Diet in Hinduism - Food and Asceticism

Food and Asceticism

The world renouncer is not allowed to produce, store, or prepare food. He obtains his daily food solely by begging. Because there is a proper time for this begging, which is after the householders of the upper classes have finished their food, his meals consist of their left-overs. Distinct types of begging exist, with each different method pertaining to a different subclass of these mendicants. The lowest class eats at the house of his son or his relative, the next class does not go to the house of his relative, but rather begs his food from seven other houses. The highest, archetypal renouncer begs randomly, but obtains just a morsel from each of the houses from which he begs. As these classes of people cannot produce or store food, their relationship to this entity is one-way. The renouncer does not engage in any form of food transaction, only reception.

The forest hermits, on the other hand, are not mediated in their food habits by culture. Their food is wild and uncultivated. Their diet would consist mainly of fruits, roots, leaves, and anything that grows naturally in the forest. Forbidden to them is anything that is cultivated. Gaut. III 32 and Baudh II.6.11 state that ‘He shall not step on plowed land; he shall not enter a village.’. Like the renouncers, the forest hermits are further subdivided into those who cook their food and those who do not cook their food. Each of these subcategories are even further divided into five classes based upon whether they only eat grains, or only roots, and so on for those that cook. For those who do not cook their food, their five classes are based more on how they eat their food: with hands only, with mouth only and so on.

Observing ascetical food codes and habits allows scholars to make generalizations regarding food according to these patterns. For instance, Olivelle claims that four distinct areas of Hindu relationships to food exist in ascetical food practices. These would be procurement, storage, preparation, and consumption. In these areas, humans put forth much effort and energy to follow them correctly. This then, becomes a social as well as cultural endeavor for which to practice. The rules of the ascetics show that they take and eat only that which is enough for their sustenance. The creation myths at the cosmic levels show that the ideal world with provide everything humans need, so long as humans take only what is necessary to them. Taking more than one needs or what is commanded of one’s caste results in greed and the overall deterioration of the world. Food then, is a dangerous substance, as well as the source of all things in being. The relationship between a man and his food, then, is his relationship to the cosmos.