Tarpana

(“satisfying”) Tarpana is a memorial rite
performed for the satisfaction of one’s
ancestors, in which one offers them
libations of water to quench their thirst.
Tarpana satisfies the “sacrifice to the
ancestors,” which is one of the Five
Great Sacrifices. These five sacrifices are
mandatory daily religious observances
(nitya karma) for a “twice-born” householder, that is, a householder who has
been born into one of the three “twiceborn” groups in Indian society—brahmin, kshatriya, or vaishya—and who
has received the adolescent religious
initiation known as the second birth.
Tarpana is also sometimes an occasional
religious act (naimittika karma), which
should be performed on occasions
when one is bathing (snana) at pilgrimage places (tirthas). The rite itself is
quite simple. The performer first bathes
to become ritually pure, scoops up
water in his joined hands, then tips his
fingers forward to let the water drain
out. Some sources also specify that the
water should be mixed with sesame
seeds, a substance associated with
offerings to the dead. Tarpana was
considered a companion rite to the
memorial ceremony known as shraddha,
although as an obligatory daily act,
tarpana was performed much more
frequently. In the shraddha ritual, one
symbolically feeds one’s ancestors to
satisfy their hunger, whereas in the
tarpana ritual, one gives them water to
quench their thirst.