Tripindi Shradh: What It Is, When It Is Advised, and How It Differs From Narayan Bali

Tri is three and pinda is the offering of rice or grain made to the departed. Tripindi Shradh is a shradh in which pindas are offered for three generations of ancestors together, rather than for one named person on their tithi as in the annual shradh. It is a kamya shradh — performed for a stated purpose — and it addresses the lineage collectively, which is why it is associated with families who no longer know exactly whose rites were missed.

The circumstance most often given is simple: the annual shradh has not been performed for three or more consecutive years. It is also advised where a family cannot say which ancestors were last remembered, and where a pandit or astrologer traces recurring difficulties in the family to lapsed ancestral rites. It is not, on its own, the rite for an untimely death — that is the purpose of Narayan Bali. If someone has advised Tripindi for your family, it is reasonable to ask which of these circumstances they have in mind.

Practice varies between tirthas and between families of pandits, so treat this as the general shape rather than a fixed vidhi. The rite opens with a sankalp naming the person performing it and their gotra. In the form most widely described, three deities — Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra — are invoked as the presiding deities of the three pindas. The pindas are offered for the three generations, with tarpan of water and black sesame, and the rite closes with daan in the ancestors’ name. It is usually completed within a day; the time and the number of pandits depend on the tirtha.

• Tripindi Shradh — for rites that have lapsed across years or generations; addresses three generations together.
• Narayan Bali — for an ancestor who died an untimely or unnatural death, or whose last rites could not be performed. How Narayan Bali differs is covered in detail in our guide.
• Narayan Nagbali — a combined three-day rite, best known at Trimbakeshwar, that adds the Nagbali for the killing of a snake.
• Pitra Dosh Puja — the general ancestral rite: tarpan, pind daan and the Pitra Dosh nivaran mantras for the ancestral line, where the deaths were natural.

The rites overlap in their offerings — every one of them includes pind daan and tarpan — but each is prescribed for a different circumstance. The basic rites are compared in more detail elsewhere.

Tripindi Shradh is most closely associated with Trimbakeshwar, where it is performed routinely alongside Narayan Nagbali. It is also performed at other tirthas for ancestral rites, including Gaya, Haridwar and Ujjain. As with all ancestral rites, if your family has an established custom about where these are done, follow it.

We perform Tripindi Shradh in Ujjain for ₹4,500 — puja, pind daan for three generations, tarpan and daan on the bank of the Shipra, on one day, with the sankalp in your name and gotra. If a pandit has advised a different rite for your family, message us on WhatsApp with what you were told and we will say plainly which one fits. If an ancestor died an untimely death, the rite is Narayan Bali. If the deaths in your family were natural and what the family wants is for the lapsed rites to be completed, the general ancestral rite we perform on the Shipra covers tarpan and pind daan for the ancestral line. If you are still deciding, which rite fits which situation walks through it.