Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings

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Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food OfferingsAuthor(s): Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-LuzziSource: Current Anthropology, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Sep., 1977), pp. 507-514Published by: The University of Chicago Presson behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation forAnthropological ResearchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2741405.

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2/9

Ritual

s

Language:

The Case

of

South

ndian

Food

Offerings

byGABRIELLAIOHINGER

ERRO-LuzzI

Via

Mario

Fascetti

7,

00136

Rome,

taly.

5

x

76

INTRODUCTION

This

paper

s

ntended

s a

contributiono

the

tudy

f

inguistic

analogies

o

nonlinguistic

henomena.

ver

since Gestalt

psy-

chology

howed hat he

perception

f

form s

primary

nd

that

our

minds

ead us tostructure

eality,

cientistsave

been

ook-

ingfor tructure

n

various

ealms f ulture.

As

anguage

s

one

of the most

tructuredreations

f the human

mind,

t

readily

suggeststself or omparison. he structuralistevi-Strauss as

repeatedly

rawn

inguistic

arallels, omparing,

or

nstance,

thekinship

ystem o a language n

whichwomen

re

thewords

(1958:69)

or

revealing odes

in

myth

nd

speaking

f ts

con-

stituent nits

as

mythemes nalogous

to

the

morphemes

f

language.

Orenstein 1965) has studied

he structure

f

Hindu

caste values accordingto a linguisticmodel, distinguishing

intransitive

nd transitive

ollution nd

comparing

he

systematic

ariations

n

the Shastric rules to

paradigms.

Thoughhis inguistic

erminology ay

be ustified,

n

extension

of

the paradigms o

behavior eems

unwarranted.

ven

in

the

past,scriptural uleswould

have

applied only

to castes

erved

by Brahmin

riests, nd at present,

ccording o my

findings

from amilnad

(Eichinger erro-Luzzi

974),

there

s

no cor-

respondence etween

pollution nd

caste

rank.

Particularly

ambitious

ttempts

t

applying

linguisticmodel to

a

non-

linguistic ield

re those fDurbin

1970) and Boudon

1967),

who

nterpret

ainism nd forms

f exchange

ccording

o the

rules ftransformational

rammar.

At first

lance,

food

would seem to

lend

tself

ittle o struc-

tural and

linguistic

onsiderations,nd

yet Levi-Strauss

as

shownthatone of the codes in Northand SouthAmerican

myths

s

alimentary1964, 1967a, b,

1968,1971). He

has also

examined he

elationships

f

gustatory

ategories

r

gustemes

(1958:99)

and

coined he term

culinary riangle or

hecate-

gories f raw,cooked, nd

rotten,

whichhe sees as

analogous

to the

riangles

f hecardinal

vowels -u-i r

thevoiceless tops

k-p-t

1965:19-20; 1968:369).

Douglas (1972)

presents series

of

inguistic

nalogies o food

behavior. he

speaksoffoods s

encoding

social

relations, solates the

categories f eating

from

ts

gross

units

down to the

gastronomic

morpheme, he

mouthful, ndstudies he

syntagmatic

elations f

hediffer-

ent

lements

n

the course f he

meal, the dailymenu,

nd the

annual

festivals.

he rightly

eproaches

evi-Strauss or iming

too

high

nd

pretendingo find

niversal ood

meaningswhile

neglecting mall-scale ocial relations.Her ownanalysis, ow-

ever,

eems o

suffer

artly rom he

opposite

efect. he week-

day

meal is said

to

have a

tripartite tructure

which would

regularly epeat tself n

more

sumptuousmeals, buthow far

beyond her

home does this

regularity old?

Would fish nd

chips,

or

nstance,

ot

qualify s

a

weekday unch?

In the

horus f

pan-linguists here

s one

discordant oice.

Sperber 1975) attacks he

emiotic

iewof ymbolism.

hough

his

theory

of

symbolism s a

cognitive

device merits lose

examination,

do not

think

hat all his

arguments

gainst he

semiotic

nterpretationf

symbolism an be

accepted. He

argues, or

nstance, hat

without araphrase

here s no mean-

ing-that in

order o speak of

themeaning f

a symbol n the

linguistic

ense, t must

be possible o

substitute or he ymbol

either nother ymbol r the verbalexpression f tsmeaning

-and that paraphrase

will be

rare (pp. 11-12).

In my

ex-

perience,

however, ubstitutions

f symbols

re not

uncom-

mon. Indian

gods, for nstance,

have many conic and

non-

iconicforms,

nd thesemay

be substitutedor

ach other t

will

in worship; money ffering ay take the place of an offering

in kind n rituals ll overthe world; ertain itual cts, uch as

the benediction,may

be

both accompanied nd replaced by a

verbal equivalent; etc. Besides, ven in language paraphrase

is not alwayspossible, nd idiomatic xpressions o not allow

it. Another f Sperber's arguments gainst the usefulness f

looking or meaning n symbols s derivedfrom he fact that

anythingmay become

a

symbol nd that the motivations f

symbols an be neither eneralized or predicted pp. 26-28).

Though

he is

right

n

saying hat nythingmaybecome a sym-

bol, he overlooks ne important oint: not everything as the

sameprobability

f

becoming symbol, nd noteverymotiva-

tion of

a

symbol

s

equally probable. There are universal r

potentially

niversal

ymbols Fischer 963:245) and culturally

preferredymbols.

or

many

ofthe

foods ffered o the

gods,

good reasons xist,

nd certain

ategories f foodshave little

chanceofbecoming

itual

ymbols

n

ndia. I also disagreewith

Sperber

about the

differences etweensymbolism nd lan-

guage. For instance, s a corollary f the cognitive atureof

symbolism,

e states

pp. 87-88),

there s

no multisymbolism

analogous

o

multilingualism;ymbolic ata ofdifferentrigins

do

notremain

eparate

ike he

grammars

f

differentanguages

butbecome ntegratedntoa single ystemwithin given n-

dividual. hold,

on the

contrary,

hat

differentymbolic ys-

tems an

be internalized

eparately y

the

ame ndividual.An

Italian,

for

nstance,may

make

the signof the horns o pro-

tect

himselfrom

he

vil

eye

or

to nsult

omebody s a cuckold,

but he

will refrain rom

oing

so in

the presenceof a priest,

knowing

ull

wellthat

the

horns

elong oa heathen ymbolic

system

o

whichthe

priest

would

object.

In

general,

t seems

that Sperber attacks semiological

iew

of symbolism aken

too literally. obody

would

argue

that set

of ymbols an

be

understood

n

exactly

he

ame

way

as a

language,

ut

inguistic

analogies

are valid and

useful s

long

as their

imitations

re

kept

n

mind.

Given

the

complexity

f ndian

ritual,

shall deal

with

nly

one ofitsaspects, oodofferings,'iewed from nlyone par-

ticular

angle;

their

ethnographic

ontext

and

the

probable

reasons

or

he

choice

nd

avoidance

of

ertain oodshave been

discussed

lsewhere

Eichinger

erro-Luzzi

n.d.

a, b, c).

As

to

the

range

of

validity

fwhat am

going

o

propose,

am

steer-

ing

an intermediateourse

between he

macro scale

of

L6vi-

Strauss

and the

micro

one

of

Douglas. My study

covers

the

whole

of

South

India,

which

despite

the

cultural

diversity

typical

f

he ndian scene lso

presents

imilarities

n

anguage,

kinship ystem,tc.,

hat

distinguish

t from he

rest

f

ndia.

In

offeringood,

he

devotee

s

communicating

ith

he

gods,

and

it

thereforeeems

permissible

o

speak

of the ritual

of

naivedya2

food offered

o the

gods)

as

a

language,

the

indi-

vidual

offeringeing comparable

o

a word. This

analogy

has

its

imitations,

nd

I

do not

mean to

say

that

very ffering

as

a definitemeaning rthat he ists f rasads offeringseturned

to the devotee s

consecrated

ood)

found

n

temples

re

true

vocabularies.

he

linguistic nalogies

want to

point

out

refer

instead to

the structural

unction

f certain

offerings

nd

to

certain

tructural

lements

n

the

offerings

hemselves.

