Pinda

(“lump”) A ball of cooked rice or other
grain, one of the important objects used
in rites for the dead. A pinda is offered to
the departed spirit each day for the first
ten days after death, in the belief that
the ten pindas progressively help form a
new body for the dead person (a secondary meaning of the word pinda is
“body”). Pindas are also used in the
memorial rite known as shraddha,
which can be performed years after the
actual death; in this rite, the performer
offers pindas to his or her ancestors as
symbolic nourishment.