Rites & Rituals | Naivedya and Prasad
- Urmi Chanda-Vaz
- Sep 27, 2016
- 2 min read
Food is an extremely important element in the sphere of religious activities of Hindus, as in many other cultures. It acts as a transactional tool between men and gods and helps establish a relationship between the two. The anthropomorphization of gods meant that they needed to be treated and fed just like humans.
The offering of Naivedya or Bhog is an important step or Upachara in any pooja. The religious roots of this ritual can be traced back to the Vedic times, when sacrifices were the modus operandi. By offering sacrifices, man could request, oblige, or compel gods to grant his wishes. Though sacrifices continue to be offered on special occasions, the practice of offering daily naivedya is more commonplace.
The word 'Naivedya' denotes any kind of 'offering to god', but it is usually taken to mean food and water. Food offered to the gods is prepared under strict codes of purity. Ideally, the cook should have bathed, the foods should be sattvik in nature and it should not be tasted while cooking. In some extreme cases, as in the Jagannath temple at Puri, the cooks are even forbidden to smell the food and they work with a cloth covering their noses!
Naivedya offerings are mostly vegetarian in nature, with the exclusion of even onions and garlic. However, some shaktas are known to make meat offerings to the goddess. Once the food is cooked and served, it is offered to the gods along with some mantras and prayers and left before the image or murti for some time. After this time, the food is said to have acquired spiritual significance and turns into prasad. This prasad is then distributed among devotees, who partake in it as a special blessing from god.
The naivedya may be raw or cooked, ranging from one fruit to a lavish spread of 56 dishes called chappan bhog. Common food offerings include fruits like bananas and coconuts, milk, betel leaves and nuts, rice and pulses, cooked vegetables, sweets and many others. Speaking of sweets, the world's most famous sweet offered as naivedya and then given as prasad is the Tirupati laddu that recently turned 300 years old and even acquired a GI or Geographical Indication status!
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