Feeding the Dead: Food, Funerary Rituals, and Journeys to the Afterlife in South Asian Texts and Contexts
Food is essential to the survival of the living, but its cultural significance does not cease at death. Across South Asia, death and mourning are accompanied by a range of food-related practices: cooking, offering, carrying, abstaining, fasting, feeding, sharing, distributing, refusing, burying, burning, or disposing of food. Meals may be prepared for mourners; particular foods may be offered to the deceased, ancestors, spirits, religious specialists, or members of the community; certain ingredients may be prohibited during mourning; and food may be placed beside the dead, carried to cremation or burial sites, offered at shrines or monasteries, distributed among participants, or consumed collectively as part of commemorative rites.
