Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- I Young Śvetaketu: A Literary Study of an Upaniṣadic Story
- II Dharmaskandhāḥ and brahmasaṃsthaḥ: A Study of Chāndogya Upaniṣad 2.23.1
- III Orgasmic Rapture and Divine Ecstasy: The Semantic History of ānanda
- IV Amrtā: Women and Indian Technologies of Immortality
- V Power of Words: The Ascetic Appropriation and the Semantic Evolution of dharma
- VI Semantic History of Dharma: The Middle and Late Vedic Periods
- VII Explorations in the Early History of Dharmaśāstra
- VIII Structure and Composition of the Mānava Dharmaśāstra
- IX Caste and Purity: A Study in the Language of the Dharma Literature
- X Rhetoric and Reality: Women's Agency in the Dharmaśāstras
- XI Manu and Gautama: A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality
- XII Manu and the Arthaśāstra: A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality
- XIII Unfaithful Transmitters: Philological Criticism and Critical Editions of the Upaniṣads
- XIV Sanskrit Commentators and the Transmission of Texts: Haradatta on Āpastamba Dharmasūtra
- XV Hair and Society: Social Significance of Hair in South Asian Traditions
- XVI Abhakṣya and Abhojya: An Exploration in Dietary Language
- XVII Food for Thought: Dietary Rules and Social Organization in Ancient India
- References
- Index
XVI - Abhakṣya and Abhojya: An Exploration in Dietary Language
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- I Young Śvetaketu: A Literary Study of an Upaniṣadic Story
- II Dharmaskandhāḥ and brahmasaṃsthaḥ: A Study of Chāndogya Upaniṣad 2.23.1
- III Orgasmic Rapture and Divine Ecstasy: The Semantic History of ānanda
- IV Amrtā: Women and Indian Technologies of Immortality
- V Power of Words: The Ascetic Appropriation and the Semantic Evolution of dharma
- VI Semantic History of Dharma: The Middle and Late Vedic Periods
- VII Explorations in the Early History of Dharmaśāstra
- VIII Structure and Composition of the Mānava Dharmaśāstra
- IX Caste and Purity: A Study in the Language of the Dharma Literature
- X Rhetoric and Reality: Women's Agency in the Dharmaśāstras
- XI Manu and Gautama: A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality
- XII Manu and the Arthaśāstra: A Study in Śāstric Intertextuality
- XIII Unfaithful Transmitters: Philological Criticism and Critical Editions of the Upaniṣads
- XIV Sanskrit Commentators and the Transmission of Texts: Haradatta on Āpastamba Dharmasūtra
- XV Hair and Society: Social Significance of Hair in South Asian Traditions
- XVI Abhakṣya and Abhojya: An Exploration in Dietary Language
- XVII Food for Thought: Dietary Rules and Social Organization in Ancient India
- References
- Index
Summary
If the way to a persons's heart is through the stomach, then the way to the soul of a civilization may be through its dietary practices. Examining the food habits of a people has been a staple among anthropologists, some of whom, like Mary Douglas (1966), in her piece on Jewish dietary laws “The Abominations of Leviticus,” have ventured into interpreting the food taboos and dietary restrictions encoded in ancient texts. The ancient Indian literature on dharma devotes considerable attention to matters of food: what kinds of animals and vegetables may or may not be eaten, from what sorts of people one may or may not receive food, what types of conditions make food unfit for consumption, and so on. Such practices have drawn considerable attention among scholars; what has been ignored, however, is the vocabulary used to indicate food prohibitions, a vocabulary that may give us new insights into the ancient Indian world. And that is the focus of this paper.
The dharma vocabulary of food proscriptions contains four words: abhakṣya, abhojya, anādya, and apeya. In this paper I will focus on the first two, abhakṣya and abhojya, which alone underwent significant semantic developments and assumed technical meanings. Apeya is restricted to liquids, principally milk. Anādya is, relatively speaking, the most frequent term in the vedic literature occurring a total of nine times, often in the metaphorical sense that the Brāhmaṇa should not be eaten by the king: brāhmaṇo 'nādyaḥ.
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- Information
- Language, Texts, and SocietyExplorations in Ancient Indian Culture and Religion, pp. 351 - 366Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011