What is Pitra Dosha?

Pitra refers to ancestors or forefathers and any wrong done by ancestors themselves or to
ancestors either by others or their own progenies creates Paitrik or Pitra Dosh. There is a
mention of 14 kinds of Pitra-Dosh based on placement and aspect of malefic planets. Rahu is
considered the major cause of Pitra Dosh in Vedic astrology. Some astrologers believe that Pitra
Dosh is an indication that ancestors of people, who have Pitra Dosh in their horoscope, could not
be relieved of their sufferings either due to the results of their own wrong doings or because of
unnatural/premature death. It is believed that Pitra Dosh may occur if any ancestors up to the
7th generation (fathers side)/4th generation (mothers side) had met an unnatural death.
Others are of the opinion that Pitra Dosh is the curse of ancestors. It simply means that
forefathers of the person having Pitra Dosh in the horoscope are not happy with the native. As a
result, native having Pitra Dosh suffers from diseases, failures, disruptions in education and
debts etc. State of being childless is also considered the result of this Dosha. Premature or early
death due to diseases or accidents is observed in worse cases. Some believe that Pitra Dosh is
caused due to lack of fulfilment of any parental desire. Whatever the reasons for Pitra Dosh in
ones horoscope, the native has to clear the debt of forefathers or fulfil the parental desire. Debt
formed by misdeeds of the forefathers has either to be paid, cleared or reduced by good deeds of
the progenies. If this is not possible by any means, there are several remedies available to reduce
the bad effects of the Pitra Dosh. One should get suspicious of being under the impact of Pitra
Dosh if he/she is observing the following incidences in his/her family life. After finding the
indications of Pitra Dosh, it is wise to consult an astrologer to confirm if there is an affliction in
the 9th house by any malefic planet. Following signs indicate probability of presence of Pitra
Dosh:

Abortion, repeated miscarriages, premature baby birth and innumerable death of children
Problems in conceiving or getting pregnant
Disruption in education and career growth
Delayed marriage, problems in marriage and married life
Spirit (ghost) shadow on the family
Remedy for Pitra/Paitrik/Pitru dosh. When Pitra Dosh is due to abnormal or unnatural early death
of any ancestor (Garud Purana 40:4-12) in the manner given in following sentence, a rite called
Narayan Bali is performed at T RIMBKESHWAR, Haridwar, Badrinath and Gaya by learned
Pundits/Brahmins/Sadhaks. Unnatural type of death involves death by robbers, murder, arson,
curse, animals, snake bite, lightening, fall from mountain, falling of a tree, by a disease, suicide,
fasting etc.
Performing shraaddha ceremony and pind-daan following specific rituals at the Gaya or any other
specified place.
Performing ancestors puja during pitra paksha removes Pitra Dosha.
Performing puja of the Pipal tree on any Somwati Amavasya reduces the bad effects of Pitra
Dosha. First thing to be done is to offer one Yagyopavit (offer a Janeu) to the tree and second

Yagyopavit to Lord Vishnu. Thereafter move around the tree (parikrama) 108 times. While moving,
chant the mantra "Om Namo Bhagvate Vaasudevaay Namah" and offer a sweet to the tree during
each round.
One more remedy is to feed crows and fish with small balls of cooked rice and sesame seeds mixed
with gee on every Saturday. Crows, street dogs & sweepers should be offered food during the Pitra
pakchha.
Charities like gold and cow to a Brahmin
Perform Rudrabhishek (Rudra Abhishek) in the name of ancestors and Kanya Daan.
Pitra Dosh is not a curse of the Ancestors for sure as the horoscope of a person is drawn and
decided right at the time of his birth and accordingly any kind of defects are decided at the time of
his birth which would include defects like Pitra Dosh, Kaal Sarp Dosh and Manglik Dosh among
other defects. Coming to the defect called Pitra Dosh, if this defect is decided at the birth of a
person, then what has this person done in this birth to get cursed by the ancestors. I mean if a
person grows older and does some bad Karmas or Bad deeds which may bring disgrace to the
good and fair name of Ancestors, then it may be considered that the Ancestors are cursing that
person. But why curse a person before his birth.
And before we move any further, let me tell you that in most of the cases a person born in a family
line is none other than one of his own Ancestors. For example a person born in a family line is
usually one of the forefathers of that family who has reborn in that family again. According to the
theory of Karmic astrology, most of the people are born in the same family lines with same friends
and same enemies in so many of their lives until their Karmic debts, duties and rewards are all
cleared from that particular group of people or we can call them particular group of Souls.
Coming back to the point, what actually is this Pitra Dosh if it is not a curse of the Ancestors? Let's
look into the matter and find out what is Pitra Dosh.
Pitra Dosh is not the curse of the ancestors as defined by some astrologers, but it is a debt formed
as a result of bad deeds done by the ancestors and this debt has to be paid by the present
generation either by taking the punishment decided according to that debt or by doing some
specific good Karmic deeds which would help paying this debt so that the degree of punishment
may be decreased. And after knowing so much about the definition of Pitra Dosh, let's find out how
this dosh is seen present in a horoscope. Lets discuss about its remedies. Like all other defects
presents in a horoscope, Pitra Dosh is a very technical defect and general remedies are not
sufficient for it. It is very important first to identify the planet or planets causing Pitra Dosh and
then do the remedies which usually involve Pooja, Mantras, Gemstones and Charities. And for the
people who are told that Pitra Dosh is a curse of the ancestors and it can be modified by doing
Poojas and charities to pacify and please their ancestors, let me tell you that this remedy is not
going to do much good for you because your Ancestors are not cursing you but they are themselves
cursed and so you don't need to pray to them, but you need to pray for them. So in order to relieve
yourself and your ancestors of the Pitra Dosh present in your horoscope, identify the planet or
planets causing Pitra Dosh in the horoscope and then do specific Remedies to pay the debts of
those planets and pacify those planets so that they may reduce the quantum of punishment they are
imposing on you.