate reply to these persons (whom he dubs atheists) that aver that the performance of śrāddhas for departed fathers and the rest, who according to the particular actions of each go to heaven or hell or to other forms of existence serves no purpose. He asks: why is śrāddha useless? Is it because there is no prescriptive text laying down an obligation to perform it or is it because śrāddha produces no consequences or is it that it is not proved that *pitṛs* and the rest are gratified by śrāddha? To the first he replies that there are such passages as 'therefore a wise man must perform srāddha with all his efforts' that lay down the obligation; nor is the 2nd objection proper, since Yāj. I. 269 does declare the rewards (of śrāddha) viz. long life &c. Nor is the third alternative acceptable. In the śrāddha rites it is not that the mere ancestors named Devadatta and the like are the recipients and that they are denoted by the words *pitṛ*, *pitāmaha* and *prapitāmaha*, but that those words denote them as accompanied by the superintending deities viz. Vasus, Rudras and Ādityas. Just as by the words Devadatta and the like what is denoted is not merely the bodies (so named) nor merely the souls, but what is denoted by the words is individual souls as particularised by the bodies; in the same way the words *pitṛ* and the like denote Devadatta and others together with the superintending deities (viz. Vasus, Rudras and Ādityas). Therefore, the superintending deities viz. the Vasus and the rest, being gratified by the food and drink offered by the sons and the rest, gratify those also viz. Devadatta and the rest and endow the performers (of śrāddha) with such rewards as male progeny and the rest. Just as a woman expecting to be a mother becomes gratified by partaking of the food and drink for which she has a longing in pregnancy and which is given to her by another person for the sustenance of the child in the womb, she satiates also the child in her womb and endows those that offer her the food and drink for which she has longings by bestowing on them some reward in return. Thus the *pitṛs* denoted by the words father, grandfather and great-grand-father are the deities Vasus, Rudras and Ādityas, and not merely (human beings called) Devadatta and the rest. Hence these deities of śrāddha become the recipients (of gifts) in the śrāddha rite, are gratified by the śrāddha and gratify in their turn the ancestors of human beings. The Śrāddha-kalpalatā then quotes 18 verses⁷⁵⁶ from the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa many of which are found in chap. 28 (verses 3 ff) of the printed text. It is said⁷⁵⁷ that just as a calf finds its own mother from among many cows that are scattered about, so the mantras repeated in śrāddha carry the food to the pitṛs.