sign of this identity, many of these sites
are claimed to be Shakti Pithas—places
where a part of the dismembered god-
dess Satifell to earthand took form as a
different goddess. Shiwalik goddesses
are also thought of as relatives. Kathleen
Erndl mentions seven goddesses, known
as the Seven Sisters: Vaishno Devi,
Jwalamukhi,Vajreshvari Devi,Chinta-
purni, Naina Devi,Chamunda, and
Mansa Devi. Modern Hindilanguage
sources list nine—the seven just men-
tioned plus Shakumbhari Deviand
Kalika Devi. This group of nine is scat-
tered in three different Indian states
along the Shiwalik Range: Seven are in
Himachal Pradesh, Vaishno Devi is in
Jammuand Kashmir, and Shakumbhari
Devi is in Uttar Pradesh. The pantheon
here is fairly flexible, and the goddesses
mentioned in these lists will probably
vary over time, partly reflecting the suc-
cess or failure to establish the holiness
of these sites. For further information on
the Shiwalik goddesses and worshipof
the Mother Goddess in northwestern
India, see Kathleen Erndl, Victory To The
Mother, 1993. See also pitha.
Shiwalik Hills
Himalayan foothills running through
the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and
Kashmir. The hills are an ecological
transition zone between the plains
and the mountains but have their own
religious ecology as well. Whereas the
sites high in the Himalayasare often
associated with Shiva, the primary
sacred sites (tirthas) in the Shiwaliks are
associated with the Goddess. See also
Shiwalik goddesses.
Shraddha
(“faithful”) Ancestral memorial rite, per-
formed either for one specific person
(ekoddishta), or for a group in which the
primary beneficiaries were one’s three
paternal ancestors (parvana).
An ekoddishta shraddha is usually
first performed on the eleventh day after
a person’s death, although it may be
repeated on the anniversary of the
death. It is also usually performed every
year during the Pitrpaksha, a two-week
period specifically devoted to such rites,
on the lunar day during this period that
corresponds to the lunar day of death.
A parvana shraddha can be per-
formed on a number of different occa-
sions, for a number of different rea-
sons. In the dharma literatureand its
commentaries, shraddhas are classi-
fied as falling in all three categories of
ritual action: nitya, naimittika, and
kamya. Certain shraddhas are obliga-
tory (nitya) because they are pre-
scribed for certain particular times,
such as during the Pitrpaksha. Other
shraddhas are occasional (naimittika)
because they are necessary only under
certain conditions, such as the obliga-
tion to give a tirtha shraddha when
one visits a pilgrimage place (tirtha).
Finally, certain shraddhas are freely
performed because of the desire (kama)
for certain benefits from them—usually
conceived as the well-being of one’s
ancestors—and these are desiderative
(kamya) shraddhas.
Whatever the motive for giving the
shraddha, the general procedure always
has two particular features: symbolically
feeding one’s ancestor(s) by offering
balls of cooked grain (pindas), and feed-
ing real food to a group of brahmins (the
group with the highest social status in
Hinduism) representing one’s ancestors.
Each of these parts is given a great deal
of ritual elaboration, and there is con-
siderable disagreement about which
should come first, but in modern times
offering the pindas generally precedes
the meal. Many texts exalt the spiritual
merits generated from feeding brah-
mins, but this is hardly surprising, since
most of these texts were written by brah-
mins, and for many brahmins living at
pilgrimage places these shraddhas were
(and remain) an important part of their
livelihood. However, many people deem
this livelihood parasitic, and it is also
potentially inauspicious, since it is
gained through rites performed for theShiwalik Hills