Śrīmanta

Śrīmanta was the son of Nimi, who came from the line of Atri Maharshi through Dattātreya. He had great wealth and was a tapasvin (one who practises tapas, austerity). He did a tapas of a thousand years. When it was complete, he gave up his body, as every embodied being must, under the law of kāla (time). His death and the grief of his father Nimi led to the first śrāddha in the world. Śrāddha is the rite in which offerings are made to the ancestors. In this way Śrīmanta’s passing became the beginning of one of the most lasting rites of Sanātana Dharma.

A wealthy tapasvin

Śrīmanta had great sampad (wealth and accomplishment) together with the power to do very hard tapas. He did an austerity of a full thousand years. This was a feat beyond ordinary human strength (anivaraṇīya tapas). At the end of this tapas, his body, bound like that of every embodied being to the law of kāla, died. This is told in the Anuśāsana Parva of the Mahābhārata.

The first śrāddha

Śrīmanta’s death threw his father Nimi into deep grief. In his mourning for Śrīmanta, Nimi put together the rites that became, after the teaching of Atri Maharshi, the formal vidhi (rule) of śrāddha. These are the offering of piṇḍas (balls of rice), the invitation of brāhmaṇas, and the calling of Śrīmanta’s own name and gotra (family line) in the offering of the piṇḍas.

Śrīmanta himself takes no action in the account beyond his tapas and his death. Yet his passing was the occasion through which the ancient pitṛ-dharma (the duty to the ancestors) of Bhagavān Brahmā was set up again among men.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 91