From about 500 CE new forms of belief and worship started to appear. Although Vedic sacrifices remained essential for the consecration of kingship, they no longer had much following among the general population. Many people began to worship at home or in temples in rituals called pujas. Temples were built, especially in South India; some housed statues of a single deity, while others honoured many gods. The patrons of the temples were rulers and wealthy merchants. These temples became the sites of royal ceremonies and initiations, as kings came to seen as deputies of particular deities.
The new movements were called Puranic, as opposed to the Shramanic, or ascetic, religions of Jainism and Buddhism. The name comes from a series of texts called the Puranas, collections of stories about the myths, legends and genealogies of gods, heroes and saints as well as descriptions of cosmology, philosophy and geography. They were composed in Sanskrit over a very long period of time, perhaps between the fourth century BCE and 1000 CE. They were translated into vernacular languages and disseminated by brahmins who read from them and told their stories at local temples. In effect, they became the scriptures of the common people.
The main gods were Vishnu and Siva, who had been minor gods in the Vedic pantheon, and mother goddesses who embodied the primordial energy or shakti. Today most Hindus in India and Nepal are Vaishnavs, followers of Vishnu; Saivites, devotees of Siva; or Shaktas, who worship Durga, Kali and other forms of the mother goddess. Over time the gods became more humanized and acquired wives, children, musical instruments, weapons and ‘vehicles’ (vahana) – animals that served as both companions and mounts. Siva, for example, is married to Parvati; their children are Ganesh (who has a human body and an elephant’s head) and Kartikeya, god of war. Siva’s vehicle is the bull Nanda, whose statue always sits outside temples dedicated to Siva. The deities also had their own temperaments and culinary preferences. Siva, for example, who has a rather violent, angry (rajasic) nature, is said to like spicy, hot and pungent food, especially green chillies. Vishnu, who is of a serene disposition, prefers mild ghee and milk-based foods, and avoids chillies. Vaishnavs in western India were mainly vegetarian, and affluent Vaishnav merchants there donated large sums to charity to promote vegetarianism. Food offerings are part of many Vaishnav pujas.
The term ‘Hindu’ was first used in the ninth century CE by people living outside India to describe the inhabitants of the subcontinent. The word came from the Persian Sindh, meaning the land on the banks of the Sindhu (the Indus River). It was originally a secular term applied to all the residents of the subcontinent, but it was later applied, first by Muslims and then by the British, to Indians who followed indigenous religions (as opposed to Islam or Christianity). In the nineteenth century the term was adopted by some Indians in the context of establishing a national identity.
Throughout most of history, Hindus have not called themselves Hindus. Even now, they tend to identify themselves by the name of their sect (Vaishnava, Shaiva) or sub-sect. Sometimes the term sanatana dharma is used, meaning the eternal or absolute set of duties (dharma) that are incumbent on all Hindus.
Unlike Islam or Christianity, Hinduism does not have a founder, a single set of scriptures (although many traditions revere the Vedas as revelation), a creed or a centralized authority.1 What is called Hinduism incorporates many strands and traditions, a diversity of beliefs, practices, world views and sometimes contradictory ideas and ideals about such things as caste, renunciation and the worship of one or many gods. The idea that there are many ways of reaching God may in fact be the defining feature of Hinduism; as one ancient text puts it, “all these paths, O Lord, Veda Samkhya, Yoga, Pasupata [worship of Siva], Vaishnava, lead but to Thee, like the winding river that at last merges into the sea.’2
As a mischievous child, Krishna steals butter from the house of a neighbour, a popular scene in Indian art, c. 1750. |
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Vishnu came to be worshipped as the divine saviour of mankind, whose nine (ten, if the Buddha is counted) avatars or incarnations come to save the world whenever it is threatened with disaster. His two most popular incarnations are Rama, hero of the epic Ramayana, and the darkskinned Krishna, originally a local pastoral deity.3 Krishna’s stories are told in the Bhagavata Purana. This text describes his life as a young cowherd in the village of Vrindavan in northern India (about 160 km or 100 miles south of Delhi), today a major pilgrimage centre. Krishna is worshipped in many forms: as the divine herdsman (Govinda), as a mischievous child who stole butter, as the playmate and lover of Radha and other gopis (milkmaids), and as a teacher of philosophy. Some of the legends associated with his various forms repudiate the stern moral code of the Dharmashastras, since Radha and the other gopis, lured by Krishna’s charms, leave their husbands to sport with him. Their love can be interpreted as mirroring the worshipper’s love of the divine.
