Divine delights

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: Hot sheera generously garnished with dry fruits and dripping in ghee, kheer made of rice, semolina, broken wheat and myriad other grains, snow white modaks, plump ladoos and many such sweets — all these placed at the foot of gods are temptations that even the most devout will give the thumbs up for. After all these are food for the deities, they will say in their defense.

A Krishna devotee, Chandrika Achu, offers each food item to god before she eats. “I even offer chocolates, since I love it. Nothing is eaten without giving it to god, first,” she says. She puts the Lord to sleep on a tiny bed laid with rich fineries and then goes to bed herself. “I am offering thanks for all that I am blessed with,” she says, explaining her daily rituals.

Food offered to the gods differs amongst people of different faiths and also from person to person, depending on the personal equation with god. Called bhog, naivedyam or prasad, a devotee’s offering can range from fruits to sweets to cakes. Prasad is the leftover food offered to god, says Devdutt Pattanaik, mythologist and author of several books on relevance of sacred stories, symbols and rituals in modern times. “It signifies, ‘I am eating divine food’. This is very similar to the Christian concept of grace of divine manifested in the food; and similar to flowers being taken from worship and kept by a devotee or vibhuti or sacred ash applied by the devotee.”

The food offered to the gods are rich made with ghee and dry fruits. “But isn’t this is the way, one would treat one’s guest?” asks Mohsina Mukadam, professor, Ruia College, Mumbai who is doing her PhD in Food Culture. “Ghee is pre-cooked. It is used in yagnas where it is poured into the fire. It is ritualistically pure. When food is cooked in ghee and given to the gods, it is believed the food becomes pure. Food cooked with ghee and offered to gods are pakka foods. Kachcha or raw foods are water-based.”

As life has become complex, the kind of food offered to god has also undergone a change. So from water, milk to buttermilk, the food preferences have included sweetmeats, savouries, fruit juices. Paan is also offered to god after the end of a meal. “The influence of European culture is seen in the offerings of cakes,” says Mukadam.