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Concept of ahara in different religions As mentioned, the world's major religions are known as Hinduism, Buddhism Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. There are almost as many ways to define religion as there are religions, but scholars basically tend to think about it in two ways. Some concentrate on the functions of religions in societies while others focus on grasping its mysterious, universal essence. Indeed, the function of religion is to explain inexplicable, thus providing humans with a sense of comfort in a chaotic world. Food (ahara,) because it sustains life, is an important part of religious symbols, rituals, customs, taboo, fast, and diet, those acts of daily life intended to bring about an orderly relationship with the spiritual or supernatural realm. 2.3.1. Hinduism 88 Hinduism is considered the world's oldest religion, and, like Judaism, it is the basis of other religions such as Buddhism. Although Hinduism was once popular throughout much of Asia, most Hindus now 88 Food and Culture, ibid., p. 85.

58 89 live in India, its birthplace. Food plays a very important role in the social and ritual life of the Hindus. Food is mentioned in the early Hindu sacred writings known as the Vedas. The oldest Upanisads, which precede Buddhism, contain many passages about food in a metaphysical way. The Brhadaranyaka Upanisad says (V, 12.1): puyati va annam rte pranat; *... susyati vai prana rte 'nnat, ''Food becomes putrid when apart from life; ... life dries up when apart from food. '90 Indeed, food in India involves cultural characteristics not commonly associated with food in the contemporary West, for the subject routinely concerns matters of this world as well as the otherworld. Food is integral to India's cultural philosophy, since it comprehensively reflects the essence and experience of Indians at personal and collective levels. Food in India is never merely a material substance of ingestion, nor only a transactional commodity. It is synonymous with life and all its goals, including the subtlest and the highest. This food asserts such a lifeguiding presence that it concerns, one way or another, the thought and practice of the entire Indic civilization." Food among the Hindus is "selfevident" because it is a dimension of none other than the Creator himself and is integral to the formation of cosmos. A cosmic "logic" thus controls the production and circulation of food within creation, and it is a manifestation of Brahman, the ultimate Reality. To the Hindu, food also does not "represent" Brahman, but it is actually a part of this ultimate reality, Brahman. In this world and beyond, the cosmic moral order (dharma) regulates the availability of food to all creatures. Hindus regard such a truth as self-evident, requiring no further proof and admitting no 89 Robert Ernest Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, London, 1934. See, e.g., "General Index," 574. 90 Alex Wayman, Untying The Knots In Buddhism, Buddhist tradition series, Vol. 28, Delhi: Motilal 91 Banarsidass Publishers, 1997, p. 335. R. S. Khare, The Eternal Food: Gastronomic Ideas and Experiences of Hindus and Buddhists, Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1993, p. 1.

59 doubts. When body and self are concerned, food is considered as one of the five "sheaths" (annamayakosa) which "clothes" the soul (jiva; the other four sheaths being those of life-breath, mind, understanding, and bliss.) Thus, food directly matters to the formation of a Hindu's inner being and its becoming from one birth to the next. 92 Defined by such a distinct cultural ideology, food is "meaningful" to the Hindu throughout his life. It is known that, multiple schemes of food classification establish the rules about appropriate eating and feeding practices. The internal states of one's being, within this world and beyond, remain intimately connected to the moral quality and condition of what one eats. Whatever one eats has manifest and hidden, and immediate and remote, consequences on one's body and being. Food for Hindus is therefore never simply a material substance; it is never only what the eyes see. The unseen karma and dharma of the giver and receiver energize it, circulate it, and color it. Thus if food expresses the cosmic truth, showing its ultimate control by the dharma-based principles of cosmic creation and maintenance, it also expresses itself with intricate social-ritual (karma-dharma) distinctions, classifications, and customary actions, releasing discourses on meaningful action concerning how food, body, and self need to be handled in each other's terms to achieve the Hindu goal of liberation. 93 Food is self-evident to the Hindu in another way. It is for the coveted pursuit of one's own liberation. Food here is the necessary "helper" until all exchanges cease between self (prana,) body, and the world; even the renouncer feeds himself until the absolute Brahman is realized. Within the worldly life (samsara,) however, food plays a double role enlightening when approached with austerity and self-control and - 92 Ibid., p. 5. 93 Ibid., p. 6.