Late 18th-century painting from the Nathdvara temple in Rajasthan depicting the offering of food to Krishna in the Annakuta festival. |
The worship of Krishna is often expressed in culinary metaphors; for example, ‘I hunger after the sweet nectar of devotion.’ One of the world’s most spectacular food-related events is the Annakuta, or Mountain of Food, held annually at a temple in Mount Govardhan near Vrindavan at the end of the rainy season.4 It commemorates an event in Krishna’s childhood when he persuaded the local cowherds to make their annual offerings of harvest grains and pulses to Mount Govardhan instead of to the god Indra. Angered, Indra punished the people by sending a violent rainstorm. To commemorate this event, which is often depicted in Indian paintings, worshippers build a large mound of rice, sometimes weighing thousands of kilos, in the temple courtyard, facing the sanctum where the deity resides. They surround it with hundreds of dishes of sweets, savouries, vegetables and grains, all vegetarian and containing no onions or garlic. Pilgrims come to Govardhan to view these displays and enjoy the food, which is later distributed to devotees.
A similar food festival is organized every year by members of a sect called the Vallabhites or Pushti Marga, founded in Gujarat in the fifteenth century. They worship Krishna in his infant form, depicted with one arm upraised, a ball of butter in his hand. This sect lavishes so much attention on food that one scholar has called them ‘the undisputed gourmets of Hinduism’.5
At the Vallabhite temple in Jatipura, the image representing baby Krishna is fed eight times a day. The food, an amalgam of Gujarati, Rajasthani, South Indian and local cuisines, is always sweet or bland, because salt and spices are injurious to a child’s sensitive palate. Pusti Marga holds large food festivals, the showpiece of which is always chappan bhoga (56 dishes). Fifty-six categories of vegetarian food are each prepared five or six ways and 56 baskets of each dish are made. The dishes are displayed in a temporary enclosure on the side of a hill. A similar, though often scaled-down, version of the festival is celebrated at Pushti Marga temples in India and abroad.
Some scholars claim an early version of Siva was worshipped in the Indus Valley civilization because of the discovery of a seal depicting a figure in a yogic posture surrounded by animals. (Ancient pictures of figures in a similar position have, however, been found in other places, including Scandinavia and Western Asia.) His origin has also been traced to Rudra in the Vedas. Siva is worshipped in different forms: as Lord of the Creatures, Lord of the Dance and Lord of Creation. While many Saivites are vegetarians, others eat meat. The animal, most commonly goat, must be slaughtered by a method called jhatka, which entails killing the animal with a single stroke of the knife or sword.
Annakuta festival at a Swaminarayan temple in Wheeling, Illinois, in which 2,000 dishes are offered to the deity.
A statue of Ganesh, holding a modaka in his hand, Patna, early 19th century. |
The consorts of the deities may originally have been local fertility deities. Parvati, Siva’s wife, is worshipped in her incarnations Durga and Kali, especially in eastern India. Kali, regarded as the primary reality, is worshipped by the sacrifice of goats, especially at the Kalighat temple in Kolkata (perhaps a continuation of a pre-Aryan practice.) More benign is Saraswati, the goddess of learning, sometimes considered the wife of Brahma or, in eastern India, the daughter of Durga. Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and the wife of Vishnu, is worshipped mainly in northern and western India.
One of the most beloved deities throughout India is Ganesh, the pot-bellied elephant-headed son of Siva and Parvati, who is revered for his ability to remove obstacles. (According to one story, Parvati once asked him to guard the door while she bathed. Siva, unaware of his son’s identity, cut off his head for refusing him entry. When Siva learned who he was, he promised to restore him to life with the head of the first creature that passed by, which happened to be an elephant.) Ganesh is famous for his love of sweets, and is always depicted holding a modaka (a steamed or fried flour dumpling filled with coconut, nuts, jaggery and spices). He is said to have once cursed the moon for making fun of him for eating so many sweets, which is why the moon waxes and wanes, regularly losing its beauty and sometimes vanishing altogether.
2 cups (580 g) dried chickpeas that have been soaked
overnight and boiled, or 2 cups of canned chickpeas,
drained and washed
½ red onion, chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 tsp finely chopped green chillies, or to taste
a few curry leaves
salt
3 tbsp grated coconut (fresh or frozen)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Heat oil and sauté onion, green chillies, ginger and curry leaves until tender. Add cooked chickpeas. Add salt to taste. Sprinkle with grated coconut and lemon juice.
Toss and serve hot.
