Shraddha (śrāddha)

Shraddha is the rite performed for the dead, offering water and food so that the departed are sustained among the ancestors. After the war the surviving Pandavas descend to the river to make these offerings for the fallen of both sides, and it is there, with the water in his hands, that Yudhishthira learns from Kunti that Karna was his eldest brother. The revelation converts a funeral rite into the epic's most devastating recognition scene, and Yudhishthira curses all women with an inability to keep secrets.