Dharma Katha

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 65

Eleven days ago, we began with a man standing knee-deep in a river at dawn, pouring water through his fingers and saying three names. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode sixty-five, day eleven, the season finale. In episode sixty-four we tried to remember the ones we had forgotten. Now, before the season closes, I want to walk back over the whole road with you, because I think, taken together, these stories make a map. A map of how the tradition thinks about the dead, and about us.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 64 first.

Source note. Label: retelling. This episode summarises the stories of Season One with their episode numbers; each story's sources are given in its own episode. The reading of the season as a map, and the reflections at the end, are my own. No Sanskrit is quoted in this episode.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 64

Try this. Name your four great-grandmothers. Most of us cannot. Many of us cannot name even one. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode sixty-four, day eleven. It is a short one. In episode sixty we prepared for this new moon, and in episode sixty-three we asked who the offering is for. Now I want to sit with one group in particular, the ones we have forgotten, and I want to be honest that this episode is a reflection, my own, and not a teaching from any text.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 60 first.

Source note. Label: reflection. The custom of naming three generations in the father's line, and often the mother's, is described from living practice and varies between families. The rest of this episode, including the suggested practice, is my own reflection, not a teaching from a text and not a rite. No Sanskrit is quoted in this episode.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 63

There is a moment near the end of the tarpan, in many families, when the names run out. The father has been named, and his father, and his father's father. The mother's line has been named. And then the person pouring the water keeps going, and offers to people they do not know at all. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode sixty-three, day eleven. On day seven, in episode forty, we heard the folk story of Karna in heaven, served food that turned to gold, sent back to earth for fifteen days to feed his ancestors. That story, as the tradition tells it, is one of the reasons for this fortnight. Today, on its last day, I want to ask a simple question. On Sarva Pitru Amavasya, who are we actually offering to?

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 40 first.

Source note. Label: tradition. The meaning of Sarva Pitru Amavasya, its other name Mahalaya Amavasya, the inclusion of ancestors whose tithi is unknown, of the maternal line, teachers and friends, and of those who died untimely deaths, are described from living custom and published accounts; practice varies by family and region. The tarpan verse for kin and non-kin is commonly attributed to the Vishnu Purana; I have not verified the text and give it only in paraphrase. References to earlier stories are to episodes two to nine, three, forty and sixty-one of this season. No Sanskrit is quoted in this episode.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 62

The man who won the war sits by the river and does not want to be king. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode sixty-two, day eleven. In episode sixty-one, Kunti stood in the Ganga after the war and told her sons that Karna, the man they had killed, was their eldest brother. Today we stay with Yudhishthira, and with the offering he made, because I think it is the most painful tarpan in the whole of the Mahabharata.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 61 first.

Source note. Label: scripture. Yudhishthira's water offering for Karna is from the Stri Parva, section twenty-seven; that he had Karna's family brought and performed the rites with them is in the Ganguli translation as I recall it, and I have not re-checked the wording. The month by the Ganga, Narada's visit, Yudhishthira's lament and his words about Karna's feet are from the Shanti Parva, section one; Narada's account of the curses follows in the next sections. Kunti's statement that she and Surya tried to persuade Karna, and Yudhishthira's curse on women, are placed in the Shanti Parva, around section six, in published accounts; I have not checked the exact verses. The reflection on the tarpan of regret is my own. No Sanskrit is quoted in this episode.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 61

She kept it for more than fifty years. Through a marriage, through five sons, through exile and war. She kept it through the morning she saw him ride out against her other children. And she let it go only when it could no longer save anyone. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode sixty-one, day eleven. Our last day. Sarva Pitru Amavasya, the new moon of all the ancestors. On day seven, in episodes thirty-seven to forty-two, we followed Karna, the son of the sun, from the basket on the river to his death on the battlefield. Today we follow the woman who put him in that basket. This is Kunti's story, and it is from the Mahabharata.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 48 first.

Source note. Label: scripture. Kunti's mantra, Karna's birth and the river basket are from the Adi Parva; her fainting at the tournament is reported there as well. Her meeting with Karna before the war and his promise to spare four of her sons are from the Udyoga Parva. Her revelation at the Ganga during the water offerings, and the Pandavas' grief, are from the Stri Parva, section twenty-seven, as summarised in published accounts; the quoted words are from the K. M. Ganguli translation as given in those accounts. Yudhishthira's words to Narada about Karna's feet resembling Kunti's are from the Shanti Parva, section one, in the Ganguli translation. Kunti's possible reasons are my own reading. No Sanskrit is quoted in this episode.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 60

Tomorrow is the last day. If there is a name you meant to say this fortnight and did not, tomorrow is the day the tradition keeps for you. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode sixty, day ten, the last of the day. It is a short one. In episode fifty-four we looked at the five small portions of food set aside before the meal. Tonight, something practical, for the evening before Sarva Pitru Amavasya, the new moon of all the ancestors.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 54 first.

