Iyengar Srardham: How Sri Vaishnavas Perform the Shraddha

Most Iyengar (Sri Vaishnava) households perform the annual srardham, the thithi, on the Apastamba pattern, with a place for Sri Mahavishnu as the protector of the rite (srardha samrakshaka), which Sri Vaishnava writers treat as central. Bodhayana, Rig Vedi and Sama Vedi families follow their own sutra. The order - sankalpa, brahmins seated for the Vishvedevas and the ancestors, homa, the meal, the pindas, dakshina - is the Vedic one shared with Smartha households. What Sri Vaishnava writers add is a clear ranking of the forms, a firm view that the full rite with homa should be done by anyone able to do it, and rules for postponing. This page draws on the grading set out by the late Mukkur Lakshminarasimhachariar and on a srardham question-and-answer compilation published on trsiyengar.com.

Whose rules it follows

One Sri Vaishnava account of how the srardham came to its present form is that the sage Bodhayana first set out the procedure, a long one, and the sage Apastamba later shortened it into the form most Iyengar households now follow. For questions of detail, the same compilation points to the Smriti Muktaphala of Vaidyanatha Dikshita (popularly called Vaidyanatha Dikshitiyam, also printed as a Tamil summary in 1985), and to Sri Vaishnava works such as the Pitrumedha Saram, and the Srivaishnava Sadachara Nirnaya, which a jeer of the Ahobila Math wrote before he took sannyasa.

For the full order of steps, which an Iyengar srardham shares, see our step-by-step Smartha shraddha guide. The rest of this page is about what Sri Vaishnava practice adds or stresses.

The five seats

In the fullest form, Mukkur Lakshminarasimhachariar wrote, five brahmins are invited, one for each of these places:

• Brahma - the priest who oversees the homa
• Brihaspati - the vadhyar who conducts the rite
• Vishvedeva - the gods who escort the ancestors
• Pitru - the ancestors themselves
• Sri Mahavishnu - seated as the protector of the srardham

Most homes today invite fewer. The single brahmin in the ancestors' place is identified with the Vasu, Rudra and Aditya forms, the deities of the srardham, so that one guest carries the offering to all three generations and beyond.

The forms, from fullest to simplest

Mukkur Lakshminarasimhachariar ranked every form a household might use:

Grade	Form
Best	With homa and the meal: five brahmins at best, down to the vadhyar and one guest - every homa form ranks above the forms below
Good	Sankalpa srardham without homa, a meal for three brahmins plus the vadhyar
Middling	Sankalpa srardham without homa, two guests (Vishvedeva and Pitru) plus the vadhyar
Lowest of these	Sankalpa srardham without homa, one guest plus the vadhyar
Without a meal	Uncooked provisions - raw rice, raw banana, pulses, jaggery - offered with the sankalpa to three brahmins
Ama srardham	The uncooked offering to a single brahmin, without even the sankalpa mantra
When nothing else is possible	Tila tarpanam on the day, offered at the feet of Vishnu; and if there is no sesame, plain water

Hiranya srardham, with money in place of the meal, stands beside these. The compilation describes it as meant for those with real limitations, such as the very aged who cannot sit through the long procedure. Our guide to the smaller forms when a full srardham is not possible covers how other traditions see them.

Why the homa form is pressed so hard

The compilation is direct that the shorter forms are not a matter of convenience. Everyone who is able - physically and mentally, not only financially - should perform the srardham with homa. Its reason: only then is the offering given three times, first through the fire, then through the brahmins' meal, and lastly through the pindas, and only after these three does the remaining cooked food become pitru sesham, the ancestors' share, which the family eats as their blessing. A hiranya srardham produces no pitru sesham. The compilation regrets that many households leave this food untouched, not knowing what it is.

Details first-time kartas ask about

• The seventh offering. In the homa, after offerings twice each to father, grandfather and great-grandfather, a seventh goes to the jnata-ajnata pitrs: known and unknown ancestors, distant kin who died with no one to perform their rites.
• The number of pindas. The compilation gives three for Sama and Rig Vedi households, six for Yajur Vedi ones, and more for Bodhayana followers.
• Who eats the srardham food. Close relations and members of the same gotra, and children under seven. In the Thenkalai tradition there is a custom called ishta pandhi, under which anyone the family wishes, even someone unrelated, may eat.
• The crow. A portion is set out for crows; the compilation's ideal is that crows begin eating before the guests rise from the meal.
• Ekadashi. If the srardham tithi falls on an Ekadashi the family keeps as a fast, many Sri Vaishnava families perform it on Dwadashi. Ask your vadhyar.
• Tarpanam. Strictly, it is done the next morning. Doing it at the end of the srardham day is a later convenience, which the compilation accepts as better than not doing it at all.
• The time. The rule is the afternoon (aparahna). The compilation acknowledges that with today's schedules, and guests who may be diabetic, a start around 11 in the morning is common, so that the guests eat in the early afternoon.

Postponing, and the one thing you cannot do

The srardham belongs on its thithi. The exceptions the compilation lists are a vadhyar or guest who fails to come, a calamity, or ritual impurity from a death among close relatives. A srardham missed for such a reason is performed on the very next day, or the next Krishna Paksha Ashtami, or the next Amavasya, in that order, and failing those in the next month. But it can be postponed, never brought forward. Our guide to what to do after a missed shraddha covers this in full.

When the karta's wife has her monthly period on the day, practice differs by Veda: the compilation records that Sama and Rig Vedi households wait until after the fifth day, while Yajur Vedi households may perform the srardham in her absence.

Vadakalai and Thenkalai

The two Iyengar traditions differ in philosophy and in many household customs, and the srardham can carry those differences, in what is recited and in customs like ishta pandhi above. The order of the rite follows the family's sutra in both. If you are booking a vadhyar outside your own community, tell him which tradition your family follows, and he will adjust.

Does the yearly srardham ever end?

The compilation's answer is no. Asked why one should continue a srardham for a parent who may already have reached Paramapadam, the compilation answers that we have no way of knowing where the departed have gone, so we are instructed to continue it for our lifetime. Because it is offered for three generations, it also reaches any ancestor who has not yet reached the goal, and the known and unknown kin as well.

Other traditions keep the same day in their own way: see the Madhva shraddha and shradh in North India and Bengal. To book a vadhyar for a srardham at home, request a vadhyar here and mention the form you want (with homa, sankalpa or hiranya), your Veda, and Vadakalai or Thenkalai.