History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.t1.286

v5.c73.t1.286

There were several views as to the exact stage at which the offerings of piṇḍas were to be made. According to Śāṅ. Gṛ. IV. 1.9., Āśv. gṛ. IV. 8. 12,¹⁰⁴⁷ Śaṅkha 14. 11, Manu III. 260-261, Yāj. I 242 and several other works, the performer offers the lumps of boiled rice after the brāhmaṇas have finished eating their dinner. The piṇḍas are made with boiled rice mixed with sesame and are placed on darbhas on a clean spot and at a distance of about one aratni from¹⁰⁴⁸ the plates in which the brāhmaṇas ate and the performer faces the south. Here again there are two opinions, one being that piṇḍas were to be offered before the brāhmaṇas sip water (perform ācamana) after dinner (e. g. Āśv. gṛ. IV. 8. 12-13, Śrāddha-sūtra of Kātyāyana, kaṇḍikā 3), while others hold that they were to be offered after the brāhmaṇas have rinsed their mouth and taken *ācamana*. Another view referred to as the view of some by Śāṅ. gṛ. IV. 1. 10 and Manu III. 261 was that piṇḍas were to be offered to the ancestors first after honouring the invited brāhmaṇas or after agnaukaraṇa and then the brāhmaṇas were to partake of the dinner The Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa ¹⁰⁴⁹ emphatically asserts that this is the correct position as stated by Bṛhaspati. The Viṣṇu Dh. S. (73 15-24) provides that the piṇḍas are to be offered to the ancestors while the brāhmaṇas are actually eating. A fourth view is that of the Āp. gṛ. 24.9, Hira gṛ. (II. 12.2-3) which state that the performer¹⁰⁵⁰ should, after the brāhmaṇas have eaten and gone away and he has followed and circumambulated them, offer piṇḍas. Owing to this conflict of views Hemādri (quoting smṛti) and the Madanapārijāta (p 600) say that each one should follow the procedure laid down in his own śākhā ¹⁰⁵¹ Hemādri adds that those in whose gṛhyasūtra no special time is mentioned for piṇḍadāna should follow the view that piṇḍas are to be offered after the brāhmaṇas have partaken of the dinner and sipped water. The Śr. P. (p. 247) endorses this view.¹⁰⁵² The piṇḍas were to be deposited on bunches of (25) darbhas for each piṇḍa. Aparārka on Yāj. I. 24 states that in all cases without exception piṇḍas were to be offered near the plates from which the brāhmaṇas took their meals, while Hemādri who relies on Kātyāyana's word 'ucchiṣṭasannidhau' says that where the performer is an *āhitāgni* the piṇḍas were to be offered near his sacred fire, but when a performer had not kept the sacred fires piṇḍas were to be offered near the plates from which brāhmaṇas. ate the śrāddha food. The Śrāddhasāra (p 163) quotes Atri to the effect that piṇḍas should be offered at a distance of three *aratnis* from where the brāhmaṇas ate the śrāddha dinner and that in such śrāddhas as Navaśrāddhas Vaiśvadeva is to be performed before piṇḍadāna and that it is to be performed after piṇḍadāna in Sāṁvatsarika śrāddha, Mahālaya and the like (p. 164).