Of the sixteen samskaras which encompass a Hindu life, the last one is performed for the dead by their sons of grandsons or realatives. Many passages in the puranas and dharmasastras extol the role of the son in the life of a devout Hindu. The samskaras do not leave out any of the seven stages nor any of the turning points in the life of an orthodox Hindu. It is considered meritorious to remember the dead and pay the deceased ancestors due homage and obeisance. The present book deals with the rite of sraddha, and vindicates the popular belief that sraddha, being an important topic, forms an integral part of Hindu dharmasatras. The belief in the after-death survival of deceased ancestors and their separate world belongs to the Indo-Iranian period and as such is pre-Vedic. Ancestor-worship for one's prosperity, continuation of one's race, is as old as the Rgveda. It appears that the ritual of sraddha prescribed by Agni, Garuda, Kurma, Padma, Visnu Puranas practically follows the same procedure as given in the Grhyasutras and Smrtis of Manu and Yajnavalkya. This book completes the series, ending as it does with a description of the last samskara. As soon as the players have played their seven parts the eighth is played by the descendants, preferably by the son of the deceased. What begins with the completion of the sraddha.
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