Shashtipoorthi
Shashtipoorthi is kept when a man completes sixty years and his birth nakshatram returns as it stood at his birth. The Ugra Ratha Shanti is performed with the Mrityunjaya homam and the navagraha shanti, and the couple is seated again for the mangalya dharana, as at their vivaham.
The date is not the sixtieth birthday by the calendar. It is the day the nakshatram and the month return to where they stood at birth, and it can fall well before or after the English date. Give us his birth date, time and place, and we will give you the correct day and the muhurtham.
The day is a happy one and the family treats it so: children and grandchildren attend, the couple is honoured, and the mangalya dharana is repeated. Underneath it is a shanti, and we perform that part in full — the Mrityunjaya homam for length of life and the navagraha shanti for the years ahead.
The seventieth-year Bhima Ratha Shanti and the eightieth-year Sathabhishekam follow the same pattern, and we perform those too.
No prices are listed here. Each karyam is quoted on the phone, once we know the date, the place and the custom your family follows.
Questions about this karyam
Is it on the sixtieth birthday?
Not usually. It falls when the birth nakshatram and month return, which may be months before or after the English birthday. We work out the day from the birth details.
How long does it take?
Most of a morning, about five hours with the homam, the shanti and the mangalya dharana.
Do you perform the seventieth and eightieth as well?
Yes, the Bhima Ratha Shanti at seventy and the Sathabhishekam at eighty, on the same principle.
Can it be kept if the wife is no longer living?
It can, and it is. The mangalya dharana is not performed in that case, and the shanti and the Mrityunjaya homam are done in full, which is the substance of the day. Families sometimes believe the whole thing lapses; it does not, and we would not want anyone to go without the shanti for that reason.