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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7/26/2019 Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings
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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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7/26/2019 Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings
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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
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7/26/2019 Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings
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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
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7/26/2019 Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings
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
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7/26/2019 Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings
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.
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N
o.
3 *
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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.
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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
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7/26/2019 Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings
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