Courtesy of Nalini Saligram
During this period, the main form of worship for the common people became the puja: a ceremony in which the devotee offers incense, flowers, leaves, sweets and fruit to the image of the deity while reciting mantras (Sanskrit verses). A puja can be a simple offering of food at a home altar or an elaborate ceremony conducted by priests in a temple. The ritual may include bathing the statue in milk or ghee, clothing it and making a food offering called naivedya, a practice that probably started in about the eleventh century. This offering is always sattvic, which means it is strictly vegetarian and never contains onions, garlic or, at some temples, tomatoes, potatoes, red lentils, carrots and cauliflower – perhaps because of their colour, which resembles blood, or their foreign origin. Sweets are almost always part of the offering: some temple manuals list recipes for over 200 sweet dishes. However, curdling milk with a souring agent to make chhana (the basis of many Bengali sweets) is not common, since it is thought to destroy the purity of the milk.6 The food for these offerings is usually cooked in ghee, which is considered ritually pure and auspicious.
The priest brings the food close to the idol’s mouth and then consumes it on the god’s behalf. After the deity has tasted the food, his leftovers, called prasad (a word that can be translated as ‘grace’), are given to the devotees, who eat it on the spot or take it home to share with family and friends. The food is highly valued because it has been processed by the deity. One writer describes the experience this way:
Many devotees feel spiritually uplifted simply by offering and receiving Prasad. It can be thought of as the grace of a god . . . [which] energizes, invigorates and induces devotion to the lord. . . . The consuming of Prasad is the most exalted divine intimacy, an intensely personal experience, the saliva of deity and devotee being mixed through the sharing of food. At this spiritual level, the food, the deity and devotee become coextensive – the essence of this experience being expressed in the saying ‘You are what you eat and you eat what you are.’7
A Hindu priest makes an offering of coconut, flowers and sweets to Ganesh.
Palani Pancamirtam for a Temple
100 plantains
10 kg (22 lb) unrefined sugar
1 kg (2¼ lb) seedless dates
500 g (1 lb) crystallized sugar
500 g (1 lb) raisins
25 g (1 OZ) whole cardamom pods
250 g (8¼ OZ) ghee
Crush the plantains with your hands and mix with the unrefined sugar. Add the dates, crystallized sugar and raisins, then the cardamoms and ghee. Stir the mixture, using only the right hand, until it becomes thick. Before consuming, let it rest a few hours to become slightly fermented.8
While food offerings are essential in Vaishnav ceremonies, generally worshippers of Siva avoid contact with the god’s leftovers, which are eaten by his priests.9
Some temples have enormous kitchens where brahmin cooks prepare food for worshippers and pilgrims.10 For example, the Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh (the most visited temple in India, and the world’s second most visited holy place after the Vatican), is visited by 60,000 pilgrims each day and up to 200,000 during festivals. Its speciality is laddus, sweet balls made of lentils, sugar, nuts and spices, including a giant version called kalyana laddu.
The Jagannatha temple in Puri, Odisha, dedicated to Lord Krishna, serves more than 100 dishes, all cooked in ghee. The gods are served ritually five times a day, and pilgrims can either eat in a large dining hall or buy prasad at a market within the temple walls. The Murukan temple in Palani, Tamil Nadu, is famous for its palani pancamirtam, a thick, dark red, jelly-like substance sold in the temple’s shops. It is offered with milk to the deity at night and then distributed as prasad the next day.
India’s most famous temple food comes from the town of Udupi in Karnataka, the site of a famous Krishna temple, many smaller temples and eight monastic institutions. The temple kitchens are staffed with brahmin cooks. In the twentieth century, some of these cooks opened their own restaurants serving similar vegetarian food – first locally, then all over the country and eventually abroad. Standard dishes on the menus of these South Indian restaurants, which sometimes have the word Udupi or Udipi in their names, are sambar, rasam, idlis, dosas, vadai and coconut chutney. The Mysore Woodlands and Dasaprakash restaurant chains started in this way. The latter’s original outlet, in Madras, has statues of Indian deities in the halls and porticos, and even a small worship room. (So ubiquitous are South Indian restaurants that when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the top of Mount Everest, they are said to have discovered that someone had arrived before them – a South Indian restaurant owner!)
At first many Udupi hotels had separate dining rooms for brahmins or barred Muslims and dalits from entering (or sometimes took both precautions), but this ended in the 1950s. The practice of hiring only brahmin cooks has likewise ended, in part because fewer brahmins want to enter the profession.11
A more extreme rebellion against brahmanical norms was the Tantra movement, which emerged between the sixth and eighth centuries CE in eastern and northeastern India. Tantra promised release from existence and the attainment of nirvana by liberation through the body rather than from the body. Those wanting to join a Tantric sect were initiated by a guru in a secret ritual, sometimes held at a cremation ground, which required partaking of the Five Ms: madya, alcohol; mamsa, meat; matsya, fish; mudra, parched or fried grain; and maithuna, sexual coupling.12 Some rituals required the ingestion of five bodily fluids, called the Five Jewels. Some Tantrics worship a mother goddess; others (the Kaula and Kapilika sects) Siva.