In

studying

he enormous

variety

f

naivedyas

n

the

four

South

Indian

states of

Tamilnad, Kerala, Karnataka,

and

Andhra

Pradesh,

was

struck

y

two

facts:

1)

certain

fferings

clearly istinguished

eities nd

ceremonies; 2) offerings

ere

frequently

entioned

n

standard

ombinations.

hese

twoob-

I

Fieldwork

was

done from eptember

1974

to March

1975.

2

For

the transcription

f

Indian

words,

the following

onven-

tions

have been

adopted:

proper

names and terms

of

Sanskrit

origin used everywheren South India, thoughsometimeswith

slight

variationsaccording

to language

area, have

been given

in

the

Sanskrit

or in

an Anglicized

Sanskrit

form;

the

transcription

of

Tamil

words

follows

the Madras

University

amil Lexicon;

for

words

of

other

Indian languages,

a

phonetic approximation

is

given.

Vol.

18 *

No.

3 *

September

977

507
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3/9

servations

re not on the same level. One looks at ritualfrom

theoutside nd theother rom he nside.

This dual

perspective

may

also

be

adopted

with

regard

o

language.

Language may be analyzedwith espect o the ocial ystem.

Proper

names

dentifyndividuals,

ts mallest nits. imilarly,

in distinguishing

eities nd ceremonies he

language

of food

offeringselpsto identifymportantonstituentsf the Hindu

pantheon

nd sacred

year.

Sociolinguistic

ifferences ithin

culture

not

only help

to

identify

ertain constituentsf the

social tructure,ut alsomay tress inary ppositions ithin t.

For example,

heTamil Brahmin ialect s distinct rom on-

Brahmin

peech,

nd

certain

eculiarities

n the

vocabulary

f

a Christian

amil

distinguish

imfrom is Hindu

countryman;

here language

underscores

ppositions

withinTamil culture.

Similarly,

he

anguage

offood

offerings ay

stress

he

binary

oppositionbetween deities or groups of deities. Again, the

typical ichotomy

etweenmale and femalemembers f a cul-

ture

may

be stressed

y

differences

n

anguage;

n

Japanese, or

instance,

male and female

speakers

use markedlydifferent

vocabularies.

Corresponding

o these

n

the

anguage

of

food

offerings

re distinctive

fferings

o

gods

and

goddesses.

The

culturaldistinction

etween

ormal nd

informal

ccasions s

commonlytressed ythe use ofdifferentypes f peech, nd

there s

a

parallel

to

this

n ritual n

the

alimentary istinction

between uspicious

nd

inauspicious ccasions.

n these xam-

ples

I

see language as

a

structural

lement f ts peakers' ul-

ture nd analogously ropose

o

consider

he anguage offood

offerings

structural

lement f Hinduism.

Language may

be

studied

rom he

nside,

or ts

own

sake,

for

nstance,

o reveal

ts

grammatical

nd

phonemic

tructures.

As the

language

of food

offerings

s

only

a

rudimentary

an-

guage, we cannot expect

to find complex grammatical nd

phonemic tructures,

ut

hope

to

show hat ertain tructural

features

re

discernible. y these

mean above all binary nd

multiple

ombinations f food

offering

words into

simple

expressions. ome ofthese ombinations,s we shall ee, use

contrast,whileothers se redundance. shall argue (a) that

the

contrastingombinations

dd a

meaning

f

totality

o the

offering hich ts onstituentsaken eparately o nothave and

are thus comparableto idiomatic ntithetical xpressions

n

language and (b) that the redundant

roupings dd emphasis

to the

meaningof

a

particular ype

of offeringnd are thus

comparable o idiomatic edundant

xpressionsn language.

also wish to draw attention o some linguistic nalogies bor-

rowedfrom

honology. hese I

find n standard oodpairs of

uneven

complexity, hich shall call

marked nd unmarked

respectively-a comparison dear to

Levi-Strauss

1958:99;

1965:20; 1967b:36).

Such

analogies

lso suggest hemselves

n

the

phoneme-likeistinction ithin

ertain ood fferingshich

serves o

stress

binary

ontrast etween eities nd festivals.

In

addition o these tructural eatures,t would be possible

tospeak ofa temporal tructure fofferingsuring he course

of the

day

and the

year with syntagmatic nalogies or of

a

quantitative tructureccording othe amounts ffoodoffered

todifferenteities, ut as these eaturesontain oo manyvari-

ables theyhave not been considered.

FOOD

OFFERINGS

AS

STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS OF HINDUISM

On

an

overt level of

analysis, food offeringsmay

be an

expres-

sion of the

devotee's love

and devotion; they may have the pur-

pose

of

bartering

or

thanking for

a

boon or of propitiating

a

deity.

On

a

more covert

level, they

may serve to stress certain

structural

features

of Hinduism.

In the following paragraphs

I

shall discuss (a) foods that distinguish deity or a festivalfrom

all other deities or festivals and therebyhelp to identify ome

constituents f the Hindu religion and

(b)

foods that underscore

binary oppositions between gods or ceremonial occasions.

Isolation funits. n trying o understand a religion, we usually

startby examining ts deities nd ceremonies,

ts most

bvious

constituent

nits.The identification

f

a

Hindu deity s facili-

tated by a multitude f symbols,

mong them his vahana

(vehicle),the emblemshe holds

n

his

hands, his posture, is

dress

nd

ornaments,

he flowers

ssociated

withhim, tc., and

food

offerings ay

be one of these

haracteristiceatures. ot

all deities

an be identified

hrough

ood, nd only fewhave

exclusive

ood

preferences

ike the raw

eggs acceptableonly o

snakes

r themillet

orridge

with

honey

eserved or heTamil

god Murukan.These exclusive fferingsffectivelyistinguish

therecipient ods

nd

are

widely

nown,

ut

they re notregu-

larly associated

with

them

n

iconography nd literature. n

contrast,

ertain favorite oods of

Krishna, Ganapati, and

Lalita do

function s

symbols

r

alternative

ames,despite he

fact hat heymayalso be offered oother

deities. utter s one

such

ndicator fKrishna.Common

epresentations

fKrishna

in

South

ndia

are Balakrishna Baby Krishna), holding pot

of

butter nderhis eft rm nd

eating

ball of t

from

hepalm

of

his

righthand,

or the

dancing

Krishna, holding

ball

of

butter

n

his

right

hand

(Sastri 1974:38).

This

association f

Krishna with butter s not limited o

South India and is, of

course, derived

from he

myths

f

his life

as

a

cowherd.A

secondcharacteristicood

thathas

become

a

part

of his

repre-

sentationss laddu a ball-shaped weet).A popular oleograph

showsBalakrishna icking p

one of these

weets rom

plate

of

offeringslaced before

im.

The

elephantgod

Ganapatil

is

a

great ater, s his potbelly

testifies,

nd has

several

haracteristicoods.

When he

is

repre-

sentedwith en hands

he holds

amongst

ther

ymbols

wild

orange

nd

a

sugarcane talk;

wood

apple

s

sometimes

laced

in

one of his hands,

nd all three oods

igure mong

his offer-

ings.Ganapati'sfavorite

weet

modaka

ppears

n

his

most

om-

mon

oleograph,

wherehe holds

a

plate

of them

n

one of his

fourhands.

The all-Indian

association

f

Ganapati

with this

sweet s mentioned

n

sacred

texts

nd

in

several

myths.

ne of

these

myths

ven connects

Ganapati

and

Krishna

through

modaka.

rishna'smother

evaki has

put

an

offering

f

modakas

infront f Ganapati's dol, and,wellawareofthe mischievous

nature fher ittle on, he has tied Krishna'shandsbehindhis

back

in

order o

prevent

im from

tealing

he sweets.To her

surprise, owever,

he

dol

of hedebonair

od

comes

o

ife

nd

puts

the

sweets ntoher

son's

mouthwithhis

trunk.

In these

xamples,

hefood

offerings

re associated

with

he

gods

as their

ymbols

nd function

s

names.

