Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 260

Sec. VI]
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SŪTRA
235
In addition to these cereals, pulses, other grains, vegetables, spices and fruits, the BnS refers to various kinds of cooked food (uvaklchada) as already mentioned, different kinds of sweets and milk products which were generally taken by the people of its period. They are as follows :Cooked food--Odanı (rice), caru (rice prepared with clarified butter and honey), etc.? Sweets - Mahu (honey), Phaniyagula (flowing molasses), Mahurakhanda (sweet sugar)', and Ulkhu or Ikkhu (sugar cane)."
Milk and its by-products -- Khira (Milk), Dadhi (curd), Navaniya (navani, butter), and Ghaya (ghrta, clarified butter).' Oil - Tella (oil).10
A similar account of food classified into different categories as given in the BhS is also found in other Jaina texts.
In addition, they provide a long list of various kinds of food generally taken by the people of the society as depicted in them. They are as follows:Uncooked food-stuffs -- Different varieties of salt, viz. sochal salt (sovaccala), rock salt (sindhava), ordinary salt (lona), minesalt (roma), sea-salt (sāmudda), earth-salt (parsukhāra) and black salt (kālālonu)"? Cooked foods -Sakkuli (lucis in Hindi), pāya (a meal of parched wheat), siharini (a mixed food of curd and sugar with spices)," Sattuga (fried barley),13 eighteen varieties of seasoned food (atthārasu vamjana),14 as already referred to in the Bhs.
These are the eighteen kinds of cooked food clearly mentioned in the Sthānānga Sūtra : "Süpa (soup)), odaņa (rice) java i Vide supra, p. 232.
BhS, 11, 9, 417; 15, 1, 541. 3.4 Ih, 18, 6, 631.
6 16, 21, 5, 691. 6-7 Ib, 16, 6, 581.
8 16, 18, 6, 631. Ib, 11, 9, 417; 15, 1, 541; 16, 6, 581. 10 Ib, 8, 6, 335, 18, 6, 631. 11 Dasavaitālika Sútra, 3.8; also see Caraka Ch. 27. p. 815 ff.
Vide 'Life in Ancient India' by Dr. J.C. Jain, p. 123. 12 Avasyaka Cūrni II, p. 319.
13 16, p, 317, 14 Sthūnārga-Sutra-3.135, also refer to Caraka, Kitannavarga
Ch. 27, p. 800 ff.