Some Traditional Practices followed in the Indian Kitchens
The kitchen in a Hindu home is considered as a sacred place and some deeply held beliefs were followed without question. The women of the family who worked in these kitchens were expected to follow all these norms and also pass them on to the next generation.
A Hindu kitchen was called a 'Rasoi Ghar', and a Muslim kitchen was called a 'Bawarchi Khana'.
Location of the kitchen
Vastu Shastra is a traditional Hindu system of design based on directional alignments. Building a house as per the Vastu norms is very much essential because it brings congruent balance amidst assorted atmospheric natural energies including cosmic energy, solar energy, lunar energy, and much more. There is an invisible and constant relation between all the five elements. Thus, the person can improve their conditions by properly designing their buildings by understanding the effectiveness of these five natural forces. Vaastu sastra combines all the five elements of nature {EARTH (Bhumi), WATER (Jala), AIR (Vayu), FIRE (Agni), SPACE (Akasha)}, and balances them with the person and the material. It takes advantage of the benefits bestowed by the five elements of nature to create a congenial living and working environment thereby facilitating spiritual well-being and paving the way for enhanced health, wealth, prosperity and happiness.
Vastu for the Kitchen :
Kitchen is a place, where food is cooked every day. Several factors need to be considered while constructing a home kitchen. Some Vastu principles followed for the positioning of a kitchen are mentioned below.
Essential Vastu tips for a home kitchen:
• The right place to set a kitchen is in the southeast corner of the home. If an apt position cannot be found, then one can avail the alternative of locating it in the northwest corner.
• Building kitchen in northeast, mid-west, mid-north, mid-south, south-west or in the centre is strictly not recommended, as they are out of Vastu norms.
• It is necessary to ensure that the cooking area never touches the sidewall of northern or eastern side of a home.
• The right location to cook food is by setting it in the direction of east.
It was believed that constructing a house by closely sticking with the Vastu principles would drive away the negative powers and bring peace, success, and health to the dwellers residing in the home. Some of these principles are being followed by some people to this day, whereas some have given up such a practice as they believe that God exists everywhere so he protects and guides everyone and everything equally.
Floor oriented kitchen
India is a floor-oriented society. People in India especially in rural areas squat and sit on the floor for performing most of their routine functions. The sitting posture is different for different functions. Women squat on their haunches or sit on the floor of the kitchen while preparing food, while eating or drinking people sit cross legged on the floor. Also, many of the kitchen items are placed on the floor like the Chulha (cooking stove), Bonti (all-purpose kitchen knife), Manthani (Butter churner) so the cooking process happens at the floor level.
No Shoes (leather articles) were allowed in the kitchen
One had to remove shoes and leave them behind before entering a kitchen, which is still practised in most of South India and in rural India. In the olden days, leather from cows that died naturally was sewn to make Chappals (Sandals), and Jooti (Shoes). It was strictly prohibited to kill cows (as they are considered holy) to harvest leather. Hindus did not allow leather articles like shoes, belts, handbags etc to be brought inside the house. The leather items were left at the entrance of the house. As time passed, wearing shoes inside became acceptable, except for the kitchen, and Pooja room. For that matter Hindus do not wear any shoes or chappals inside temples, they are left out at the entrance. The other main reason is regarding health and hygiene. The shoes/ chappals collect bacteria, dirt and other stuff from the roads, footpaths, playgrounds etc and if they are brought into a home it is believed they may pollute the home and spread diseases.
Rules to follow before entering the Indian kitchen
No one was allowed to enter the kitchen without taking a bath, with the exception of infants being nursed by their mothers. Washing hands was and is required by all the family members before eating meals. One had to sit cross legged on the floor to eat meals. One could not lie down, squat or stand to eat meals. Food was eaten with the hands and flatware like knife (Chhuri), fork (Kanta), and spoon (Chamcha) were not used to eat meals. Only recently flatware has been used for eating, sometimes at home and mostly in public eatery places like fancy restaurants.
Not everyone was allowed to enter a Hindu kitchen
- The women during menstruation, or after giving birth to a baby were not allowed to enter the kitchen as they were considered to be 'unclean'.
- Non-Hindus (Muslims, Christians, Jews, Parsis, etc. ) were not allowed to enter a Hindu Kitchen. Also within the Hindu religion itself, people belonging to a lower caste were not allowed to enter the kitchen belonging to a higher caste, with the exception of Brahmins. Brahmins were allowed to enter any Hindu Kitchen as they were the highest in the Indian caste order.
- Non-vegetarians of any caste or religion were not allowed to enter a vegetarian Hindu’s kitchen.
Taboo against Menstruation, post-childbirth for women
A woman during menstruation was considered 'polluted' and 'not clean'. During this time, a woman was not allowed to enter the kitchen, or Pooja room, or temples. She was not allowed to bathe in public places such as ponds or rivers, and even community wells were off-limit. She was given water and food to survive, but her eating and drinking utensils were kept separate. This probably gave the women much-needed rest from the harsh chores of daily life. After the first four days, the earthenware used by the woman was broken and discarded, she had to take a ritual bath and then only could she enter the kitchen to resume her duties.
After giving birth to a baby, a woman was considered ‘un clean'. For the first 40 days, she was not allowed to enter the kitchen, Pooja room, temples, or participate in religious ceremonies or move out of the home. The food was prepared by the other members of the family. This probably was imposed to give the new mothers much need rest from their daily chores and also bond with the newborn baby. After 40 days, the earthenware used by the woman was broken and discarded, and a ritual bath was given for purification before she could enter the kitchen and resume her duties.
Cow dung
Cooking stoves (Chulha, Angithi, Bhatti), the entrance of a house (Aangan), sometimes the mud walls of a hut, and even the wedding altar (Mandap) were coated with cow-dung and then plastered over with local clay, as it was believed that the cow-dung purifies the area by acting like an insecticide. The smoke from burning Upla (dried cow dung cakes) repels insects such as mosquitoes. The use of cow dung has become an integral part of Hindu culture.
Water Storage
In the olden days, there was no running water. The drinking water was collected from rain. The collected water was stored in underground tanks called Kunds. Philanthropists dug up community wells for public usage. Women would go to these wells to bathe and fetch water for use at home. The water was stored in vessels made from local clay, copper, or brass. The clay vessels (Gharas) were considered hygienic as they were purified by the fire while burning in the kiln. The metal Copper was considered to purify water so copperware such as lotas was used to drink water. The temples would store Ganga-Jal (holy water from Ganges River) in copperware. Copperware is still used in temples and Pooja rooms.
