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Danuta StaSik(University of Warsaw)

Food in the City – Food in the Forest: A Few Notes on Food and Its Imagery

in the Rāmcaritmānas

1. Introductory remarks

This paper represents an attempt at exploring the interesting, though to date largely neglected, problem of food and diet as visualized in Tulsīdās’s magnum opus, the Rāmcaritmānas� (�574), and their implications for the understanding of the socio-cultural reality created by the poet. The significance of the source text for this analysis – the most important Hindi telling of Rāmkathā, or the story of Rām, and one of the most important works of Hindi literature – cannot be overestimated in the ethos of north Indian culture. The Rāmcaritmānas is an epic and as such, as I have noted elsewhere,2 it depicts standardized behaviour, thanks to which it has gained the sanction of a socio-cultural code. Throughout the centuries since its inception, the poem has enjoyed high moral status among Hindus, for whom it has set the model of life to be followed by respectable men.3 In view of the importance of food in the socio-cultural life of any society (mythical or fictional), its role in the shaping of culture and as a communicator of socio-cultural messages,4 it seems not only fully justified but also tempting to explore the food imagery of the Rāmcaritmānas – the place, the mode and the meaning of the presence of food both in particular passages of the poem and in

� In the footnotes, this title is abbreviated as rcm. All the references to the text of the poem are in compliance with the edition: Tulsīdās, Rāmcaritmānas, with the commentary by Hanumānprasād Poddār, Gorakhpur: Gītā Pres, �968 (�st published in �938).

2 Danuta Stasik, The Infinite Story. The Past and Present of the Rāmāyaṇas in Hindi, Delhi: Manohar, 2009 passim.

3 I mean here the model that is an object of consideration in traditional treatises such as dharmaśāstras.

4 For more on this subject, see: R.S. Khare (ed.), The Eternal Food. Gastronomic Ideas and Experiences of Hindus and Buddhists, Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, �993 (�st published �992).

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the entire text, which functions in north India as a culture text whose importance manifests itself to this day in different spheres of the socio-cultural life of the Hindi-speaking region. Such an approach seems especially essential in view of the fact that, as observed by R.S. Khare: ‘Food [in India] is not just a symbol of or for the cultural but it is integral to the Hindu’s ultimate reality in the same way as “self” or “soul” is’.5 Thus, it is not only the socio-cultural dimension but the spiritual aspect as well that is so essential in the case of the poem whose status among the Hindi-speaking Hindus is repeatedly compared with that of the Bible in the Christian world. It goes without saying that by focusing my attention on food, I do not mean that the narrative of the Rāmcaritmānas continuously pivots on it and other related matters. However, one has but to observe that on a number of occasions, food forms an essential part of many episodes of the epic and complements others.

As is well-known from the tradition, the span of life of the protagonist of the story, Rām, is clearly divided into the time spent in the city (both before his fourteen-year banishment from Ayodhyā and after it) and the period of his exile in the forest. Taking into consideration this most obvious division, I have decided to follow it throughout the entire study, grouping separately the references to food typical of the city and to food typical of the forest. This division is also followed when particular episodes do not involve Rām directly, as in the case of the story of Manu and Śatarūpā, or the story of Pratāpbhānu, and when episodes have no relation to Rām at all, as in the case of the wedding feast of Śiv and Pārvatī (all these episodes, preceding the birth of Rām, are discussed below). However, in the Rāmcaritmānas one also encounters such peculiar contexts with the presence of food that (directly) refer neither to the city nor to the forest. The most obvious among them are the episodes involving all sorts of semi-divine or demonic beings who act outside these two territories, move freely between them or transgress their borders. The best example of such an instance is the battlefield visualized as the feasting hub of all types of demons; though these images are, undoubtedly, interesting in their own right, they have been left outside this analysis. The same concerns the food eaten by the monkeys of the Rāmcaritmānas – Hanumān, Sugrīv, Aṅgad and the rest of the monkey hosts – it is not dealt with in the present article. This is due to the fact that, despite their human-like features, their eating habits are never visualized as transformed or influenced by particular socio-cultural norms – when hungry, they simply eat fruit from the trees, as is expected of monkeys (e.g. 4.25.2, 5.�8.�, 5.28.4).

