Book Title: Makaranda Madhukar Anand Mahendale Festshrift
Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre
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Vyāsa's Leftovers : Food Imagery in Indian Literature
Vidyut Aklujkar
I have a feeling that, in representing South and Southeast Asia on this panel on Food, I may have bitten off more than I can chew. But I am going to follow a practice of my childhood of finishing everything on my plate, once I have been served. A Marathi proverb prescribes that one should chew every bite thirty-two times. Hence, I am going to deal with my meal in all possible ways, even if in brief morsels, so as to savour all the rasas, or tastes that can be savoured.
[Since the South and Southeast Asian section is habitually placed at the tail end of the plenary session panel, after the appetizers, main course and deserts have been served, my topic today is entitled, Leftovers, or to be exact, Vyāsa's Leftovers : Food in Literature. I shall interpret literature to denote mainly Indian literature, in Sanskrit and in vernaculars, from Vedic to contemporary times.)
The paper is divided into two sections. In the first, I shall take note of the most valuable conceptual and theoretical contributions of South Asia to the study of food, and in the second, I shall discuss the treatment of leftover food in life and literature. The latter excursion will allow me to discuss topics such as purity and pollution, clannish acceptance and rejection, Bhakti, or worship and its ritual practices, and finally, originality and plagiarism in literature.
Since ancient times, food has been studied in India from all possible angles, such as the Dharma-śāstra or religious lawbooks, politics, philosophy, including logic, ethics, and metaphysics, mythology, medicine, social studies, poetics and the science of literary criticism, to name a few. Although several