In the case of

goddess Lalita,

a form

f Siva's wife

Parvati,

food

offerings

literally

re names.

Sahasrandma,

he

reciting

f

1,000names,

s

a

common

orm f

7ja- worship)

or everal

ndian

deities,

ut

Lalita alone,

to

my knowledge,

ncludes

mong

her

1,000 ap-

pellations

eferenceso

food ike

he

following:

she

who s fond

of

milk,

she

who s fond f

greasy

ood,

she

who

s

fond

f

rice

mixed

with

reen ram,

tc.

Lalita

ahasrandma

925:213,

215,

218).

These

generic escriptions

f

Lalita's

tastes

pply

to

some ofherofferings,nd, although thergodsalso relish uch

foods,

he names are

peculiar

to her.

Food

offerings

ot

only dentify

ertain eities f the

ndian

pantheon,

ut

also

characterize ertain

estivals,

nd

thereby

emphasize

the

structure

f the

Hindu sacred

year.

Most

calendar festivals

re dedicated to

specific

eities,

nd

if

the

deitieshave

any preferred

oods

hey

will be

prepared

n those

occasions. ome

festivals o

not

honor

ny deity

n

particular,

though

evout

persons

will

offer

aivedya

o

their

amily od

or

toother

gods, according

o the tradition

f the

family, ect,

or

region;nevertheless,

he

festival

will

be connected

with

spe-

cific

ood.

This identificationf festivals

ith

pecific

oods

s

also well known

n

the

West, nly

without he

corollary

f

food

offerings.

n

Tamilnad,Bhogi,

he

first

ay

of

the harvest

esti-

3

The

elephant

god has

many

names. In the

West he is

mostly

known as

Ganesa; in South

India Ganapati seems

to be

more

popular.

Both names

are

Sanskritand

refer o

him

as

the

lord

(pati) or god

(isa)

of the gana

(hosts

of minor

deities).

508

CURRENT

ANTHROPOLOGY


4/9

val Ponkal, oesnot celebrate

ny particular eity, ut

nearly

all participants

gree

that

po-i a pancake

with sweet

filling)

must

be

prepared

nd

offered

o the

family od,

whoever

he

may

be. In other

cases,

the

deity

to be honored

during he

festivalmay

notbe

quite

clear n

people'sminds,

ut there s

no

doubt

about

the

special

food to be

prepared.

The

Tirvatirai

festivaln Tamilnad was sometimesaid to be in honor f

Siva

and sometimes

f

Parvati,

but the

offering

f the sweet

rice

porridge aliwas a must n either ase. Kdrttikaiori, sweet

ball

of

puffed

r flattened

ice,

ndicates

y

its name that t

is

to be

prepared

or hefestival

f

ights

n themonth

f

Karttikai

(November-December).Usually

the festival

is considered

Murukan's sacred

day,

but

Murukan's

father iva

and

even

Vishnu

re

also

mentioned

s

recipients

f

the

sweet.

Binary

ppositions.

hinking

n

binary ategories

eems

to

be

an innate

proclivity f the

human

mind and has been demon-

strated

n

several

fields.

akobson, ant,

and Halle

(1963:40)

detect 12 binary ppositions nderlying

he exical and mor-

phological

tocks f the anguages

of the world.4 6vi-Strauss,

examining he structure

f

myths, ontinually

efers

o

binary

oppositions; ocial

anthropology

as

revealed number fcom-

munities ivided

ntomoieties r using symbolic

lassification

of ociety nd nature ntoright nd left ections; hecomputer

is built on a

binaryprinciple; tc.

In Hindu

religion,

everal

pairsofopposites re discernible,mong hem ure

and

impure

deities, ods and goddesses, iva

and

Vishnu, nd auspicious

and inauspicious ccasions. do not wishto imply hat the

wholeof

Hinduism an

be

reducedto a system f opposites r

thatno

other airs

an

be found. hese

four

re

simply

he

ones

forwhich

he

people themselvestate

hat

distinction

n

food

offerings ustbe made. At the same time, hey onstitute

m-

portant elementsof Hinduism recognized not only

in

the

Dravidian

South,but all over ndia.

The

wayfood fferingselp to stress hesebinary istinctions

suggests nother

inguistic nalogy.

n

language, binary p-

position

can

be

expressed a) by

means

of

two

completely

different ords, uchas uncle/auntrup/down,r (b) bymeans

of two

similar

words contrasting,

or

nstance,

n

an

ending,

such as

book/booksr lion/lioness.

ven

the substitution

f

one

phonememaybe sufficiento bring ut

a

contrast,s

in

German

dies/dasthis/that) r French moi/toime/you). Similarly,

binarydistinction f deities

nd

ceremonial ccasionsmay

be

stressed

a) by

two

completely

ifferent

fferings

r

(b) by

the

same

offeringnto

which contrasting

eature

as

been intro-

duced, either

y adding ome furtherlement r by replacing

one of

ts

elements.

The dual

division f the Hindu pantheon ntopure and im-

pure deities s not only tressed, ut created, y foodofferings.

Pure deitiesaccept only vegetarianofferings, hile impure

deities

thirst orblood, more rarelyrelishcooked meat, and

also have a penchant or lcohol, cigars, nd bhang hashish).

The pure deities

nclude ll thegods and goddesses f hegreat

Sanskritic

radition f Hinduism,whereas illagedeitiesnorm-

ally

fall

ntothe mpure ategory.As a rule,pure and impure

deities

lso differn

character: ure deities end to be benevo-

lent nd arepleased with fferingsut need not be propitiated

with hem,

while mpuredeities re ferocious, ausing disease

and

drought

f

not propitiated.There are borderline ases;

Siva,

for

xample, s not ltogether enevolent,nd Narasimha,

the

man-lion

avatar

of Vishnu, has an all but benevolent

form, nd yetneither s propitiated n the normal ense and

both

receive nlyvegetarian fferings.hese cases showthat

god's purity r impuritys a consequence rimarily f his food

habits

and only econdarily f his character.A Tamil village

goddess

near Pondicherrybout whose fferingsinquired lso

illustrateshispoint.

This Mariyamman,worshippedy

Hari-

jans, was declared o

be perfectlyure now that he had given

up her blood-drinkingabits,but she was still

responsible or

epidemics

f

notpropitiated ith fferings,ow

of vegetarian

type.

The distinction

etweenpure and impuredeitiesmay also

be brought

bout

by

alteringne element notherwisedentical

offerings.he SriJanardanaand Mahakali temples f Udipi

(South Kanara)

house

n one

compound

he pure god Vishnu

and the mpure oddessKali. Apart

from

lood

acrifice ffered

to Kali

and

not,

of course, o Vishnu, he two deitiesreceive

similar egetarian

ishes

repared

with

ice. For Vishnu,how-

ever,

aw rice must

e

cooked,

while

for

Kali

therelativelym-

pureparboiled

ice

s used.

This

same culinary istinctionerves

not only to stress

he oppositionbetweenpure and impure

deities,

ut

also

to

separate

he

acredfrom heprofane, s raw

rice s prescribed or eremonial ccasions hat

demandheight-

ened purity nd parboiledrice s preferredor

veryday se.

Another ubtle

distinction

ay

be built

nto he preparation

of

the flour

amp

offered o

both

pure

and

impuregoddesses.

This lamp consists

f sweetened ice-flouraste hollowedout

and filledwithghee.After avingbeenlit nfront f the dol,

the

amp

ofhalf-baked ough s distributednd eaten as

prasad

by the devotees. rahmins,

n

accordancewith

heir egetarian

convictions,

evermake

a

bloodsacrifice o a village goddess,

though heymay

worshipher. Not beingable to distinguish

between

pure

and

impuregoddesses y offering

mpureones

nonvegetarian ood, hey

have

created distinction

ithin he

flour-lampffering.

he flour eeded

for he amp may be ob-

tainedbyeither rindingr pounding herice grains. ounded

rice flour s recommended or the lamps offered o ferocious

goddesses

nd

ground

iceflour or hose ffered

o benign nes,

perhaps because pounding

s

probably

considered

he more

violent procedure Minakshi

Ammal

1973:228).