5 R.S. Khare, ‘Food with Saints: An Aspect of Hindu Gastrosemantics’, in Khare, The Eternal Food, p. �9, note 3.

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2. Food In the cIty

One of the most natural consequences of the above-mentioned character of the Rāmcaritmānas, i.e. that of a socio-cultural code, is that the presence of food in the city life of the poem’s protagonists manifests itself most prominently on special occasions, which are the most important moments both from the point of view of an individual and from the point of view of the group one belongs to, such as festivals, ceremonies and / or rituals. One such occasion in the life of any community is marriage, with all the nuptial rites and ceremonies accompanying it, and one of the most vital events accompanying it – especially in the context of this analysis – is the wedding feast that traditionally follows wedding rites.6

Tulsīdās, in his poem, deals with two marriage ceremonies; thus, one can also find references to wedding receptions enjoyed by the guests. The description of one of them, devoted to the marriage of Śiv and Pārvatī, is relatively brief (�.9�.2-�02), while the other, concerned with the nuptials of Rām and Sītā, attracts a lot of attention from the poet (�.286-338).

Interestingly, in the account of Śiv and Pārvatī’s marriage, the poet actually did not depict the wedding reception but only the reception given for barātīs, i.e. the guests on the bridegroom’s side, that took place after their arrival in the kingdom of Himācal, the king of the Himālayas, i.e. the father of Pārvatī.7 This account does not abound with details about the dishes served to the divine guests, but there can be no doubt that there was a great variety (bhati aneka) of them and that they had been prepared according to the rules expounded in culinary treatises, whose names, however, are not given.8 The text also reveals that all the guests sat in many rows and expert cooks served the dishes to them.9 At the end of the dinner, the guests were offered water to rinse their mouths and hands as well as refreshing pān, or betel (acavai dīnhe pānā; �.99 chand).

The story of King Pratāpbhānu (�.�53.�-�75.4), one of the sons of Satyaketu, the king of Kaikaya, can be found among the episodes that precede the poem’s proper narrative and are concerned with the previous lives of the main characters

6 For more on the subject of the marriage of Sītā and Rām, see: Danuta Stasik, ‘The Divine Marriage: The Nuptials of Rām and Sītā as Seen by Tulsī’, Cracow Indological Studies, vol. �, �994, pp. 245-25� and ‘Tulsidas’ Vision of the Nuptials of Ram and Sita’, Hindi: Language, Discourse, Writing, vol. �, no. 3-4, October 2000 – March 200�, pp. 295-306.

7 It is worth noting here that in a short poem, Pārvatīmaṅgal, Tulsīdās describes the reception after the rites. Tulsīdās, Pārvatīmaṅgal, in Tulsīgranthāvalī, ed. Rāmcandra Śukla et al., Kāśī: Nāgarīpracāriṇī Sabhā, �984, p. 35, verses �52-�54.

8 bhati aneka bhaī jevanārā / sūpasāstra jasa kachu byavahārā; rcm �.99.2. 9 bibidha pati baiṭhī jevanārā / lāge parusana nipuna suārā; rcm �.99.4.

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of Rāmkathā. Once during hunting, Pratāpbhānu got lost and, in a forest āśram, he came across an ascetic, who had earlier been a king deprived of his kingdom by another king – as it happened, now his guest. The ascetic, as it turned out, immediately recognized his erstwhile rival and, out of resentment, resolved to take revenge on Pratāpbhānu, who was unaware of the true identity of his host. The ascetic convinced his guest that he would help him to subjugate Brahmins. Back in his capital, the king was supposed to give a feast for Brahmins, and the ascetic was to be responsible for preparing the food. Without going into too many details of the entire episode, suffice it to say that the food distributed during the feast given by Pratāpbhānu was cooked by Kalaketu, a demon and a friend of the hypocritical ascetic. The demon, acting in disguise as Pratāpbhānu’s family priest (uparohita), prepared food of four kinds and in six different flavours according to the sacred śrutis.�0 He cooked the meat of many different animals�� and also mixed into it the flesh of Brahmins.�2 One hundred thousand Brahmins invited by King Pratāpbhānu arrived at his palace; their feet were reverently washed and they were seated with honours. However, when Pratāpbhānu, unaware of the conspiracy against him, began serving food to his guests, a voice from heaven forbade them to eat it and revealed that Brahmin flesh was in it (bhayu rasõī bhūsura masū; �.�73.3). As a result, Pratāpbhānu and his family were cursed by the Brahmins to be born in a demon’s form.�3

