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 NOTE K, p. 242.

ON SKADDHAS.

In the Nirnaya-sindhu the /Sraddhas are classified under twelve heads l :

1. Nitya-sraddha ; perpetual, obligatory, daily offerings to ancestors, without the Vaisvadeva offerings 2. A man who is unable to offer anything else may perform this sraddha with water.

2. Naimittika-sraddha ; occasional, as, for instance, the ekoddisbtfa, i. e. the sraddha intended for a person lately deceased, and not yet incorporated with the Pitm. This, too, is without the Vaisvadeva offering, and the number of Brahmarais invited should be unequal.

3. Karnya-sraddha ; voluntary, or rather, offered for a special object.

4. Yriddhi-sraddha ; offered on occasions of rejoicing or prosperity, such as the birth of a son, &c.

5. Sapmdana-sraddha ; performed when the recently de- parted is incorporated among the Pitris. For this sraddha four patras or vessels are required, full of sesame and scented water for argha, and the vessel of the recently deceased person is poured into the vessels of the Pitro's, with the two verses ' ye samanaA/ It is in one sense an ekoddishtfa, and for the rest to be performed like the nitya-sraddha. It can be offered for a woman also 8. V

1 See Colebrooke, Life and Essays, vol. ii. p. 196 ; Wilson, Vishnu- purana, p. 314.

2 Vishnu-purana, p. 326. 3 See Ya^wavalkya I. 252-253.