Several in-

formants entioned

his

difference

n

culinary echnology,

ut

some nverted he terms,which howsthatthepeople's main

concern

s

with binarydistinction,

ven

if

t is an arbitrary

one.

The

opposition

between

god

and

goddess

in

the

Hindu

pantheon

s not

as clear-cut

s

that

between

ure

and

impure

deities.

n

the

great

Hindu

tradition, goddess s more

often

assimilated

o her

spouse

than

opposed

to

him; thus

the her-

maphrodite igure

rdhanari

s half iva and

half

akti

Siva's

female

energy

s

also

represented

s

Parvati).

In accordance

withthistendency o stress

he union betweenhusband

and

wife,

he

gods

and their

pouses

n

most temples

eceivethe

same

food.

Nevertheless,

here also

are

distinctive

fferings

which eem to

be

designed

o

oppose

them.

n

Srirangam,

he

most

mportant

aishnava

temple

f

Tamilnad,

n

addition o

a number ffoods hared

by

Vishnu

nd

his

consort,

ppam

a

friedweet ake) isofferednly o thegodandpittua steamed

sweet

tring ake)

only

o

the

goddess.

No

particular

easonfor

this

could

be

givenby

the

templepriests.

he

choice

of foods

seems

o be

arbitrary,

he wodifferent

fferings

aving

he

ole

purpose

f

tressing male/female pposition.

Distinction,

owever,

lmost

nevitably

eads to

hierarchy,

especially

n

India,

where

the hierarchical

rder

of

society

s

highly eveloped

nd

a

hierarchy

f

oods

nd of

people

accord-

ing

to

thefoods

hey

at

is

culturally ccepted.

The

binary p-

position

etween

pure

and

impuredeities,

f

course,

s also a

hierarchical

ne. Some

differential

fferings

o the

gods

and

their

onsorts ontain uch

a

hierarchical

lement.

n

the

great

Saiva

temples

of

Jambukeswarar, amilnad,

and

Srisailam,

Andhra Pradesh, god

and

goddess

share

most

of the

dishes

offered,ut thegoddessreceives xtra tems hatpointto the

periodwhen he reigned upreme nd

had notyetbeenmarried

to Siva. More often,

owever,when god and goddess re

dis-

tinguishedn their fferings,t is the god who gets the

lion's

share nd thegoddesshas to be satisfied ith maller

uantities,

4I

wonder

whether he

binary

oppositions re really

exactly 12

or

whetherthe linguists

imply

stopped looking

for them at

this

number, a

culturally atisfying

ne in the

Judeo-Christian

radi-

tion.

Vol.

18

*

No. 3

*

September

977

509


5/9

the gradual diminution

ontinuing

ith

he esser eities f

the

same

temple.

A pair that

s

not

considered

married

ouple may

also

be

distinguished hrough

ood

offerings. abarimala,

the

most

famous emple

fthe

godAiyappan

n

Kerala,

containsn its

compound

he shrine f

Malikaipurattu

mman,

demoness

redeemed

by

Aiyappan. Pilgrimsmaking

their

obeisance

to

both deities

ustomarily istinguish

etween hem

by breaking

coconuts orAiyappanand rolling hem n front fAmman's

shrine.

The greatgods

Siva

and

Vishnu constitute nother

pair

of

opposites

n the Hindu

pantheon.They

are

not

diametrically

opposed

ike

pure

and

impure

deities

nd,

as

in the case of

the

opposition

etween

god

and

goddess,

unifying

radition

as

created

composite

igure arihara,

half

iva

and half

Vishnu.

For

all

practical

urposes,

owever,

iva and

Vishnu

re rivals

for

the devotionof

Hindus.

They

are

the

supremegods

of

Saivism nd

Vaishnavism,

wo

parallel

ectswithin

Hinduism,

and

food

offerings

ay

serveto

bring

ut a contrast etween

them. everal

times,

when

a common

ype

of

naivedya

as

not

offered

n

a

Saiva or

a

Vaishnava

temple,

was told

by

the

priests

hat the

missing

ood

was the

typical offering

f

the

rivalgod. In fact, heexclusionrarelywentbeyond hepar-

ticular

emple,

ut the remark hows hat

offerings

re

thought

of as distinctive

igns

f the deities.

The overall

imilarity

e-

tween iva's

and

Vishnu's

fferings

n

the

great emples eflects

the

manypoints

f contact etween he

two

majorgodheads

f

Hinduism.

An

analysis f Saivism

nd

Vaishnavism

would go

beyond

he

cope

of

this

paper.

Sufficet to

say

that

both Siva

and

Vishnu

re

typically

ndian

n

their oncern or

urity

nd

austerity;

oth have

many

different

orms, alled

manifesta-

tions

n the

case of Siva and

avatars

n

the

case ofVishnu;

both

are connected

with

a

female

counterpart;

oth

grantmoksha

(salvation)

s a boon for

unswervingevotion;

tc.

In

addition

to similarities,iva

and

Vishnu also

show

differences,

hich

may

be

stressed

y

some

fairly onsistent ifferences

n

their

food. Vishnu s consideredwhollybenevolent,whileSiva has

both

benign

and

not so

benign aspects.

A

Sri Vaishnava

Brahmin

ady5 assertedthat

Vishnu loves his devotees and

therefores

pleased

with

heir

fferings.iva,on

the

other

and,

is the

ord

of he

burning round

nd cares neither or

evotees

norfor ood.This

observation

eems o be

confirmedy

thefact

that he

gods'

most

umptuousmeals,

he

ongest ists f

prasads,

and the

most

laborate

feeding f

Brahmins re to be found n

the

great

Vaishnava

temples. Siva's

offeringsre generally

more

frugal,

nd

there

eems o

be

greater tress n plainrice

without

alt

or

any

other

ondiment han

on boiled rice

with

side

dishes,

which s the normal

South Indian

meal

also fre-

quently

fferedo

Vishnu.The

Siva-Vishnu

emple fTjakara-

yanagar,

Madras,

houses

eparate dolsof

Siva and Vishnu nd

draws Saivite and

Vaishnavite

evoteesgathering t

opposite

sidesof hetemple ompound. n this emple enponikala spicy

rice

preparation

with

greengram) and curd

rice are offered

to both

gods,

while

distinctionscreated y

offeringlainrice

only

to Siva and

tamarind

ice

onlyto Vishnu.

The

distinctionetween he

gentlernature of Vishnu

and

the

more

violent

haracter f

Siva is

consistentlytressed y the

spices

used n

their

espective oods. n the

outhern artof he

peninsula,

neither

reen

nor red chillies, he

hottestpices of

Indian

cuisine, re

acceptable oVishnu,

while iva has a taste

for

green hillies.

n

general t may be said

that he opposition

between

iva and

Vishnu xpressed y their

fferingsepends

not

so

muchon

differentvnes ffood s on the relative

bun-

dance of the

offerings.till more

clearly-a fact

repeatedly

pointedout by

the people

themselves-Vishnu nd Siva are

contrasted y the

offering

f n

abundance f ood o theformer

and an

abundance

of

abhiseka

anointing

r ablution,which n-

volves ome food

tems)to the atter.

So

far

I

have

discussedbinary

distinctions etweendeities

who

formwell-known airs

n theHindu

pantheon. n other

cases

a

distinction

s made between

rbitrary airs imited o a

familyr a small area. Ganapati and the nake,Ganapati and

Devi,

Venkateswara Vishnu

as Lord ofTirupati)

and Muru-

kan, and the

festivals ama navami and

Ugadi differ ithout

being pposites

nd are combined

n

pairs

precisely ythe ame

typeofoffering.

hen two different

eitieshappento receive

the

ame

offeringr

the

amefood s

prepared or wodifferent

festivals,

ome

people feel that a

distinctionhouldbe intro-

duced. This

s

conveniently

chievedby altering ome

ingredi-

ent nthe

dish.

One woman

nSouth Kanara

offeredhe ame

sweet,

kadubu

a

stuffed

ake),

to

Ganapati on

Vinayakar

chaturdi nd

to the

nakeon Naga

panchami, ut according o

herfamily

radition he distinguished

etween hetwo deities

and their

fferingsy adding

cardamom o the

nake's ake.