60 degrading when sought for sensual indulgence. Sensual food becomes a part of the hall of Maya's mirrors, deluding and destroying the indulgent. Unscrupulous pursuit of food and eating in daily life is known to invite diseases and shorten life. Under extreme austerities (tapas,) on the other hand, any eating is considered a hindrance." 94 If a saint renders food auspicious and blessed, an ordinary person's covetousness, accumulated karmas, ignorance, and moral lapses as surely taint it. Even a saint's lapse pursues him from one birth to the next until rectified. - Based on the "thread-soul" ideology where food becomes simultaneously a moral and material essence, Hindu pursues its comprehensive gastrosemantics in terms of three major cultural models and their corresponding discourses. The first discourse on food ontological and experiential is concerned with the cultural "givens" within the "worldly" sphere (including food's classifications, taboos, intrinsic qualities, normal meal patterns, dietary restrictions, and notions of sufficiency and insufficiency.) The second discourse - transactional and therapeutic concerns itself with the maintenance and promotion of comprehensive body-soul "wellness" (including the prevention and cure of various diseases by diet and "medicine") by recognizing interdependence among different intrinsic properties of foods, the eater - - and his actions of giving and receiving. The third discourse worldcritical shows the limits of the first two as it concerns itself with such ultimate issues as the reality or illusion of the world, and the roles (inner," or spiritual and "outer," or physical) of foods in enhancing one's spiritual knowledge (jnana) and "inner sight" (antaradrsti) for attaining liberation (moksa)." 95 p. 7. 94 Ibid., 95 Ibid., pp.7-8.

61 The three food discourses, in other terms, are concerned with (a) worldly life and becoming, (b) healing and happiness, and (c) selfcontrol and salvation. Each discourse deals with issues of cognition and experience, self and cosmos, and ideology and action. Each discourse is characterized by its own distinct praxis - the first does so by keeping the soul-Brahman principle at the center of all spiritual paths and pursuits (yogas); the second by following dietary and ritual regulations organized along one's physical state and social stages in life (e.g., varnasramadharma), for fulfilling dharma and achieving personal health and "wellness"; and the third by pursuing fasting, austerities and renunciation for attaining liberation. Finally, and most importantly, the three discourses overlap and work interdependently within a Hindu's life; they exhibit contextually varying distinctions - but no immutable dichotomies along thought, feeling, and action. In foods reside all the major constituents and "essences" that cause physical ailments and influence personal temperament, emotional fluctuations, longevity, and salvation. With foods the Indian regulates his mental states and aesthetic feelings, and secures spiritual gains. To the spiritually adept, foods reveal as well as filter the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of others. The discerning know, as Mahatma Gandhi used to say, that food can either aggravate or subdue the primary sources of worldly bondage - anger, lust, greed and infatuation. Though the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain on the subcontinent may largely continue to share the preceding profile of food praxis (and we have employed the word "Indian" in such a comprehensive sense), we must emphasize that each stakes a claim to a distinct philosophical ideology and "food culture." And this means that, once considered in detail, their gastrosemantic discourses will also be distinctly different.

62 Thus, if food and eating constitute a "multi-form" but single Ultimate Reality to the Hindu, they are subjects of severe austerity and denial for the Jains; and largely a practical matter of maintaining life (without extremes) for the Buddhist. If the Hindu approaches eating with self-control, the Jain finds eating ideologically risky (if necessary) and the Buddhist approaches it as a part of his "middle path." Still, for all the three, food may variously enter the issues of being and becoming, healing and social sharing, and self-discipline. 96 From the above brief presentation, India's distinct models and experiences of food provide us with certain distinct properties of India's cultural accounting of itself as a civilization. Food illuminates India's ideality, morality, reflexivity, materiality, and cosmology in various ways, showing us the depth as well as sweep of such a scheme. Conjoining materiality, practice, and experience, food in Hindu India stamps one's being and becoming; it runs through the personal, social, pragmatic, spiritual, and ideal domains.