Makaranda Madhukar Anand Mahendale Festshrift

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

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Makaranda
184
Vidyut Aklujkar
original contributions can be traced in each of these disciplines, the two or three most well-known deserve mention here. One is the Rasa theory of Indian science of dramaturgy and poetics. Rasa can be translated as juice, essence, sap, flavour or enjoyment. Rasa theory, first elaborated by Bharata' uses the culinary model/motif to explain literary enjoyment. Just as different tastes of food combine to produce flavour in food, similarly different emotions expressed by the actors and actresses generate the aesthetic enjoyment in the audience. Just as food is classified as sweet, sour, salty, bitter, hot and astringent, literature is classified with reference to the dominant moods: love, humour, pathos, valour, danger, disgust and terror. The rasa theory has had many eminent exponents since and it remains a standard theory of literary criticism even in contemporary India.
The second most important current of thought is the one which upholds purity of food to be of central importance in purifying one's body and mind, thus leading on to the ultimate goal of human life, salvation. The earliest expression of this is in the Chandogya Upanisad VII. 26. 23. This line of thought links food with Karma and rebirth, thus generating several corollaries in ethics, religion and mythology. One such corollary is the supposition that a person should always give out portions of his cooked food to Gods, guests, beasts etc, and only after the sacrifice should himself eat. Those that cook for themselves are said to be the sin-eaters. The triangle of food, Karma and rebirth is pivotal to the later development of Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism which stress non-violence as a virtue and prescribe vegetarianism as a morally superior diet.
Indians acknowledge the all-pervasiveness of food early on by equating food with the all-pervasive principle, Brahman. The Upanisads have declared food to be the highest ultimate principle, ‘annam brahmeti vyajänät'.' The central concept regarding food in general in ancient Indian literature is that you are what you eat, and therefore, all actions of eating, conscious or unconscious, are to be taken seriously, and each one is supposed to have its consequences, if not here and now, then in the next birth, or even several births later. This conviction of dietary accountability gets translated in the Dharmasastra', into elaborate injunctions and taboos regarding food preparation, serving and consumption, whereas in the epics and the purāņas,