A major Tantric text, the Mahanirvana Tantra, describes the Five Ms in more detail.13 Alcohol can be made from sugar, rice, honey or palmtree juice by someone of any caste. The best fish are those without bones, although those with lots of bones can be offered to the deity provided they are very well roasted. The best parched grains are shali rice (a fine winter variety) and barley, which are especially delicious when fried in butter.
But even Tantra imposed certain restrictions. According to the Mahanirvana Tantra, killing animals should be avoided except for ritual purposes, and only meat sanctified by Tantric rituals can be eaten. People who consumed meat at other times were subject to penances.
A Tantric rite at a cremation ground, the frequent site of Tantric rituals, c. 1790, illustration.
In Mahanirvana Tantra, alcohol is called
Tara [the mother goddess] herself in liquid form, the Saviour of beings, the mother of enjoyment and liberation . . . Mortals who drink wine with their minds well under control are immortals on earth and become like Siva himself. (XI.105)
But there is also a warning against drinking too much, because it can lead to harm to oneself and to others.
Tantra was open to all castes and included women in its rituals. There were no restrictions on eating with outcastes or taking food from them. ‘A chandala versed in the knowledge of [Tantric] doctrine excels a brahmin and a brahmin who is wanting in such knowledge is beneath even a chandala’, says a Tantric scripture. Some of the concepts were incorporated into hatha yoga, including the idea of kundalini, the latent energy believed to lie coiled like a serpent at the base of the spine.
Events in the lives of the deities are celebrated with festivals, fasting, feasting and sometime both. Some festivals are local or regional; others, notably Holi and Diwali, are celebrated throughout India and in countries with Indian diasporas. Some are family-based; others are occasions for visiting temples and pilgrimage sites, sometimes with millions of other devotees.
Sweets are an intrinsic part of many celebrations, perhaps because they were a rare luxury for poor people and also because, since they were vegetarian and fried, everyone – regardless of religion and caste – could enjoy them. Sweets were traditionally made at home, but today most are purchased from professional confectioners.
Because most festivals are determined by the lunar calendar, they are not celebrated on exactly the same day every year. The year starts with harvest festivals: Makar Sankranti in north India, Lohri in the Punjab, Pongal in Tamil Nadu and Sankranthi in Andhra Pradesh. Pongal is the name of both a festival and a dish. Married women boil newly harvested rice in milk with jaggery, cashews, ghee and coconut. When it starts to boil, they shout ‘Pongal!’, ‘It is boiling over.’ Some of the mixture is offered to Ganesh as prasad. In Andhra Pradesh, for Sankranthi, Hindus prepare a payasam, a rice pudding made with rice, milk and jaggery.
Mahashivratri in mid-March is a pan-Indian festival that celebrates Siva’s marriage to Parvati. Devotees fast during the day and spend the night in meditation. The next day, they worship the lingam, a phallic stone that is a symbol of Siva. Devotees wash it with water from the Ganges, milk, yoghurt and honey, and make offerings of milk, yoghurt, sugar, honey, ghee, the leaves and fruit of the bael tree, betel leaves and flowers. Sometimes little rivers flow outside the main temples from the excess milk and fruit. Unlike most other festivals, where a feast follows worship, in this case devotees fast throughout the day. At midday they eat a special vegetarian meal consisting entirely of phalahar (dishes made without cereals). The fast then resumes, and continues for another 36 hours until the morning of the third day.
The most riotous and colourful of Hindu festivals, Holi is celebrated on the day of the full moon in early spring. Children and teenagers squirt coloured water and throw coloured powder at friends, neighbours and passers-by, so everyone wears old clothes. A special drink prepared at this time is thandai – a mildly intoxicating beverage of bhang (cannabis) mixed with ground almonds and sugar. In western India, popular Holi snacks include puran poli and gurpoli, sweet pancakes stuffed with lentils and jaggery made from the newly harvested sugar.
Observed in August or September, Janmashtami commemorates the birth of Lord Krishna. Devotees fast during the day and celebrate Krishna’s birthday at midnight by eating sweets.
Ganesh Chaturthi in early autumn celebrates the birthday of Ganesh. The most spectacular celebrations are in Maharashtra and Mumbai, where clay models of Ganesh are installed in homes and special buildings for ten days, after which they are immersed in a river or the sea. The main sweet served during the festival is Ganesh’s favourite, modaka.
