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Shastri
Smarta tradition, Shukla Yajurveda, Madhyandina shakha. He has practised in Varanasi for 32 years.
The person
He read Karmakanda at Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi, then spent eleven years working beside his father in the family puja hall a few lanes back from Dashashwamedh ghat. Families return to him for Rudrabhishek and for the longer Shraddha and tarpan sequences, which he does not hurry. About half his bookings now come from households in the United States and the Gulf, so he holds a fixed pre-dawn slot in Varanasi that lands in their evening. He explains the sankalp in English before he begins, then chants in Sanskrit.
Where he stands
The school a pandit belongs to and the shakha he was trained in decide the order of the vidhi and the sound of the recitation. Both are stated rather than assumed.
Sampradaya
Smarta
Advaita in doctrine, following Adi Shankara. Rites use the panchayatana form, in which five deities are honoured as aspects of one reality, so a Smarta purohit ordinarily performs across the whole range of household rites.
Lineage
Shukla Yajurveda, Madhyandina shakha
This lineage was confirmed in writing by his pathashala and vouched for by senior purohits who have practised alongside him. What was examined, and on what date, is set out under Verification.
Verification
Each check below was carried out by our team against a document or a person who could confirm it. A check is dated because a check from three years ago is a different claim from one made last month.
Aadhaar and PAN were checked against the name on his bank account, and a live video selfie was matched to both documents by our onboarding team.
14 Nov 2025
His adhyayana in the Madhyandina shakha was confirmed in writing by the principal of his pathashala, and two senior Varanasi purohits who have shared a yajna vedi with him vouched for the guru-parampara he names.
22 Nov 2025
He recited the Rudram and Chamakam and the full Shraddha sankalp sequence before a three-member review panel, which assessed svara, pada-paatha and the correct ordering of the vidhi.
2 Dec 2025
He completed a recorded rehearsal session from his puja hall: two fixed camera angles on the havan kund, a lapel microphone, and an uplink measured at 6 Mbps sustained over forty minutes.
9 Jan 2026
His name appears on the visiting-ritvik roster kept by the Kashi Vishwanath temple office; our field team saw and photographed the roster entry in January 2026.
16 Jan 2026
A police verification certificate from the Varanasi commissionerate dated 4 February 2026 was received, together with references from two families he has served for more than a decade.
11 Feb 2026
Expertise
Specialities are the families of rite he has trained and practised in, not everything the catalogue offers.
Languages
The mantras themselves are recited in Sanskrit whoever performs them. What the list above changes is the language the sankalp is taken in, and the language the rite is explained in as it proceeds — which is the part a family follows.
Rites
Each one states its vidhi, its samagri and what differs between tiers before you commit to anything.
Shiva
रुद्राभिषेक
A continuous pouring over the Shiva linga — water, milk, curd, ghee, honey, sugar and more, in fixed order — while the Sri Rudram is chanted.
Vishnu
श्री सत्यनारायण व्रत कथा
A household vrat kept most often on Purnima or a sankranti, in which the sankalp is taken first and the katha is then read aloud in five chapters before the family.
Navagraha
नवग्रह शान्ति हवन
A nine-square vedi is laid in coloured grain, each graha is invoked in its own place, and the ahuti are offered with the nine prescribed woods — arka for Surya through kusha for Ketu.
Shiva
महामृत्युञ्जय होम
The Tryambakam mantra of the Rigveda, offered into fire with a declared count. Families keep it during illness, convalescence and long strain.
Vishnu
श्राद्ध तर्पण
The rite kept for a departed parent or elder on the tithi of their passing — pind daan, tarpan of water and black til, and a meal offered in their name.
Shiva
कालसर्पदोषनिवारणम्
The observance kept when every graha falls on one side of the Rahu and Ketu axis. Nag puja, Rudrabhishek and the Sarpa Sukta are its three parts.
Vishnu
पितृदोषशान्तिः
Tarpan, pinda daan and a havan offered in remembrance of three generations of forebears. Its subject is a debt of memory, kept the way the texts describe it.
Reviews
Only reviews attached to a completed booking with him are shown, and the full distribution is printed beside the average.
4.9out of 5
From 348 ratings.
| 5 | 322 | |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 18 | |
| 3 | 5 | |
| 2 | 2 | |
| 1 | 1 |
A review can only be written by a family whose booking with him was completed. Nothing else appears here.
Shraddha Tarpan
At a Temple in India
5.0 out of 5
We booked the tarpan for my father-in-law from New Jersey. Shastri ji called two days before to take the gotra and the names of three generations, and corrected my spelling of my husband's grandfather's name. On the day he held the camera view on the ghat so we could see the water. The recording and the certificate came the same evening.
Anjali Vaidya, Jersey City19 Aug 2026
Verified bookingRudrabhishek
At Your Home
5.0 out of 5
Shastri ji came home on Sawan Somwar. He arrived forty minutes early and set the whole thali himself instead of asking us to run around. My mother is eighty-one and could not sit long, so he adjusted the order so that her part came first. Clear Hindi, no rushing.
Sanjay Dubey, Varanasi27 Jul 2026
Verified bookingMaha Mrityunjaya Havan
Guided by Video
5.0 out of 5
We did this at home in Dubai with him guiding on video. He sent a samagri list a week ahead with substitutes for the two things we could not find here. During the jaap he counted aloud at every hundred so we knew where we were. Two hours, and he stayed on the call until the aarti was finished.
Preeti Agarwal, Dubai30 Jun 2026
Verified bookingPitra Dosha Shanti
At a Temple in India
4.0 out of 5
The vidhi itself was thorough and he explained what each part of the sankalp meant, which no one had done for us before. He was calm about it and did not make it sound like something to be afraid of. Only note is that the prasad parcel reached us four days later than the estimate.
Ravindra Pathak, Lucknow22 May 2026
Verified bookingAvailability
The hours below are the ones he has published, in his own timezone. Choosing a rite converts them into yours, alongside the muhurat for the day.
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5 further published days beyond this range. Choosing the rite first shows the full calendar with the muhurat quality of each day.
Rites performed on your behalf in India are done at Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Varanasi. One of the twelve Jyotirlingas, standing a few hundred metres from the Ganga on the western bank at Varanasi. The shrine has been rebuilt more than once; the structure in worship today was raised in 1780 by Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore, and the gold plating on its spires was gifted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1835. The lanes of the old city around it have carried Shaiva worship, Vedic recitation and shraddha rites for centuries, and the ghats a short walk away remain the working ground of that tradition.
Fees
The base fee is one line of the total. The rest is named here rather than at checkout.
Choose the rite first. The muhurat selector then shows the windows he actually has capacity for, in your timezone and in India’s, with the reason each one was suggested.
Traditional guidance, offered for reflection. Not medical, legal or financial advice.