History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c40.10
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c40.10
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v3.c40.10.1
S. II. 8. 19. 1-2 allow a man to face the south, except when the diner's mother is alive. Manu II. 52 ( = Anuśāsanaparva 104. 57) states 'one facing the east eats food which tends to long life, one facing the south eats food which leads to fame, one facing the west eats (so as to produce) wealth and one facing north partakes of truth.' This means that one who eats facing any one of these directions secures the benefit specified. The Vāmanapurāṇa and Viṣṇupurāṇa quoted in Gṛ. R. p. 312 disallow the south and west. One must take one's meals in private in a place screened from public view. The Sm. C. quotes¹⁸¹³ verses of Devala, Uśanas and the Padmapurāṇa to the effect 'one should take food in privacy, for one who does so is endowed with wealth and one who eats his meals in public becomes bereft of wealth; one should not eat in the sight of many (who are themselves not eating) and many men should not eat before a single person who is only looking at them'. One may¹⁸¹⁴ eat in the company of one's sons, younger brothers, dependents &c. Some writers went so far as¹⁸¹⁵ to recommend that 'one should take one's food alone and not in the company of even one's relatives or other brāhmaṇas, since who can know the secret sins a person in whose company one eats is guilty of'?
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The conception underlying this uncharitable view was stated by Bṛhaspati to be that 'when several persons sit down to dinner in a continuous row, the sins one of them is guilty of attach to the others in the same row'. Even in modern times many persons in Northern India follow this view and it is a well-known proverb that nine *bhayyas* have ten hearths. The place where one takes one's food should be freshly cowdunged and pure. Āp. Dh. S. (I. 5. 17. 6-8) says that one should not take one's food in a boat nor on a wooden platform, but may do so on a pure floor. One was not to eat while seated on an elephant, or horse or camel or in some conveyance, or in a cemetery or in a temple or on a bed or chair; nor should one eat food placed on one's palm (Brahmapurāṇa quoted in Gṛ. R. p. 325). One should wash one's hands and feet before sitting down to take one's meal. Manu IV. 76 says (= Anuśāsana 104. 61-62 and Atri in Jīvānanda, part 1, p. 9) that one should begin one's dinner while one's feet are wet, since that leads on to long life. Vyāsa quoted in Sm. C. (I. p. 221) prescribes that one should have five limbs wet at the time of taking food, viz. the hands, the feet and the mouth.¹⁸¹⁶ All writers prescribe that one should observe silence or at least restraint of speech at the time of meals (e. g. vide Baud. Dh. S. II. 7. 2, Laghu-Hārīta 40). Vṛddha-Manu quoted by the Sm. C. I. p. 223¹⁸¹⁷ requires complete silence till five morsels are taken and restraint in speech thereafter.
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Following the Vedic injunctions quoted above, Gaut. IX. 59, Baud. Dh. S. II. 7. 36, Manu II. 56, Saṁvarta 12 and others say that a householder should take only two meals every day, should not eat food in the intervening period and that if he acts up to this advice he reaps the merit of a fast. Gobhila-smṛti (II. 33) says the same and adds¹⁸¹⁸ that the evening meal may be taken till one *prahara* and a half (i. e. 4½ hours) after nightfall. One was not to eat very early in the morning nor at midnight nor at twilight (Manu IV. 55 and 62 and Viṣṇu Dh. S. 68. 48). Āp. Dh. S. (II. 8. 19. 10) allows partaking of roots and fruits between two meals. Below the vessel or plate or leaf from which one eats, one has to draw a figure with water or holy ashes. According to the Brahmapurāṇa (quoted in Gṛ. R. p. 311) the maṇḍalas (figures) for brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras should respectively be in the form of a square, a triangle, a circle and a crescent; while according to Śaṅkha (in Sm. C. I., p. 221), Laghu-Śātātapa 133, Atri (Jīvānanda chap. V. 1, p. 7) in the case of the śūdra water is to be sprinkled on the ground below his plate. The reasons for drawing a maṇḍala are stated by these authorities to be that the Ādityas, Vasus, Rudras, Brahmā and other gods partake of only that food which is offered after a maṇḍala is made and that evil spirits and goblins carry away the flavour of the food when no maṇḍala is made.
