Key Takeaways
- Which rite your family needs
- Travelling, or having it performed for you
- Bringing ashes to India
- Visas, and who does not need one
In This Article
Families write to us from the United Kingdom, the United States, the UAE, Canada, Australia and Singapore, and the arrangement is the same for all of them. What differs is the visa, the flight and the hour we call you. What does not differ is the rite, the pandit, or what it costs.
Which rite your family needs
Four different things get called “the ceremony” in conversation, and families often ask for one when they mean another. The distinction matters because the timing, the place and the cost are all different.
Pind Daan
The offering of pindas for the liberation of an ancestor. Performed once for a departed person, most often in the first year or during Pitru Paksha, and the rite families travel furthest for. Gaya holds the oldest tradition for it; Prayagraj, Varanasi and Haridwar all have their own. See online pind daan for NRI families.
Asthi Visarjan
The immersion of the ashes in a sacred river. This is the one with a travel problem attached, because the ashes have to reach India — see the section below before you book anything. Arranged at the Sangam at Prayagraj, at Varanasi, at Haridwar and at Garh Ganga. See online asthi visarjan.
Shradh and Tarpan
Shradh is the annual observance on the tithi of the death, and during Pitru Paksha for the lineage as a whole. Tarpan is the water offering, made on amavasya and through Pitru Paksha. Both recur, both can be performed in your name without you travelling, and both are what most overseas families settle into after the first year. See online shradh and tarpan.
Whatever the rite, the sankalp needs the same things: the full name of the departed, the gotra, the father’s name, the date of death if it is known, and the names of those on whose behalf the rite is being performed. Families abroad often have to ask an older relative in India for the gotra, and that can take a few days. Starting that conversation early saves more time than anything else in the arrangement.
Travelling, or having it performed for you
Both are traditional and neither is a lesser version. A rite performed by a pandit in your name and gotra, with you watching on a live link, is complete. The sankalp names you; your physical presence is not what makes it valid.
What travelling gives you is not a better ceremony but a different one to live through — standing at the ghat, doing the thing with your own hands, and the days either side of it. Families who have lost a parent often find that matters. Families settling an older debt, a grandparent or a lineage, more often arrange it remotely and are right to.
The honest practical answer: if you can go, go once, for the rite that matters most. Arrange the recurring observances from where you live.
Bringing ashes to India
This is the part families get wrong, and it is the one that cannot be fixed at the airport. Cremated remains may be carried into India, but not casually.
- Carry them in the cabin, not in checked baggage. Hold luggage is permitted by most airlines but is the wrong choice: it can be delayed, rerouted or opened out of your sight.
- The urn must be non-metallic so it can be screened — wood, ceramic, marble, stone, plastic or glass. A metal urn is the commonest reason a family is stopped at security.
- It must be hermetically sealed, with a sealing certificate or funeral director’s declaration stating that it is sealed and contains only the remains of the named person.
- Carry the paperwork together: the death certificate, the cremation certificate, the deceased’s passport, and a consular certificate from the relevant consulate. Where the death was unnatural, a police certificate as well.
- India requires advance notice to the health officer at the arrival airport, generally at least 48 hours before you land.
- Tell the airline when you book, not at check-in. Requirements differ between carriers and some want their own form.
The consular certificate is the slow one. It is issued by the consulate of the country where the death occurred and can take days or weeks depending on where you are. The sealing certificate comes from the crematorium or funeral director and is quick, but it has to say the right thing — that the container is hermetically sealed and holds only the remains of the named person.
Families have arrived at an Indian airport with ashes and a death certificate and nothing else. It is a bad week to be arguing at a customs desk. Tell us when you are planning to travel and we will tell you what the ghat will need from you as well.
If this is reading as more than you want to take on, it is a reason to consider the remote arrangement rather than a reason to delay the rite. We have performed asthi visarjan for families who sent the ashes with a travelling relative, and for families who could not.
Visas, and who does not need one
Passport holders of all six countries families most often write to us from — the UK, the US, the UAE, Canada, Australia and Singapore — are eligible for the Indian e-Visa, applied for online at indianvisaonline.gov.in. Apply several working days before you travel rather than the minimum, particularly around Pitru Paksha when volumes rise.
Overseas Citizenship of India functions as a lifelong visa, so an OCI holder travels on the OCI card and the passport it is linked to, with no separate application. A good many of the families who write to us about ancestral rites hold one and start filling in an e-Visa form they do not need. Check the card before you apply, and confirm the current position with the Bureau of Immigration, since the documentation rules around OCI have been changing.