Two festivals called Navaratri (nine nights) are devoted to the goddess Durga, one in spring, the other in early autumn. In South India, dishes made from nine grains and pulses are prepared at home, offered to the goddess on consecutive days and distributed to friends and family. Common ingredients, each used in a separate dish, include barley, millet, rice, toor dal, mung dal, black chickpea, hyacinth bean, black sesame, urad dal and horse gram. In West Bengal, the nine-day Durgapuja festival is celebrated with great pomp and show. Neighbourhoods commission artists to build elaborate shrines and clay statues of the goddess. The exchange and consumption of sweets is de rigueur, and restaurants and sweetshops do a booming trade. On the final day a community vegetarian meal is prepared. It might include a special khichri made of rice and lentils; luchis, puffed fried bread made with white flour; vegetables; and many sweet dishes.
In North India, a festival called Dussehra (ten nights) is celebrated in autumn to commemorate the battle between Lord Rama and the demon king Ravana, which is described in the epic Ramayama and re-enacted in street plays. The festival begins with the planting of a few seeds of millet, which are watered daily, sprout on the tenth day and are eaten in a salad. In South India, where the festival is more religious in nature, a special vegetarian dish is prepared every day for nine days and offered to the goddesses Durga, Lakshmi and Sarawati in turn.
Diwali, the Festival of Lights (Deepawali in South India) is a family festival that is celebrated nationwide in late autumn. It commemorates the return of Lord Ram to his kingdom, Ayodhya, after fourteen years in exile, and symbolizes the victory of good over evil and light over darkness, represented by the lighting of small lamps. Animals and toys made of pure white sugar are distributed to children. In rural areas, farmers revere cattle by feeding them sweets.
Another religious event is the pilgrimage to sacred places, called tirthas, which are usually located on the banks of rivers or in the mountains. People go on pilgrimages to fulfil a vow, ask for a favour, obtain spiritual purification or simply behold the place itself, since the viewing of a sacred place confers spiritual benefits. Often ascetics live in or near the tirthas and are believed to amplify the power of the place. The pilgrim also becomes an ascetic of sorts, leaving behind his or her household and dealing with the hardships of the road.14
Krishna and Rama are central characters in India’s two great epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. They belong to a genre called itihasa – a narrative of past events filled with philosophical observations and commentary. Both were passed down orally for hundreds of years. The Ramayana was probably written down in the third century CE, while the Mahabharata began to be written down earlier and extended much later. It is difficult to date the events of the poems, since many passages were added later.
The Mahabharata – the world’s longest poem, with more than 200,000 verses – describes a battle between two branches of a family, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. It is set in the region between the Ganga and Yamuna rivers, near present-day Delhi, and recounts events that may have taken place between the ninth and eighth centuries BCE. Intervening in the narrative is Krishna, a local chief or king with divine powers, who is both a relative of and advisor to the Pandavas. The story is interspersed with philosophical and religious discourse, including the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most important texts of Hinduism.
Rama, his brother Lakshamana and his wife Sita preparing a meal in the forest, 1815–25, illustration from Ramayana.
The much shorter Ramayana is set further east and may describe local conflict between the newly emerging monarchies and the forest tribes in the first millennium BCE. Its authorship is attributed to the poet Valmiki, who lived in the fifth or fourth century BCE, but there are many versions in Sanskrit and regional languages. It tells the story of Rama, the exiled king of Ayodhya, and his wife Sita, who is abducted by the demon king Ravana and rescued by Rama with the help of the monkey general Hanuman. Rama and Sita are considered by some Hindus to be the ideal man and woman and Rama’s kingdom the ideal state.
The heroes of both epics are ksatriyas, for whom hunting is a way of life, and the epics contain many references to hunting and the consumption of meat. For example, in the Ramayana, Rama’s brother Laksmana kills eight antelopes; after drying the meat in the sun, Sita offers portions to the gods and then proceeds to enjoy the meal. In the Mahabharata, the exiled Pandava brothers feed themselves by ‘collecting the produce of the wilderness and killing the deer with pure arrows, first dedicating a portion of the food to the brahmins and themselves eating the rest’. This diet was apparently healthy, because no one there ‘looked pale or ill or was lean or weak or was melancholy or terrified’.15 The Mahabharata describes a banquet given by Rama’s father, King Dasaratha:
Sugar cane, sweets of various kinds, honey, crushed barley, wine and other excellent drinks, hot rice in heaps as high as mountains, milk, a stew, other fare combining the six tastes and countless other dishes with sweets made of jaggery were distributed . . .
