314:1 The offerings of the Hindus to the Pitris partake of the character of those of the Romans to the lares and manes, but bear a more conspicuous part in their ritual. They are said indeed by Manu (III. 203), in words repeated in the Váyu and Matsya Puráńas and Hari Vanśa, to be of more moment than the worship of the gods: These ceremonies are not to be regarded as merely obsequial; for independently of the rites addressed to a recently deceased relative, and in connexion with him to remote ancestors and to the progenitors of all beings, which are of a strictly obsequial or funereal description, offerings to deceased ancestors, and the Pitris in general, form an essential ceremony on a great variety of festive and domestic occasions. The Nirńaya Sindhu, in a passage referred to by Mr. Colebrooke (As. Res. VII.), specifies the following Śráddhas: 1. The Nitya, or perpetual; daily offerings to ancestors in general: 2. The Naimittika, or occasional; as the Ekoddisht́a,or obsequial offerings on account of a kinsman recently deceased: 3. The Kámya, voluntary; performed for the accomplishment of a special design: 4. The Vriddhi; performed on occasions of rejoicing or prosperity: 5. The Sapińd́ana; offerings to all individual and to general ancestors: 6. The Párvańa Śráddha; offerings to the manes on certain lunar days called Parvas, or day of full moon and new moon, and the eighth and fourteenth days of the lunar fortnight: 7. The Gosht́hi; for the advantage of a number of learned persons, or of an assembly of Brahmans, invited for the purpose: 8. The Śuddhi; one performed to purify a person from some defilement; an expiatory Śráddha: 9. The Karmánga; one forming part of the initiatory ceremonies, or Sanskáras, observed at conception, birth, tonsure, &c.: 10. The Daiva; to which the gods are invited: 11. The Yátrá Śráddha; held by a person going a journey: and 12. The Pusht́i Śráddha; one performed to promote health and p. 315 wealth. Of these, the four which are considered the most solemn are the rite performed for a parent, or near relative, lately deceased; that which is performed for kindred collectively; that observed on certain lunar days; and that celebrated on occasions of rejoicing. Nirńaya Sindhu, p. 271.