I have to include information about Brahmakapalam. This is where the ancestors that passed away are remembered by doing specific rituals and rites.
This is one of the places where if you do 'pinda pradanam', the ancestral souls will be freed and reach Vaikunta (the abode of Vishnu). We were planning to do this at the famous Gaya, Varanasi anyway. My husband had collected all the names, gothrams etc. (the data required to mention at the time of the ritual) before the trip.
There was a large stone not too high in one corner of the Temple along the river. That was where the priest and Rao sat to perform the rites. Only men were eligible to do the ritual. My husband was allowed to do on behalf of Nirmala for her parents, brothers and sisters who passed away. Nirmala and I stood at a distance and so, could not see the details of it. We were told we should do this even for any pets like cows, dogs, birds and so on that had left (us) this earth. I felt that it was more to free ourselves of any bondages to those souls, since those souls are free anyway. But the tradition says that we do these to free those departed souls and those souls will not have rebirth. Our goal being not to return to this earth and go through the sufferings, this made sense too.
We were given prasadam for this purpose at the Temple and we ate it after the rites were performed.
By the way, this is the only place we can see the river Saraswathi. In other places like Thriveni sangamam in Allahabad, it is hidden underneath!!
We visited the Vedavyasa shrine also here. Pandavas supposedly left for Vaikuntam (the abode of Vishnu) from here.
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