പഞ്ചമി ശ്രാദ്ധം

About പഞ്ചമി ശ്രാദ്ധം

Significance

Panchami Shraddha is for ancestors who died on a Panchami, the fifth tithi, in either fortnight. In parts of North India the day is popularly called Kunwara (or Kunwari) Panchami and is also used for members of the family who died unmarried. This is a regional custom rather than a rule of the classical digests, but it is widely followed.

Panchami also has a place in the digests’ timetable for the fortnight. Dharma Sindhu notes the view that Shraddhas from Panchami onward are especially fruitful, and allows those who cannot keep the whole Mahalaya to begin on Panchami (or on Shashthi, Ashtami, Dashami or Ekadashi) and continue to Amavasya. In the Mahabharata’s tithi list (Anushasana Parva, Section 87) the fifth day is associated with sons, and in the Brahma Purana’s list with prosperity.

How and where it is observed

Where Kunwara Panchami is observed, families remember sons and daughters who died before marriage, and in some households an unmarried young brahmana is fed in their memory. Families that follow only the digests keep an unmarried person’s Shraddha on his or her own death tithi. Which custom applies is a matter of family practice; ask your purohit when unsure.

Rituals

The meal, pinda-dana and tarpana follow the usual Mahalaya order. Many families prepare kheer (sweet rice pudding) on this day and set aside portions for the cow, dog and crow before the meal. If Bharani nakshatra falls on Panchami in a given year, the day may also serve for the Bharani Shraddha that Dharma Sindhu describes for this fortnight.

How the date is fixed

The date is Bhadrapada Krishna Panchami (Amanta), Ashvina Krishna Panchami in Purnimanta calendars, on the day Panchami holds the afternoon Aparahna. A tithi that lasts more than a day can touch the Aparahna on two consecutive days (a vriddhi); the Shraddha is then placed on the day whose Aparahna Panchami covers more, and the other day goes to a neighbouring tithi or has no tithi Shraddha of its own.

Sources

• 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)
• Dharma Sindhu, Tritiya Pariccheda, Shraddha-prakarana (English condensation: V.D.N. Rao, Essence of Dharma Sindhu, ch. 26)
• 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.