Shraadh and Pitru Paksha

Shraadh and Pitru Paksha ~ Generally son of the dead person has authority to perform Shraadh for the dead person. The terminology of Shraadh has been prepared assuming the son as being the person who performs the shraddha. Therefore the soul of dead person for whom the Shraadh is being performed, is invoked as ‘pita’ (father of the son performing Shraddha). One generation before, i.e. the father of dead person is referenced as ‘Pitamaha’ (grandfather of the son performing Shraadh). The grandfather of the dead person is referred to as ‘Prapitamaha’ (great grandfather of the son performing Shraadh). The earlier generations than these are not counted in trios of Pitars (Pitrutrayi), because it is assumed that they are liberated.
Hindu Dharma does not give any cause for excuse for women not performing shraddha due to the absence of a particular person. However, these days the priests who conduct Shraadh deny their consent for women to perform Shraadh. This could be because in the earlier days the thread ceremony was performed for females, and in current era, this practice has been discontinued in all classes. Therefore, in accordance to that, even performing of Shraadh has been disallowed for females. however, if no one is available for performing Shraadh, then it is better for it to be performed by women instead of not performing it at all. The woman performing Shraadh should place a clean cotton cloth on her shoulder while performing Shraadh.
Son, daughter, grandson, great grandson, wife, daughter’s son (if he is one of the heirs), real brother, nephew, cousin’s son, father, mother, daughter-in-law, son of elder and younger sisters, maternal uncle, anyone in the seven generations and from the same lineage, anyone after the seven generations and belonging to the same family domain, son-in-law of the deceased person can perform Shraadh in that order. In case of a joint family, the eldest and earning male person should perform Shraadh. In case of the unit family, everyone should perform shraadh independently. Hindu Dharma has made arrangement so that for each and every dead person the Shraadh can be performed so as to give momentum to that person to progress to a higher sub-plane.
Jai ShivaShakti ~ Jai ShankarParvati!