History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c40.6

v3.c40.6

The several matters about bhojana found in the Vedic literature will be first briefly set out. From Ṛg. VI. 30. 3 it appears that food was taken, while sitting ('the mountains sank down just as men sit down to take food'). 'A person was to take food¹⁸¹¹ only twice a day' says the Tai. Br. I. 4. 9. and the Śat. Br. II. 4. 2. 6. There were certain taboos about articles of food even in the earliest texts. Tai. S. II. 5. 1. 1 states that all red exudations (resins) of trees or the juice that oozes out from trees when they are cut (with an axe &c.) should not be eaten, since that colour is due to the (sharing of) brāhmaṇa-murder. Similarly the milk of the cow was not to be drunk for ten days after delivery (Tai. Br. II. 1. 1, III. 1. 3). The Ait. Br. 6. 9 states that one should not eat the food of a dīkṣita (one initiated for a Vedic sacrifice) till the performance of *vapāhoma* by him. Ṛg. I. 187 (vv. 1-7) is a hymn in praise of food. The story of Uṣasti Cākrāyaṇa in the Chāndogya Up. shows that in a dire calamity when no food can be had, one may eat anything, even the remnants of another's food and the Vedāntasūtra (III. 4. 28-31, sarvānnānumatiś-ca prāṇātyaye tad-darśanāt) is based on this episode in the Chāndogya. In the Ait. Ār. V. 3. 3¹⁸¹² it is stated that 'one who knows this (i. e. the Mahāvrata) should not recite these texts before one who knows it not nor dine with him nor should he take delight in his company.' The sages are said in the Kauṣītaki Br. (12. 3) to have told Kavaṣa who sat in their midst that they would not eat with him as he was the son of a *dāsī*. The question about flesh-eating and drinking spirituous liquors will be dealt with in detail later.