Jala Pradāna

Jala Pradāna means “the giving of water”. It is the ritual offering of water to someone who has just died, and it is one of the basic acts in the rites that follow a death. It is done at a river, a pond or another sacred body of water. The family members who remain, especially the male relatives, offer handfuls of water (añjali) while reciting the name and family line of the one who has passed away.

In the Mahābhārata, the first section of the Strī Parva (the Book of the Women) is called the Jala Pradāna Parva. Its story ends with the Kuru elders and the women performing this rite on the banks of the Gaṅgā for all the warriors killed at Kurukshetra.

The Rite

Jala Pradāna is done straight after a death, and it is one of the first acts in the antyeshṭi saṃskāra, the sequence of last rites. Its parts are:

  • Water (jala or udaka): sacred water, ideally from a river and especially from a holy river like the Gaṅgā, is taken in cupped hands
  • The añjali: the cupped hands hold the water, which is then poured out while facing south (the direction of pitṛ-loka, the world of the ancestors) or facing the sacred water
  • Naming: the name, gotra (family line) and pravara (line of ancestral ṛshis on the father’s side) of the departed are recited as the water is offered, so that the soul is identified and receives the offering
  • Repetition: several offerings are made by different relatives, such as sons, grandsons, brothers and other male kin, in the set order of relationship

In the Mahābhārata: The Strī Parva

The first section of the Strī Parva (Chapters 1–15) takes its name from this rite. Dhṛtarāshṭra, Gāndhārī, Kuntī and the Pāṇḍavas travelled to the battlefield of Kurukshetra and mourned their dead. Then they went on to the Gaṅgā, and the story ends with the shared water offering for all who had died in the war. This was a huge undertaking: hundreds of thousands of warriors were to be remembered by name and by family line.

The rite is especially moving here. The Kauravas had no sons left to perform Jala Pradāna for them, since all of them had been killed. So it fell to Dhṛtarāshṭra and the surviving elders to perform the rite for the Kaurava dead, and to the Pāṇḍavas to perform it for their allies.

Place Among the Other Rites for the Dead

Jala Pradāna is the first step in the rites after death:

  1. Jala Pradāna: the immediate water offering (udaka-kriyā)
  2. Śrāddha: the full rite with offerings of food to the pitṛs (ancestors)
  3. Tarpaṇa: continuing water offerings to the ancestors at set times

The Strī Parva ends with the Śrāddha Parva (Chapter 26), which records the teaching on what happens to warriors after death. That teaching is the setting of dharma in which the śrāddha rites are performed.

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Strī Parva, Chapters 1–15 and Chapter 26