Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c9.s15.1

c9.s15.1

The primary wants of life are those of food, clothing and shelter. As the country was largely agricultural there was ample supply of food. Of course, the food that the average man could afford was not sufficiently rich. Four kinds of food are mentioned : food (asana), drink (pāna), eatable (khāima) and relishable (sāima).¹ The articles of food were milk, curds, butter, ghee, oil, honey, wine, molasses, meat, cooked or dressed food (ogā’umaga, com. pakvānna),² sakkuli (luchis in Hindi), raw sugar (phān-iya), a meal of parched wheat (pūya) and a meal of curds and sugar with spices (sihanni).³ The production of salt was very important. Several varieties of salt are mentioned, viz. sochal salt (sovaccala), rock salt (sindhava), ordinary salt (lona), mine salt (roma), sea salt (samudda), earth salt (pamsukhāra) and black salt (kālālona).⁴