Pitru Paksha 2027: Shraddh Dates, Tithi Rule and Meaning

Why the ancestors are honoured in this fortnight

In Hindu belief the pitris, the departed ancestors of the last three generations, are sustained by what their descendants offer, and shraddha, a rite performed with shraddha or faith, is the means of making that offering. A family may perform shraddha on the anniversary tithi of a death at any point in the year, but the dark fortnight before autumn’s Navratri is held to be the time when the ancestors are closest to the living, so the whole period is given over to them.

A popular telling explains the custom through Karna, the great warrior of the Mahabharata. Reaching the afterlife, he was served gold and jewels instead of food, because in life he had given away wealth freely but had never offered food to his forefathers. He was allowed to return to earth to feed his ancestors with food and water, and that span of days, the story goes, became Pitru Paksha.

The fortnight ends on Mahalaya Amavasya, which in Bengal also opens Devi Paksha, the fortnight of the goddess, and starts the countdown to Durga Puja. Remembering the ancestors and then welcoming the Mother Goddess form one continuous movement in the ritual year.

How the fortnight and each shraddha day are fixed

In purnimanta reckoning Pitru Paksha covers sixteen lunar days, from Bhadrapada Purnima through the waning fortnight of Ashvin to Ashvin Amavasya. Amanta calendars, whose months end at the new moon, place the same waning fortnight in Bhadrapada, so there it runs to Bhadrapada Amavasya. The period usually falls in September and sometimes reaches into early October; anyone asking “Shradh kab se hai” is really asking when the opening Purnima falls.

A person’s shraddha is set by the tithi of death, not the calendar date: someone who died on a Shashthi (sixth lunar day), in any month or fortnight, is remembered on the Shashthi of Pitru Paksha. The rite belongs to aparahna, the afternoon part of the day, and the Kutup (Kutapa) muhurta, the eighth of the day’s fifteen and falling around midday, together with the Rauhina, the ninth, is classically preferred; shraddha is never performed at night. Panchangs assign each tithi to the day on which it holds through the afternoon, and when a tithi is too short to cover any afternoon its shraddha shares a day with a neighbour, which is why calendars can differ. The dates and aparahna timings on this page are calculated for New Delhi.

Several days carry a special purpose. The opening Purnima shraddha is generally kept for those who died on a full moon. Bharani shraddha is performed on the day the Moon passes through Bharani nakshatra. Navami is Avidhava or Matru Navami, for mothers and for married women who died before their husbands. Chaturdashi is Ghata or Shastra Chaturdashi, for those who died by weapons or in accidents. Sarva Pitru Amavasya, the last day, is for all ancestors together, and above all for those whose tithi of death is not known.

Tarpan, pind daan and the shraddha meal

Traditionally the rites are led by a son or another close male relative of the deceased; where there is none, many families have other kin, including women, perform them. After bathing, the performer sits facing south, the direction of Yama and the ancestors, and moves the sacred thread from the left shoulder to the right, a position called apasavya or prachinavita. Tarpan comes first: water mixed with black sesame (til) is poured over kusha grass from the part of the palm between thumb and forefinger, known as the pitru tirtha, while the names of father, grandfather, great-grandfather and other departed kin are recited.

Pind daan follows, in which balls of cooked rice, often mixed with sesame and ghee, are placed on kusha grass as offerings to the ancestors. The family then feeds one or more Brahmins a sattvic meal, typically kheer, puri and seasonal vegetables cooked without onion or garlic, and gives dakshina. Before anyone else eats, portions are set aside as pancha bali for the cow, the dog, the crow, the devas and the ants. The crow is watched with particular interest, since crows are popularly seen as messengers of the ancestors.

Families who cannot arrange a full rite often keep a simpler form: tarpan with water and sesame, food offered to a cow and to crows, and a meal given to someone in need. At the great pilgrimage centres, local priests conduct the complete rites for visiting families.

Customs of the fortnight

Because the period belongs to the departed, many families avoid beginnings during it. Weddings, engagements, griha pravesh (moving into a new home) and purchases of new clothes, vehicles or property are traditionally postponed until Navratri. In some households the men performing the rites do not cut their hair or shave until the fortnight is over.

Food stays simple and sattvic in many homes, without onion, garlic, meat or alcohol, at least on the family’s shraddha day. Charity is central: feeding the hungry, giving grain, clothes or sesame, and caring for cows, dogs and birds are all treated as offerings to the ancestors. Rites are completed in daylight, since tradition holds that shraddha must never be performed after dark.

Gaya, Varanasi and other places of shraddha

Gaya in Bihar is the pre-eminent place for pind daan. Pilgrims make offerings at the Vishnupad temple, which enshrines a footprint of Vishnu, along the banks of the Phalgu river and beneath the Akshayavat, the “undying” banyan, and the town fills with families during this fortnight.

Varanasi and Prayagraj on the Ganga are major centres for tarpan, and at Badrinath the rite is performed at Brahma Kapal on the bank of the Alaknanda. Siddhpur in Gujarat is known as Matru Gaya, the place for the shraddha of mothers.

In Bengal, Mahalaya begins before dawn with tarpan at the ghats of the Hooghly, and many households wake early for the radio recitation of Mahishasura Mardini that heralds Durga Puja. In much of the South the fortnight is widely known as Mahalaya Paksha, and Hindu families abroad keep the observance at home or through their local temples.

The Sun in Virgo, the waning Moon and the pitris

Pitru Paksha falls around the Sun’s passage into Virgo (Kanya), and older texts accordingly call the period Kanyagata, “when the Sun has gone into Kanya”. It is the waning half of the lunar month, and both the waning Moon and the southern direction, the quarter of Yama, are classically associated with the ancestors.

Amavasya, which closes the fortnight, is the one tithi whose classical presiding deity is the Pitris themselves, which makes Sarva Pitru Amavasya the natural day for remembering all ancestors at once. Bharani nakshatra, which gives its name to Bharani shraddha, is presided over by Yama, lord of the departed.

What governs shraddha is the tithi and the afternoon hour, not the checks for Bhadra and inauspicious yogas that are applied to new beginnings. Classical texts do single out a rare Gajachhaya yoga, when Krishna Trayodashi falls with the Sun in Hasta and the Moon in Magha, a nakshatra whose deities are the Pitris, as especially prized for shraddha.