Vedic Wisdom behind eating with your hands

Languages used in Carnatic Music & Literature
Post Reply
venkatakailasam
Posts: 4170
Joined: 07 Feb 2010, 19:16

Vedic Wisdom behind eating with your hands

Post by venkatakailasam »

Eating food with the hands in today’s Western society can sometimes be perceived as being unhygienic, bad mannered and primitive. However within Indian culture there is an old saying that,
” eating food with your hands feeds not only the body but also the mind and the spirit”.

Read more at

http://www.hinduhumanrights.info/vedic- ... our-hands/


" Also the 5 fingers represent the 5 diff tastes ( Sweet , sour, bitter , salty and Umami) "

Pratyaksham Bala
Posts: 4164
Joined: 21 May 2010, 16:57

Re: Vedic Wisdom behind eating with your hands

Post by Pratyaksham Bala »

அறுசுவை அல்லவா?

Vedic wisdom?
Ayurveda refers to six tastes -
madhura मधुर (sweet), lavaNa लवण (salty), amla अम्ल (sour), kaTu कटु (pungent), tikta तिक्त (bitter), & kaSAya कषाय (astringent).

Rsachi
Posts: 5039
Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: Vedic Wisdom behind eating with your hands

Post by Rsachi »

Guys
Here is my simple common 21st century sense of why we eat with our hand/s.
1. Eating with my hands makes me more sensitive to food.
2. I wash my hand before eating and so am more mentally prepared to eat.
3. The human hand has an incredible range of manipulation and movement so cannot be matched by any cutlery.
4. I can eat solid, semisolid and liquid food with my hand.
5. I save on material wastage.
6. What I feel with my hand assures me I won't eat poorly cooked or dangerous food.
7. The size of a cupped hand approximates the capacity of my mouth.
8. I won't eat too hot or too cold food.
9. Washing and cleaning, making and buying cutlery wastes precious resources.
10. If I eat with my hands I will better remember the meal I ate and what foods I like and I don't.
11. Half the joy of a banana leaf meal is eating with the hand!

cmlover
Posts: 11498
Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:36

Re: Vedic Wisdom behind eating with your hands

Post by cmlover »

Also our SI food is finger-licking good!
Try licking the knife or the fork :)
How else can you eat the 'pAyasam" poured on a plantain leaf!

Nick H
Posts: 9379
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: Vedic Wisdom behind eating with your hands

Post by Nick H »

Half the joy of a banana leaf meal is eating with the hand!
Having a cut on my right thumb, I was forced to ask for a fork.

Eating with a fork, off a banana leaf just felt so wrong!

vasanthakokilam
Posts: 10956
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01

Re: Vedic Wisdom behind eating with your hands

Post by vasanthakokilam »

>Eating with a fork, off a banana leaf

LOL ;) That is a sight to behold.

Sachi I like your 7 and 8.

The dexterity of the hands comes in handy in that epic battle to keep the rasam from flowing off the edge of the leaf!
Nick, I don't know how you managed that with a fork!! You can lift the long edge of the leaf a bit to stop that flow but then rasam will flow side ways. OK, one side of which you can battle, in vain, with that fork, but what about the other side ;)

cmlover
Posts: 11498
Joined: 02 Feb 2010, 22:36

Re: Vedic Wisdom behind eating with your hands

Post by cmlover »

Who said you can't use a straw :D

Nick H
Posts: 9379
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 02:03

Re: Vedic Wisdom behind eating with your hands

Post by Nick H »

VK, I don't remember (even though it was only a couple weeks back). I think I kept to relatively dry choices. I would have been moderate with rasam anyway. I was back to hands at Murugan Idly two days ago.

I've been in the wars: cut thumb, one tooth removed, and a skinned elbow from a wonderfully dramatic tumble outside Ragasudha Hall two days back. Must have been the Dosai!

CML, a straw might have been a good idea!

Rsachi
Posts: 5039
Joined: 31 Aug 2009, 13:54

Re: Vedic Wisdom behind eating with your hands

Post by Rsachi »

Yes, Nick, cups or leaf-cups (we call them donne in Kannada) and even straws do not militate against the basic convenience of eating with hand. I will even accommodate an occasional spoon. But to ridicule eating with one's fingers is a No-No.

Post Reply