Caste in India: The Facts and the System c8.s5.17

c8.s5.17

There are abundant proofs that the repast has kept a religious meaning for the Hindus. The Brahman avoids eating at the same time or out of the same vessel not only with a stranger or an inferior, but even with his own wife and his yet uninitiated sons.² This is so definitely a matter of religious scruple that it is forbidden to share the food even of a Brahman, if, for some cause or another, although accidental and involuntary, he is suffering from a defilement.³ Even a Śūdra cannot without contamination eat the meal of a defiled *dvija*.