Trayodashi Shraddha

About Trayodashi Shraddha

Significance

Trayodashi Shraddha is for ancestors who died on a Trayodashi, the thirteenth tithi, in either fortnight. The day carries an old association with Magha nakshatra, whose presiding deities are the pitrs. Manusmriti (Chapter 3, verses 273–274) says that what is offered with honey on a Trayodashi, especially in the rainy season and under Magha, is imperishable, and pictures the ancestors wishing for a descendant who will offer them milk-rice with honey and ghee on that day when the shadow of an elephant falls to the east. The Markandeya Purana’s Shraddha-kalpa makes a similar statement about Trayodashi with Magha.

The Mahabharata’s tithi list (Anushasana Parva, Section 87) says a Shraddha on the thirteenth day brings eminence among one’s kin, and the Brahma Purana’s list names progeny and long life.

How and where it is observed

When the Moon is in Magha on this Trayodashi, the day is called Magha Shraddha or Magha Trayodashi; Dharma Sindhu describes a Magha-yukta Trayodashi rite in Bhadrapada performed without pindas, honouring brahmanas with sandal paste and sweets. A rarer combination, Gajacchaya (‘the elephant’s shadow’), is usually explained as the Moon in Magha with the Sun in Hasta on this Trayodashi; it does not occur every year, and some calendars also describe an Amavasya form. These are nakshatra conditions on top of the tithi, and traditions differ on their details.

Rituals

On an ordinary Trayodashi the rite is the regular Mahalaya Shraddha with brahmana-bhojana, pinda-dana and tarpana, with food set out for the cow, crow and dog. In keeping with the old texts, many families include milk-rice (payasa or kheer) sweetened with honey or jaggery in the offering, especially when Magha coincides. Pradosh vrat, the evening worship of Shiva on Trayodashi, falls on the same lunar date and is kept after sunset.

How the date is fixed

The date is Bhadrapada Krishna Trayodashi (Amanta), or Ashvina Krishna Trayodashi (Purnimanta), on the day Trayodashi holds the afternoon Aparahna. Pradosh vrat is fixed by the evening instead, so it can fall a day apart. The date shown is for the tithi only; whether Magha or the Gajacchaya combination applies in a given year has to be checked from the Moon’s and the Sun’s nakshatras in the daily Panchang.

Sources

• Manusmriti, Chapter 3, verses 273–274
• Markandeya Purana, Shraddha-kalpa, Chapter 32, verse 35
• Dharma Sindhu, Dwitiya Pariccheda, Bhadrapada: Mahalaya Paksha, Proshthapadi, Bharani, Magha-Trayodashi, Shastrahata Chaturdashi and Kapila Shashthi (English condensation: V.D.N. Rao, Essence of Dharma Sindhu, ch. 7)
• Gajacchāyā, Hindupedia (Swami Harshananda)
• Mahabharata, Anushasana Parva, Section 87 (K.M. Ganguli translation): Bhishma on Shraddha and the result of each lunar day
• Brahma Purana, Shraddha-kalpa: tithi-wise list for the fortnight when the Sun is in Kanya (as summarised in Essence of Dharma Sindhu, ch. 7)

Customs differ between regions, communities and families; this description is background, not a prescription. The date above is calculated by the rule shown on this page.