History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c40.10.5

v3.c40.10.5

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.