Source note. Label: tradition. The purpose of Sarva Pitru Amavasya as the day for ancestors whose date of death is unknown or who have no one to remember them, the offering of tarpan with sesame and kusha, the simple meal and the five portions, giving in Pitru Paksha, and the evening lamp called pitru visarjan, are described from my knowledge of living custom and published accounts; practice varies widely and I have not cited a text. This is not a guide to performing the rites; please follow your family's practice and ask a qualified priest. No Sanskrit is quoted in this episode.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 59

Somewhere beyond the moon, the old texts say, there is a world where it is always the hour when lamps are lit. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode fifty-nine, day ten. In episode thirty we met Yama, the first mortal to walk the road of death, and the judge of the dead. Today a gentler question, one we have been circling all season without ever asking directly. Where are the ancestors? Not their bodies. Them. What does the tradition say about the world of the Pitrs, the Pitruloka?

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 30 first.

Source note. Label: Purana and scripture. The two paths, devayana and pitriyana, the path of smoke through the dark fortnight to the moon, and the return to birth, are from Chandogya Upanishad chapter five, section ten, and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad chapter six, section two, described from published translations, not quoted. That a human month is a day and night of the Pitrs, the dark fortnight their day, is in Manusmriti chapter one, verse sixty-six, as I have read it in translation. The classes of Pitrs such as Agnishvatta, Barhishad and Somapa are named in the Manusmriti, chapter three, and described in the Vayu and Matsya Puranas, whose accounts differ; I have not quoted them. The remarks about twilight and the evening lamp are partly tradition and partly my own reflection. No Sanskrit is quoted in this episode.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 58

It is four in the morning in Kolkata. The street is dark. In house after house, someone gets up, without an alarm, and switches on a radio. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode fifty-eight, day ten. It is a short one. In episode fifty-seven we heard what the Chandi is, and why it belongs to Mahalaya. Now, the strange and lovely story of how a radio programme became part of a sacred morning.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 57 first.

Source note. Label: tradition, modern. That Mahishasuramardini was first broadcast from Calcutta in 1931, that it was performed live until it was replaced by a recording broadcast since 1966, that Bani Kumar wrote it, Pankaj Kumar Mullick composed it and Birendra Krishna Bhadra recited it, that it is aired at dawn on Mahalaya and lasts about an hour and a half, and that a 1976 replacement version with Uttam Kumar was withdrawn after public disapproval, are from published accounts, including the Wikipedia article on the programme; details such as the exact recording date are reported differently in some sources. The reflections are my own. No Sanskrit is quoted in this episode.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

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Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 57

There is a line of Sanskrit that millions of people know by heart without ever having opened the book it comes from. They know it the way you know a lullaby. They heard it in the dark, before dawn, every autumn of their childhood. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode fifty-seven, day ten. In episode fifty-six the Goddess drank, and laughed, and the buffalo demon fell. Today, a quieter question. When people speak of the Chandi Path on Mahalaya, what exactly is being recited, and why on this day?

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 56 first.

Source note. Label: tradition, with one verse of scripture. The structure of the Devi Mahatmya, thirteen chapters in three charitras associated with Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati, is the standard traditional division. The verse quoted, yā devī sarvabhūteṣu śaktirūpeṇa saṃsthitā, is from the hymn in chapter five, read on the shlokam.org page for the Aparajita stuti, where it is numbered twelve; the forms listed after it are from the same hymn. The customs of Mahalaya in Bengal, the invocation of the Goddess, and the painting of the images' eyes, are living tradition described from published accounts; they vary by place. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the verse.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Dharma Katha · Season 1: Pitru Paksha · Episode 56

Before the last blow, the Goddess stops. She lifts a cup. She drinks. And she tells the demon, almost gently, to go on roaring for a little while longer. This is Dharma Katha, Season One, Pitru Paksha. Episode fifty-six, day ten. In the last episode the gods, defeated and driven from heaven, poured their anger out as light, and the light became a woman, armed with every god's weapon and riding a lion. Today she meets the buffalo demon. This is the story from the Devi Mahatmya, chapters two and three, and it is the one most people think of when they hear the name Durga.

Missed the previous story? Listen to Episode 55 first.

Source note. Label: Purana. The armies and generals of Mahishasura, the Goddess's breath becoming soldiers, his changes of form, her drinking, and his death half-emerged from the buffalo, are from the Devi Mahatmya, chapters two and three, retold from published translations, with lists shortened. The verse quoted is Devi Mahatmya chapter three, verse thirty-seven in the edition I used, thirty-eight in some others; the Devanagari was read on the hindupad site. The promise to come when remembered is at the close of chapter four. The reading of the shape-changing demon, and the link to Pitru Paksha, are my own reflections. A Sanskrit reader should confirm the verse.

Note: this episode is narrated with an AI voice and the script was written with AI assistance. Sanskrit verses are checked against published editions; corrections are welcome.