As has been mentioned, the marriage of Rām and Sītā is described at much greater length than Śiv and Pārvatī’s nuptials, and there are more references to different stages of the whole ceremony when food is served. The first of them can be found in the passage referring to the moment when the bridegroom’s party (barāta) arrives in Janakpur, the capital of Janak, the father of the bride. The guests are welcomed with great honours and entertained with many gifts, among which there is also food of many kinds: cooked delicacies (pakavāne�4), fruit,

�0 According to the commentary Mānaspīyūṣ, by śrutis, Sūpaśāstra and Pākaśāstra are meant here; Añjanīnandan Śaraṇ, Mānaspīyūṣ, vol. 2, Gorakhpur: Gītā Pres, �998, p. 854.

�� For more on the traditional attitude to meat eating in India, see e.g. Chapter 5 of the Manusm{ti, esp. 5.27-56; Patrick Olivelle, Manu’s Code of Law. A Critical Edition and Translation of the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra, with the editorial assistance of Suman Olivelle, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. �39-�4�; also see: K.T. Achaya, Indian Food. A Historical Companion, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007 (�st published �994), pp. 53-56.

�2 uparohita jevānara banāī / charasa cāri bidhi jasi śruti gāī // bibidha m{ganha kara āmiṣa radhā / tehi mahũ bipra masu khala sadhā; rcm �.�73.�.

�3 rcm �73-�76.�; this is the story of the beginnings of the demon Rāvaṇ, the antagonist of Rām, and his family.

�4 This term – here in plural (in modern Hindi – pakvān) – denotes a wide range of rich, typically festive food items fried in ghī or oil.

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yogurt (dadhi), and ciurā�5 (�.305.�-3). When the guests retire to their rooms, they find there all that makes gods happy;�6 one may thus only presume that food items were also present.

After the main nuptial rites, married women (suāsininha) take Sītā and Rām to kohabara�7, where the rite called lahakauri takes place (�.327.2). It is the moment when the bride and the groom put a morsel of food into each other’s mouths; however, the text of the poem remains silent on what kind of food Sītā and Rām eat in this case. Only then the grand wedding feast takes place (puni jevanāra bhaī bahu bhati; �.328.�ff.), with all the guests received and seated with the honours due to them. The food is brought by expert cooks, who first serve lentils with rice fragrant with clarified butter, or sarapi / ghī (sūpodana surabhi sarapi; �.328). As I have noted elsewhere,�8 this is a moment that reminds one of a popular wedding ceremony known as bhat (lit. ‘boiled rice’), during which kacchā�9 food is distributed to the bridegroom’s party and other guests. It symbolizes the equal position of the two families joined by marriage, whose status is otherwise not equal (the status of the groom’s family is considered to be higher). It is also an exceptional occasion when kacchā food is consumed at a large social gathering, as customarily, outside the family circle, pakkā food is served. The guests begin eating only after five morsels of food (pañc kavali) have been offered to birds, etc.20 The variety of food is simply indescribable, and all the cooked delicacies are as delicious as the nectar of the gods (bhati

�5 In modern Hindi: ciṛvā or cūṛā; it designates a preparation of grains (most typically rice) first soaked or half-cooked, then roasted and finally pounded.

�6 nija nija bāsa biloki barātī / surasukha sakala sulabha saba bhati; rcm �.307.�. �7 Kohabara designates, most commonly, a room in which an image of a family god is

installed during the marriage ceremony.�8 Stasik, ‘The Divine Marriage’, p. 249 and Stasik, ‘Tulsidas’ Vision’, p. 30�.�9 Kacchā (lit. ‘uncooked; raw’) designates those food items that, while being prepared, come

in contact first with water or directly with a dry cooking vessel put on the fire. In north India, this type of food is customarily served within the closest family circle. It stands in opposition to pakkā (lit. ‘cooked; ripe’), which designates the type of food that first comes into contact with the cooking fat (ideally ghī). Considered as ‘pollution resistant’, it is a type of food typical of different festive occasions as well as social gatherings in which members of different social status participate. For more, see: R.S. Khare, Culture and Reality. Essays on the Hindu System of Managing Foods, Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, �976, esp. the chapter ‘Folk Categories of Hindu Foods’, pp. �-27; idem, The Hindu Hearth and Home, Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, �976, pp. 93 and 2�5-222 and idem, The Eternal Food, pp. 254 and 255.

