Mahālaya Amāvāsyā

When it falls

The new moon of Bhādrapada (Āśvina by the northern count), in September or early October. It closes Pitṛ Pakṣa, the fortnight of the ancestors, and Navarātri begins the next day.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

For the fifteen days before this new moon the ancestors (pitṛ) are held to come down to the earth and wait to be fed by their descendants. The Mahābhārata gives the reason: Karṇa, arriving in heaven, was given gold to eat because in life he had given only gold, never food, in charity. He was allowed back for a fortnight to feed his ancestors, and the fortnight is his.

The new moon is the last chance of the fortnight. Śrāddha for anyone whose death day is not known, or was missed, is performed today, which is why it is also Sarvapitṛ Amāvāsyā, the new moon of all the ancestors.

In Bengal the same dawn is Mahālayā, the invitation to Durgā to descend for her festival. All-India Radio has broadcast Birendra Krishna Bhadra's recitation of the Mahiṣāsura Mardinī at four in the morning since 1931, and the city wakes to it.

How the day is kept

• Tarpaṇa: water mixed with black sesame and barley is poured from the palm for three generations of the father's line, facing south, at a river or at home.
• Piṇḍa-dāna: balls of cooked rice are offered, then set out for crows, which are held to carry the food to the departed.
• Brāhmaṇas or the poor are fed the ancestors' meal, and no new undertaking is begun during the fortnight.
• The Gaṅgā at Vārāṇasī and Gayā, the Phalgu at Gayā, and in the south Rāmeśvaram and the Kāverī at Śrīraṅgam are the places the rites are held most.

More ancestors and remembrance