foodis instructive because it defines the unity of a family, although fire is also
an ambivalent, dangerous, and unpredictable power that can destroy a
family. Nonetheless, a family is encouraged to worship it for protection.
Three sacrificial fires are the norm for major public sacrifices, with each
sitting on an altar representing different parts of the triple-structured
Vedic universe with Agni, god of fire, functioning as the connecting link
between the fires. In later Vedic culture, the image of the ritual fire is akin
to an internal fire for the digestion of food, and is adopted by yogis, who
equated it with their internal fire created by ascetic practices that con-
sumes the seeds of actions by the fire of knowledge.
Cross-cultural evidence suggests that fire is both creative and destruc-
tive, associated with civilization in the form of cooked food, central to
some religious cults, possesses the power to purify people and things,
and can transform people and things. Fire is also used to transport food
to the gods. In many cultures, it is considered a basic element of life.
When it is used metaphorically it is connected to the fire of passion,
procreation, and life.Further reading: Boyce (1979); Knipe (1975); Lévi-Strauss (1970)FOOD
If what humans eat sustains their existence and helps them to thrive, food
is synonymous with life itself because it contains nutritious elements that
cause physical well-being, shapes personal temperament, influences
emotional changes, and bestows longevity. By the proper food intake,
one can regulate one’s mental condition, aesthetic feelings, and spiritual
attainments. Food also plays a role as a commodity within a mutual trans-
actional exchange between humans or between individuals and god, a
situation that manifests a connection between god, food, and life in a
cosmological triangle. Moreover, these food transactions between a god
and humans help to determine the existence of the universe.
In Hinduism food plays an essential role in ancient sacrifice, religious
speculation, devotional worship, and purity and pollution regulations.
Within the context of the ancient Vedic animal sacrifice, the sacrificer
unites with the world of the gods, a unity often expressed as the sacrificer
becoming food. Since the gods only accept cooked food, the sacrificer is
reminded of his inferior status by waiting to consume his portion of the
sacrificed animal. In the ancient Upanishads, food is a manifestation of,