Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings

Author(s): Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi

Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Sep., 1977), pp. 507-514
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research

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in worship;a moneyoffering
may take theplace ofan offering
in kindin ritualsall overtheworld;certainritualacts,such as
the benediction,may be both accompaniedand replacedby a
verbal equivalent; etc. Besides,even in language paraphrase
is not alwayspossible,and idiomaticexpressionsdo not allow
it. Anotherof Sperber's argumentsagainst the usefulnessof
EIOHINGER
byGABRIELLA
FERRO-LuzzI
lookingformeaningin symbolsis derivedfromthe fact that
Via MarioFascetti
67, 00136Rome,Italy.15 x 76
anythingmay become a symboland that the motivationsof
symbolscan be neithergeneralizednor predicted(pp. 26-28).
INTRODUCTION
Thoughhe is rightin sayingthatanythingmaybecomea symThis paperis intendedas a contribution
to thestudyoflinguistic bol, he overlooksone importantpoint: not everything
has the
analogiesto nonlinguistic
phenomena.Ever since Gestaltpsysame probabilityofbecominga symbol,and noteverymotivachologyshowedthattheperceptionofformis primaryand that
tion of a symbolis equally probable. There are universalor
our mindslead us to structure
have been lookreality,scientists
universalsymbols(Fischer1963:245) and culturally
potentially
in variousrealmsofculture.As languageis one
ingforstructure
preferred
symbols.For manyof the foodsofferedto the gods,
of the moststructured
creationsofthe humanmind,it readily
good reasonsexist,and certaincategoriesof foodshave little
suggestsitselfforcomparison.The structuralist
Levi-Strausshas
chanceofbecomingritualsymbolsin India. I also disagreewith
repeatedlydrawnlinguisticparallels,comparing,forinstance, Sperber about the differences
between symbolismand lanthekinshipsystemto a languagein whichwomenare thewords
guage. For instance,as a corollaryof the cognitivenatureof
(1958:69) or revealingcodes in mythand speakingof its consymbolism,he states (pp. 87-88), thereis no multisymbolism
stituentunits as mythemesanalogous to the morphemesof
analogousto multilingualism;
symbolicdata ofdifferent
origins
language.Orenstein(1965) has studiedthe structureofHindu
do notremainseparatelikethegrammarsofdifferent
languages
caste values accordingto a linguisticmodel, distinguishing but become integratedinto a singlesystemwithina givenin"intransitive"and "transitive"pollutionand comparingthe
dividual. I hold, on the contrary,that different
symbolicsyssystematicvariationsin the Shastric rules to "paradigms."
temscan be internalizedseparatelyby thesame individual.An
Thoughhislinguistic
terminology
maybe justified,an extension Italian,forinstance,may make "the signofthehorns"to proof the paradigmsto behaviorseemsunwarranted.Even in the
fromtheevileyeor to insultsomebodyas a cuckold,
tecthimself
past,scripturalruleswould have applied onlyto castesserved
but he will refrainfromdoing so in the presenceof a priest,
by Brahminpriests,and at present,accordingto my findings knowingfullwellthat"the horns"belongto a heathensymbolic
fromTamilnad (EichingerFerro-Luzzi1974), thereis no corsystemto whichthe priestwould object. In general,it seems
respondencebetween pollutionand caste rank. Particularly that Sperber attacksa semiologicalview of symbolismtaken
ambitiousattemptsat applyinga linguisticmodel to a nontoo literally.Nobodywould argue thata set ofsymbolscan be
linguisticfieldare thoseofDurbin (1970) and Boudon (1967),
understoodin exactlythesamewayas a language,butlinguistic
who interpret
Jainismand formsofexchangeaccordingto the
analogies are valid and usefulas long as theirlimitationsare
rulesoftransformational
grammar.
keptin mind.
At firstglance,foodwould seem to lend itselflittleto strucof Indian ritual,I shall deal withonly
Giventhecomplexity
tural and linguisticconsiderations,
and yet Levi-Strausshas
viewed fromonly one parone of its aspects,food offerings,'
shown that one of the codes in North and South American
ticular angle; their ethnographiccontext and the probable
mythsis alimentary(1964, 1967a, b, 1968, 1971). He has also
reasonsforthechoiceand avoidanceofcertainfoodshave been
examinedtherelationships
ofgustatory
categoriesor"gustemes"
discussedelsewhere(EichingerFerro-Luzzin.d. a, b, c). As to
(1958:99) and coinedtheterm"culinarytriangle"forthecatetherangeofvalidityofwhatI am goingto propose,I am steergoriesof raw, cooked,and rotten,whichhe sees as analogous
ing an intermediatecourse betweenthe macro scale of L6vito thetrianglesofthecardinalvowelsa-u-ior thevoicelessstops
Strauss and the microone of Douglas. My studycoversthe
k-p-t(1965:19-20; 1968:369). Douglas (1972) presentsa series
whole of South India, which despite the cultural diversity
of linguisticanalogiesto foodbehavior.She speaksoffoodsas
in language,
typicaloftheIndianscenealso presentssimilarities
"encoding social relations,"isolates the categoriesof eating
itfromtherestofIndia.
kinshipsystem,etc.,thatdistinguish
fromits grossunitsdown to the "gastronomicmorpheme,the
withthegods,
In offering
food,thedevoteeis communicating
and studiesthe"syntagmatic
mouthful,"
relations"ofthediffer- and it thereforeseems permissibleto speak of the ritual of
entelementsin thecourseofthemeal,the dailymenu,and the
naivedya2(food offeredto the gods) as a language, the indiannual festivals.She rightly
reproachesLevi-Straussforaiming
vidual offering
beingcomparableto a word.This analogyhas
too highand pretendingto finduniversalfoodmeaningswhile
has
and I do notmean to say thateveryoffering
itslimitations,
neglectingsmall-scalesocial relations.Her own analysis,howreturned
a definitemeaningor thatthelistsofprasads(offerings
ever,seemsto suffer
partlyfromtheoppositedefect.The weekto the devoteeas consecratedfood) foundin templesare true
day meal is said to have a tripartitestructurewhich would
vocabularies.The linguisticanalogiesI wantto pointout refer
regularlyrepeat itselfin more sumptuousmeals, but how far
and to
instead to the structuralfunctionof certainofferings
beyond her home does this regularityhold? Would fishand
themselves.
certainstructuralelementsin the offerings
chips,forinstance,not qualifyas a weekdaylunch?
in the four
In studyingthe enormousvarietyof naivedyas
In thechorusof"pan-linguists"
thereis one discordantvoice.
South Indian states of Tamilnad, Kerala, Karnataka, and
Sperber(1975) attacksthesemioticviewofsymbolism.
Though
AndhraPradesh,I was struckby twofacts:(1) certainofferings
his theoryof symbolismas a cognitivedevice meritsclose
were
deitiesand ceremonies;(2) offerings
clearlydistinguished
examination,I do not thinkthatall his argumentsagainstthe
These twoobmentionedin standardcombinations.
frequently
semiotic interpretation
of symbolismcan be accepted. He
argues,forinstance,thatwithoutparaphrasethereis no meanI Fieldworkwas done fromSeptember 1974 to March 1975.
ing-that in orderto speak of the meaningof a symbolin the
2 For the transcriptionof Indian words, the followingconvenlinguisticsense,it mustbe possibleto substitute
forthesymbol tions have been adopted: proper names and terms of Sanskrit
eitheranothersymbolor the verbal expressionof its meaning
origin used everywherein South India, though sometimes with
slight variations according to language area, have been given in
-and that paraphrasewill be rare (pp. 11-12). In my exthe Sanskritor in an Anglicized Sanskritform; the transcription
perience,however,substitutions
of symbolsare not uncomTamil Lexicon; for
of Tamil words follows the Madras University
mon. Indian gods, for instance,have many iconic and nonwords of other Indian languages, a phonetic approximation is
iconicforms,and thesemaybe substituted
foreach otherat will
given.

