Tirtha Shraddha

Name for a particular type of shraddha
(ancestral memorial rite) performed
when visiting a pilgrimage place
(tirtha). A shraddha has two major features: symbolically feeding one’s ancestor(s) by offering balls of cooked grain
(pindas), and feeding real food to a
group of brahmins representing one’s
ancestors. Tirtha shraddhas belong to a
class of action known as occasional
actions (naimittika karma) because
they are incumbent only under certain
conditions. Under ordinary circumstances one would not have to perform
this action, but it becomes required
when one visits a pilgrimage place. The
traditional pilgrimage literature, much
of it clearly written by the brahmins who
received such meals and other gifts, is
emphatic that this obligation should not
be neglected.