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Mantra · The verses said as sesame-water is poured for ancestors, in rite order

Pitru Tarpan Mantra

ऊर्जं वहन्तीरमृतं घृतं पयः कीलालं परिस्रुतम् । स्वधा स्थ तर्पयत मे पितॄन् ॥

Also known as Pitru Tarpanam

In Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.

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What the Pitru Tarpan Mantra is

The Pitru Tarpan Mantra, as the North Indian manuals of the Shukla Yajurveda print it, is not one hymn but the run of verses said while water is poured for the ancestors after the morning bath. The rite keeps a fixed order: water for the gods facing east, for the sages, for the divine humans facing north; then, with the sacred thread moved to the right shoulder and the face turned south, sesame-water for the divine ancestors, the fourteen names of Yama and the family's own forebears, each named with gotra. Mantra 1 and Mantra 2, from the Vajasaneyi Samhita (2.34 and 19.36), belong to the nine Vedic verses said over that offering; they appear without accent marks, as the svaras are learned from a teacher. Verses 1 and 2 follow facing east, for every kind of being. Verses 3 to 8 turn south again, for those in torment, the forgotten and the childless. Verse 9 accompanies the wringing of the bathing cloth; Verse 10 opens and closes a shraddha.

Aurva's water for every living being

The oldest setting for these verses is the Vishnu Purana, book 3, chapter 11, where the sage Aurva teaches King Sagara the day of a householder. After bathing and putting on clean cloth, Aurva says, one offers water through the proper part of the hand to the gods, the sages and Prajapati, then to father, grandfather and great-grandfather, to the mother's father and his line, to mothers, the teacher's wife, maternal uncles and a dear friend. Then he adds: hear another, optional offering. It is given, the Purana says, for the help of all beings, and its words are close to the verses printed here as Verses 1 to 4. The Skanda Purana's Kashi Khanda, chapter 35, gives the fuller sequence in Skanda's teaching to Agastya: doubled darbha with sesame, the thread reversed, the fourteen Yamas, the reciter's own gotra, and the nine Vedic verses that include Mantra 1 and Mantra 2. It names the parts of the hand, fingertips for the gods and the place between thumb and forefinger for the ancestors, and closes with Verses 6 and 7 and a form of Verse 9. The Vayu Purana, chapter 48 of its later half, sets Verses 6 and 7 at Gaya, in Sanatkumara's account to Narada of the pilgrimage where sesame-water precedes the pinda.

The mantra, in six scripts

DevanagariSanskrit & Hindiऊर्जं वहन्तीरमृतं घृतं पयः कीलालं परिस्रुतम् । स्वधा स्थ तर्पयत मे पितॄन् ॥

Tamilஊர்ஜம் வஹந்தீரம்ருதம் க்ருதம் பயஃ கீலாலம் பரிஸ்ருதம் । ஸ்வதா ஸ்த தர்பயத மே பித்ரூந் ॥

Teluguఊర్జం వహన్తీరమృతం ఘృతం పయః కీలాలం పరిస్రుతమ్ । స్వధా స్థ తర్పయత మే పితౄన్ ॥

Kannadaಊರ್ಜಂ ವಹನ್ತೀರಮೃತಂ ಘೃತಂ ಪಯಃ ಕೀಲಾಲಂ ಪರಿಸ್ರುತಮ್ । ಸ್ವಧಾ ಸ್ಥ ತರ್ಪಯತ ಮೇ ಪಿತೄನ್ ॥

Malayalamഊര്ജം വഹന്തീരമൃതം ഘൃതം പയഃ കീലാലം പരിസ്രുതമ് । സ്വധാ സ്ഥ തര്പയത മേ പിതൄന് ॥

EnglishRoman transliterationūrjaṃ vahantīramṛtaṃ ghṛtaṃ payaḥ kīlālaṃ parisrutam | svadhā stha tarpayata me pitṝn ||

“O waters, you carry strength, nectar, ghee, milk, food and flowing juices. You are svadha, the food of the ancestors: satisfy my ancestors.”

ऊर्जं: ūrjaṃ — strength, nourishment
वहन्तीरमृतं: vahantīramṛtaṃ — you (waters) carrying nectar
घृतं: ghṛtaṃ — ghee
पयः: payaḥ — milk
कीलालं: kīlālaṃ — food, sweet drink
परिस्रुतम्: parisrutam — flowing juice
स्वधा: svadhā — svadha, the ancestors' food
स्थ: stha — you are
तर्पयत: tarpayata — satisfy
मे: me — my
पितॄन्: pitṝn — ancestors

Pitru Tarpan Mantra lyrics in full

Two Vedic mantras and ten verses, in the order the tarpana manuals say them; the lines that call each ancestor by name and gotra are taken from the family's own manual.

All 12 verses, in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, each with its meaning. Choose a script:

Download the Pitru Tarpan Mantra PDFAll 12 verses with their meanings, in Sanskrit. Free to print and keep.

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Mantra 1

ऊर्जं वहन्तीरमृतं घृतं पयः कीलालं परिस्रुतम् ।
स्वधा स्थ तर्पयत मे पितॄन् ॥

O waters, you carry strength, nectar, ghee, milk, food and flowing juices. You are svadha, the food of the ancestors: satisfy my ancestors.

