Shloka 9
तीर्थवंशोपदेशः
Tīrtha-vaṃśa Upadeśa: Instruction on the Fruits of Sacred Waters
मन्त्रहीनं क्रियाहीनं यच्छाद्ध॑ परिविष्यते । त्रिभिर्वर्णैर्नरश्रेष्ठ तं भागं रक्षसां विदु:
mantrahīnaṁ kriyāhīnaṁ yac chrāddhaṁ pariviṣyate | tribhir varṇair naraśreṣṭha taṁ bhāgaṁ rakṣasāṁ viduḥ ||
Bhīṣma sprach: „O Bester der Menschen, die Speise, die bei einem śrāddha aufgetragen wird, wenn sie ohne vedische Mantras und ohne die vorgeschriebenen Riten dargebracht wird, gilt—bei den Menschen der drei varṇas—als ein Anteil, der den rākṣasas gehört.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Śrāddha is presented as a dharmic act that must be performed with both mantra (sacred recitation) and kriyā (prescribed ritual procedure). When these are absent, the offering is treated as spiritually misdirected—symbolically said to become the ‘share of the rākṣasas’ rather than benefiting the intended ancestors.
In the Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma, including rules for gifts and ancestral rites. Here he warns that serving śrāddha food without Vedic mantras and proper observances is considered improper by the orthodox social order (the three varṇas) and is condemned as yielding an inauspicious, demonic ‘portion.’