20 Pañc kavali is most commonly understood as food offered to birds (see e.g. Kalikā Prasād et al. (eds), B{hat hindī koś, Vārāṇasī: Jñān Maṇḍal Limiṭeḍ, �984 (rpt.), p. 623) or dogs, untouchables, lepers, the sick and crows, supposed to act as liaison between the divine and human worlds; A.P. Barannikov (tr. and comment.), Tulsi Das. Ramayana ili Ramacharitamanasa. More Podvigov Ramy, Moskva–Leningrad: Izdatelstvo Akademii Nauk

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aneka (…) pakavāne / sudhā sarasi; �.329.�). So many dishes were served that it was impossible to know all their names, and thus, Tulsīdās fails to give their names. However, he does not fail to inform his audience that they represented all four kinds of food mentioned in treatises2� as well as six flavours (�.329.3).22 At the end of the feast, water for rinsing the mouth and hands as well as pān was served.

When, after some time, the wedding guests are about to leave, they are supplied with, among other things, provisions in the form of uncooked grains (siddha / sīdhā), dry fruit (mevā) and various cooked delicacies (pakavānā). Before leaving Janakpur, Rām and his brothers, who also got married in Janakpur, visit the queens’ chambers (ranivasu) to bid farewell to their mothers-in-law. There, they are first ritually bathed and then the women, with great love, serve them food in six flavours.23

When the newly-wedded sons of the king of Ayodhyā come back home, their father takes a bath together with them and then invites Brahmins, his guru and kinsmen (jñāti) to a reception that lasts till late into the night. Tulsīdās does not reveal what the guests of Daśarath ate but does not forget to inform his audience that at the end of the reception, water for rinsing mouths and hands as well as betel was served (�.354-355.�).

At least two significant situations concerned with the city life should be mentioned in this chapter, although they do not involve food normally eaten by people. I mean here the sacrificial food which the Rāmcaritmānas deals with, e.g. in the episode of Daśarath’s sacrifice performed with the intention to obtain sons (�.�89.3ff.) and after his cremation (2.�70.3). In the first case, the poem deals with the rite called putrakāmeṣṭi, or putrakāma as it stands in the text, performed by Daśarath through the agency of the sage Ś{ṅgī. After oblations were poured by the sage into the sacred fire, Agni, the god of fire, appeared in front of the whole assembly with carū, i.e. the offering of rice boiled in milk, in his hand and told Daśarath to distribute it among his three wives in proportion to their status. He did accordingly, and as a result, his wives became pregnant and in due time, gave birth to their four sons. The second episode takes place in the context of funeral rites, after the cremation, the ritual bath and other rites. Bharat is said to perform the ritual of dasagātra for ten days, during which he offers piṇḍas, i.e., most typically, balls of rice, to the departed soul of his father. It is believed

SSSR, �948, p. 376 and Rāmcandra Varmmā (ed.), Mānak hindī koś, vol. 3, Prayāg: Hindī Sahitya Sammelan, 2006 (rpt.), p. 339.

2� parusana lage suāra sujānā / biñjana bibidha nāma ko jānā // cāri bhati bhojana bidhi gāī / eka eka bidhi barani na jāī; rcm �.329.2.

22 The four kinds of food and its six flavours are discussed further in this study.23 cha rasa asana ati hetu jevāe; rcm �.336.2.

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that thanks to these offerings made on ten consecutive days the body24 of the departed soul is built (kīnha bharata dasagātabidhāna; 2.�70.3). It should be stressed here that these two episodes dealing with sacrifice and sacrificial food are not exceptional. They have been singled out to draw our attention to the food that under certain circumstances gains special status.

After his exile, Rām returns to the life typical of a king, and his famous, just rule (rāmrājya) ensues. What is significant in the context of the present analysis is that the poem does not devote a word to an everyday meal or a special feast. In fact, mentions of food are very rare and indirect in the form of statements that a meal (meals?) has been eaten, as, e.g., in 7.26.2, where we learn that Rām used to eat with his brothers, and their mothers were overcome with joy watching them eat.