A

Tamil

woman

distinguished

he sweet kolukkattaithe Tamil

equivalent of the above) offered o Ganapati from he one

offered o Devi

by putting esame

only nto the former. he

flour

amp mentioned efore

s

a

typical

fferingo goddesses

may

in

Tamilnad

be presented

o both

Venkateswara nd

Murukanon their

espective estivals;

hose

wishingo make a

distinction

ay spice

the

dough

of

Venkateswara's lour

amp

with ardamom. n Andhra

Pradesh anaka

jaggerywater) s

offeredo

Rama

on

his

birthday ama

navami nd

is also

pre-

pared for he

Telugu New

Year's

festival

gadi,

but the

atter

drink

s

distinguished

rom he former

y

several

additional

ingredients.

A

ceremonial pposition etween

oyful

and

sad events s

common

n

the

West

and

is

normally xpressed y

contrasting

use of

colors, lowers,tc.,without ecourse

o

food.

n

India,

thedifferenceetween marriage, or nstance, nd a funeral

is notonly ne of

entiment;heformers

viewed s auspicious

and the

atter

s

impure

nd

inauspicious

n a

magical

sense.

The

opposition

etween

uspicious nd

inauspicious

ccasions,

which

parallels

he

opposition etween

ods

and

ancestors,

as

several

ritual

expressions,

mong

them the

wearing

of

the

sacred

hread

ver

he eft

r over

he

right

houlder,

lockwise

or counterclockwise

ircumambulation,

theuse

of

different

colors,

tc.

Food

plays

n

importantart.For

example, raddha,

the funeral

eremony

bserved

by high

castes,

ncludes

the

offering

f

inda balls

ofcooked

rice).

The

word

inda, iterally

meaning ball,

is so

strongly

ssociated

with his

nauspicious

occasion

that

no

rice ball

used on

auspicious

ccasionswould

ever

be

called

pinda. imilarly,

obody

would use black

sesame

grains,

nother ndicator f

nauspiciousness,

or n

auspicious

ceremony. eccan Brahmins eemtopaythegreatestttention

to

the

culinary

istinction etween

uspicious

nd

inauspicious

occasions.

n

Karnataka

as well

as

in

Andhra Pradesh was

told

that

eggplant,

much

appreciatedvegetable,

hould

not

be

used for sraddha-in

order

not to discredit t,

I

suppose.

Kanarese

Brahmins eserved

rickly

ightshade, reenbanana,

cluster

beans,

and

unripe ackfruit

or curries

prepared

for

sraddha

nd

therefore

id

not offer hem

o

the

gods.

While

n

Tamilnad

black-gram

atai

a

fried

picy

ake) may

be offered

to

any deity,

ome

Kanarese

Brahmins aw

in the

dish above

all the

blackness f he

pulse,

tsmost

ommon

ngredient. hey

thereforesed this

avory

or

raddhand did

not offer

t

to the

gods.

Other nformantsid

not condemn he

dish s

such,

on-

sidering

t

acceptable

f

made

of

Bengal gram.

Still

others aid

that, fno Bengalgramwas available,black-gram atai ould

be used for uspicious

ccasions nd offeredo the gods

as long

as it was

distinguishedt least n shape

by omittinghe

central

hole with haracterizes he

funeral ake.

5

Tamil Brahmins re divided intotwosects: the Smarthas,who

follow

Sankara's

advaita

monistic)

philosophy

nd

worship

mainly

but

not

exclusively

Siva,

and the

Sri

Vaishnavas,

who

follow

Ramanuja's

visishta

dvaita

(qualified

monistic)

philosophy and

worship

only

Vishnu

and

his

avatdrs.

510

CURRENT

ANTHROPOLOGY


6/9

STRUCTURAL

ELEMENTS OF

FOOD

OFFERINGS

So

far

I

have discussed he

language

of food

offerings

s a

means of stressing

ertain

tructural

eatures

f

Hinduism.

shallnow turn obinary nd other tructuresfthefood diom

itself.Usually food offeringsonsist f more

than one item.

Financial possibilities ecide the upper

imit f the

number

f

foods offered,

ut at

the lower imit

there often re certain

minimal rescriptionsnd standard ombinations hich ecall

stylistic rocedures

n

language.

Idiomatic sayings composed of antithetical r redundant

pairs re found

n

many anguages.

n

German, or nstance,

n

order o say colorfullyhatnothing as

been eft

undone,

one

may use the expression Himmel undHoelle in Bewegung etzen

( to

move heaven

and

hell );

the

Rig

Veda, speaking

f the

universein

its totality,uses the combination

dyavdprthivi

(heaven-earth),nd the talian anguagehas the diom cercare

per mari per monti to search in seas and mountains )

to

emphasize

hat

ne

has

searched verywhere.

n these ases

and

manyothers,hecombination fextremes ispenseswith

men-

tioning

he ntermediate

teps,

nd

antithetical airs

thus on-

stitute

simpleway

of

xpressingotality.

edundantpairs, n

the otherhand, ncludeEnglish firstnd foremost, erman

bei Nacht und Nebel ( at night and in fog ),

and Italian pian

piano

slowly lowly ).By combining imilar

oncepts r re-

peating

he ame

one, this ype f diomatic aying,

ather han

signifyingotality, uts emphasis on what is meant-in the

above

examples,

n

precedence,

ack

ofvisibility,nd slowness.

While

n

the

ndo-European anguages

uch

expressions

re

infrequentnd there s only slight endency

o embellish hem

by

alliteration r

rhyme,

n

theDravidian

anguages,ndabove

all

in

Tamil,

the

procedure

s such and theuse ofalliteration

or

rhymemay

be called

characteristic.he Indian

philosophical

ideal of

detachment,

or

nstance, s expressed

n Tamil by say-

ing hat person

s

viruppueruppu

ntrilove-hateless)

nd treats

urrdrmarrar

relatives-strangers,.e.,

all

persons)

alike. Even

more

common han antithetical

airs

are

redundant ombina-

tions.Where he ndo-European anguageswould useonly ne

verb,

n Tamil

it is a

favoritetylistic icety o oin two verbs

with imilarmeaning.Redundantnounpairs, uch as palakkam-

valakkam

custom-habit)

or

custom or

narai

tirai grey hair-

wrinkle)

orold

age,

are

legion.

The redundant dioms pro-

vided

by language mostly

onsist

f pairs, but a good Tamil

orator

will

pride

himself n

inventing

ven further

epetitions,

such

as

na-n

antatum

ettatum

nerntatum

ikittatumwhat

I

saw

and

heard,

elt nd

guessed)-a quadruple

redundance

with

ouble

alliteration

meaning imply

all

I

experienced.

Given this

frame f

mind,

t

may

not be

accidental

hat

uch

procedures

also

appear

n

the

field

f

foodofferings.

Binary

ombinations.common ombination f

foodofferings,

and theSouth

ndian

temple fferingar

excellence,s thepair.

Before ntering South Indian temple,the devotee buysa

basket ontaining coconut,

everal

ananas, hewingmaterial,

and a few

other,nonalimentary

tems.

Easy availability ear-

round

ertainly

ave made coconut nd banana common ffer-

ings, but this does not explain why the two

have become a

standard

air.

One

might rgue

thatwhen

foods

re

combined,

taste

may

be

responsible,

ut

neither oconut

nd banana

nor

any

other tandard ombination f

food fferings

nown o me

corresponds

o

any combination

f

foods n thebasis of aste

n

ordinary

ife.

What

makes coconut nd banana a standard

pair

of offer-

ings,

n

my opinion, s the opposition f ts constituent arts.

