ശ്രീ പിതൃ ചാലീസാ

A Hindi chalisa addressed to the ancestors rather than to a god, and its logic is one of obligation instead of grace. What the ancestors did for the reciter is stated first, and it is not a favour but a fact: they gave him birth in a human womb, which is the one birth from which anything can be done. From that follows the line the whole piece turns on, that without discharging the debt owed to the ancestors there is no release. So the requests are for the road to be lit and for a hand to be put on the head, and the merit sought is the dust of their feet. Its opening verses set the order of a household rite exactly — Ganapati first, then the deity of the house, and only then the ancestors — which is how the Shraddha observances are actually performed.