Which city, and getting there
| City | Best for | What it is, and getting there |
|---|---|---|
| Prayagraj | All four rites | The Sangam, and where our own pandits are. Fly to Delhi, then a short flight or an overnight train; Varanasi airport is about 2.5 hours by road |
| Gaya | Pind daan | The oldest tradition for it, and Pitru Paksha above all. An international airport with seasonal service, otherwise Delhi or Patna and then road or rail |
| Varanasi | Asthi visarjan | Death rites on the Ganga. Its own airport, with direct domestic connections |
| Haridwar | Asthi visarjan | Where the Ganga reaches the plains, and pind daan too. Fly to Delhi, then about four to five hours by road or rail |
If your family has always gone to one of these, go there. Where there is no family practice, the rite usually decides it: Gaya for pind daan, Prayagraj or Varanasi for ashes, and Prayagraj for anything combining several rites in one visit.
Planning the trip
- Day one. Fly in. An overnight flight arriving in the morning works best.
- Day two. Rest, and meet the pandit to settle the gotra, the names and the scope of the rite.
- Day three. The main ceremony, half a day to a full day depending on what is being performed.
- Day four. Darshan, the evening aarti, or a second rite if one is being added.
- Day five. Fly home.
Four to six days covers one city properly. Add two for a second. The full Prayagraj, Gaya and Varanasi circuit wants seven to ten days and is worth doing once rather than hurriedly.
Pitru Paksha is a fortnight in September or October, and it is when every overseas family wants the same dates in the same four cities. Flights, hotels and pandits all tighten together. Eight weeks is comfortable; four is tight; two weeks before means taking whatever is left.
If the dates cannot be made to work, the rite is not lost. Shradh on the tithi of the death, an amavasya tarpan, or a Pitru Paksha rite performed in your name while you are at work in another time zone are all ordinary arrangements and all complete.
What it costs, and how payment works
| Rite | From | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Asthi Visarjan | ₹5,100 | Garh Ganga; Haridwar and Varanasi from ₹7,100, Prayagraj ₹9,999 |
| Pind Daan | ₹7,100 | Prayagraj; Gaya, Varanasi, Haridwar and Ayodhya ₹11,000 |
| Tarpan | ₹11,000 | Gaya, including during Pitru Paksha |
| Tripindi Shradh | ₹22,000 | Prayagraj; Gaya ₹30,999 |
| Narayan Bali | ₹35,000 | Prayagraj, Gaya or Haridwar |
Prices are the same wherever you are writing from. We take payment by PayPal or an international card, so there is no need to arrange a transfer through a relative in India. Each package page lists what is included and what is not — travel, donations and add-on rites such as brahmin bhoj or gau daan are separate and are always shown separately.
🙏 Ancestral rites arranged from abroad
- Pind daan, asthi visarjan, shradh and tarpan at four tirthas
- Performed in your name and gotra, watched live on WhatsApp or Zoom
- PayPal and international cards accepted
- Prasad couriered to your address abroad
Common questions
Is a rite performed without the family present still valid?
Yes. The sankalp names you, your gotra and the departed, and that is what constitutes the offering. Rites have been performed on behalf of absent family members for as long as people have travelled.
Can I carry my parent’s ashes on the flight?
Yes, in the cabin, in a sealed non-metallic urn, with the death certificate, cremation certificate, the deceased’s passport, a consular certificate and a sealing certificate. India also wants notice to the arrival airport’s health officer, usually 48 hours ahead. Tell your airline when you book.
Who in the family should perform the rite?
Traditionally the eldest son, but the tradition has always had provisions for every other case — a daughter, a younger brother, a nephew, or a pandit acting on behalf of a family with no surviving male line. Tell us the situation and the pandit will tell you how it is done.
What time of day will the ceremony be, where I live?
Rites are performed in the morning in India, which is the early hours in North America, the small hours in Australia, and a workable morning in the Gulf, the UK and Singapore. We will give you the time in your own zone when the date is fixed, and the recording if the hour is impossible.
Do you have a page for my country?
We had several and have folded them into one, because the arrangement does not actually differ by country. The NRI services page covers all of it, and anything genuinely specific to where you are — the visa, the hour of the call, the consulate for the ashes paperwork — is on this page.
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