Apart

from hefact

hatboth

are

fruits,hey

ontrast

n

every

other

espect.

he

coconut

n the

basket

must lways

be

single,

thebananasmustbe multiple-not two,as one might xpect,

but threeor five, ince, generally peaking, dd numbers re

auspicious nd evennumbersnauspicious.6he coconut s hard

and round, he bananas soft nd elongated.The coconutmust

be split

n

front f

the idol by the

temple priest,

whilethe

bananas

are eft

ntact.Upon closer

nalysis,ven

the category

offruit nites oconut nd

banana only n

Western yes. ndo-

European languages

distinguish

egetables

fromfruits,

ut

Dravidian anguages

have a classification

hich uts

cross hat

distinction.

n Tamil,

ripefruits all

nto hecategory

alam

nd

vegetables

re kay,

ut

kay

lso includes

heunripe

ruitsom-

monly

sed

in

curries.What

distinguisheshe two

categoriess

thefact hat alam s normallyaten rawwhilekdys normally

eaten

cooked. Coconut s kay-not

because t s unripe

theun-

ripe

coconuthas

a

differentame),

but becausethe flesh f

he

ripe

coconut

s a valuable ngredient

n

cooking-and

banana

is palam.

Thus the contrast

etween he two

extends o

their

botanical

categories,nd

I

hope to

have shownthat

coconut

and

banana are truly ntithetical.

It

now remains

o be demonstrated

hat n antithetical

ood

pair

may

have a meaning f totality

nd that ntithetical

ood

pairs

may

therefore easonably

be

compared

to antithetical

pairs

n

anguage.

Fortunately,here re

combinations ffoods

for

whichthe

people

themselves

make this ssociation.

n the

Deccan, for

he New Year festival,

ne or several dishes

con-

taining

all

six

flavors

f

Indian

cuisine-sweet,

sour, salty,

bitter,stringent,ndhot-are prepared ndsometimesffered

to thefamily od.

The six flavors xplicitly

tand for otality,

and informants

old

me

that

their

ombination

ymbolizes

ll

the

vicissitudes

f

the

year

to come.

In Tamilnad,an aru

uvai

(six-flavor)

meal

is a

good

meal. On

New Year's Day,

Tamils

prepare

a

dish

symbolically

epresenting

ll

that

the year has

in

store

or

hem,

ut

they refer

n

abbreviated ersion

fthe

six

flavors.

heir dish consists

nly

of

the

opposites

aggery

(sweet)

and neem

flowers

bitter),

which re

said

to stand for

the

oys

and

sorrows

o come.

Here

notonly re

thefoods iven

a

precise

meaning,

but a

contrasting air

is clearlyequated

with

totality

n verbal and ritual

anguages.

Extending

his

observation

o other

ontrasting

ood

pairs,

interpret

oconut

and

banana as vicarious

means of

expressing

he totality

f

possible fferingsnd udge thatthis ccounts or heir hoice

as

a

standard

pair.

The binary pposition

etween oconut

nd banana

suggests

another inguistic nalogy,

that between marked and

un-

marked

members

f

category.

his

terminology

as

been cre-

ated

by phonology

or

airs

of

opposites

ontaining

hierarchi-

cal

relationship.

n

the

binary

distinction

etween

oral

and

nasal vowels,

or

nstance,

he

nasal vowel

s the

more

omplex

and therefore

he

marked erm.

he

concept

has

been extended

to pairs

of

grammatical

ategories

nd of

words,

where the

more omplex ategory for

nstance,

he

plural

with

espect

o

the

ingular)

nd

the word

with

he more

pecific

meaning

re

called

marked

(Greenberg

1968:149-51).

I

should

like

to

postulate

similar

hierarchical

elationship

etween

coconut

and

banana.

The

coconut,

n

addition

to

being

a

universal

offeringn combinationwithbananas,has several pecific s-

sociations.

t

is

splitby

the

templepriest

n front

f the

dol,

but

it

is

smashedby

the

ndividual

evotee

n honor

f Gana-

pati

and

Aiyappan.

ts hard

shell,

reminiscent

f a

head,

and

the violence

nherent

n

the

breaking

make

it a substitute

or

blood

sacrifice.

Incidentally,

lood sacrifice

s an

aspect

of

ritual

n which

ubstitutions

r

paraphrases

re

particularly

6

This

is true

as a general

rule.

When

beginning

new

enterprise

or

when returning

o normal

ife

fter period

of

pollution,

for

n-

stance,

an odd

number

s preferred.

mong

the

culturally

favored

numbers

in India,

however,

some

are

even;

one of

these

is

the

magical

number

16, which

seems

to be peculiar

to

India

(Eichinger

Ferro-Luzzi

1974:

146-47).

Also,

some of

the

standard

combinations

f

foodofferings

re

even in

number.

n these

cases,

I would

argue that

the positive

associations

of

a

particular

even

number n a certaincontextoverridethe inauspiciousness feven

numbers

n general.

Similarly,

he

general auspiciousness

of

odd

numbers

has

an

exception.

Though not

as

inauspicious

as it

is

in

some

parts

of

Europe,

the number

13 is

not viewed

altogether

favorably

n

Tamilnad.

Vol. 18

N

o.

3 *

September977

511


7/9

common.)Besides,

he

ayered

tructure

f the coconut

uggests

several

piritual nalogies.

The

coconut,

herefore,

s

psycho-

logically

more

omplex

han he banana and

may

be called

the

marked

term of

the

pair.

The

banana,

on the other

hand,

seems

o be a universal

ffering

ecause of ts

perfect eutrality

and

lack of

pecific

ssociations

nd therefore

ay

be called

the

unmarked erm.

Another tandardpair ofofferings,atai ndpdyasama sort

of

pudding),

s limited o Tamilnad and some

parts

of

Andhra

Pradesh

s

a welcome reat or

ny god

and

any

festival.

part

from

hefact

hatboth

fferings

re

cooked, hey

orm

perfect

contrast.Vatai

s

salty

nd

solid, ayasam

weet

nd

liquid.

Vatai

contains

black

or

Bengal

gram,payasam reen

gram

or

rice.

Vatai

is

associated

with

strength

nd

sometimes onsidered

rajasik

passionraising),

ayasam

s all sweetness nd

gentleness

and

pure

sdttvikood

the

best f

he

three

hierarchical

ualities

of food

n

India).

I

therefore

nterpret

he

combination s an

antithetical

air standing

mplicitly

or ll

possible

fferings

f

sweets

nd

savories.

Again,

the

first

tem,

vatai,may

be

con-

sidered

marked,

s

a

specific

se renders

t

more

complex.

n

addition to

being

a

universal

offering,

atai s an

exclusive

offeringo the

monkey-god

anuman n

the form

f

a

garland

of cakes.Pdyasam,n the otherhand, s perfectlyeutral nd

may

be

considered unmarked. This neutral

character of

pdyasam,owever, nly

applies

to

Tamilnad,

Karnataka,

and

Andhra

Pradesh;

n

Kerala,

the

xclusion f

ll

salty

oods rom

the list of

offerings

akes it

necessary

o create

distinctions

within

he

category f

pdyasam.

n

Karnataka,

where

vatai

s

discredited

s

an

offering

o the

gods

because of ts

association

with uneral

eremonies, oligea

sweet

pancake

with

filling)

takes

ts

place

to form

standard

pair

with

dyasam.

hrough

this

ubstitution,owever, hecontrast

anishes,

nd the weet

pair holige-pdyasam

ay be considered

edundant.

Apart

from he

foods hat

have become

Krishna's

ymbols,

this beloved god has

othercharacteristic

fferingsimited o

South India.

Nearlyevery

nformant

n

Tamilnad

who

ob-

servedKrishna'sbirthday repared murukkund citaiforthe

occasion. Both

items are

fried,

hard,

and

salty

and

contain

similar

ngredients-rice, lack

gram,

nd

asafoetida.

hey

are

therefore

ssentially edundant, heir

only contrast

being

in

shape:

a

spiral

versus

ball.

Not

contentwith a

redundant

combination,

most

Krishna

devotees plitup the

second term

citai

nto

an

antithetical

air, .e.,

a

salt

and

a

jaggeryvariety.

Krishna's

avoritenacks hus

onsist f pair of

uasi-synonyms

and

a

pair

of

opposites;

he

firstmay

tress isfondness orhard

crackers,

he

econd

may representll

hard weets nd

savories

that

can be

offered.

