A LAYMAN’S GUIDE TO PIND DAAN

WHAT IS PIND DAAN?

According to Hindu belief, pind daan is a process through which one can give ultimate relief to the soul of his ancestors and help them attain lasting peace. Offerings are made with wheat and oat flour mixed with dried milk, or symbolically with mud balls. There are three rituals – a symbolic bath, pind daan and tarpan – or offering water to ancestors.

WHAT IS PITRAPAKSHA?

Pind daan can be done through the year, but pitrapaksha or an 18-day period before Navratri is believed to be especially auspicious. An estimated 10 to 15 lakh pilgrims visit Gaya during pitrapaksha every year to perform pind daan. Some of the main places to perform pind an in Gaya are the Phalgu river, Vishnupad temple, Akshay Vat, mkund, Sitakund and Pretshila.

HY PIND DAAN N GAYA?

end has it that a demon named asur – after whom the town of Gaya amed - received a boon from Vishnu t the ancestors of a person who forms pind daan here, will attain ing peace. In the eras that followed, ma is believed to have performed pind n for his father emperor Dasharath in a. In Gaya women have traditionally n allowed to perform pind daan because a was asked by Dasharath to perform his d daan here. Also, while elsewhere, one can form pind daan for a particular person, in a, one can do it for seven gotras, one’s own, one’s in-laws, maternal grandparents and nts and uncles.