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LIFESTYLES
Eternal India
encyclopedia
When the Chinese traveller Fa-Hien, visited India in the 5th
century A.D., he reported that people belonging to the higher
castes did not " kill any living creatures, nor drink intoxicating
liquor, nor eat onions or garlic." He wrote that the consumption
of meat was confined to the lower castes. The growth of
Mahayana Buddhism as well as Jainism which preached
ahimsa
or non-violence was responsible for the gradual disappearance
of the Vedic sacrifices which involved the killing and eating of
large numbers of animals and the spread of vegetarianism among
Hindus.
The Aryans used, pure ghee as the cooking medium. The
poorer classes used vegetable oils.
In Vedic times, Soma, an invigorating drink which was made
from a plant which grew in the Himalayas was drunk at religious
ceremonies. Sura was an intoxicating drink which was consumed
on other occasions.
In medieval times drinking was quite popular among the
Muslims, particularly the upper classes and the soldiers. No
attempt appears to have been made to put a check on drinking
in the North before the time of Ala-ud-din Khalji (14th century)
who issued orders strictly forbidding the sale and purchase of
wine and intoxicants like toddy and hemp. Offenders were
severely punished and sometimes thrown into wells specially dug
for the purpose. The prohibition order was not strictly enforced
by the later emperors till the time of Akbar who ordered severe
punishment for excessive drinking and disorderly conduct. He
even ordered the imprisonment of the husband of his eldest
daughter for excessive drinking. Akbar also took steps to
regularise the sale of wine for medicinal purposes. A wine shop
was set up near the palace for selling wine on the advice of
a physician. A register was maintained in which the names of
the customer, his father and grandfather were noted.
Though his son and successor, Jahangir, regarded a little wine
as “a prudent friend” he curbed its use among his subjects.
Prohibition was enforced during Shah Jahan’s reign and, of
course, Aurangzeb took strict measures to ensure that his
subjects did not consume liquor. Municipal officers were on
the lookout for offenders and the European traveller, Manucci,
records : “The pots and pans in which the beverage was
prepared were broken daily by muktasibs (municipal officers)”.
Kautilya's
Arthasastra,
recognising that drinking is an evil
that cannot be altogether forbidden but must be strictly
controlled, recommends the manufacture of liquor under super-
vision in government-controlled breweries. It gives the names
of many alcoholic drinks which were popular at the time: rice
beer
(medaka),
wood-apple wine (
asava
), a liquor made from
raw sugar
(maireya)
and mango wine
(sahakarasura).
PASTIMES
The favourite amusements of the aristocratic classes were
racing and hunting. The chariot race was extremely popular as
also hunting, the animals hunted being the lion, the elephant,
the wild boar, the deer and the buffalo. Birds were also hunted.
Another favourite pastime was gambling with small, hard
nuts. The players drew a handful of these from a bowl and scored
if the number was a multiple of four. Later oblong dice with four
scoring sides were used. The terminology that was used for the
throws was
krita
(four),
treta
(trey),
dwapar
(deuce) and
kali
(ace). These terms are the same as those given to the four
Yugas
into which the age of the world is divided in Hindu
cosmology.
Efforts were made by some of the medieval rulers like Ala-
ud-din and Akbar to discourage gambling. Ala-ud-din banned
it and ordered gamblers to be turned out of the capital. However,
this evil seems to have persisted. Akbar put restrictions on
gambling so that it could be indulged in on only certain festive
occasions such as Nauroz and Diwali. Jahangir forbade it
altogether but the practice seems to have continued and the
European traveller, Thevenot, who visited India during Shah
Jahan’s reign observed that much gambling took place in Delhi
and Banaras, and a vast deal of money was lost and people
ruined. He quotes the instance of a
baniya
who lost all his
wealth and staked even his wife and child.
The prostitute was a normal feature of urban life in ancient
India. The higher class courtesan was expected to be a cultural
companion like the hetaera of Greece and her training and
accomplishments were described in detail in the
Kamasutra
(the
Book on the Art of Love) that was compiled by Vatsyayana
about the end of 3rd century AD. The
Kamasutra
is a remarkable
document which discusses its subject in a threadbare manner
which resembles the lucidity and precision of modem works on
the subject. According to Vatsyayana the courtesan should be
thoroughly trained in the 64 arts which included music, danc-
ing, singing, the composition of poetry, cooking, dress-making
and embroidery, flower arrangement and garland making,
gardening etc.
The prostitute was under the protection and supervision of
the
state.
The
Arthashastra
of
Kautilya
suggests
the
appointment of a superintendent of prostitutes who would be
responsible for the supervision of the palace courtesans, the
inspection of brothels and collection of two days', earnings from
each prostitute every month in tax to the Government.
A type of prostitution, temple prostitution, was common in
South India where it came into being in the Middle Ages. These
were the
Devadasis
(female slaves of the gods) who attended
on the god’s person, danced and sang before him. Four hundred
of them were attached to the great temple of Tanjore during
the reign of the Chola king Raja Raja I. But the system was
abused and the
Devadasis
degenerated into common prostitutes
with their earnings being collected by the temple authorities. The
system survived till recent times when it was banned by
legislation.
Chaturanga, which developed into the world's most cerebral
game known as chess, originated in India and was named after
the four traditional wings of the Indian army (elephants, horses,
chariots and soldiers). It was played by four players and their
moves were controlled by the throw of the dice. The game was
learnt by the Persians who called it
shatranj
and played it with
two players. When Persia was conquered by the Arabs it spread
all over the Middle East. It was learnt by the Christian crusaders
from the Muslims and was introduced to Europe.
Animal fights were popular despite the growth of the doctrine
of
ahimsa.
There were fights between bulls, buffaloes, elephants
and quails. In the Dravidian south, bull fights were extremely
popular. The fights were popular among herdsmen who entered