Food Ethics and Practices in the Religious Ethos of Early Buddhism in the Jātakas

Abstract

Food and foodways played vital role in early Buddhist religious milieu as it was a medium to show inter relationship amongst the renouncers inside the Sangha and medium through which a renouncer was able to reconnect with the world after renouncing it. Bhikkhu/Bhikkhuni who chose to follow Buddhism, after renouncing world, emerged amongst the major categories that time. In religious ethos of early Buddhism the bhikkhus were one of the significant categories of that time along with the Brahmanas and the samanas. The paper mainly focus on two questions; one for a laity based on the concept of merit making through almsgiving and second, is to know the significance of food in monastic order and its role to determine the hierarchy amongst the bhikkhus in Sangha. In this paper we will try to look at the different Jātaka stories, in popular culture, from the perspective of ideas surrounded with food ethics and consumption amongst bhikkhus in monastery in early Buddhist religious ethos. Contribution of almsgiving in Dana tradition of early Buddhist philosophical ideals for the benefit of beyond life for a laity.