Ritualas Language: The Case of

SouthIndian Food Offerings

Vol.18 * No. 3 * September

1977

507

servationsare not on the same level. One looks at ritualfrom

theoutsideand theotherfromtheinside.This dual perspective
may also be adoptedwithregardto language.
Language maybe analyzedwithrespectto thesocialsystem.
Propernamesidentify
individuals,itssmallestunits.Similarly,
deitiesand ceremoniesthe language of food
in distinguishing
of the Hindu
offerings
helpsto identify
importantconstituents
differences
withina
pantheonand sacred year. Sociolinguistic
of the
culturenot only help to identifycertain constituents
socialstructure,
butalso maystressbinaryoppositionswithinit.
For example,the Tamil Brahmindialectis distinctfromnonBrahminspeech,and certainpeculiaritiesin the vocabularyof
himfromhisHindu countryman;
a ChristianTamil distinguish
here language underscoresoppositionswithinTamil culture.
may stressthe binary
Similarly,the languageoffoodofferings
oppositionbetween deities or groups of deities. Again, the
typicaldichotomybetweenmale and femalemembersofa culin language;inJapanese,for
turemaybe stressedbydifferences
instance,male and female speakers use markedlydifferent
vocabularies.Correspondingto thesein the language of food
are distinctiveofferings
to gods and goddesses.The
offerings
culturaldistinctionbetweenformaland informaloccasionsis
typesofspeech,and
commonlystressedby the use of different
thereis a parallel to thisin ritualin the alimentarydistinction
betweenauspiciousand inauspiciousoccasions.In theseexamples I see language as a structuralelementofitsspeakers'cultureand analogouslyproposeto considerthe languageoffood
a structuralelementof Hinduism.
offerings
Language may be studiedfromthe inside,forits own sake,
forinstance,to revealitsgrammaticaland phonemicstructures.
is only a rudimentary
As the language of food offerings
language, we cannot expect to findcomplex grammaticaland
but I hope to showthatcertainstructural
phonemicstructures,
featuresare discernible.By theseI mean above all binaryand
multiplecombinationsof food offering"words" into simple
as we shallsee, use
"expressions."Some ofthesecombinations,
contrast,while othersuse redundance.I shall argue (a) that
the contrasting
combinationsadd a meaningof totalityto the
whichitsconstituents
takenseparatelydo nothave and
offering
are thus comparable to idiomaticantitheticalexpressionsin
language and (b) that the redundantgroupingsadd emphasis
to the meaningof a particulartype of offering
and are thus
comparableto idiomaticredundantexpressionsin language. I
also wish to draw attentionto some linguisticanalogies borrowedfromphonology.These I findin standardfoodpairs of
unevencomplexity,
whichI shall call markedand unmarked
respectively-a comparison dear to Levi-Strauss (1958:99;
1965:20; 1967b:36). Such analogiesalso suggestthemselvesin
thephoneme-like
which
distinction
withincertainfoodofferings
servesto stressa binarycontrastbetweendeitiesand festivals.
In additionto thesestructuralfeatures,it would be possible
to speak of a temporalstructureof offerings
duringthe course
of the day and the year with syntagmaticanalogies or of a
quantitativestructure
accordingto the amountsoffoodoffered
to different
deities,but as thesefeaturescontaintoo manyvariables theyhave not been considered.
FOOD OFFERINGS AS STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS OF HINDUISM

On an overt level of analysis, food offeringsmay be an expression of the devotee's love and devotion; they may have the purpose 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 distinguisha deity or a festivalfrom
all other deities or festivals and thereby help to identifysome
constituentsof the Hindu religion and (b) foods that underscore
binary oppositions between gods or ceremonial occasions.
Isolationofunits.In tryingto understand a religion, we usually

startby examiningits deitiesand ceremonies,itsmostobvious

508

units.The identification
constituent
of a Hindu deityis facilitated by a multitudeof symbols,among them his vahana
(vehicle),the emblemshe holds in his hands,his posture,his
theflowersassociatedwithhim,etc.,and
dressand ornaments,
foodofferings
may be one of thesecharacteristic
features.Not
all deitiescan be identified
throughfood,and onlya fewhave
like the raw eggs acceptableonlyto
exclusivefoodpreferences
snakesor themilletporridgewithhoneyreservedfortheTamil
god Murukan.These exclusiveofferings
effectively
distinguish
therecipientgodsand are widelyknown,buttheyare notregularly associatedwith them in iconographyand literature.In
contrast,certain favoritefoods of Krishna, Ganapati, and
Lalita do functionas symbolsor alternativenames,despitethe
factthattheymay also be offeredto otherdeities.Butteris one
such indicatorofKrishna.Commonrepresentations
ofKrishna
in South India are Balakrishna(Baby Krishna),holdinga pot
ofbutterunderhisleftarmand eatinga ball ofitfromthepalm
of his righthand, or the dancing Krishna, holdinga ball of
butterin his righthand (Sastri 1974:38). This associationof
Krishna withbutteris not limitedto South India and is, of
course, derivedfromthe mythsof his life as a cowherd.A
secondcharacteristic
foodthathas become a part ofhis representationsis laddu(a ball-shapedsweet). A popular oleograph
showsBalakrishnapickingup one of thesesweetsfroma plate
of offerings
placed beforehim.
The elephantgod Ganapatil is a greateater,as his potbelly
and has severalcharacteristic
foods.Whenhe is repretestifies,
sentedwithten hands he holds amongstothersymbolsa wild
orangeand a sugarcanestalk;a wood apple is sometimes
placed
in one ofhis hands,and all threefoodsfigureamonghis offerings.Ganapati'sfavoritesweetmodakaappearsin hismostcommon oleograph,wherehe holds a plate of themin one of his
fourhands. The all-Indian associationof Ganapati with this
sweetis mentionedin sacredtextsand in severalmyths.One of
these mythseven connects Ganapati and Krishna through
Krishna'smotherDevaki has put an offering
ofmodakas
modaka.
in frontof Ganapati's idol, and, well aware of themischievous
natureofherlittleson,she has tiedKrishna'shandsbehindhis
back in orderto preventhimfromstealingthe sweets.To her
surprise,however,theidol ofthedebonairgod comesto lifeand
puts the sweetsintoher son's mouthwithhis trunk.
In theseexamples,thefoodofferings
are associatedwiththe
gods as theirsymbolsand functionas names. In the case of
goddess Lalita, a formof Siva's wife Parvati,food offerings
therecitingof 1,000names,is
literallyare names.Sahasrandma,
a commonformofp7ja-(worship)forseveralIndian deities,but
Lalita alone, to my knowledge,includesamongher 1,000 apto foodlikethefollowing:"she who is fond
pellationsreferences
ofmilk,""she who is fondofgreasyfood,""she who is fondof
ricemixedwithgreengram,"etc. (LalitaSahasrandma
1925:213,
ofLalita's tastesapplyto
215, 218). These genericdescriptions
someofherofferings,
and, althoughothergods also relishsuch
foods,the names are peculiarto her.
not onlyidentify
certaindeitiesofthe Indian
Food offerings
pantheon,but also characterizecertainfestivals,and thereby
emphasize the structureof the Hindu sacred year. Most
calendar festivalsare dedicatedto specificdeities,and if the
deitieshave any preferred
foodstheywillbe preparedon those
occasions.Some festivalsdo not honorany deityin particular,
to theirfamilygod or
thoughdevoutpersonswill offernaivedya
to othergods,accordingto the traditionofthefamily,sect,or
the festivalwill be connectedwitha speregion;nevertheless,
cificfood. This identification
of festivalswithspecificfoodsis
also wellknownin the West,onlywithoutthe corollaryoffood
In Tamilnad,Bhogi,thefirstday oftheharvestfestiofferings.
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 Sanskrit and referto him as the lord
(pati) or god (isa) of the gana (hostsof minordeities).
CURRENT

