Ekoddishṭa
Ekoddishṭa · eka-uddishṭa, “offered to one”
Grammar: neuter noun (also used as an adjective of the śrāddha); a compound of eka (one) and uddishṭa (intended, offered, from ud-diś, to point out, to dedicate): “that which is offered to one”.
Meaning: the śrāddha offered to one departed person alone, without the Viśvedevas, as distinct from the pārvaṇa śrāddha offered to the pitṛs together.
In the scriptures: in the Brahma Purāṇa, Vyāsa gives the munis the rule of the ekoddishṭa in his teaching on śrāddha.
Every year the annual śrāddha, the taddina, is offered together with the Viśvedevas for one’s mother and father, for paternal uncles who have no children, and for one’s eldest brother. In the ekoddishṭa, offered to one person, there are no Viśvedevas, and two brāhmaṇas are honoured, in the places of the deva and of the pitṛ. The same is done for the maternal grandfather and the others of his line.
After a death, purification comes for brāhmaṇas on the eleventh day, for kshatriyas on the thirteenth, for vaiśyas on the sixteenth and for the śūdra on the thirty-first. At the end of the sūtaka (the period of impurity), the ekoddishṭa is offered at home on the twelfth day, at the month, and at the tripaksha (three fortnights). Until the year ends the māsika, the monthly śrāddha, is offered each month; then the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa is performed by the pārvaṇa procedure, and from then the departed one leaves the state of a preta and becomes a pitṛ-devatā.
For women too the rite is done by this ekoddishṭa procedure. For women without children the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa is not needed: for them, and for those without progeny, the annual ekoddishṭa is prescribed (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 220).
Related terms: Śrāddha · Pārvaṇa · Sapiṇḍīkaraṇa · Viśvedeva · Preta · Pitṛ
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 220