3. Food In the Forest

The first reference to food eaten in the forest in the Rāmcaritmānas occurs in the story of Manu Svāyambhuva and Śatarūpā (�.�4�ff.). These parents of the human race, once their son had succeeded to the throne after Manu, decided to fill the rest of their lives with devotion to their Lord, Hari.25 With this purpose in mind, they settled in the Naimiṣa forest, a famous place of pilgrimage and a desired destination of ascetics. There, they started living on greens, fruit, roots and bulbs, but later they began a more and more severe penance in the name of Hari. First, they gave up eating at all and only drank water.26 They lived in such a way, i.e. solely on water, for the next 6,000 years. For the next 7,000 years, they lived only on air (�.�44), and, finally, for the following �0,000 years, they also stopped inhaling air at all; it may be mentioned here that in addition to all that, they stood on one leg (�.�45.�). When the triad of gods, i.e. Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiv, beheld the couple’s severe penance, they wanted to reward it, granting them any boon for which they may have asked. However, Manu and Śatarūpā denied all the offers of these gods and continued their penance till, from heaven, they heard the voice of their Lord, inviting them to ask for a boon. Thus, in

24 Dasagāta, or daśagrāta, lit. ‘ten [members of the] body’. It is a ritual for the deceased performed by the nearest surviving (male) relatives; in the case of the story of the Rāmāyaṇa, it is performed by Bharat, as Rām is in exile. Cf. Śaraṇ, Mānaspīyūṣ, vol. 4, p. 662 and Prasād, B{hat hindī koś, p. 5��.

25 It is worth mentioning here that, in the context of the Ramaite Bhakti, Hari is synonymous with Rām.

26 karahĩ ahāra sāka phala kandā // (…) puni hari hetu karana tapa lāge / bāri adhāra mūla phala tyāge; rcm �.�44.�.

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their supplications addressed to Hari, they first wished to behold him. This boon was immediately granted, and their Lord manifested himself to them in all his magnificence and beauty. Finally, encouraged by Hari, they also expressed their ultimate wish that in their next life, he would become their son.27 As known from the Rāmāyaṇa tradition, this wish was also fulfilled, and Manu and Śatarūpā were born as Daśarath and Kausalyā.

The first mention of food28 encountered in the forest by Rām and his companions, i.e. Sītā and Lakṣmaṇ, as well as Sumantra, who accompanies them for some time, concerns an offering received by them from Guh, the chief of the Niṣāds tribe (niṣādapati). This offering was in the form of fruit and roots brought by him and his people. Guh, prostrating himself, put them at Rām’s feet, and Rām, seized with inborn affection typical for him (sahaja saneha; 2.88.2), made Guh sit by his side and first inquired of him about the well-being of the Niṣāds. Then Guh asked a favour of Rām, to visit his capital (Ś{ṅgaverapur). However, this invitation was politely declined by Rām who, during his entire banishment, was supposed to live, dress and eat as an ascetic; thus, staying in a village was improper for him.29 Therefore, Guh resolved in his heart that the place that he noticed under a siṁsupā30 tree would make a delightful resting place for Rām and his companions. Rām accepted this choice willingly and while he was away, performing his evening prayers (sandhyā), Guh prepared a comfortable bed of grass and leaves and brought a number of leaf-cups filled with fruit and roots, which he considered to be pure, sweet and tender.3� Rām and his companions ate them (kanda mūla phala khāi; 2.89) and then Rām retired for rest.

For some time, Guh accompanies Rām, Sītā and Lakṣmaṇ on their way into the forest, where they meet the sage Bharadvāj at his āśram in Prayāg. After a short welcome, the sage treats his guests to a meal consisting of delicious bulbs, roots, fruit and sprouts, which they eat with great relish as if these foods were the nectar of immortality.32

When the trio proceeds and continues on their way to the forest, all those who meet them feast their eyes on seeing them. However, at the sight of these comely young persons in their ascetic garb, people also wonder what the use of the nectar of the gods is if they live only on bulbs, roots and fruit.33 27 rcm �.�44.�-�52.3.28 rcm 2.88.�-89. 29 baraṣa cāri dasa bāsu bana muni bratu beṣu ahāru / grāmabāsu nahi ucita; rcm 2.88.30 rcm 2.89.2. Siṁsupā – Sans. śiṁśapa (Dalbergia sissoo); P.K. Warrier et al., Indian Medicinal

Plants: A Compendium of 500 Species, vol. 2, Chennai: Orient Longman, 2006 (rpt.), pp. 300-303.

