The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s4.10.2

v1.c27.s4.10.2

The same rule applies to the Gṛhya ritual: it is laid down that a man should eat nothing without making an offering of a portion of it, every meal when an animal is killed for a guest is, as in Homer, a sacrifice.⁴ A Snātaka, or Brahman student, after he has taken the final bath concluding the studentship, is allowed to eat remains of food offered to the gods and to the Manes: in the latter permission, as in the rule that the wife, who wishes offspring, should eat a portion of the food offered to the Fathers,⁵ we must doubtless see the idea of placing oneself in close touch with the Fathers. In an offering to Kṣetrapati,⁶ in which the god is represented by a bull, the remains of the food are duly eaten by the relatives, and in another offering, the Madhuparka, the Rudras, Ādityas, and the All-gods are first fed, then the sacrificer, and then a Brahman: if there is no Brahman available, then the food may either be thrown into water, or the whole may be consumed by the sacrificer. The practice is interesting: it is clear that in the domestic ritual the rule that the only person who may eat the food is the Brahman is not in force: the sacrificer, who is the householder himself—and who may of course be himself a Brahman, but need not be—and his relatives have the first claim: after that the food which by its contact with the divinity is clearly specially valuable is either given to Brahmans, or disposed of in an effectual way.