Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 1

A man stands knee-deep in a cold river, just after dawn. He faces south. In India, south is the direction of the dead. In his cupped hands he holds a little water, a few black sesame seeds, and some blades of sacred kusha grass. He says a name. His father's. Then another name. His grandfather's. Then a third. His great-grandfather's, a man he never met, known to him only as a name his own father once said.

Source note. Label: scripture and living tradition. The comparison of fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers to the Vasus, Rudras and Adityas is Manusmriti, chapter three, verse two hundred eighty-four. The hymns to the Pitrs, and the hymns about Yama, the first mortal to travel the road, are in the Rigveda, tenth book, hymns fourteen and fifteen. The description  ...