How to Perform Shradh From Abroad When You Cannot Travel to India

You live abroad. A parent or grandparent has died, or died years ago, and the annual observance falls due. Flying to India every year for a rite that takes a morning is not realistic — the leave, the cost, the children's school. Meanwhile an older relative asks whether it has been done, and there is no comfortable answer. This is an extremely common situation and it has a straightforward traditional resolution: the rites can be performed by a qualified purohit on your behalf, at an appropriate place, with your sankalp. We arrange exactly that through our Pitra Dosh and shradh puja in Ujjain.

Shradh is the observance performed for departed ancestors, most commonly on the tithi of death and during Pitru Paksha. In its full traditional form it involves offerings made by a descendant, with a priest conducting the rite, and food offered in the ancestors' name. The essential elements are the intention, the correct time, and a properly conducted rite — with the sankalp naming both you and the ancestor. The physical presence of the descendant is traditionally preferred; it is not universally treated as indispensable, which is precisely why engaging a purohit at a tirtha on a family's behalf has been ordinary practice for a very long time.

People use these interchangeably and then book the wrong one, so it is worth separating them. Tarpan is the offering of water, comparatively simple, and can be performed regularly. Shradh is the fuller annual observance on the tithi, involving offerings and the feeding of brahmins. Pind Daan is the offering of pindas, associated particularly with liberation of the departed and traditionally performed at specific sites. There are also more specific rites — Narayan Nagbali and Tripindi Shradh — prescribed for particular circumstances such as unnatural death or long-neglected ancestral obligations. If you are unsure which your family needs, ask before booking; we would rather redirect you than sell you the wrong rite.

Pitru Paksha is the fortnight given over to ancestral rites, and the correct day for your observance is the tithi on which the person died — not a fixed calendar date. Two practical consequences for devotees abroad. First, the tithi follows the Indian calendar, so if you are in New Zealand or Australia your local date may already be a day ahead; the puja follows India's date, and we confirm both in writing so there is no confusion. Second, if the tithi is genuinely unknown, Sarva Pitru Amavasya — the final day of the fortnight — is the traditional catch-all for all ancestors whose date is not known. Many NRI families use it for exactly this reason.

This is more common than families expect, particularly two or three generations out, and it is not a barrier. If the tithi is unknown, Sarva Pitru Amavasya covers it. If you know the approximate period but not the day, a purohit can advise on the appropriate tithi. If you do not know the ancestor's name — which happens in families several generations abroad, including many Indo-Fijian families in New Zealand — the rite can still be performed for the lineage generally. Not knowing is not negligence, and no priest worth engaging will treat it as such. Tell us what you do know and it will be worked with.

Engaging a purohit in India does not mean you do nothing. Tarpan with water can be offered where you are. Feeding someone in the ancestors' name — a meal given, a donation made to someone who needs it — is central to the observance and is entirely portable; it does not require India, a priest, or a rupee transaction. Abstaining from certain foods during the fortnight, if that is your family's practice, travels with you too. The rite performed in Ujjain and what you do in your own home are complementary, and a good purohit will tell you that rather than implying the payment is the whole of it.

The practical process is the same as any other booking: give the ancestor's name and your own, with gotra, and the tithi if you know it; we confirm the date and the exact time in both IST and your local time; the rite is performed in Ujjain; you join by video call if the timing allows, or receive the recording. Ujjain has a long association with ancestral rites, and Pitra Dosh Puja and shradh is one of the rituals we perform most for families abroad. If you are not certain which rite applies to your situation, message us before booking — this is the one area where we would genuinely rather have a conversation first than take an order.

Almost every enquiry we get on this subject carries an apology in it somewhere — for not going back, for not knowing the details, for asking late. It is worth saying plainly that distance is not abandonment, and that arranging for the rites to be performed properly by someone qualified is a legitimate discharge of the obligation rather than a shortcut around it. Do it on the right tithi, with the right intention, and have someone competent conduct it. That is what is being asked of you. If it helps to talk it through first, our NRI service page has the contact details, and nobody will push you toward a booking you have not decided on.