3� suci phala mūla madhura m{du jānī / donā bhari bhari rākhesi ānī; rcm 2.89.4.32 kanda mūla phala aṅkura nīke / diye āni muni manahu amī ke; rcm 2.�07.�.33 jaũ e kanda mūla phala khāhi / bādi sudhādi asana jaga māhi; rcm 2.2�0.�.

23�

Rām and his companions, before they reach Citrakūṭ, also visit Vālmīki’s āśram. The sage receives them with great hospitality and offers them the staple of the forest, i.e. bulbs, roots and fruit, which, as Tulsīdās mentions, are very sweet (2.�24.2).

From the examples discussed above, one might draw the conclusion, albeit false, that Rām and his party eat only food offered to them by someone else. In fact, on a number of occasions, one finds passages involving only the three of them and briefly mentioning that they eat / have eaten or have gone to find food proper for them, i.e. bulbs, roots and fruit.34

The sojourn in Citrakūṭ, surrounded by the mountains and forests full of magnificent wild animals, is enjoyed by the three exiles. However, after some time, Bharat, who comes from Ayodhyā with his family, army and retinue in order to bring Rām back home, interrupts their peaceful life there. It is said that on their way to Citrakūṭ, some of them lived only on milk, others on fruit, and still others ate only once at night; during this expedition, they followed strict religious observances for Rām and behaved like ascetics.35 On the other hand, when the chief of the Niṣāds learns that Bharat, on his way to Citrakūṭ, is approaching his land, he gets ready to receive Bharat and his retinue. The chief also prepares food, among which not only bulbs, roots and fruit can be found, but also birds, antelopes and full-grown pāṭhīnā fish36 as well.37 It is worth adding in this context that although nowhere in the Rāmcaritmānas is Rām said to eat meat, the poet has no problem with mentioning that he hunts during his forest exile (e.g. 2.�38).

On the day Rām learns from Bharat that their father passed away, he fasts and abstains from drinking water and others follow his example (2.247.4).38 After a few days pass, Rām asks the family priest and his guru, Vāsiṣṭha, to take all the people back home, observing that they eat only bulbs, roots and fruit and drink water, which is a great challenge for them.39 Through this observation, Rām seems to draw attention to the fact that the people of Ayodhyā in Citrakūṭ lead their lives as ascetics, which they are not!40 In fact, he must be worried not only about the people but also about the city of Ayodhyā because, while they are all in Citrakūṭ,

34 See, e.g.: rcm 2.�23.2, 2.�40.3, 2.20�.2, 2.2�� and 3.23.35 paya ahāra phala asana eka nisi bhojana eka loga / karata rāma hita nema brata parihari

bhūṣana bhoga; rcm 2.�88. For alternative readings of the first line of this passage, see: Śaraṇ, Mānaspīyūṣ, vol. 4, p. 7�8.

36 ‘A kind of sheat-fish; cat-fish’; R.S. McGregor, The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, Oxford-Delhi, �993, p. 62�.

37 khaga m{ga … mīnā pīna pāṭhīnā purāne; rcm 2.�93.2.38 For more on this subject see: Śaraṇ, Mānaspīyūṣ, vol. 4, pp. 909-9�2.39 nātha loga saba nipaṭa dukhārī / kanda mūla phala ambu ahārī; rcm 2.248.3.40 Cf. Śaraṇ, Mānaspīyūṣ, vol. 4, p. 9�4.

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there is no one to look after it. Vāsiṣṭha admits that Rām is right, but persuades him that all want to stay longer with him and enjoy his presence. Thus, they stay and bathe three times a day in the Payasvinī / Mandākinī river and visit the nearby hills and forests, where they meet the Kols, Kirāts, Bhils and other forest tribes (2.248-2.250.2). These people offer them nicely made leaf-cups filled with honey as pure and sweet as the nectar of the gods and bundles of bulbs, roots and fruit,4� explaining what their taste, variety, quality and names are.