The men beheld countless dishes of mutton, pork, venison and other meats cooked in fruit juices and fried in butter, with cloves, caraway seeds and lentils simmering gently in them. Thousand of vessels were filled with spiced rice and garnished with flowers and flags . . . The trees dripped honey and the lakes were filled with the sparkling wine Maireya and banked with dressed viands such as deer, chickens and peacocks. Hundreds and thousands of dishes were provided and myriads of vessels filled with yoghurt, mixed with caraway seeds, ginger and other fragrant spices were served there.16
A feast given by the Pandavas’ father, King Yudhisthira, is equally lavish:
Clean cooks, under the supervision of diligent stewards, served large pieces of meat roasted on spits; meat cooked as stews and sauces made of tamarind and pomegranate; young buffalo calves roasted on spits with ghee dripping on them; the same fried in ghee, seasoned with sour fruit, rock salt and fragrant leaves; large haunches of venison boiled in different ways with spices and mangoes and sprinkled over with condiments; shoulders and rounds of animals dressed in ghee, sprinkled with sea salt and black pepper powder and garnished with radishes, pomegranates, lemons, fragrant herbs, asafoetida and ginger.17
Other passages, however, display reservations about eating meat. In the Mahabharata, a brahmin asks a pious butcher how he can follow such a cruel profession. He answers that the animals he kills and whose meat he sells acquire karma because their meat feeds gods, guests and servants and propitiates the ancestors. If the sacred fire had not been so fond of animals in ancient times, it could never have become people’s food. Moreover, he says, ‘whoever partakes of animal food after having first offered it duly and respectfully to the gods and the ancestors is not polluted by the act.’
The butcher also argues that he is following his own profession, his dharma, which itself is a meritorious act. Even farmers do great harm to animal life by ploughing the earth where countless creatures are living, while men of wisdom and enlightenment destroy animal life while walking or sleeping: ‘The earth and the air all swarm with living organisms, which are unconsciously destroyed by men from mere ignorance.’ He concludes that the commandment that people should not do harm to any creature was ordained in the old days by men who were ignorant of the true facts of the case.18
Another passage contains a much stronger condemnation:
That wretched man who kills living creatures for the sake of those who would eat them commits great sin. The eater’s sin is not as great. That wretched man who, following the path of religious rites and sacrifices as laid down in the Vedas, would kill a living creature from a desire to eat its flesh, will certainly go to hell. That man who having eaten flesh abstains from it afterwards acquires great merit on account of such abstention from sin. He who arranges for obtaining flesh, he who approves of those arrangements, he who kills, he who buys or sells, he who cooks, and he who eats it [acquire the sin of those who] are all considered as eaters of flesh. [Therefore] that man who wishes to avoid disaster should abstain from the meat of every living creature.20
Aubergine
Cut an aubergine into small pieces and put in hot water for 10 minutes. Remove from the water and set aside in a clean bowl. Take ground cumin, ground coriander and ground black pepper and add fully ripe tamarind, powdered mango and curd. Mix well, and coat the aubergine pieces with the paste. In a frying pan, heat a little ghee and fry the spiced aubergine pieces. Remove from the heat and add flowers and camphor for fragrance. Wrap the aubergine pieces in areca palm leaves and sauté in hot ghee, then remove from the palm leaves and serve.
Bitter Melon
Cut off the ends of a fresh bitter gourd and cut into equalsized pieces. Place the pieces in a pan, add rock salt and the juice of jambiri nimbu (Indian lemon), and cook, covered (otherwise it will be bitter). Remove from the heat and sauté the pieces in fresh ghee. Toast asafoetida powder in a pan. Make a powder of pepper, cinnamon, bay leaves, cardamom and nagkesar (the dried buds of the tree Mesua ferrea), and add it to the asafoetida. Sprinkle the mixture with ground fenugreek, ground cumin, ground coriander and ground box myrtle. Add camphor and kasturi for fragrance. Pour cold water on the spice mix, add the pieces of bitter gourd and cook over a low heat. Deep-fry the cooked pieces in ghee and serve.19
These contradictions may be the result of passages added at different times or by different authors, and incorporate both brahmanical practice and popular views.
The Mahabharata contains a great many digressions, some related to food. Bhima, one of the five Pandava brothers, was famous for both his enormous appetite and his cooking prowess. For a time he was forced to disguise himself as a cook at the court of the king of Virata, who was impressed by his mouth-watering dishes.
The mythical Nala, the king of Nishada, is said to be the author of the first Indian cookbook, Pakasastra (The Science of Cooking). A series of events reduced him to the role of charioteer for the king of Ayodhya. He prepared a meal for the ruler with such success that he became head of the king’s kitchen and eventually regained his own throne. His recipes were documented in a Sanskrit text called Pākadarpaṣa or Nalapāka, a work in 760 verses divided into eleven chapters. Various versions of the text have been printed in Sanskrit and some regional languages, although whether they are based on the original is a matter of contention. Even today, cooks in North India are called ‘maharajah’, perhaps in his honour, and the term ‘Nalapaka’ (Nala’s cuisine) refers to food of excellent quality. It is also the name of several restaurants and a popular television cooking show.