ANTHROPOLOGY

val Ponkal,does not celebrateany particulardeity,but nearly

all participantsagree thatpo-i(a pancake witha sweetfilling)
mustbe preparedand offeredto the familygod, whoeverhe
may be. In othercases, the deityto be honoredduringthe
festivalmaynotbe quiteclearin people'sminds,but thereis no
doubt about the special food to be prepared.The Tirvatirai
festivalin Tamilnad was sometimessaid to be in honorof Siva
of the sweet rice
and sometimesof Parvati, but the offering
porridgekali was a mustin eithercase. Kdrttikai
pori,a sweet
ball of puffedor flattenedrice,indicatesby its name thatit is
to be preparedforthefestivaloflightsin themonthofKarttikai
(November-December).Usually the festival is considered
Murukan'ssacred day, but Murukan'sfatherSiva and even
Vishnuare also mentionedas recipientsof the sweet.
Binaryoppositions.
Thinkingin binarycategoriesseemsto be
an innateproclivity
ofthe humanmindand has been demonstratedin severalfields.Jakobson,Fant, and Halle (1963:40)
detect 12 binaryoppositionsunderlyingthe lexical and morphologicalstocksof the languagesof the world.4L6vi-Strauss,
examiningthe structureof myths,continuallyrefersto binary
has revealeda numberofcomoppositions;social anthropology
munitiesdividedintomoietiesor usinga symbolicclassification
ofsocietyand natureintorightand leftsections;the computer
is built on a binaryprinciple;etc. In Hindu religion,several
pairsofoppositesare discernible,
amongthempure and impure
deities,gods and goddesses,Siva and Vishnu,and auspicious
and inauspiciousoccasions. I do not wish to implythat the
wholeof Hinduismcan be reducedto a systemofoppositesor
thatno otherpairscan be found.These fourare simplytheones
in food
forwhichthepeople themselvesstatethata distinction
offerings
mustbe made. At the same time,theyconstituteimportant elementsof Hinduism recognizednot only in the
Dravidian South,but all over India.
The wayfoodofferings
help to stressthesebinarydistinctions
suggestsanotherlinguisticanalogy. In language,a binaryoppositioncan be expressed(a) by means of two completely
or (b) by means
different
or up/down,
words,such as uncle/aunt
of two similarwords contrasting,
forinstance,in an ending,
such as book/books
Even the substitution
of one
or lion/lioness.
phonememaybe sufficient
to bringout a contrast,as in German
dies/das(this/that)or French moi/toi(me/you). Similarly,a
binarydistinction
of deitiesand ceremonialoccasionsmay be
stressed(a) by two completelydifferent
or (b) by the
offerings
same offering
intowhicha contrasting
featurehas been introduced, eitherby addingsome furtherelementor by replacing
one ofits elements.
The dual divisionofthe Hindu pantheonintopure and impure deitiesis not onlystressed,but created,by foodofferings.
Pure deities accept only vegetarianofferings,
while impure
deitiesthirstforblood, more rarelyrelishcooked meat, and
also have a penchantforalcohol, cigars,and bhang(hashish).
The pure deitiesincludeall thegods and goddessesofthegreat
SanskritictraditionofHinduism,whereasvillagedeitiesnormally fallintothe impurecategory.As a rule,pure and impure
deitiesalso differin character:pure deitiestendto be benevolentand are pleased withofferings
but need notbe propitiated
withthem,whileimpuredeitiesare ferocious,causingdisease
and droughtif not propitiated.There are borderlinecases;
Siva, forexample,is notaltogether
benevolent,and Narasimha,
the man-lion avatarof Vishnu, has an all but benevolent
form,and yet neitheris propitiatedin the normalsense and
bothreceiveonlyvegetarianofferings.
These cases showthata
god's purityor impurityis a consequenceprimarilyofhisfood
habits and onlysecondarilyof his character.A Tamil village
4I wonder whetherthe binaryoppositionsare really exactly 12
or whetherthe linguistssimply stopped looking for them at this
number, a culturallysatisfyingone in the Judeo-Christiantradition.

Vol. 18 * No. 3 * September

1977

I inquiredalso
about whoseofferings
goddessnear Pondicherry
illustratesthispoint.This Mariyamman,worshippedby Haripure now thatshe had given
jans, was declaredto be perfectly
habits,but she was stillresponsiblefor
up her blood-drinking
now ofa vegetarian
epidemicsifnotpropitiatedwithofferings,
type.
The distinctionbetweenpure and impuredeitiesmay also
be broughtabout by alteringone elementin otherwiseidentical
The Sri Janardana and Mahakali templesof Udipi
offerings.
(South Kanara) house in one compoundthe pure god Vishnu
and theimpuregoddessKali. Apartfrombloodsacrificeoffered
to Kali and not, of course,to Vishnu,the two deitiesreceive
similarvegetariandishespreparedwithrice. For Vishnu,however,raw ricemustbe cooked,whileforKali therelativelyimserves
pureparboiledriceis used. This sameculinarydistinction
not only to stressthe oppositionbetweenpure and impure
deities,but also to separatethesacredfromtheprofane,as raw
riceis prescribedforceremonialoccasionsthatdemandheightforeverydayuse.
ened purityand parboiledrice is preferred
Anothersubtledistinction
may be builtintothe preparation
of the flourlamp offeredto both pure and impuregoddesses.
paste hollowedout
This lamp consistsof sweetenedrice-flour
and filledwithghee. Afterhavingbeen lit in frontof the idol,
thelamp ofhalf-bakeddoughis distributed
and eaten as prasad
by thedevotees.Brahmins,in accordancewiththeirvegetarian
nevermake a blood sacrificeto a village goddess,
convictions,
thoughtheymay worshipher. Not being able to distinguish
betweenpure and impuregoddessesby offering
impureones
withinthe
nonvegetarian
food,theyhave createda distinction
The flourneededforthelamp may be obflour-lamp
offering.
tainedby eithergrindingor poundingthericegrains.Pounded
rice flouris recommendedforthe lamps offeredto ferocious
to benignones,
goddessesand groundriceflourforthoseoffered
perhaps because pounding is probablyconsideredthe more
violentprocedure (Minakshi Ammal 1973:228). Several inin culinarytechnology,
formants
mentionedthisdifference
but
some invertedthe terms,whichshowsthat the people's main
even if it is an arbitrary
concernis witha binarydistinction,
one.
The oppositionbetween god and goddess in the Hindu
pantheonis not as clear-cutas thatbetweenpure and impure
deities.In the greatHindu tradition,a goddessis more often
assimilatedto her spouse than opposed to him; thusthe hermaphroditefigureArdhanariis halfSiva and halfSakti (Siva's
femaleenergyis also representedas Parvati). In accordance
with this tendencyto stressthe union betweenhusband and
wife,the gods and theirspouses in most templesreceivethe
same food. Nevertheless,there also are distinctiveofferings
whichseem to be designedto oppose them.In Srirangam,the
mostimportantVaishnava templeofTamilnad, in additionto
a numberoffoodssharedby Vishnuand his consort,appam(a
friedsweetcake) is offered
onlyto thegod and pittu(a steamed
sweetstringcake) onlyto thegoddess.No particularreasonfor
thiscould be givenby the templepriests.The choice offoods
thetwodifferent
seemsto be arbitrary,
havingthesole
offerings
a male/femaleopposition.
purposeofstressing
Distinction,however,almost inevitablyleads to hierarchy,
especiallyin India, wherethe hierarchicalorderof societyis
offoodsand ofpeopleaccordhighlydevelopedand a hierarchy
ing to thefoodstheyeat is culturallyaccepted.The binaryoppositionbetweenpure and impuredeities,of course,is also a
to the gods and
hierarchicalone. Some differential
offerings
theirconsortscontainsuch a hierarchicalelement.In thegreat
Saiva templesof Jambukeswarar,Tamilnad, and Srisailam,
Andhra Pradesh,god and goddess share most of the dishes
offered,but the goddessreceivesextraitemsthatpointto the
periodwhenshe reignedsupremeand had notyetbeenmarried
to Siva. More often,however,when god and goddessare disit is the god who gets the lion's
tinguishedin theirofferings,
withsmallerquantities,
shareand thegoddesshas to be satisfied
509

