The new moon day known as the Mahalaya Amavasya is the beginning of Dussehra. It is a special day dedicated to making an offering to express our gratitude to all the previous generations of people who have contributed to our life.
Scientists say that human beings and their ancestors have existed on this planet for 20 million years. That is a lot of time. All these hundreds of thousands of generations that lived on this planet before us have given us something or the other.
During this time, in the Indian subcontinent, new crops would have just begun to bear yield. So their first produce is offered to the ancestors as a mark of respect and thankfulness, by way of pinda, before the whole population breaks into celebration in the form of rituals.
Pitru Paksha is considered by Hindus to be inauspicious, given the death rite performed during the ceremony, known as Shraddha or Tarpan. In southern and western India, it falls in the 2nd paksha Hindu lunar month of Bhadrapada (September) and follows the fortnight immediately after the Ganesh Festival. It begins on the Padyami (first day of the fortnight) ending with the new moon day known as Sarvapitri amavasya, Pitru Amavasya,Peddala Amavasya, Mahalaya amavasya or simply Mahalaya.
