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.

?Some offer liquor when they worship Shakti and yet others offer non vegetarian food too. New ingredients like potatoes, tapioca, sago have found their way into worship. These were not used until the 19th or the beginning of the 20th century. Food items remain the same though ingredients change depending on what is cultivated and available in a particular region. For instance, modak in the Konkan region of Maharashtra is made with rice flour, coconut and then steamed; whereas in other parts like Desh and Ghat regions of Maharashtra, it is made with maida, semolina, khus khus and then fried.?

God?s food

Do gods need food? ?gods always eat. They need sustenance. When food is offered to god, the implicit idea is that ?You are my guest. I am going to offer food to you.? Hence, the idea of Bhog, informs Pattanaik.

At Mumbai?s ISKCON temple for instance, the god is fed six times a day. He is woken up at 4.25 am and placed in front is a platter of different fruits and sweetmeats. ?We want the Lord to be happy as He opens His eyes and sees sweets that He loves,? says S T Das, a priest. This is reminiscent of how the Lord?s mother, Yashoda would wake him up at Vrindavan, he adds.

According to the scriptures, Panchratra in particular refers to the methodology to deity or idol worship, informs Yadupati, a priest at ISCKON. A devotee likens god to a person, he says. ?god has His desires, likes and dislikes. That is why vegetarian food is offered to god. Onions and garlic are avoided as they are considered an aphrosidiac.?

Food and violence

It is a misnomer, says Pattanaik, that most gods eat vegetarian food. For vegetarianism does not rule out killing. Plants are cut to make food. ?Food can?t be cooked without destroying something. It is a violent act ? ingredients needed for cooking have to be cut, chopped, pounded, roasted, boiled, et al. All this is required for sustenance. Thus, it is not life giving. It sustains life by giving up life,? says Pattanaik.

In all religions, death and life are co-related and celebrated. Food is seen as prana, life-giving. Food is life and it comes from death. Food is an intrinsic part of all rituals, explains Pattanaik. ?Shiva for instance, is given only raw food. Like kachcha or raw milk. He is a hermit and hence is offered simple food. Vishnu, on the other hand, is a royal and so is given pakka or cooked food. Devi is not offered milk for she gives it to the devotee as She is a mother. This idea is further seen in the form of go mata and gouri. Devi is offered blood. Devi is also shown as cutting a buffalo. This is to show that every time one eats, someone dies. Devi is a horrible truth that we don?t say. We are in a state of cultural delusion but the reality is we destroy in order to consume.?

Food is aligned to the personality of the god it is offered to. Food communicates messages. There is a implicit rahasya involved in it, says Pattanaik. ?To make rice, one needs paddy which requires a field. Nature does not offer fields to grow rice. To make a field, forests have to be cut, which is destruction of animals and plants; in short the ecosystem. So, implicit in the idea of eating rice is the symbolism of violence. Nature makes milk not for us to drink but for the calf and yet we take if for our consumption. Even in this act, there is violence.?

Food and faith

At a complex level, when food is offered to the gods what is implied is that it is procured through effort and on the simplistic level, it implies that we give food that the deity likes and appreciates as It is our guest. This form of worship is specific to Hinduism, informs Pattanaik. In Christianity, bread and wine represent the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. When a devotee takes bread, what he is doing is wash away the impurities of his flesh through pure flesh in the form of bread. There used to be sacrifices in Judaism, says Pattanaik. Cain and

Abel offered grain and goat to god but it is an old ritual not in practice anymore. In Islam, food is a ritual for social bonding.

So food is eaten from one plate to indicate that all are equal and none is superior or inferior to the other. A thought is communicated. Thus, in Hinduism, food is symbolic; in Christianity, it is mystical and in Islam, it has social elements.

Some tribal communities offer meat and alcohol to god for they see it as ?the best we eat should be given to god?. What is rarely available is offered to god. ?What I like is what I will give my god? ? so it is transactional, magical too, says Pattanaik.