In

Kerala, the binomial

pdlumnuirumr pdlum

nirum7efers o

a

standard

fferingor

nakes, ither s abhiseka

r as naivedya.

Though

the

term

mentions

nlytwo items,

he offeringon-

tainsmore,generally onsisting fmilk, ice powder, urmeric

powder,

and

tender oconut.

This

strange

ombinationwith

female

ssociations

pparently orms

perfect lend n the

eyes

of he

people

nd

therefores

neither ntithetical

or edundant.

The

rhymed inomial

muttaiyumettaiyumegg

and hen),refer-

ring

o a

rare

offeringf hicken nd

egg curry o Tamil village

deities,

lso

seems a

perfect lend,

as it consists f two

items

strongly

onnected n

fact nd

in

association.

Multiple

ombinations.

ust

s

antithetical airs n anguage re

less

common han

redundant

airs, o

contrastingombinations

offood

offerings

re

less

frequent han

redundant nes.

Unlike

language,

however, fferingsave

recourse o multiple

epeti-

tions.

If

the

ame tem s

repeated, here an be no

doubt thatthe

combination

s meant o be

redundant, ut how s one to

decide

whether he differenttems combined re considered imilar

or contrasting? suggest very imple est:when variation s

permitted-as oftenhappens in the combinations o be dis-

cussed below-the foods ubstituted or each other re

obvi-

ously considered ynonyms,hus making he combination e-

dundant.Contrast, nd above all binary pposition, re much

more difficult o achieve, and such combinations herefore

leave littleroom forvariation.The possibility f substituting

one foodfor nother s not imited o certain ombinations f

offerings,ut s frequent

n

naivedya

n

general, uggestinghat

paraphrase

need

not be so rare

a

phenomenon s Sperber

would have it.

A triple repetitionwould be the most likely tructure n

Europe, where folktales eem with three gifts, three at-

tempts, three visits, tc. In Indian culture combination

of

three

elements s relatively are. The trimurti,hich may

come

to

mind

here, s an artificial reation esigned o give to

theVedic

god Brahma t least a nominal osition n theHindu

pantheon

headed

by Siva

and

Vishnu.

In South Indian

food offerings,he numberthree s most

importantn Kerala, a statewhichdeviates n severalrespects

from

he

generalSouth Indian pattern.Kerala has a typical

threefoldfferingrimadhurathe three weets). There is con-

siderable

isagreement

boutthe

composition

f

rimadhura,

nd

enumerationssually rrive t more han hree tems. t almost

looks as

if

trimadhuraere

only a reduced version f the tradi-

tional

panchamritathe

five

nectars),

o be

discussed elow.

The

controversy

bout the

ngredients

f

he

weet ombination as

settled

y declaring

hat

the

three

parts

were not

three

tems

but three

ategories:

weetener

represented y aggery, andy,

and

honey,

sed

separately

r

combined t

will),

fruit

repre-

sented

nlyby

the

kadali

ariety

f

banana),

and

cow

products

(representednlyby ghee).

Trimadhura

hereforeeems

o

use

a

triple

edundance

n

order o

stress

he

offering

f

sweet

deli-

cacy.

The

only

other

tripleoffering

came across s

mukkani

(threefruits), onsisting

f the

uices

of

mango, ackfruit,

nd

banana. This apparently edundant ombinations a special

naivedya

or

oddessMariyamman

nher

temple

t

Samayapur,

near Trichy,Tamilnad.

The

numberfive eems to

be

the

culturally

most

favored

number n India. As the decimalsystems probably

derived

from

he

counting f the fingers f

both

hands,

he

counting

f

the

fingers

f one hand

only may

have

given

rise to

a

system

having

five

s

the

basic

unit.

This

is

perhaps

not accidental

n

India,

where he efthand

is considered mpure.

Five

is

by

no

means

the

only magical number

n

India,

and

in

some fields

othernumbers

may

be more

prominentEichinger

erro-Luzzi

1974:143-52),

but n

general

ive

eems

o

dominate ll others.

A

fivefold

ombination f

words

n

anguage

would

be difficult

to

achieve,

ut

n

other

ealms

f ulture

uintuples

re

numer-

ous. They

are oftenreferred o

by

terms

tarting

with the

Sanskrit

anch-

r the Tamil aim- nd

may

be embellished

y

alliteration.

few

xamples

re the

five

ks of

the

Sikh,

he five

ms

of Tantrism,

he

five ts of the

Dehasta

Brahmins

n the

northern Deccan

(takkya bolster,

tasta

=

spittoon

for

betel,

tara

=

carpet,

tattoo

colt, tagada

=

the

persistence

of

money

lenders),

he

five

lements,

he five

metals,

tc. These

fivefold

combinations,

ften

omposed

of

disparate lements,

tand

for

totality, onstituting

short

nd

culturally atisfactory ay

of

designating

he Sikh

religion,

he

Tantric

sect,

the Dehasta

Brahmin'swayof ife, he

whole

ofnature,

he whole

world f

metals,

etc.

Such

quintuples

herefore

ave

an

abbreviating

function imilar o thatof

the

pair

of

opposites.

Fivefold ombinations

f

foodofferings,

f made

up

of con-

trasting lements,may

also

express otality.

More

often,

he

constituentarts re similar nd thereforeerve o stress par-

ticular

type of offering. he best-known uintuple ombina-

tions n the ritualuse offood re panchagavyathe five roducts

of the cow) and panchamrita.he former onsists f milk, urd,

ghee, urine, nd dung. As a supremepurificatorygent, he

7

Despite

repeated

inquiries

among

ritual

specialists,

the

bi-

nomial

could not

be

satisfactorily

xplained.

Pdl

means

milk,nuir

means

lime,

and its

alternative

nir

means

water,

but

neither

ime

nor

water

s part

of

the

combination.

512

CURRENT

ANTHROPOLOGY


8/9

mixture

may

be administered

ohuman

beings,

nd

it

maybe

poured

on

the idol as

abhiseka,

ut

it neverbecomes

naivedya.

How

much the number

ive n this ombination

s dictated

by

a

cultural

deal and

how ittle

t

depends

n

physical

eality an

be seen from he

fact

hat

though

he

constituent

arts

re

ab-

solutely

ixed,

hey

ould

easily

be

augmented.

ne

pandit, ll

at

ease becauseof he

presence

furine

nd

dung

n the

mixture,

told

methat

nowadays

anchagavya

onsists f

milk,

urd,

ghee,

butter,nd buttermilk.fthis ubstitutionerereally dopted,

it

wouldmake

the five

products

ery

imilar

nd

change

the

deeper

meaningof

the

combination.

n

my

opinion,

he

op-

positionbetween food and

excrement

s

necessary

o

make

panchagavya

symbol

or ll thatthe

cow can

give.

Panchamrita,

ccording

o the

Shastras,

onsists

f

milk,

urd,

ghee,

ugar,

nd

honey

nd

may

be

used for bhiseka

s well

as

for

naivedya.n

South

ndia,

and above

all

in

Tamilnad,

con-

siderable

variation

as been

ntroduced nto this

ombination,

and

usually

ts

ingredientsre

more

than

five.

When

ques-

tioned

bout

this

nomaly,

ome

nformantsried

o solve

the

problem

y

saying hat here

re five

asic

ngredientsnd

the

others

may be added at will.

Even

on

the

basic

ingredients,

however,

here

was no

agreement,nd

most

r

all

of the

prod-

uctsof thecow could be replacedbyfruits. he onlyfeatures

the

different

ersions

f

anchamrita

eem

to have n

common

re

the

theoretical

mphasis

n

the

number

ive nd

the

fact

that

the

ngredientshouldbe

delicacies,which

makes t a

redundant

combination.

Panchakadjaya

five

oods),

characteristic

fferingf

South

Kanara

and

neighboring

reas, s

a

dry,

weet

mixture.

gain

the

number

five

s

largelyan

ideal;

the

ingredients

may be

more

numerous

and

variable,

which is to

say

redundant.

Ideally,

panchakadjdyas

composed

of

aggery,

grated

oconut,

cardamom,

parched

Bengal

gram,

and

one of

the

following

items:

lattened

ice,

puffed

ice,

or

fried esame

grains.

