Hindus, consider as the
sacred sacrificial food. Frequently the view obtains that the head
of the caste _panchayat_ takes the offender's sins upon himself by
commencing to eat, and in return for this a present of some rupees
is deposited beneath his plate. Similarly among some castes, as the
Bahnas, exclusion from caste is known as the stopping of food and
water. The Gowaris readmit offenders by the joint drinking of opium and
water. One member is especially charged with the preparation of this,
and if there should not be enough for all the castemen to partake of
it, he is severely punished. Opium was also considered sacred by the
Rajputs, and the chief and his kinsmen were accustomed to drink it
together as a pledge of amity. [208]

85. Sanctity of grain-food.

Grain cooked with water is considered as sacred food by the
Hindus. It should be eaten only on a space within the house called
_chauka_ purified with cowdung, and sometimes marked out with white
quartz-powder or flour. Before taking his meal a member of the higher
castes should bathe and worship the household gods. At the meal he
should wear no sewn clothes, but only a waist-cloth made of silk or
wool, and not of cotton. The lower castes will take food cooked with
water outside the house in the fields, and are looked down upon for
doing this, so that those who aspire to raise their social position
abandon the practice, or at least pretend to do so. Sir J.G. Frazer
quotes a passage showing that the ancient Brahmans considered the
sacrificial rice-cakes cooked with water to be transformed into human
bodies. [209] The Urdu word _bali_ means a sacrifice or offering,
and is applied to the portion of the daily meal which is offered to
the gods and to the hearth-fire. Thus all grain cooked with water is
apparently looked upon as sacred or sacramental food, and it is for
this reason that it can only be eaten after the purificatory rites
already described. The grain is venerated as the chief means of
subsistence, and the communal eating of it seems to be analogous to
the sacrificial eating of the domestic animals, such as the camel,
horse, ox and sheep, which is described above and in the article on
Kasai. Just as in the hunting stage the eating of the totem-animal,
which furnished the chief means of subsistence, was the tie which
united the totem-clan: and in the pastoral stage the domestic animal
which afforded to the tribe its principal support, not usually a