After some time, yet another group of people arrives in Citrakūṭ – it is Janak with his retinue. A noteworthy fact related to this episode is that all the guests abstain from taking food and when they are invited to do so, Janak himself says that it would be improper to eat there asana anājū, ‘food [prepared of] grains’, meaning, for example, different kinds of bread or rice. The commentary Mānaspīyūṣ explains this by saying that Janak considers it improper for guests from Mithilā to eat such food when Rām’s diet, as well as the diet of the people of Ayodhyā, is restricted to roots and fruit. The commentary also suggests that Janak came to Citrakūṭ to meet Rām and his relatives and not to eat there – he did not want precious time to be lost on cooking and eating.42 The latter explanation, however, seems to conceal an actual reason of Janak’s behaviour, motivated by a custom prevalent in north India, according to which it is absolutely improper to eat in the house of one’s son-in-law.43 Finally, all those gathered in Citrakūṭ, after ablutions and worshipping ancestors, gods, guests and the guru44, ate a generous meal of forest produce brought by the forest dwellers. It consisted of pure and lovely leaves, fruit, roots and bulbs that tasted like the nectar of the gods.45

At last, Rām succeeds in persuading his guru that the stay in Citrakūṭ is an affliction to all the people and manages to send them home. On the first day of their journey back to Ayodhyā, they fast.46

After their departure, Rām decides to leave Citrakūṭ and find a less accessible place to spend his exile. On their way, Rām and his companions meet the sage Atri, who offers them roots and fruit to eat (3.3.4). Much later, after the kidnapping of Sītā, the two brothers meet an ascetic woman of low (tribal) status, Śabarī. She greets Rām reverently and then offers him very juicy and tasty bulbs, roots

4� kola kirāta bhilla banavāsī / madhu suci sundara svāda sudhā sī // bhari bhari paranapuṭiraci rūri/ kanda mūla aṅkura jūri; rcm 2.250.�.

42 Śaraṇ, Mānaspīyūṣ, vol. 4, p. �0�0.43 Cf. The Rámáyana of Tulsi Dás, tr. F.S. Growse, 6th edn, Allahabad: Ram Narain Lal,

�9�4, p. 386.44 pūji pitara sura atithi gura; rcm 2.279. 45 dala phala mūla kanda bidhi nānā / pavana sundara sudhā samāna; rcm 2.278.4.46 so basāru binu bhojana gayeū; rcm 2.322.2.

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and fruit which Rām eats with great relish, praising their taste.47 This scene, once again,48 depicts Rām as one who treats all people equally irrespective of their social status. Very meaningfully, later tradition has elaborated this episode, stressing this feature of Rām, and has made him eat berries ‘pre-tested’ by Śabarī for their sweetness – thus, Rām eats jūṭhā / jhūṭhā (lit. ‘impure; leavings’) that no longer has the status of normal food meant for consumption.49

4. conclusIons: What does the RāmcaRitmānas teach us about Food?

The foregoing presentation strongly corroborates the thesis that has been put forward in the opening part of this study, namely that Tulsīdās’s poem is designed as a socio-cultural code. What is very revealing is that the strongest argument for this thesis, which can be called an ‘argument in absentia’, seems to be the fact that the poem, almost without exception, does not take an interest in everyday food, or – to put it differently – the mere fact of eating by an individual that does not directly translate into the socio-cultural reality. However, whenever food has a meaningful bearing on this reality, as in the case of socially special occasions (festivals, ceremonies and / or rituals), or is expressive of one’s status / religious path or its change, the poet devotes his attention to food and whatever is (socially and religiously) relevant to it, setting an example for others to follow.

Thus, in the context of the city life, while the everyday food is ignored, the poet’s attention is devoted to festive and sacrificial food. Meaningfully, in the case of food served on festive occasions, as the discussion above has revealed, the poem does not, as a rule, refer to the names of particular dishes but to their kinds (four types) and taste features (six flavours). By not enumerating the four kinds / types of food, the poem evidently takes for granted this traditional distinction, most commonly including the following categories: bhakṣya (‘edible’, i.e. that which has to be chewed), bhojya (‘edible’, i.e. that which does not have to be chewed), coṣya (‘to be sucked’) and lehya (‘to be licked or sipped’), or: bhakṣya, coṣya, lehya and peya (‘drinkable’)50, which are distinguished on the basis of the texture and / or consistency of the food items. The knowledge of the six flavours referred to in the poem is also taken for granted. These six flavours,

47 kanda mūla phala surasa ati die Rāma kahũ āni / prema sahita prabhu khāe bārambāra bakhāni; rcm 3.34.

