Essay name: Ahara as depicted in the Pancanikaya
Author:
Le Chanh
Affiliation: Savitribai Phule Pune University / Department of Sanskrit and Prakrit Languages
This critical study of Ahara (鈥渇ood鈥�) explores its significance in Buddhism, encompassing both physical and mental nourishment. The Panca Nikaya, part of the Sutta Pitaka, highlights how all human problems, including suffering and happiness, are connected to Ahara. Understanding this concept is crucial for comprehending and alleviating suffering, aiming for a balanced, enlightened life.
Chapter 2 - Concept of Ahara in the works of modern scholars and other religions
2 (of 31)
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40 2
.1.
A survey of modern researches on food
膧h膩ra is a simple word but it directly occupies the entire destiny of
human, hence it is not easy to give a necessary and sufficient definition as
well as perfect viewpoint on food although as with so many words and
ideas that are universally used and presumably universally understood.
52 Being an essential substance to nourish and sustain human beings, food
is always a burning topic to discuss and debate every time and everywhere.
The research on 膩h膩ra is the study related to biology, psychology, and
morality of human beings. Hence, the food scientists always do their best to
point out the relationship between food and human beings.
54 According to several modern researches or concepts of some scholars,
膩h膩ra is understood as: substance taken in by the mouth, which maintains
life and growth, i.e. supply energy, and build and replace tissue. 53 Any
substance containing nutrients, such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats that
can be ingested by a living organism and metabolized into energy and body
tissue. What one takes into the system to maintain life and growth, and to
supply the waste of tissue, aliment, nourishment, provision, victuals.
Anything which, when taken into the body, serves to nourish or build up the
tissues or to supply body heat, aliment, nutriment." Food: what is food to
one man is bitter poison to others.
56 Food: 1) Any substance (nutritive material of plant or animal origin) or
mixture (except oxygen and water) that nourishes an organism, builds tissue,
and supplies heat. 2) Any nutritive material that is taken into an organism or
consumed for maintenance, growth, work, and tissue repair but sometimes
consumed for social or other reasons; the term sometimes means only solid
53 Ibid.
52 The Penguin Encyclopaedia of Nutrition, New York: Viking Penguin, 1985, p. 154.
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid.
56 Th-13151
Bergen Evans, Dictionary PF Quotations: Collected and Arranged with comments, New York:
Delacorte Press, 1968, p. 244.
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