The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c8.89

c8.89

The father avoids not only eating with his illegitimate daughter but even eating the food brought by her. In the first place, he puts his hands without any scruple into the dish simultaneously with his daughter; as soon, however, as the hands of the impure have touched the food, it becomes impure for him; he stops, therefore, taking a second mouthful and lets the daughter eat alone, apparently absorbed in reading the letter. Not eating in the same table, but only eating from the same dish out of which the table companions have already eaten, the contact with the food already touched by them, is the criterion for a common caste.