Pitrapaksh Mela
A fortnight when the whole of Gaya belongs to the dead
What it is
The fortnight of the ancestors. Several lakh people come to Gaya to perform pind daan in the same fifteen days, and the town rearranges itself around them: temporary camps, police on every ghat, queues at Vishnupad from before dawn.
Why it matters
It is the largest gathering of its kind in India and it is almost unknown outside the communities that observe it.
How it works
- Book a room and a pandit months ahead. Both run out.
- Expect queues measured in hours at Vishnupad.
- The district publishes a route and camp plan each year; follow it.
- Who it is for
- Families performing shraddh, and anybody who wants to see it.
- Not for
- Anybody hoping for a quiet Gaya. It is the opposite of that.
- Best season
- Sep - Oct only
- Difficulty
- Hard, because of the crowds
- Cost
- The rite's costs, plus rooms at their highest of the year.
- When
- The dark fortnight of Ashwin — September or October
- Booking
- Three months ahead, minimum.
- Book ahead
- Three months
- Languages
- Hindi, English
Where
- Vishnupad Temple, Gaya: Lord Vishnu's footprint, and the great seat of pind daan
- Phalgu River ghats, Gaya: Tarpan and the riverbed pinda offerings of the Gaya Shraddha are made on these ghats
- Akshayavat: It is where the final, concluding pinda of the Gaya Shraddha is offered, making it the last stop of the...
- Pretshila Hill: Devotees bathe in Brahma Kund and then perform pinda-daan on the hill for ancestors believed to be...
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