Purohit · Pitru Paksha

Shraddha day in Pitru Paksha

The shraddha belongs to the day whose aparahna carries the ancestor's tithi — and aparahna is the fourth of five equal parts of daylight, measured from your own city's sunrise and sunset. That is often not the day a printed almanac shows the tithi against, and on the same date it differs from city to city.

What this page gives you

  • The day — resolved from the death tithi, or the closing Sarva Pitru Amavasya when the day is not known.
  • The aparahna window as a clock time — not a generic “about 1:30 to 4:00 pm”, but the window for your city on that date, with the kutapa hour inside it.
  • The rule that chose the day, and whether it is stated in a named text or is followed convention. Both are shown as what they are.
  • The whole fortnight, day by day, with the tithi actually running during each day's aparahna.

What this page does not decide

Bharani Shraddha — the Bharani-nakshatra day of the fortnight — is named rather than folded into the Amavasya, and regional customs beyond the rules stated on the page are left to a family priest.

If the rite is performed outside India

The tradition itself is not unanimous here: some families keep the Indian tithi for continuity with relatives at home, others follow the sky where they live. Both are defensible. The page computes for the city you give it and says so on the answer, so you can see which convention you are being shown.

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