Harshacharita (socio-cultural Study)
by Mrs. Nandita Sarmah | 2014 | 67,792 words
This page relates ‘Similarities (9): Food and Drinks’ of the English study on the Harshacharita: A Sanskrit (poetical work) which can be studied as a Historical book of Indian society during the 7th century. It was originally written by Banabhatta who based his Harsacarita on the life of the Gupta emperor Harshavardhana. This study researches the religion, philosophy, flora and fauna and society of ancient India as reflected in the Harsha-Charita.
1. Similarities (9): Food and Drinks
[Full title: Similarities between the Two Societies of the Kādambarī and the Harṣacarita (9): Food and Drinks]
From the description of various agricultural products, such as-śāli[1] etc. shows that the food habits were the same in both the societies and the people paid attention to agricultural products. The writer has informs that fruits, also, constituted an important food item which were practically collected from forests.[2] The people so used to drink the different fruit-juices.[3]
Some type of sacrificial things such as-purodāśa[4] (i.e., a sacrificial oblation), āmikṣā[5] (i.e., a mixture of curds and boiled milk) offered in the vaiścadeva oblation and caru[6] (i.e., an oblation of rice) were also mentioned in the both the kāvyas.
About soma-juice, the writer Bāṇa[7] himself mentions that his family engaged in performance of soma sacrifices and they also drunk it. Bāṇa describes the sage Jāvāli with the smell of the soma[8] juice drunk by him. Wine mentions as madirā[9] in both the gadyakāvyas. The liquor shops were known as pānabhūmi[10] and āpānamaṇḍapa.[11]
Both kāvyas inform that the people took tāmbūla (i.e., betel-nut and betelleaves) in various occasions and as a habitual act. After taking foods,[12] the people chew betel nut. Employees were hired to distribute the betel-nut in the royal palace known as tāmbūlakaraṅgavāhinī[13] at that time. The word karaṅga[14] is also used to imply the betel-box.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
[a] Kādambarī,p.115
[b] urvarāvarīyobhiḥ śāleyairalaṅkṛtaḥ, Harṣacarita,p.66
[2]:
[a] …mūlaphalābhyavahārasambhavamudvamanniva ca parimalasubhagaṃ vikasakusumapaṭalapāṇḍuraṃ latāvanam, Ibid.,VIII.p.129
[b] sakalavanasarasārthasādhāraṇasya kandamūlaphalasya girisariṭambhaso va ke vayam, Ibid.,VIII.p.130
[c]..kṛto jalaphalamūlamameṣvāhāreṣu praṇayaḥ, Kādambarī,p.217
[3]:
….pratyagraphalarasapānasukhasuptapaṭhikaiḥ……., Harṣacarita,III.p.42
[4]:
[a] Harṣacarita,II.p.21
[b] Kādambarī,p.71
[5]:
[a] Harṣacarita,II. p.21
[b] Kādambarī,p.71
[6]:
[a] Ibid.,II.p.23
[b] Kādambarī,p.71
[8]:
aviratasomodgārasugandhiniśvāsa…..jāvalimapaśyat, Kādambarī,p.75-76
[9]:
[a] Ibid.,p.280
[b] Harṣacarita,p.44,72
[10]:
pānabhūmiriva prakaṭitamadhukośakaśatā…, Ibid.,p.39
[11]:
Harṣacarita,II.p.31
[12]:
….āhārabhimatarasāsvāda…….ca gṛhītatāmbūlatasmāta……, Kādambarī,p.33
[13]:
[a] Harṣacarita,I.p.15 [b] Kādambarī,p.30,165
[14]:
Harṣacarita,I.p.15