Mantra 2

पितृभ्यः स्वधायिभ्यः स्वधा नमः पितामहेभ्यः स्वधायिभ्यः स्वधा नमः प्रपितामहेभ्यः स्वधायिभ्यः स्वधा नमः ।
अक्षन् पितरोऽमीमदन्त पितरोऽतीतृपन्त पितरः पितरः शुन्धध्वम् ॥

Svadha and salutation to the fathers who come to the svadha offering; svadha and salutation to the grandfathers and to the great-grandfathers who come to it. The fathers have eaten, the fathers have rejoiced, the fathers are satisfied; O fathers, be purified.

Verse 1

देवासुरास्तथा यक्षा नागा गन्धर्वराक्षसाः ।
पिशाचा गुह्यकाः सिद्धाः कूष्माण्डास्तरवः खगाः ॥

Gods and asuras, yakshas, nagas, gandharvas and rakshasas, pishachas, guhyakas, siddhas, kushmandas, trees and birds.

Verse 2

जलेचरा भूनिलया वाय्वाधाराश्च जन्तवः ।
प्रीतिमेते प्रयान्त्वाशु मद्दत्तेनाम्बुनाखिलाः ॥

and creatures that move in water, that live on the earth and that live upon the air: may all of these quickly be pleased by the water I offer.

Verse 3

नरकेषु समस्तेषु यातनासु च ये स्थिताः ।
तेषामाप्यायनायैतद्दीयते सलिलं मया ॥

For those who are in any of the hells and in their torments, I give this water to refresh and strengthen them.

Verse 4

येऽबान्धवा बान्धवाश्च येऽन्यजन्मनि बान्धवाः ।
ते तृप्तिमखिला यान्तु यश्चास्मत्तोऽभिवाञ्छति ॥

Those who were not my kin, those who were my kin, and those who were my kin in another birth: may all of them be satisfied, and whoever else longs for water from me.

Verse 5

ये मे कुले लुप्तपिण्डाः पुत्रदारविवर्जिताः ।
तेषां हि दत्तमक्षय्यमिदमस्तु तिलोदकम् ॥

Those of my family whose pinda offerings have stopped, who died without son or wife: may this water with sesame, given to them, never run out.

Verse 6

आब्रह्मस्तम्बपर्यन्तं देवर्षिपितृमानवाः ।
तृप्यन्तु पितरः सर्वे मातृमातामहादयः ॥

From Brahma down to a blade of grass, may the gods, sages, ancestors and human beings be satisfied. May all the ancestors be satisfied, with the mothers, the maternal grandfathers and the rest.

Verse 7

अतीतकुलकोटीनां सप्तद्वीपनिवासिनाम् ।
आब्रह्मभुवनाल्लोकादिदमस्तु तिलोदकम् ॥

For the countless past generations of my family, dwelling anywhere in the seven continents and in every world up to the world of Brahma, let this be the water with sesame.

Verse 8

येऽबान्धवा बान्धवा वा येऽन्यजन्मनि बान्धवाः ।
ते सर्वे तृप्तिमायान्तु मया दत्तेन वारिणा ॥

Those who were not my kin or were my kin, and those who were my kin in another birth: may all of them be satisfied by the water I give.

Verse 9

ये के चास्मत्कुले जाता अपुत्रा गोत्रिणो मृताः ।
ते गृह्णन्तु मया दत्तं वस्त्रनिष्पीडनोदकम् ॥

Whoever was born in our family and died without a son, kinsmen of our line: may they accept the water I give, wrung from my cloth.

Verse 10

देवताभ्यः पितृभ्यश्च महायोगिभ्य एव च ।
नमः स्वाहायै स्वधायै नित्यमेव नमो नमः ॥

Salutation to the gods, to the ancestors and to the great yogis. Salutation to Svaha and to Svadha, always, again and again.

The syllable people get wrong

In Verse 5, akṣayyam (never running out) has a doubled y: say 'ak-shay-yam', holding the y across both syllables, not 'akshayam' or 'akshasya'. The kṣ is one cluster, k sliding straight into a palatal sh.

When the Pitru Tarpan Mantra is chanted

Festival. Pitru Paksha (Mahalaya)

Questions

Those lines change for every family. In the manuals each ancestor is called by gotra, relation and name, the father as a Vasu, the grandfather as a Rudra and the great-grandfather as an Aditya, and the same is done for the mother's line and then for the maternal grandfather's gotra. Families follow their own lineage's manual and priest for these name-and-gotra formulas. The rows here are the general verses that every family says in the same words.

Verse 9. Once the gods, sages and ancestors have received water, the cloth worn for the bath is folded four times, dipped, carried out of the water and wrung onto the ground on the left. The manuals quote a smriti saying that this water is the share of beings who live on what the bather leaves. They also say the cloth is not wrung on a day when the household is keeping a yearly shraddha.

Svadha is the call with which food and water are given to the ancestors, as svaha is the call for offerings to the gods; the manuals gloss it with the Vedic saying that svadha is the food of the ancestors. Mantra 1 addresses the waters as svadha itself. Verse 10 salutes both calls as goddesses. Printings split on the order: some read svadhayai svahayai, others svahayai svadhayai, with no change of meaning.

The purpose is the same, but the words differ. This page follows the order of the Shukla Yajurvedi manuals of the North. Krishna Yajurvedi families, common in the South, offer to three generations on the father's and mother's sides over a bundle of darbha, using their own Vedic verses; their form of Mantra 2 reads svadhavibhyah. Even northern manuals differ in small words, such as pritim or triptim in Verse 2.

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