thegradualdiminutioncontinuingwiththelesserdeitiesofthe
same temple.
A pair thatis not considereda marriedcouple may also be
distinguishedthroughfood offerings.Sabarimala, the most
famoustempleof the god Aiyappanin Kerala, containsin its
compoundthe shrineof MalikaipurattuAmman,a demoness
redeemedby Aiyappan. Pilgrimsmakingtheirobeisance to
betweenthemby breaking
bothdeitiescustomarily
distinguish
coconutsforAiyappan and rollingthemin frontof Amman's
shrine.
The greatgods Siva and Vishnu constituteanotherpair of
oppositesin the Hindu pantheon.They are not diametrically
opposedlikepure and impuredeitiesand, as in the case ofthe
traditionhas
oppositionbetweengod and goddess,a unifying
createda compositefigureHarihara,halfSiva and halfVishnu.
For all practicalpurposes,however,Siva and Vishnuare rivals
for the devotionof Hindus. They are the supremegods of
Saivismand Vaishnavism,two parallelsectswithinHinduism,
and food offerings
may serveto bringout a contrastbetween
them.Several times,whena commontypeof naivedya
was not
offeredin a Saiva or a Vaishnava temple,I was told by the
prieststhat the missingfood was the typicalofferingof the
rival god. In fact,the exclusionrarelywent beyondthe parare thought
ticulartemple,but theremarkshowsthatofferings
of as distinctive
besignsof the deities.The overallsimilarity
in thegreattemplesreflects
tweenSiva's and Vishnu'sofferings
themanypointsofcontactbetweenthe twomajorgodheadsof
Hinduism.An analysisof Saivismand Vaishnavismwould go
beyondthescope of thispaper. Sufficeit to say thatbothSiva
and Vishnuare typicallyIndian in theirconcernforpurityand
austerity;both have many different
forms,called manifestationsin the case ofSiva and avatarsin the case ofVishnu;both
are connectedwith a female counterpart;both grantmoksha
(salvation)as a boon forunswerving
devotion;etc. In addition
to similarities,
Siva and Vishnu also show differences,
which
may be stressedby some fairlyconsistentdifferences
in their
food. Vishnu is consideredwhollybenevolent,while Siva has
both benign and not so benign aspects. A Sri Vaishnava
Brahminlady5 assertedthat Vishnu loves his devotees and
therefore
is pleasedwiththeirofferings.
Siva, on theotherhand,
is thelordoftheburninggroundand cares neitherfordevotees
norforfood.This observationseemsto be confirmed
by thefact
thatthegods' mostsumptuousmeals,thelongestlistsofprasads,
and the mostelaboratefeedingofBrahminsare to be foundin
the great Vaishnava temples.Siva's offerings
are generally
morefrugal,and thereseemsto be greaterstresson plain rice
withoutsalt or any othercondimentthan on boiled rice with
side dishes,whichis the normalSouth Indian meal also frequentlyofferedto Vishnu.The Siva-VishnutempleofTjakarayanagar,Madras, housesseparateidolsofSiva and Vishnuand
draws Saivite and Vaishnavitedevoteesgatheringat opposite
sidesofthe templecompound.In thistemplevenponikal
(a spicy
rice preparationwithgreen gram) and curd rice are offered
to bothgods,whilea distinction
is createdby offering
plainrice
onlyto Siva and tamarindrice onlyto Vishnu.
The distinctionbetweenthe gentlernatureof Vishnu and
themoreviolentcharacterofSiva is consistently
stressedby the
spicesused in theirrespectivefoods.In thesouthernpartofthe
peninsula,neithergreennor red chillies,the hottestspices of
Indian cuisine,are acceptableto Vishnu,whileSiva has a taste
forgreenchillies.In generalit may be said thatthe opposition
betweenSiva and Vishnuexpressedby theirofferings
depends
not so muchon different
tvnesoffoodas on the relativeabun5 Tamil Brahminsare divided into two sects: the Smarthas,who
followSankara's advaita(monistic)philosophyand worshipmainly
but not exclusively Siva, and the Sri Vaishnavas, who follow
Ramanuja's visishtaadvaita (qualified monistic) philosophy and
worshiponly Vishnu and his avatdrs.

510

dance of the offerings.

Still more clearly-a fact repeatedly
pointedout by the people themselves-Vishnuand Siva are
contrasted
bytheoffering
ofan abundanceoffoodto theformer
and an abundanceof abhiseka
(anointingor ablution,whichinvolvessomefooditems)to the latter.
So far I have discussedbinarydistinctions
betweendeities
who formwell-knownpairs in the Hindu pantheon.In other
cases a distinction
is made betweenarbitrarypairslimitedto a
familyor a small area. Ganapati and thesnake,Ganapati and
Devi, Venkateswara(Vishnu as Lord of Tirupati) and Murukan, and thefestivalsRama navami and Ugadi differwithout
beingoppositesand are combinedin pairspreciselybythesame
typeof offering.
When two different
deitieshappen to receive
thesame offering
or thesame foodis preparedfortwodifferent
festivals,some people feel that a distinctionshould be introduced. This is conveniently
achievedby alteringsome ingredient in the dish.One womanin SouthKanara offeredthesame
sweet, kadubu(a stuffedcake), to Ganapati on Vinayakar
chaturdiand to thesnakeon Naga panchami,but accordingto
her familytraditionshe distinguished
betweenthe two deities
and theirofferings
by adding cardamomto thesnake'scake. A
Tamil woman distinguished
the sweet kolukkattai
(the Tamil
equivalent of the above) offeredto Ganapati fromthe one
offeredto Devi by puttingsesame only into the former.The
flourlamp mentionedbeforeas a typicaloffering
to goddesses
may in Tamilnad be presentedto both Venkateswaraand
Murukanon theirrespectivefestivals;thosewishingto make a
distinction
may spice the dough of Venkateswara'sflourlamp
withcardamom.In AndhraPradeshpanaka(jaggerywater) is
offeredto Rama on his birthdayRama navamiand is also prepared forthe Telugu New Year's festivalUgadi, but thelatter
drinkis distinguished
fromthe formerby several additional
ingredients.

A ceremonialoppositionbetweenjoyful and sad eventsis

commonin the West and is normallyexpressedby contrasting
use of colors,flowers,
etc., withoutrecourseto food. In India,
the difference
betweena marriage,forinstance,and a funeral
is notonlyone ofsentiment;theformeris viewedas auspicious
and the latteras impureand inauspiciousin a magical sense.
The oppositionbetweenauspiciousand inauspiciousoccasions,
whichparallelsthe oppositionbetweengods and ancestors,has
several ritual expressions,among them the wearing of the
sacredthreadovertheleftor overtherightshoulder,clockwise
or counterclockwise
-theuse of different
circumambulation,
colors,etc. Food playsan importantpart.For example,sraddha,
the funeralceremonyobservedby high castes, includes the
ofpinda(balls ofcookedrice). The wordpinda,literally
offering
meaning"ball," is so stronglyassociatedwiththisinauspicious
occasion that no rice ball used on auspiciousoccasionswould
everbe calledpinda.Similarly,nobodywoulduse blacksesame
grains,anotherindicatorofinauspiciousness,
foran auspicious
ceremony.Deccan Brahminsseem to pay thegreatestattention
to the culinarydistinction
betweenauspiciousand inauspicious
occasions.In Karnataka as well as in Andhra Pradesh I was
told that eggplant,a much appreciatedvegetable,should not
be used for sraddha-in order not to discreditit, I suppose.
Kanarese Brahminsreservedpricklynightshade,
greenbanana,
clusterbeans, and unripejackfruitfor curriesprepared for
sraddhaand thereforedid not offerthemto the gods. Whilein
Tamilnad black-gramvatai(a friedspicycake) may be offered
to any deity,some Kanarese Brahminssaw in the dish above
all theblacknessofthepulse,itsmostcommoningredient.
They
therefore
used thissavoryforsraddhaand did not offerit to the
did notcondemnthe dishas such,congods. Otherinformants
sideringit acceptableifmade ofBengal gram.Still otherssaid
that,if no Bengal gramwas available, black-gramvataicould
be used forauspiciousoccasionsand offered
to thegods as long
as it was distinguished
at least in shape by omittingthecentral
hole withcharacterizesthefuneralcake.
CURRENT