One of the most famous texts in Indian literature is the Bhagavad Gita, or Song of the Lord, a dialogue in the Mahabharata between Krishna, who is serving as Arjuna’s charioteer and advisor, and Arjuna, on the eve of a battle against his cousins (the Kauravas). Arjuna is paralysed by doubt: on one hand, it is his duty as a warrior to fight; on the other, that would entail killing his friends and relatives. Krishna’s message is that liberation from suffering and repeated rebirth lies in disciplined action (karma-yoga) in conformity with one’s dharma, without concern for the results. Thus it is Arjuna’s duty to fight.
In his discussion of dharma, Krishna defines three basic qualities (gunas) that are still central to Indian thinking about food: sattvic, which is often translated as lucid, pure, dispassionate; rajasic, translated as passionate, restless, energetic; and tamasic, slothful, dull, lethargic, ignorant. These qualities define a person’s nature, which determines what he eats; in turn, his taste expresses his nature. Brahmins, yogis, meditators and students who have sattvic dispositions should eat sattvic foods; ksatriyas, who needed to be energetic and warlike, rajasic foods; while tamasic foods are associated with outcastes. Krishna says:
Foods that please lucid men
Are savoury, smooth, firm and rich
They promote long life, lucidity
Strength, health, pleasure and delight.
Passionate men crave foods
That are bitter, sour, salty, hot
Pungent, harsh and burning
Causing pain, grief and sickness.
The food that pleases
Men of dark inertia is stale,
Unsavoury, putrid, and spoiled,
Leavings unfit for sacrifice.21
Other texts, especially those associated with hatha yoga, define the different categories of food in more detail.22 Sattvic foods include rice, barley, wheat, fresh fruit and vegetables (especially green leafy ones), green dal, milk, fresh yoghurt, almonds, seeds, crystallized sugar, dry ginger, cucumber and ghee. Rajasic foods include fermented foods that have not been freshly made, cheeses, some root vegetables, fish, eggs, salty, sour and hot foodstuffs, white sugar, spices and (in modern texts) coffee and tea. Tamasic foods include leftovers more than a day old, preserved foods, fried foods, meat, alcohol and other intoxicants and (in modern texts) fast food and canned food.
An important feature of Hindu dietary practices that became common during this period is fasting. The Bhavishya Purana (first composed in 500 BCE and added to over the centuries) prescribes nearly 140 fasts every year. The eighth and eleventh days of the first half of the lunar month were cited as fast days, while other days were sacred to various deities. The Sanskrit word for fasting, vrata, means ‘vow’. Today, Hindus undertake a fast for many reasons. It can be a mandatory part of a religious festival, a form of worship, out of gratitude for a blessing, a petition to a god for a favour, an instrument of self-discipline or a method of physical cleansing. Women generally fast more than men and have special fast days on which they pray for blessings for their husbands and family, including an annual fast, karva chauth, observed in North India. Children are not expected to fast.
Often, fasting does not connote total abstention from food but rather a restricted way of eating. The dishes are always vegetarian. At its least rigorous, it may mean cooking dishes in pure ghee instead of oil, or replacing sea salt with rock salt. Sometimes only kaccha (‘uncooked’, but including boiled) foods are permitted. Meals might be taken only once a day, in the morning. At the most rigorous, no food at all is eaten, and only sips of water are allowed. Some Hindus fast on a certain day of the week, often Tuesday, or on the eleventh day of the lunar fortnight, called Ekadashi. Communal fasts are associated with religious holidays such as Ram Navami, Mahashivratri and Janamasthami. Hindu astrologers recommend daily fasts for warding off problems caused by the planetary bodies, with certain food prescribed to keep negative influences at bay.
Today even the most secular Hindu follows traditional funeral rites when a parent or other close relative dies. All eating and cooking activities in a household stop until the body is cremated, which is done as soon as possible. The eldest son of the deceased, the chief mourner, symbolically lights the crematory fire. A household’s normal food patterns are suspended for ten to thirteen days, depending on the community. What is eaten and prepared during this period varies widely. In an orthodox Hindu family, only one meal a day may be eaten, frying is prohibited and spices are eliminated, especially turmeric (a symbol of auspicious events). The chief mourner may have to cook his own food, which might consist of boiled white rice, dal and bread. Families that normally eat meat may take only vegetarian dishes during this period. According to an ancient custom, on the thirteenth day family members feed rice balls to cows and then to crows, who, it is believed, will carry the soul of the deceased to heaven. The fast then ends, and a lavish feast is held for family and friends. Every year on the anniversary of the death a ceremony is held and special vegetarian dishes may be eaten. Hindu widows traditionally become vegetarian, and in times past were expected to lead very austere lives.
