Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c12.s2.11

c12.s2.11

Food. The restrictions of Upanayana ceremony as regards *food* are withdrawn, and the student is allowed to eat pungent and saline food and vegetables [*Hiraṇya.*, i, 2, 9, 9]. Manu forbids the taking of honey, meat, substances used for flavouring food and substances turned acid [ii, 177; cf. *Baudh.*, i, 3, 23-4; *Pārask.*, ii, 5, 12; *Gobhila*, iii, 117, 19, 23]. According to Āpastamba, also, the Brahmachārin shall not eat food offered at a sacrifice nor pungent condiments, salt, honey, or meat [i, 1, 2, 22, 23; i, 1, 4, 6]. Āpastamba, appealing to the Mīmāṁsists, combats the doctrine implied in the injunctions of Baudhāyana that pupils may eat forbidden food, such as honey, meat, and pungent condiments, if it is given to them as leavings by their teacher. For the general rule is that students should eat the fragments of food given to them by their teachers and to obey their teachers except when ordered to commit crimes which cause loss of caste and such crimes, according to Baudhāyana, did not include eating forbidden food. Gautama [ii, 13], prohibits honey and meat. The *hour* of eating is also prescribed: it is the fourth, six, or eighth hour of the day [Vasishṭha, vii, 8]. The *manner* of eating is thus laid down: "he shall eat in silence, contented and without greed" after receiving permission to eat from his teacher [*Gautama*, ii, 39, 41]. Manu prescribes eating with a concentrated mind, a pleased face, and without contempt, after meditating on the food as the sustainer of life and forbids eating between the two meal-times, over-eating, and giving to any man the food that is left [ii, 53–7; cf. *Baudh.*, ii, 3, 5, 21; ii, 12, 7, 9; ii, 13, 11; *Gaut.*, ix, 59 *Vishṇu*, lxviii, 34–5; 42–3; 48; *Vasishṭha*, iii, 69; *Āp.*, ii, 1, 2, 3]. Āpastamba requires the pupil to clean his dish after he has eaten [i, 3, 36].