Makaranda Madhukar Anand Mahendale Festshrift

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

Page 198

Vyasa's Leftovers : Food Imagery in Indian Literature
187
five years old to accept their parents' leftovers, but after that, no one can. Until the thread ceremony, a boy may dine from his mother's plate, but after that, he may not, since he then assumes his own personhood, and as an adult must observe the basic rules of hygiene and purity. Partaking of anyone's leftovers is forbidden, whereas partaking of a lower-class person's leftovers is particularly associated with dire consequences. The Visnu Smrti dictates that if one partakes of the leftovers of a Sūdra, one should atone for it by throwing it up and later observe fast for seven nights in order to purify one's self18
Rules regarding purity and pollution that centre around the concept of leftover food are so strong that their observance is essential to an individual's acceptance in a community and their disregard, even inadvertent failure to observe them leads to the errant members' eviction from within a community. Eating someone else's leftover food is believed to be equivalent to sharing his sins. That is why it is dangerous, and such a behaviour gives rise to shame and disgust. These are not only old beliefs expressed in ancient texts, they are very much alive even today in most orthodox circles in India. So strong were these beliefs that in the early days of the Portugese régime in Goa, entire towns of Hindus were converted to Christianity because they happened to drink water from a well into which a piece of bread was thrown or even believed to be thrown by Christian missionaries. The villagers believed that they had eaten someone's leftover bread, and thereby were somehow 'changed' or 'defiled' and thereby they lost their own religious identity and were thus tricked into accepting the other's religious identity. This is an instance of what some scholars have called gastro-politics19.
Of course, to all restrictions regarding leftover food there were exceptions, both within the orthodox tradition and within the subsequent reforms. Since ancient times, these exceptions were also practiced along with strong prohibitions. Thus we find injunctions such as : A person should always leave something on his plate, and whatever remains is to be given to his wife, servant or slave20.” For a wife to be dining from her husband's plate eating his leftovers was supposed to be a sign of her loyalty. Even until now, such a behaviour was praised as exhibiting proper conjugal relationship. Needless to say that the opposite, that is, eating of the wife's leftovers by the