A common form of fasting involves a category of food called phalahar. Foods are divided into two categories: anna – those that are harvested with the help of special equipment, such as rice, wheat, barley and lentils – and phala, those that grow without special cultivation, for example, wild grains, vegetables, fruit, certain roots and tubers, leaves and flowers. Only the latter are permitted in a phalahar meal. This division can be traced back to the practices of the ascetics. Breads and snacks are made of water-chestnut flour or lotus-seed flour instead of wheat and other grains. Other prohibited foods include onions, turmeric, garlic, ginger, sea salt, urad dal (perhaps because it is black and resembles meat) and spices. Milk, ghee and water are allowed, as are tea, coffee and soft drinks.
Jains share many festivals with Hindus, but these are often marked by abstinence from food, rather than by feasting. The major Jain festival is Paryusanan, an eight- or ten-day period in August or September during which all Jains are supposed to emulate the austere practices of monks and nuns as closely as they can. Some people fast totally for the entire period, drinking only boiled water; others fast only on the final day. On the last day they ask forgiveness of those they have offended. During Siddha Chakra, which is observed twice a year, Jains take only water and one food, which is boiled, each day. In April, Jains observe Akshyatriya, a day on which sugar-cane juice is offered to those who have fasted throughout the year.
Food is central to life transitions, including marriage, pregnancy and the birth of a child. All communities spend a great deal of time, energy and money arranging and celebrating marriages for their children. Every stage of the marriage process is celebrated by entertaining. The festivities – which can last for days and involve thousands of guests – drive less affluent families into lifelong debt. The banquet, rather than the ceremony, is the focal point of weddings. The bride’s and groom’s families jockey for position and status, and the amount and quality of the food served at wedding meals becomes symbolic of prestige and respect. People freely discuss the meals they are served and compare them with those at other weddings they have attended.23
Events before the wedding include the settlement of the terms of the marriage, the announcement of the engagement, the betrothal ceremony, and so on. These occasions are associated with offering snacks and sweets or a full meal, sending food to the other family, and the exchange of auspicious foods, especially sweets. In South India, the conclusion of the marriage negotiations is marked by the exchange of paan among the family members making the arrangements. In some regions fish, a symbol of good luck, happiness and prosperity, plays an important part. In West Bengal and Bangladesh, for example, the bride’s family presents gifts to the groom’s family, including a large carp decorated with flowers and sometimes even made up with lipstick or a bindi (the red dot on a married woman’s forehead) to resemble the bride.24
The wedding feast is paid for by the bride’s family and prepared by professional caterers with their own equipment and ingredients. Traditionally the banquet would be held in a large tent on the family’s property or near by. Guests sat in long rows on the floor, and the food was served on banana leaves in front of them. Teams of servers would go up and down the rows carrying large pots from which they ladled food on to the leaves. Copious amounts of ghee were poured over the food, signifying richness and auspiciousness. Among brahmins and orthodox Hindus, the wedding banquet was always vegetarian. Water or buttermilk were served as beverages, rarely alcohol. Today tables and chairs are becoming more common, although banana leaves may still be used as plates; wealthy and even middle-class people hold receptions at clubs or luxury hotels. The meal may be served buffet-style and include a few Thai, Mexican and Continental dishes, as well as cocktails.
Birth and pregnancy are also accompanied by special foods. According to Ayurveda and folk belief, pregnancy is considered a ‘hot’ condition. As a result, the pregnant woman is not allowed to eat whatever foods are considered ‘hot’ in her region, since it is believed that they will cause miscarriage. In Bengal, for example, pineapple and certain fish are considered hot. Cold foods such as milk products, on the other hand, are considered to promote strength and a successful delivery. In parts of North India, the mother’s parents send her dried dates, pieces of coconut and wheat bread and laddoos fried in ghee in the fifth month, while in Andhra Pradesh, she is fed spicy and sour dishes to tempt her to eat. For five days after the birth of her child, the mother is given a semi-liquid diet, including semolina cooked in milk, light chicken broth and fruit. On the sixth day, she is fed a large meal consisting of a great variety of rich foods, traditionally served in groups of six. The purpose is to give the nursing child strength and also to expose it indirectly to a variety of foods.25 When a child is six months old, a ceremony called annaprasana takes place in which it is fed solid food for the first time, in the form of a sweet rice pudding.
Early 19th-century South Indian painting depicting the annaprasana ceremony, when a child is given his first solid food.
