Pinda death ritual

Maybe you have heard about one very interesting ritual with rice balls - pindas, performed after death in India. Since this ceremony is easy to spot on Varanasi ghats, we have decided to take a close look on it.

We called our friend brahmin in Varanasi, and here is what he said.

The pinda, though very small and seemingly unsophisticated, plays a significant role in death rituals, assisting the soul of the dead person to avoid some serious problems.

After the cremation, when the soul have left the body through the hole in the skull, the rice balls are offered to the soul during 12 days. A new ball each day. Why 12? Because it takes exactly this amount of time for the soul to reach the world of ancestors - the mysterious Pitriloka.

On the way to Pitrilka the soul may encounter some grave troubles. Like it can get stuck between Heaven and Earth, turning into a ghost or into an ever-hunger spirit. But the pinda rituals actually help the soul to proceed smoothly on its way.

The balls symbolize a transferring body and offer a temporary asylum for the soul. The thing is, after death, the soul gets quite confused - what to do and where to go. And since there is no body anymore, it needs some anchor. And this is what the pindas are made for.

There's also a theory, that the soul actually feeds on those balls, but that is not very clear. The balls are composed of rice flour, and sometimes sesame and barley flour. What exactly meaning is assigned to those ingredients, our friend brahmin couldn't tell us on the spot, but promised to ask his grandfather, a 90 year old ayurveda professor. We'll keep you updated on this. Probably, the soul somehow likes the sesame.

On with the ritual. On the 10th day there's a special ceremony for the balls. The pinda is left on the ground for the crows. Crows are considered as a symbol of Yama - the lord of death in Hinduism. The crows are very greedy, and yet very clever. A lot of things could be discovered watching their behaivour. So sometimes the crows would not come near the pinda, as if something or someone scares them away.

This means that the soul tries to get the attention of the relatives. It hovers above the rice ball and keeps the crows at a distance - this is the only way the soul can send a message to the relatives.

Apparently, the soul is in pain because of vasana - a fundamental desire, which it failed to fulfill during lifetime. And if the relatives are ready to help, they should approach the pinda and say "Should you have any unsatisfied desire, come to my dream or let me know about it in some other way". And then the deceased person will try to establish a contact.

On the 12th day the soul finds itself in Pitrlioka, and its future is defined by its karma. The soul can attain - reunite with the God, or get a new life on Earth.

Later on the pinda ritual is done after in a year. The name of the deceased is muttered over the rice balls and the family dips into Ganges rivers. If the first ritual was performed in some sacred city, like Varanasi, there is no need to perfom it for the second time.