ANTHROPOLOGY

be split in frontof the idol by the templepriest,while the

bananas are leftintact.Upon closeranalysis,even thecategory
as a
So far I have discussedthe language of food offerings
offruitunitescoconutand banana onlyin Westerneyes.Indomeans of stressingcertainstructuralfeaturesof Hinduism. I
European languages distinguishvegetablesfromfruits,but
ofthefoodidiom
shall now turnto binaryand otherstructures
whichcutsacrossthat
Dravidianlanguageshave a classification
itself.Usually food offerings
consistof more than one item.
fallintothecategorypalamand
In Tamil, ripefruits
distinction.
Financial possibilities
decide the upperlimitof the numberof
vegetablesare kay,but kayalso includesthe unripefruitscomfoods offered,but at the lower limit thereoftenare certain
the two categoriesis
monlyused in curries.What distinguishes
minimalprescriptions
and standardcombinationswhichrecall
thefactthatpalamis normallyeaten raw whilekdyis normally
stylistic
proceduresin language.
eaten cooked.Coconutis kay-not because it is unripe(the unIdiomatic sayingscomposed of antitheticalor redundant ripecoconuthas a different
name), but because thefleshofthe
pairsare foundin manylanguages.In German,forinstance,in
ripe coconutis a valuable ingredientin cooking-and banana
orderto say colorfully
thatnothinghas been leftundone,one
is palam.Thus the contrastbetweenthe two extendsto their
may use the expression "Himmel und Hoelle in Bewegungsetzen"
botanical categories,and I hope to have shownthat coconut
("to move heaven and hell"); the Rig Veda, speakingof the
and banana are trulyantithetical.
universe in its totality,uses the combinationdyavdprthivi It now remainsto be demonstrated
food
thatan antithetical
(heaven-earth),and the Italian languagehas theidiom"cercare pair may have a meaningoftotalityand thatantithetical
food
per marie per monti"("to search in seas and mountains")to
pairs may thereforereasonablybe compared to antithetical
In thesecasesand
emphasizethatone has searchedeverywhere.
thereare combinationsoffoods
pairs in language.Fortunately,
manyothers,the combinationofextremesdispenseswithmenforwhichthe people themselvesmake thisassociation.In the
tioningthe intermediate
steps,and antitheticalpairs thusconDeccan, forthe New Year festival,one or several dishesconstitutea simpleway ofexpressingtotality.Redundantpairs,on
taining all six flavorsof Indian cuisine-sweet, sour, salty,
the otherhand, includeEnglish"firstand foremost,"German
offered
and hot-are preparedand sometimes
bitter,astringent,
"bei Nacht und Nebel" ("at night and in fog"), and Italian "pian
to the familygod. The six flavorsexplicitlystandfortotality,
piano" ("slowlyslowly").By combiningsimilarconceptsor retold me that theircombinationsymbolizesall
and informants
peatingthesame one, thistypeofidiomaticsaying,ratherthan
the vicissitudesof the year to come. In Tamilnad, an arucuvai
signifying
totality,puts emphasis on what is meant-in the
(six-flavor)meal is a good meal. On New Year's Day, Tamils
above examples,on precedence,lack ofvisibility,
and slowness. preparea dish symbolically
all that the year has
representing
While in the Indo-Europeanlanguagessuch expressionsare
in storeforthem,but theypreferan abbreviatedversionofthe
infrequent
and thereis onlya slighttendencyto embellishthem
six flavors.Their dish consistsonly of the oppositesjaggery
byalliterationorrhyme,in theDravidianlanguages,and above
(sweet) and neem flowers(bitter),whichare said to standfor
all in Tamil, the procedureas such and the use of alliteration thejoys and sorrowsto come. Here notonlyare thefoodsgiven
The Indianphilosophical a precise meaning,but a contrastingpair is clearlyequated
orrhymemaybe calledcharacteristic.
ideal ofdetachment,
forinstance,is expressedin Tamil by saywitha totalityin verbal and rituallanguages.Extendingthis
ingthata personis viruppu
intri(love-hateless)and treats observationto othercontrasting
veruppu
coconut
foodpairs,I interpret
urrdrmarrar(relatives-strangers,
i.e., all persons) alike. Even
and banana as vicariousmeans of expressingthe totalityof
morecommonthan antitheticalpairs are redundantcombinaand judge thatthisaccountsfortheirchoice
possibleofferings
tions.Wherethe Indo-Europeanlanguageswoulduse onlyone
as a standardpair.
verb,in Tamil it is a favoritestylisticnicetyto join two verbs
The binaryoppositionbetweencoconutand banana suggests
withsimilarmeaning.Redundantnounpairs,such as palakkam- another linguisticanalogy, that between marked and unvalakkam(custom-habit)for customor naraitirai(greyhairhas been cremarkedmembersofa category.This terminology
wrinkle)forold age, are legion. The redundantidioms proated by phonologyforpairsofoppositescontaininga hierarchivided by language mostlyconsistof pairs, but a good Tamil
cal relationship.In the binarydistinctionbetweenoral and
oratorwill pridehimselfon inventingeven further
repetitions, nasal vowels,forinstance,the nasal vowelis themorecomplex
such as na-nkantatum
unerntatum
(what I saw and
kettatum
uikittatum
themarkedterm.The concepthas beenextended
and therefore
heard,feltand guessed)-a quadrupleredundancewithdouble
to pairs of grammaticalcategoriesand of words,where the
alliterationmeaningsimply"all I experienced."Given this
morecomplexcategory(forinstance,thepluralwithrespectto
frameof mind,it may not be accidentalthatsuch procedures thesingular)and the wordwiththe morespecificmeaningare
also appear in the fieldoffoodofferings.
called marked (Greenberg 1968:149-51). I should like to
A commoncombinationoffoodofferings, postulatea similarhierarchicalrelationshipbetweencoconut
Binarycombinations.
and theSouthIndian templeoffering
par excellence,is thepair.
and banana. The coconut,in addition to being a universal
Beforeenteringa South Indian temple,the devotee buys a
in combinationwithbananas, has severalspecificasoffering
basketcontaininga coconut,severalbananas,chewingmaterial, sociations.It is splitby the templepriestin frontof the idol,
and a fewother,nonalimentary
items.Easy availabilityyearbut it is smashedby the individualdevoteein honorof Ganaroundcertainlyhave made coconutand banana commonoffer- pati and Aiyappan. Its hard shell,reminiscent
of a head, and
ings, but this does not explain why the two have become a
the violenceinherentin the breakingmake it a substitutefor
standardpair. One mightarguethatwhenfoodsare combined, blood sacrifice.(Incidentally,blood sacrificeis an aspect of
tastemay be responsible,but neithercoconutand banana nor
or "paraphrases"are particularly
ritualin whichsubstitutions
knownto me
any otherstandardcombinationof foodofferings
6 This is true as a general rule. When beginninga new enterprise
to any combinationoffoodson thebasis oftastein
corresponds
or when returningto normal lifeaftera period of pollution,forinordinarylife.
stance, an odd number is preferred.Among the culturallyfavored
What makes coconutand banana a standardpair of offer- numbers in India, however, some are even; one of these is the
parts.
ings,in my opinion,is the oppositionof its constituent
"magical" number 16, which seems to be peculiar to India
(Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi 1974: 146-47). Also, some of the standard
Apartfromthefactthatbothare fruits,
theycontrastin every
are even in number. In these cases,
combinationsof food offerings
otherrespect.The coconutin thebasketmustalwaysbe single,
I would argue that the positive associations of a particular even
the bananas mustbe multiple-not two,as one mightexpect,
number in a certain contextoverridethe inauspiciousnessof even
numbers in general. Similarly,the general auspiciousnessof odd
but threeor five,since,generallyspeaking,odd numbersare
numbershas an exception. Though not as inauspicious as it is in
auspiciousand evennumbersinauspicious.6
The coconutis hard
some parts of Europe, the number 13 is not viewed altogether
and round,the bananas softand elongated.The coconutmust
favorablyin Tamilnad.
STRUCTURAL

Vol.18

ELEMENTS

N 3 * September
1977
No.

OF FOOD

OFFERINGS

511

whetherthe different
itemscombinedare consideredsimilar
I suggesta verysimpletest:whenvariationis
or contrasting?
permitted-as oftenhappens in the combinationsto be discussed below-the foodssubstitutedforeach otherare obviouslyconsideredsynonyms,
thusmakingthe combinationredundant.Contrast,and above all binaryopposition,are much
more difficultto achieve, and such combinationstherefore
leave littleroom forvariation.The possibilityof substituting
one foodforanotheris not limitedto certaincombinationsof
in general,suggesting
offerings,
but is frequentin naivedya
that
"paraphrase" need not be so rare a phenomenonas Sperber
would have it.
A triplerepetitionwould be the most likelystructurein
Europe, where folktalesteem with "three gifts,""three attempts,""threevisits,"etc. In Indian culturea combination
of threeelementsis relativelyrare. The trimurti,
whichmay
come to mindhere,is an artificialcreationdesignedto give to
theVedic god Brahmaat least a nominalpositionin theHindu
pantheonheaded by Siva and Vishnu.
In South Indian food offerings,
the numberthree is most
importantin Kerala, a statewhichdeviatesin severalrespects
fromthe generalSouth Indian pattern.Kerala has a typical
threefoldoffering
trimadhura
(the threesweets). There is conaboutthecompositionoftrimadhura,
siderabledisagreement
and
enumerations
usuallyarriveat morethanthreeitems.It almost
looks as iftrimadhura
were onlya reducedversionof the traditionalpanchamrita
(the fivenectars),to be discussedbelow.The
about theingredients
ofthesweetcombinationwas
controversy
settledby declaringthat the threepartswere not threeitems
but threecategories:sweetener(represented
byjaggery,candy,
and honey,used separatelyor combinedat will), fruit(representedonlyby the kadalivarietyofbanana), and cow products
therefore
seemsto use a
(represented
onlyby ghee). Trimadhura
ofa sweetdelitripleredundancein orderto stressthe offering
I came across is mukkani
cacy. The only othertripleoffering
(threefruits),consistingof thejuices of mango,jackfruit,and
banana. This apparentlyredundantcombinationis a special
forgoddessMariyammanin hertempleat Samayapur,
naivedya
near Trichy,Tamilnad.
The numberfiveseems to be the culturallymost favored
numberin India. As the decimal systemis probablyderived
fromthe countingofthe fingersofbothhands,the countingof
the fingersof one hand onlymay have givenrise to a system
havingfiveas the basic unit.This is perhapsnot accidentalin
India, wherethe lefthand is consideredimpure.Five is by no
meansthe only"magical" numberin India, and in somefields
othernumbersmaybe moreprominent(EichingerFerro-Luzzi
1974:143-52),but in generalfiveseemsto dominateall others.
In Kerala, the binomial pdlumnuirum
or pdlumnirum7refersto
combinationofwordsin languagewould be difficult
a standardoffering
forsnakes,eitheras abhiseka
or as naivedya. A fivefold
to achieve,butin otherrealmsofculturequintuplesare numerThough the termmentionsonly two items,the offering
containsmore,generallyconsistingof milk,rice powder,turmeric ous. They are oftenreferredto by termsstartingwith the
Sanskritpanch-or the Tamil aim-and may be embellishedby
powder,and tendercoconut. This strangecombinationwith
alliteration.A fewexamplesare the fiveksofthe Sikh,thefive
femaleassociationsapparentlyformsa perfectblendin theeyes
ofthepeopleand therefore
isneitherantithetical
norredundant. ms of Tantrism,the five ts of the Dehasta Brahminsin the
The rhymedbinomialmuttaiyum
pettaiyum
(egg and hen), refer- northern Deccan (takkya= bolster, tasta = spittoon for betel,
tara = carpet, tattoo= colt, tagada = the persistence of money
ringto a rareoffering
ofchickenand egg curryto Tamil village
lenders),the fiveelements,the fivemetals,etc. These fivefold
deities,also seems a perfectblend, as it consistsof two items
combinations,oftencomposedof disparateelements,standfor
stronglyconnectedin factand in association.
a shortand culturallysatisfactory
totality,constituting
way of
Multiplecombinations.
Justas antithetical
pairsin languageare
lesscommonthanredundantpairs,so contrasting
combinations designatingthe Sikh religion,the Tantric sect, the Dehasta
Brahmin'sway oflife,the whole of nature,the wholeworldof
offoodofferings
are less frequentthanredundantones. Unlike
language,however,offerings
have recourseto multiplerepeti- metals,etc. Such quintuplesthereforehave an abbreviating
functionsimilarto thatofthe pair ofopposites.
tions.
if made up of conFivefoldcombinationsof food offerings,
If thesame itemis repeated,therecan be no doubtthatthe
trastingelements,may also expresstotality.More often,the
combinationis meantto be redundant,buthowis one to decide
constituent
partsare similarand therefore
serveto stressa particulartype of offering.
The best-knownquintuplecombina7 Despite repeated inquiries among ritual specialists, the bitionsin the ritualuse offoodare panchagavya
(the fiveproducts
nomial could not be satisfactorily
explained. Pdl means milk, nuir
of the cow) and panchamrita.
The formerconsistsofmilk,curd,
means lime, and its alternativenirmeans water, but neitherlime
nor water is part of the combination.
ghee, urine,and dung. As a supremepurificatory
agent,the
common.)Besides,thelayeredstructureofthe coconutsuggests
is psychoseveralspiritualanalogies.The coconut,therefore,
logicallymorecomplexthanthebanana and maybe called the
marked term of the pair. The banana, on the other hand,
seemsto be a universaloffering
because ofitsperfectneutrality
and lack ofspecificassociationsand therefore
maybe called the
unmarkedterm.
Anotherstandardpair of offerings,
vataiand pdyasam(a sort
ofpudding),is limitedto Tamilnad and somepartsofAndhra
Pradeshas a welcometreatforany god and anyfestival.Apart
fromthefactthatbothofferings
are cooked,theyforma perfect
sweetand liquid. Vatai
contrast.Vataiis saltyand solid,payasam
containsblack or Bengal gram,payasamgreen gram or rice.
Vatai is associated with strengthand sometimesconsidered
rajasik(passionraising),payasamis all sweetnessand gentleness
and puresdttvik
food(thebestofthethreehierarchicalqualities
of foodin India). I therefore
interpretthe combinationas an
antitheticalpair standingimplicitly
forall possibleofferings
of
sweetsand savories.Again, the firstitem,vatai,may be consideredmarked,as a specificuse rendersit more complex.In
addition to being a universaloffering,
vatai is an exclusive
Hanuman in theformofa garland
to themonkey-god
offering
of cakes. Pdyasam,
on the otherhand, is perfectly
neutraland
may be considered unmarked. This neutral character of
pdyasam,
however,only applies to Tamilnad, Karnataka, and
AndhraPradesh;in Kerala, theexclusionofall saltyfoodsfrom
the list of offerings
makes it necessaryto create distinctions
withinthe categoryofpdyasam.In Karnataka, where vataiis
to the gods because of its association
discreditedas an offering
withfuneralceremonies,holige(a sweetpancake witha filling)
takesits place to forma standardpair withpdyasam.
Through
thissubstitution,
however,the contrastvanishes,and thesweet
pair holige-pdyasam
may be consideredredundant.
Apart fromthe foodsthat have become Krishna'ssymbols,
this beloved god has othercharacteristicofferings
limitedto
South India. Nearly every informantin Tamilnad who observed Krishna's birthdaypreparedmurukku
and citai forthe
occasion. Both items are fried,hard, and salty and contain
similaringredients-rice,blackgram,and asafoetida.They are
thereforeessentiallyredundant,theironly contrastbeing in
shape: a spiral versusa ball. Not contentwith a redundant
combination,mostKrishna devoteessplitup the second term
citaiintoan antithetical
pair, i.e., a salt and a jaggeryvariety.
Krishna'sfavorite
snacksthusconsistofa pairofquasi-synonyms
and a pair ofopposites;thefirstmaystresshisfondness
forhard
crackers,thesecondmayrepresentall hardsweetsand savories
thatcan be offered.

512

CURRENT

ANTHROPOLOGY

mixturemay be administered
to humanbeings,and it may be
poured on the idol as abhiseka,
but it neverbecomesnaivedya.
How muchthe numberfivein thiscombinationis dictatedby
a culturalideal and howlittleit dependson physicalrealitycan
be seen fromthefactthatthoughthe constituent
partsare absolutelyfixed,theycould easilybe augmented.One pandit,ill
at ease becauseofthepresenceofurineand dungin themixture,
toldme thatnowadayspanchagavya
consistsofmilk,curd,ghee,
If thissubstitution
butter,and buttermilk.
werereallyadopted,
it would make the fiveproductsverysimilarand change the
deeper meaningof the combination.In my opinion,the oppositionbetweenfood and excrementis necessaryto make
a symbolforall thatthe cow can give.
panchagavya
Panchamrita,
accordingto the Shastras,consistsofmilk,curd,
ghee,sugar,and honeyand may be used forabhiseka
as well as
fornaivedya.
In South India, and above all in Tamilnad, considerablevariationhas been introducedintothiscombination,
and usually its ingredientsare more than five.When questionedabout thisanomaly,some informants
triedto solve the
problemby sayingthatthereare fivebasic ingredients
and the
othersmay be added at will. Even on the basic ingredients,
however,therewas no agreement,and mostor all oftheproducts of the cow could be replaced by fruits.The onlyfeatures
thedifferent
versionsofpanchamrita
seem to have in commonare
the theoreticalemphasison the numberfiveand the factthat
theingredients
shouldbe delicacies,whichmakesita redundant

stressingthe offering
of vegetables.The lattercombinationI
would call distinctive.Strictlyspeaking,it is no combination
at all, as the recipientsare ofthesame numberas thefoods.
Combinationsofeightelementsare fairlycommonin Indian
culture,but occurin ritualfoodonlyon thewestcoastofSouth
India. Ettangadi(a dry, sweet mixtureof roasted tubers) is
peculiar to Kerala and offeredto Parvati on Tiruvatiraiday.
(eight materials),a mixtureideally consistingof
Ashtadravya
puffedrice,flattenedrice,jaggery,gratedcoconut,sugarcane
pieces, honey,sesame, and kadali banana, is in Kerala and
South Kanara a typicalnaivedya
forGanapati and may also be
offeredintothe firein his honor.Botheightfoldofferings
have
variableingredients;
theformerseemsto be a redundantstress
on tubers,the lattera stresson small delicaciesor simplyan
expressionof abundance.
Nine constituentparts in an offering
may be found as an
alternativeforthe above seven typesof vegetablecurriesand,
mostprominently,
in the offering
of nine typesof grains.The
sowingand sproutingof nine typesof grains(angurdrpana)
is a
common domesticand temple ritual. Such sproutedgrains
may be offeredto different
deities on full-moonday in the
monthof Chittirai(April-May).The mostimportant
naivedya
of
nine grains,however,is in the formof cuntal(cooked spicy
cereals and pulses) duringthe Navaratrifestival.During this
nine-dayfestival,
cuntalofa different
grainmaybe offered
each
day to the goddessesDurga, Lakshmi,and Saraswati as well
combination.
as on one day to books and instruments.
The choice and
Panchakadjaya
(fivefoods),a characteristic
offering
of South
sequence of the grainsare optional; theyare obviouslyconKanara and neighboring
areas, is a dry,sweetmixture.Again
sideredequivalentin thiscontextand hence redundant.Since
the numberfive is largelyan ideal; the ingredientsmay be
the ninefoldoffering,
however,is distributedover nine days,
more numerousand variable, which is to say redundant. ratherthan stressingthe fact that grainsmust be offered,it
Ideally,panchakadjdya
is composedofjaggery,gratedcoconut,
seemsto be a meansofstressingthe lengthof the festival.
cardamom,parched Bengal gram, and one of the following
Occasionally,even largernumbersoccuras prescribedunits
items:flattened
rice,puffedrice,or friedsesamegrains.
of food offerings.
For Gauri puija,a woman in Kanyakumari
The famousSharada templeofSringeriin thewesternGhats
district,Tamilnad, prepared21 itemsand explainedthat this
has a particularpredilectionforthe numberfivein its ritual
was done because Gauri, Siva's wife,had done puija to her
use of food.Apart fromabhiseka
withpanchamrita,
husbandfor21 days. As she could not devoteso much timeto
the goddess
Sharada receives naivedyaof panchakadjaya,panchanna(five types
,ritual,she substituted21 itemsfor21 days. In one instanceit
of boiled rice dishes),and panchabhakshana
(fivefoods).As the
was said that21 sweetsand savorieswere offeredto Ganapati,
latteroffering
is composedof threesweetsand two savories,it
because he had 21 names,and theoretically
64 itemsshouldbe
containsthe oppositionbetweensweet and saltyfood; conseoffered
to Krishnaby devoutSri Vaishnavas.A personwho has
quently,I would call it an abbreviationfor all the possible
taken a vow or obtaineda special favorfromGanapati may
snacksthatcould be offered.Giventhe culturalpreference
arrangeforthe splittingof 108 coconutsin his honor. In all
for
the numberfiveand the importanceofthe SouthIndian staple
theseparticularlygenerousofferings,
the choice of the itemsis
rice,it is notsurprising
thata fivefold
emphasison riceappears
leftto the devotee'sdiscretionor the same item is repeated.
on the menusofseveraldeities.Not onlythe goddessSharada
What seems to count is the culturallyprescribednumberof
in Karnataka, but also the goddessKaveriyammanin Tamiland the emphasison abundance.
offerings
nad and the god Krishna in Andhra Pradesh receivefivefold
rice dishes.
SUMMARY
In Tamilnad, Ganapati'sfavoritekolukkattai
may be stressed
by offering
not onebut fivevarieties,one ofwhichmustbe the
It is easy to see thattheritualofnaivedya
mustbe a kindoflanelephantgod's symbolmodaka,
mentionedbefore.Similarly,the
guage, since the devotee,by offering
food,communicateswith
famousKrishna templeof Guruvayur,Kerala, puts emphasis
the gods as in prayer.Beyondthisgeneralrecognition,
I hope
on the god's naivedya
ofpayasamby offering
fivedifferent
verto have shownthatspecificanalogiesexistbetweenverballansionsofthe dish.One womanextendedtheideal fivefold
struc- guage and foodofferings.
Food offerings
designatecertaingods
tureofofferings
to theiringredients
and said that,as thereare
and festivalsas names do and underscorethe oppositionbefiveelementsin the body,all preparationsofferedcontainfive
tweenpairs ofgods and ceremonialoccasionsjust as do binary
parts. This, of course,in most cases is not literallytrue,but
categoriesin language. The contrastwithinpairs of opposites
showshow completelyshe has assimilatedthe pentad scheme.
may be expressedeitherby different
sometimesapofferings,
There is no genuinesixfoldoffering
to myknowledge,though
disparentlyarbitrarylike linguisticsigns,or by phoneme-like
thesixflavorsofIndian cuisineare combinedin thewaysI have
The language ofnaivedya
tinctionswithinthe offerings.
also rementionedabove.
veals standardcombinationsofofferings
comparableto idiomThe numberseven,whichenjoysunparalleledpopularityin
atic expressionsin language. The use of redundancein such
the Middle East and probably entered Europe through combinationsof food to stressthe meaningof an offering
will
Christianity,
is less importantin Hindu culture.I came across
seemnaturalto anyonewho acceptsthevalidityofa semiologionly two types of sevenfoldnaivedyas.
In Tamilnad, at the
cal approachto ritual,as redundanceis psychologically
necesfestival,Siva as the cosmicdancerNataraj may be
Tiruvattirai
saryforthecomprehensibility
not onlyoflanguage,but also of
offered
seventypesofvegetablecurries,and on Rishipanchami
musicand othersemiologicalsystems.More interesting
may be
seven different
typesof offerings
may be made to the seven
thefactthatthefrequencyofredundantcombinations
ofofferRishis(sages). The formercombinationseemsto be redundant, ings has a parallel in the typicallexemicredundanceof the
Vol. 18 - No. 3 - September
1977

513

Dravidianlanguages.The mostunexpectedfindingwillbe that

uses contrastingcombinations
the language of food offerings
idiomatic
witha meaningoftotalitycomparableto antithetical
featurepeculiarto verballanguagesand
a stylistic
expressions,
one forwhichDravidian tongueshave a predilection.Though
language,it cannotbe
is onlyan imperfect
theritualofnaivedya
denied,I think,thatit useslinguisticproceduresand thatsome
of itssymbolshave linguisticmeaning.

FISCHER, J. L. 1963. The sociopsychologicalanalysis of folktales.

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4:235-96.
GREENBERG, JOSEPH H. 1968. Anthropological
linguistics:An intro-

duction.
New York: Random House.
GUNNAR M. FANT, and MORRIS HALLE.
1963.
Preliminaries
to speechanalysis: The distinctive
featuresand their
correlates.
Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
Lalitd SahasrandmaMantraSdstra.1925. With Bhaskararaya's commentary. Translated by R. AnanthakrishnaSastry. Published
by the translator(place unknown).
CLAUDE.
1958. Anthropologie
structurale.
Paris: Plon.
LEVI-STRAUSS,
1964. Le cruet le cuit.Paris: Plon.
. 1965. Le triangleculinaire. L'Arc 26:19-29.
ReferencesCited
. 1967a. Du mielaux cendres.Paris: Plon.
. 1967b. "The storyofAsdiwal," in Thestructural
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1967. Essai sur l'interpretationde la notion
BOUDON, PIERRE.
and totemism.
Edited by Edmund Leach, pp. 1-47. London:
d'echange. L'Homme8(2):64-84.
Tavistock.
DOUGLAS, MARY. 1972. Deciphering a meal. Daedalus 101:61-81.
. 1968. L'originedes manieres
de table.Paris: Plon.
A. 1970. The transformationalmodel of
MRIDULA
DURBIN,
. 1971. L'hommenu. Paris: Plon.
linguisticsand its implicationsfor an ethnologyof religion: A
MINAKSHI AMMAL, S. 1973. 6th edition. Camaittuppdr
(Look while
72:334-42.
Anthropologist
case studyofJainism. American
you cook). Vol. 3. Madras: S. Minakshi Ammal Publications.
EICHINGER FERRo-LuzzI, G. 1974. Women's pollution periods in
ORENSTEIN, HENRY. 1965. The structureof Hindu caste values: A
69:113-61.
Tamilnad (India). Anthropos
preliminarystudy of hierarchyand ritual defilement.Ethnology
fur
-.
n.d.a. Food for the gods in South India. Zeitschrift
4:1-15.
Ethnologie.In press.
Delhi:
. n.d.b. The logic of South Indian food offerings.Anthropos. SASTRI, H. K. 1974. SouthIndianimagesofgodsandgoddesses.
Bharatiya PublishingHouse. (Firstpublished in 1916.)
In press.
Translated by A. L.
SPERBER, DAN. 1975. Rethinking
symbolism.
-. n.d.c. The foods disliked by the gods in South India.
Morton. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.
Orientaledi Napoli. In press.
Annalidell'Istituto
JAKOBSON, ROMAN,

of BritishIndian terminology)societyand culture through

glasses and for incorrectlyinterpretingand
Western-tinted
downgrading(probably unwittingly)the role of indigenous
religiousleadership.Accordingto Ahmed (p. 50), Barth also
by Louis DUPREE
in lumpingas "Saints" suchdiverse
createsa wrongimpression
Field Staff,WheelockHouse, P.O. Box 150,
AmericanUniversities
as " 'Sayyeds,''Mians,' 'pirs,' and 'faqirs'" and
role-players
Hanover,N.H. 03755, and Departmentof Anthropology,
Pennsylequating"khan" with"chief."
vania State University,
University
Park, Pa. 16802, U.S.A. 7 x 76
Barth'smodel characterizesthe Swat Pushtunas a political
In anthropologicalcircles,the name FredrikBarth conjures animal in searchof politicalpower.Ahmed arguesthatBarth
up visionsof an itinerant(Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Pakistan,New
presentsa "khan's-eyeview" ofPushtunSwat society(p. 131).
and imaginativetheorist He views his subjects,says Ahmed (pp. 3-4), in termsof
Guinea), indefatigablefieldworker
(at least fivebooks,numerousarticles).By exposinghimselfso
society,
"methodologicalindividualism,"or man confronting
liberally(and generously),
Barthcomesunderheavyflakfrom in contrastto "methodologicalholism,"or "man born into a
his detractorsand receivesunquestioningadulation fromhis
and largelyfixedsocial patterns."Barth
matrixof interacting
admirersand students.
As is truein thecase ofmanyinnovators, concludesthat individualscan assume and shed "group comthefollowers
mimichis
ofBarthwho slavishlyand uncritically
mitments"at will (Barth1959:2). Ahmeddisagrees:The Swat
modelsare primarilyresponsibleformuchofthecriticism(see,
Pushtun,he says (p. 139), "is born into an interconnected
for example, Bailey 1970, Dumont 1972, Gluckman 1971,
numberof social matricesthat may continueto determineor
Mair 1972). This is not to say thatBarthis infallible(none of
'limit' his choice or 'strategies.'" (For a similardiscussionof
us is) and does not deserve an occasional theoreticaland
the same problem,see Dupree 1973:248-51 and Dupree and
methodologicalslap on the wrist. He does, and Akbar S.
Albert1974:1-12.) He adds (p. 128): "In spiteofthestructural
Ahmed's (1976) Millenniumand CharismaamongPathans admin- web that the State has spun around him, requiringholist
istersa gentlebut effective
one.
analysis,Barth'sSwat Pathan is stillseenin individualistterms
Ahmed is currently
PoliticalAgent,Orakzai Agencyof the
and his socio-politicalmilieucontinuesto be equated to thatof
FederallyAdministeredTribal Agencies of Pakistan,a post
'transactionalist'Western Man." He quotes Barth: "The
which permitshim to translatehis theoreticaltalents into
politicallifeof Swat resemblesthatof Westernsocieties."
action.Having servedas a government
officialin variousparts
How did twopersonsstudyingthesamesocietycomeup with
ofPakistan(includingformerEast Pakistan,now Bangladesh), diametricallyopposed views? Accordingto Ahmed, most of
he transferred
to the Governmentof the North-WestFrontier Barth's respondentswere apparentlykhans, the landowning
Provinceas Deputy Secretaryin the Home and Tribal Affairs elite in Swat, so Barth'smodelsrevolveabout threeelements
Departmentin 1971. Later he servedas Registrarof the Cowhich Ahmed insistsgive a skewed pictureof Swat society
operativeSocietiesof the North-WestFrontierProvince.His
(p. 9). These threecrucialpointsare:
wifeis thegranddaughter
oftheformerWali ofSwat, and this
Ahmed holds that Barth views
1. Ethnologicalethnocentricity.
gives him unrivalledaccess to his subject: the dynamicsof
i.e., returns
the Swat Pushtunas a Norwegianentrepreneur;
Swat societythroughtime.He uses his material,not only to
mustexceedcosts,an extensionoftheHobbesianideal to South
illuminateunknown(and previouslyunperceived)cornersof
Asia. The transactionalmodel, he says (p. 3), contendsthat
Swat ethnography,
butto criticize(fairlyand at length)Barth's
''man is thereforea free agent faced with the problemsof
models,particularlyin referenceto Political Leadershipamong 'choices,'how he 'values' them,and the alternative'strategies'
Swat Pathans (Barth 1959). In doing so, Ahmed manages to
open to himto mobilizethem.Maximizationfindsitsultimate
enlighten,elaborate,and extendboth our factualknowledge expressionin the pursuitand attainmentof politicalpower."
and our theoreticalconcepts. Social anthropologists
of all
is the controlof land (p. 22).
The ultimateprize, therefore,
persuasionsshouldbe grateful.
Since Barth lays such stresson increased land ownership's
Basically,AhmedcriticizesBarthforlookingat the Pushtun leading to increasein power,Ahmeddeploresthe lack ofdata
(I prefer"Pushtun"or "Pukhtun"to thebastardized"Pathan"
(p. 60).
on landownersand non-landowners

On Two Views of the Swat Pushtun

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ANTHROPOLOGY