Mark Royzenblat

HIS 1000

Hans Hummer

February 7th, 2017

The ancient Hebrews and Indian Vedic societies’ ancient scriptures had many similarities

in how they allowed the people to eat certain foods. In the Hebrew text, the focus is on what

kind of burnt and grain offerings the Hebrews may offer to the lord as well as what kind of

clean and unclean foods are appropriate for the Hebrews. The Indian text is similar in that there

are food restrictions but there are differences between the reasoning’s of these as well a

different offering/sacrificial process. This paper will be discussing these differences between

the ancient Hebrew and Indian societies.

The Hebrews had a some more leniency than the Indians toward what kind of meats

they could eat in that they could only eat animals with a split hoof and that chews the cud; all

other animals are unclean. The Hebrews were also allowed to eat anything from the sea that

has fins and scales, so fish, but no crustaceans or other animals from the sea. The Indians on

the other hand can only eat two kinds of fish if they are used for offerings to the gods or to the

manes. The Indian society emphasizes that a twice-born man who “knowingly eats,

mushrooms, a village-pig, garlic, a village-cock, onions, or leeks, will become an outcast”

whereas in the Hebrew there is no mention of them not being allowed to the root vegetables.

They (Hebrews) are however not allowed to eat pig which is still applicable to any Hebrew that

keeps kosher. Where the Hebrews have very specific types of beasts and birds, like the male of
the herd without defect and then a whole process of skinning, washing and burning the animal,

the Indian text mention that animals were made for sacrifice so the beasts and birds they can

eat are all allowed to be sacrificed. The Hebrews also have a specific offering process for grains

like not being allowed to use yeast in the products offered or not burning honey, while the

Indians mention nothing of this sort. The biggest difference between the two is the fact the

Hebrews sacrificial process consisted of burning things but no mention of burning their

offerings is mentioned in the Indian scriptures, rather burning was for corpses and purification.