48 Rām’s friendship with Guh is also noteworthy in this context.49 Cf. Śaraṇ, Mānaspīyūṣ, vol. 5, pp. 349-35�.50 Cf. Śaraṇ, Mānaspīyūṣ, vol. 2, pp. 404-405 and 854-855 and Achaya, Indian Food,

p. 64.

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or ‘pure’ tastes of food5�, are: madhura (‘sweet’), tikta (‘pungent’), amla (‘sour, acid’), lavaṇa (‘salty’), kaṭu (‘bitter’) and kṣaya (‘astringent’)52; they all should be present in a meal if it is to be balanced and healthy.53 Two noteworthy instances when the names of preparations are used should not be overlooked here. One of them is a reference to sūpodana, served during the wedding feast, and the other one includes several references to pakavānā, which in fact is not the name of a particular dish but of a wide range of particular food items.54 Although one could see them as exceptions, in fact they should rather be understood as terms categorizing two types of food, i.e. kacchā in the first instance and pakkā in the latter, whose distinction has important social implications mentioned above. As far as the sacrificial context is concerned, the poem tends to be precise and explicitly names food that is an offering (carū, piṇḍa).

In the forest, where the protagonist of the story is expected to live as an ascetic, time after time, the staple of the forest, or the staple of ascetics, is referred to, most often by using the stereotyped expression kanda mūla phala, which sometimes can be accompanied by extensions (e.g. aṅkura, dala, sāka) and / or attributes. Due to the fact that the poet does not give the precise names of the plants that are eaten, this phrase should also be seen as a kind of categorization. Thanks to it, the attention of the poem’s audience is drawn to food that, by its nature, is raised without ploughing, thus stressing the opposition between the forest, which is dependent on forest produce, i.e. on what can be found (not killed!) in it, and the city, which depends on agricultural produce, or nature and culture.

Another interesting feature of food underscored by the poem is its great power, which can be a means of achieving seemingly unattainable goals (as in the case of Śatarūpā and Manu) and release from the bonds of life, or upgrade or degrade one’s status (as is evident from the story of Pratāpbhānu). However, taking into view all relevant episodes, it seems to be more justified to say that it is not so much food, or more precisely its consumption, that is the prime mover of such accomplishments, but the abstention from it, which is not meant for everyone and is thus typical of the forest and not of the city.

I would like to sum up the foregoing discussion by quoting the observations made by R.S. Khare, an eminent anthropologist and one of the authorities on food in the life of Hindus. His words seem especially meaningful with reference

5� No less than 63 mixed flavours are said to have been noted by Caraka in his famous treatise Carakasaṁhitā; quoted after: Achaya, Indian Food, p. 79.

52 Cf. Śaraṇ, Mānaspīyūṣ, vol. 2, pp. 404-405 and 854-855 and Achaya, Indian Food, p. 64.

53 Achaya, Indian Food, p. 64. For more on the traditional Indian approach to food and its bearing on health, see, e.g. ibidem, pp. 77-87.

54 See note �4 above.

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to the Rāmcaritmānas, the text that forms an essential part of north Indian ethos. Khare says: ‘one must specify as many contexts, conditions, and qualities of foods to be eaten (or not to be eaten) as possible, because the internal states of one’s being, within this world and beyond, remain intimately connected to the moral quality and condition of what one eats. Whatever one eats has manifest and hidden, and immediate and remote, consequence on one’s body and being’.55 He also notes that ‘Hindu saints, ritualists and the divine particularly treat food as a bridge between this-wordly and otherwordly spheres, making it ground for divine-pervading sensual and suprasensual experiences. Thus the Hindu’s food (alongside his body) becomes one of the most exhaustive mediums within which the discerning realize ultimate unity of the material and spiritual existence’.56 And Tulsīdās’s text corroborates this on a number of occasions when food is dealt with.

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Khare, R.S., Culture and Reality. Essays on the Hindu System of Managing Foods, Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, 1976.

Khare, R.S., The Hindu Hearth and Home, Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1976.Khare, R.S. (ed.), The Eternal Food. Gastronomic Ideas and Experiences of Hindus and

Buddhists, Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1993 (1st published 1992).Khare, R.S., ‘Introduction’, in: The Eternal Food, pp. 1-25.Khare, R.S., ‘Food with Saints: An Aspect of Hindu Gastrosemantics’, in: Khare, The Eternal

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