History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.t1.413.2

v5.c73.t1.413.2

therefore if a person's father be alive or if there is a deceased ancestor between whom and the performer there is an ancestor that is alive, then one whose father is alive can only perform *homa* (into fire, but no piṇḍadāna) or he should not undertake at all (the rite of piṇḍa-pitṛyajña or pārvaṇaśrāddha); that Jātūkarṇya prescribes that no piṇḍadāna is possible when a living ancestor (father) intervenes between the performer and a deceased ancestor, since a śruti text says 'one does not offer pindas to ancestors that are beyond a living ancestor.' Manu (III. 220-222) deals with this question as follows: If the performer's father be alive he should offer piṇḍas to three ancestors beginning from the paternal grand-father or he may request the father to dinner as he would do to a stranger brāhmaṇa and offer piṇḍas to the deceased grand-father and great-grand-father. If the father be dead and the grandfather be alive, he may offer a piṇḍa only to the father and the great-grandfather (i. e only two piṇḍas) or the grand-father who is alive may be invited to dinner as if he were the stranger brāhmaṇa invited to represent a deceased grand-father or if permitted by the grandfather who is alive he may offer piṇḍas to father, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather. The Viṣṇudharmasūtra (chap. 75) has several rules of a similar character. Some of the Purāṇas such as Skanda VI 225.24-25, Agni 117.58-59 deal with this matter. Gobhilasmṛti (II.