The

famous

harada

temple

f

Sringerin

the

western

hats

has

a

particular

redilection

or

the

number

ive

n its

ritual

use offood.Apart from bhiseka ithpanchamrita,hegoddess

Sharada

receives

naivedya

f

panchakadjaya,

anchanna

five

types

of

boiled

rice

dishes), nd

panchabhakshana

five

oods).As the

latter

ffering

s

composed

fthree

weets

nd two

savories, t

contains he

opposition

etween

weetand

salty

food;

conse-

quently,

would

call

it an

abbreviation or

all

the

possible

snacks

hat

could

be

offered.

iven

the

cultural

referenceor

the

number

ive

nd

the

mportance

f the

South

ndian

staple

rice,

t

s

not

urprising

hat

fivefold

mphasis nrice

appears

on

the

menus

of everal

deities.

Not

only he

goddess

harada

in

Karnataka,

but

also

the

goddess

Kaveriyammann

Tamil-

nad

and

the

god

Krishna

n

Andhra

Pradesh

receive

fivefold

rice

dishes.

In

Tamilnad,

Ganapati's

favorite

olukkattai

aybe

stressed

by

offering

ot one

but

five

arieties,

ne of

which

mustbe

the

elephant od'ssymbolmodaka, entioned efore. imilarly, he

famous

Krishna

templeof

Guruvayur,

erala,

puts

emphasis

on

the

god's

naivedyaf

payasam y

offeringive

differenter-

sions f

the

dish.

One

woman

extended

he

deal

fivefold

truc-

ture

of

offerings

o

their

ngredients

nd

said

that,

s

there re

five

lements

n

the

body, ll

preparations

ffered

ontain

five

parts.

This, of

course,

n

most

cases is

not

literally

rue,but

shows

how

completelyhe

has

assimilated

he

pentad

scheme.

There

s

no

genuine

ixfold

fferingo

my

knowledge,

hough

the

ix

flavors

f

ndian

cuisine re

combined

n the

ways

have

mentioned

bove.

The

number

even,

which

njoys

unparalleled

opularityn

the

Middle

East

and

probably

entered

Europe

through

Christianity,s less

mportant

n

Hindu

culture.

came

across

only two types of sevenfoldnaivedyas.n Tamilnad, at the

Tiruvattirai

estival,

iva

as the

cosmic

dancer

Nataraj

may

be

offered

even ypes

f

vegetable

urries,

ndon

Rishi

panchami

sevendifferent

ypesof

offerings

ay

be made

to

the

seven

Rishis

sages).

The former

ombination

eems

o be

redundant,

stressing

he

offeringf

vegetables.

he latter

combination

would

call

distinctive.

trictly

peaking, t

is no

combination

at

all, as the

recipients

re of

the ame

number s

the

foods.

Combinationsf

eight

lements re

fairly

ommon n

Indian

culture,

ut

occur n

ritual

ood

nly n

the

west oast

of

South

India.

Ettangadia

dry,

sweet

mixture f

roastedtubers)

s

peculiar

to

Kerala

and

offered

o

Parvati

on

Tiruvatirai ay.

Ashtadravya

eight

materials),

mixture

deally

consisting f

puffed ice,flattened ice, aggery,grated oconut,

ugarcane

pieces,

honey,

esame,

and

kadali

banana, is

in

Kerala

and

South

Kanara a

typical

naivedya

or

Ganapatiand

may

also be

offered

nto

the

fire n

his

honor.

Both

eightfold

fferings

ave

variable

ngredients;

he

former

eems o

be a

redundant

tress

on

tubers,

he

atter

stress

n

small

delicacies or

simply

n

expression

f

abundance.

Nine

constituent

arts

n

an

offering

ay

be found

as an

alternative

or

heabove

seven

types

f

vegetable

urries nd,

most

prominently,

n

the

offeringf

nine

types

f

grains.

The

sowing nd

sprouting f

nine

types

f

grains

angurdrpana)s a

common

domestic nd

temple

ritual.

Such

sprouted

grains

may be

offered o

different

eitieson

full-moon

ay in

the

month f

Chittirai

April-May).

he most

mportant

aivedyaf

nine grains,however, s in the formof cuntal cooked spicy

cereals and

pulses)

during he

Navaratri

festival.

uring this

nine-day

estival,

untal f

different

rain

may be

offered

ach

day

to the

goddesses

Durga,

Lakshmi,

nd

Saraswati

as well

as on

one

day

to books

and

instruments.

he

choice

and

sequence of

the

grains

are

optional;

theyare

obviously

on-

sidered

quivalent

n

this

ontext

nd

hence

redundant.

ince

the

ninefold

ffering,

owever, s

distributed

ver nine

days,

rather

han

stressing

he

fact

thatgrains

must be

offered,

t

seems

to

be

a

means

of

tressinghe

ength f

the

festival.

Occasionally,

ven

arger

numbers

ccur

as

prescribed

nits

of

food

offerings.

or Gauri

puija,

woman

in

Kanyakumari

district,

amilnad,

prepared21

items nd

explained

that this

was done

because

Gauri, Siva's

wife,

had

done

puija to

her

husbandfor 1 days.As shecould notdevote o muchtime o

,ritual,

he

substituted 1

items or21

days.

In

one

instance t

was said that

21

sweets

nd

savories

were

offered

o

Ganapati,

because

he had

21

names,

nd

theoretically

4

items

houldbe

offered

o

Krishna

by

devout ri

Vaishnavas.

A

personwho has

taken a vow

or

obtained

a

special

favor

from

Ganapati

may

arrange

for

the

splitting

f 108

coconuts n

his

honor.

n

all

these

particularly

enerous

fferings,

he

choiceof the tems

s

left o the

devotee'sdiscretion

r the same

item s

repeated.

What

seems to

count is the

culturally

rescribed

umber

of

offerings

nd

the

emphasis

n abundance.

SUMMARY

It

is

easyto

see

that he ritual

f

naivedya

ust

be

a kindof

an-

guage,sincethedevotee, yoffering

ood,

ommunicates ith

the

gods

as

in

prayer.

Beyond

his

general

recognition,

hope

to have

shown hat

pecific

nalogies

xist

between

erbal

an-

guage

and

food

offerings.

ood

offerings

esignate

ertain

ods

and

festivals s

names

do and

underscore he

opposition

e-

tween

pairs

of

gods

and

ceremonial

ccasions

ust

as do

binary

categories

n

language.

The contrastwithin

airs

of

opposites

may

be

expressed

ither

by

different

fferings,

ometimes

p-

parently

rbitrary

ike

inguistic

igns,

r

by

phoneme-like

is-

tinctions ithin he

offerings.

he

language

of

naivedya

lso

re-

veals standard

ombinations

f

offerings

omparable

o idiom-

atic

expressions

n

language.

The use of redundance

n

such

combinations

f food

to stress he

meaning

f an

offering

ill

seemnatural

o

anyone

who

accepts

he

validity

f

semiologi-

cal approachtoritual, s redundance spsychologicallyeces-

sary

for he

comprehensibility

ot

onlyof

anguage,

but also

of

music nd

other

emiological

ystems.

ore

interesting

ay

be

the

fact hat

he

frequencyf

redundant

ombinations

f

offer-

ings

has a

parallel in

the

typical

exemic

redundance

f

the

Vol.

18

-

No. 3

-

September

977

513


9/9

Dravidian anguages.

The mostunexpected

inding ill

be that

the language

of food offerings

ses

contrasting

ombinations

with

meaning f otality

omparable

oantithetical

diomatic

expressions,

stylistic

eature eculiar

o verbal anguages

nd

one

forwhich

Dravidian tongues

ave

a

predilection.

hough

the

ritual

f

naivedya

s

only

n

imperfect

anguage,

t cannot

be

denied, think,

hat

t

uses

inguisticrocedures

nd that ome

of tssymbols ave linguisticmeaning.

References

ited

BOUDON,

PIERRE.

1967. Essai sur

l'interpr

Documents

Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings