2022

Oxford Symposium of Food &Cookery : Portable Foods

Proceedings of the Oxford Food Symposium, Portable

Food for the Final Journey: Feeding the soul in Hindu death rituals.

The Hindu macrocosm consists of hundreds of castes, communities, and denominations, and the core ideologies of the faith ripple through its various tribes and indigenous peoples. Hindu mortuary and funerary rites follow a general blueprint, but practices vary vastly within communities. This paper discusses the edible offerings made to the dead on their journey to the afterlife and comestible transactions in Hindu death rites and rituals known as antyeṣṭi. Food and feeding the spirit, ancestors, bereaved, and the community is central to mourning in Hindu death rituals. In feeding the dead, albeit metaphorically, we continue to care for them in a way within our limits. Food in the context of antyeṣṭi is not a gastronomical endeavor. It has a higher purpose, mainly focused on nourishing the spirit and creating a safe passage for the afterworld. In the phylogeny of the obsequy, we see that such a response assumes a ritual character.

All images by Priya Mani. If you are interested in the paper or the presentation, please contact me.