History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c40.10.2

v3.c40.10.2

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.