ततो दशाहेऽतिगते कृतशौचो नृपात्मजः।
द्वादशेऽहनि संप्राप्ते श्राद्धकर्माण्यकारयत्॥
tato daśāhe ’tigate kṛta-śauco nṛpātmajaḥ
dvādaśe ’hani samprāpte śrāddha-karmāṇy akārayat
tataḥ daśa-ahe atigate = after ten days had passed; kṛta-śaucaḥ = became cleansed of the impurity due to His father’s death; nṛpa-ātmajaḥ = Prince Bharata; dvādaśe = when the twelfth; ahani = day; samprāpte = arrived; śrāddha-karmāṇi = the Śrāddha rituals; akārayat = He performed.
After ten days had passed, Prince Bharata became cleansed of the impurity due to His father’s death. When the twelfth day arrived, He performed the Śrāddha rituals.1
1 Since the scriptures also declare that Bharata is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is actually no question of His becoming impure. And yet, to teach us, the conditioned souls, that after the death of a father, the sons are in a period of contamination [according to their varṇa], Lord Bharata behaved in this manner. In The Nectar of Devotion, Prabhupāda refers to this form of impurity thus: “One should not enter the temple in a contaminated state. (According to Vedic scripture, if someone dies in the family the whole family becomes contaminated for some time, according to its status.)”
1 Puṇyāha-vācana is a ceremony where qualified brāhmaṇas utter certain Vedic hymns to bring about auspiciousness on that day. Nava-śrāddha is the first in the series of śrāddha ceremonies that bring about auspiciousness for one’s departed father and so on.
2 Ṣoḍaśa-māsika ceremonies are also part of the Śrāddha system. They are sixteen ceremonies conducted on specific days for one year since the departure of one’s father with one such ceremony every month and four additional ceremonies on specific days. Sapiṇḍī-karaṇa is another ritual to be performed on the twelfth day; it is considered to be a part of the final rites.
3 Obviously, this does not mean that Daśaratha had become a ghost. But these are standard practices which are followed by those who accept Vedic dharma in case a departed soul has become a ghost.
On the eleventh day, Bharata became cleansed of the impurity, that is, He had the Puṇyāha-vācana, Nava-śrāddha and other such ceremonies performed.1 On the twelfth day, He performed the Śrāddha rituals pertaining to the Ṣoḍaśa-māsika ceremonies and the Sapiṇḍī-karaṇa ceremony.2
GLOSS. Kṛta-śauca indicates that [Prince Bharata] had conducted the Śrāddha ceremony on the eleventh day [after the funeral], the ceremony that liberates a departed soul from ghostly existence.3