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The person taking his food should sit on a low wooden stool having four feet or on a seat made of wool or of the skin of a goat (which latter is said to be the best by Āp. Dh. S. II. 8. 19. 1). One should not sit on a seat of cowdung cakes (dried), or of clay, or of the leaves of aśvattha or palāśa or arka plant or a seat made by joining two planks together or on a shattered one or partly burnt one or on one made fast with iron (nails). Vide Smṛtyarthasāra p. 69. The vessel or plate from which one is to eat is to be placed on the maṇḍala drawn on the ground. The vessel from which to eat may be of gold, silver, copper, lotus or palāśa leaves (vide Veda-Vyāsa III. 67-68, Paiṭhīnasi quoted in Āhnika-prakāśa p. 467). A copper vessel is forbidden to householders who should use bell-metal (*kāṁsya*) vessel. Āp. Dh. S. (II. 8. 19. 3) says that a copper plate with gold in the centre¹⁸¹⁹ is recommended. But a bronze plate for eating from, *tāmbūla* and a luxurious bath with oil &c., were not allowed to an ascetic, a brahmacārin and a widow.¹⁸²⁰ Hārīta (quoted by Sm. C. I. p. 222) stated that one was not to eat in an iron or earthern vessel, but Āp. Dh. S. (I. 5. 17.
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9-12)¹⁸²¹ prescribes that an earthen vessel not used for cooking may be used as a plate for meals, but if it had been used for cooking food, then it may be used as a plate for food after being baked in fire, that an iron plate scoured with ashes is pure and even a wooden plate may be used provided it is thoroughly scraped from inside. Manu IV. 65 states that one should not eat from a broken vessel, but Paiṭhīnasi remarks that there is nothing wrong in eating from a broken plate made of copper, silver, gold, conch-shell, or stone.¹⁸²² Some smṛtis forbade lotus or palāśa leaves, but the Āhnika-prakāśa p. 467 explains that this prohibition holds good only if the lotus plant grows on dry land (and not in a pond or the like) or when the palāśa is a young plant. Paiṭhīnasi (in Sm. C. I. p. 222) prescribes that one who desires wealth should not eat on a plate made of the leaves of the vaṭa, arka, aśvattha, kumbhī, tinduka, kovidāra and karañja trees. Vṛddha-Hārīta 8. 250-256 prescribes that the plate may be of gold, silver or bronze or any leaf allowed by śāstras, that leaves of palāśa and lotus are not to be used by householders but may be used by ascetics, forest hermits and in śrāddhas and sets out leaves forbidden and allowed. Even now in modern times people prefer (particularly in caste dinners and marriages) plantain leaves for dining or silver vessels for honoured guests and brāhmaṇas at śrāddha or use plates prepared from stitched leaves of various trees.
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Before sitting down to take one's food, one has to perform *ācamana* (twice) outside the place where one is to eat and has to perform ācamana after taking his meals. This practice was most ancient, as it is attested by the Chāndogya Up. V. 2. 2¹⁸²³ and the Bṛ. Up. VI. 1. 14. The rule is laid down by Āp. Dh. S. I. 5. 16. 9,¹⁸²⁴ Manu II. 53, V. 138 and others also. Vide Devala (quoted in the Smṛtimuktāphala, āhnika, p. 418) for *ācamana* outside the room for meals. When sitting down to eat a person must wear his sacred thread in the upavīta form (Āp. Dh. S. I. 5. 15. 1) and must also have an upper garment,¹⁸²⁵ but should not cover his head (Manu IV. 45 III. 238, Āp. Dh. S. II. 2. 4. 22-23 and II. 8. 19. 12). A *darvī* (ladle or spoon) is to be employed in serving ghee, oil, cooked food, all condiments, salt (i. e. these should not be served by the bare hand) but not in giving water or uncooked food (*vide* Sm. C. I. p. 223 quoting several smṛtis). The householder may wear in his hand gold or jewel (ring &c.) at the time of meals. Gaut. IX. 59, Vas. Dh. S. III. 69, Manu II. 54-55 say that when food is brought to be served, the person about to eat it should greet it, should pay honour to it, show his delight at it and should not find fault with it. Vas. Dh. S. (III. 69-71)