The intense importance thus attached to eating in common on ceremonial
occasions has a very familiar ring to any one possessing some
acquaintance with the Indian caste-system. The resemblance of the
gotra or clan and the subcaste to the Greek phratry and phule and the
Roman gens and curia or tribe has been pointed out by M. Emile Senart
in Les Castes dans l'Inde. The origin of the subcaste or group, whose
members eat together and intermarry, cannot be discussed here. But it
seems probable that the real bond which unites it is the capacity of
its members to join in the ceremonial feasts at marriages, funerals,
and the readmission of members temporarily excluded, which are of a
type closely resembling and seemingly derived from the sacrificial
meal. Before a wedding the ancestors of the family are formally
invited, and when the wedding-cakes are made they are offered to the
ancestors and then partaken of by all relatives of the family as in
the Roman sacra. In this case grain would take the place of flesh
as the sacrificial food among a people who no longer eat the flesh
of animals. Thus Sir J. G. Frazer states: "At the close of the rice
harvest in the East Indian island of Buro each clan (fenna) meets
at a common sacramental meal, to which every member of the clan is
bound to contribute a little of the new rice. This meal is called
'eating the soul of the rice,' a name which clearly indicates the
sacramental character of the repast. Some of the rice is also set
apart and offered to the spirits." [365] Grain cooked with water is
sacred food among the Hindus. The bride and bridegroom worship Gauri,
perhaps a corn-goddess, and her son Ganesh, the god of prosperity and
full granaries. It has been suggested that yellow is the propitious
Hindu colour for weddings, because it is the colour of the corn. [366]
At the wedding feast all the guests sit knee to knee touching each
other as a sign of their brotherhood. Sometimes the bride eats with
the men in token of her inclusion in the brotherhood. In most castes
the feast cannot begin until all the guests have come, and every
member of the subcaste who is not under the ban of exclusion must be
invited. If any considerable number of the guests wilfully abstain
from attending it is an insult to the host and an implication that
his own position is doubtful. Other points of resemblance between
the caste feast and the sacrificial meal will be discussed elsewhere.