WHAT IS PALAHARAM?

Friday, 18 April 2014

WHAT IS PALAHARAM?

What is Palaharam?

Why should there be 'palaharam' on certain days like Tharpanam & Avini Avvittam?

It is actually called palaharam = phala+aahaara =phalaahaara -
pal aharam = fruit diet. which was changed totally to palaharam.

In the code governing food, cooked rice can be taken twice a day as meals.

There is no place for breakfast,brunch, tea,buiscuits,snacks etc as is prevalent today, in the code.

On certain days like 'shraaddha', one meal alone is prescribed.

A performer of shraaddha requests the representative of Vishve deva and the Pitr, as:" yathaa ratrau kshut na bhavet, tathaa maunena bhoktavyam' = please take food (slowly and) silently, (in sufficient quantity) so that you do not get hungry at night.

Having made this request, the 'kartaa' can not revel in meals at night, as he too is bound by the same code. He is to shun the meals that night.

On Upavaasa days like ekaadashi, dwaadashi, pradosham, Shivaraatri, six days after Deepaavali, etc., one has to do complete fast without any solid food.

The permitted intake is only water. On 'nirjalaa ekaadashi' day, even water is not to be taken.

These strict observances have got neutralised over time.

So, some elders advised those who can not shun meals, to take light food of fruits only (sometimes with milk or milk only).

This was called 'phala+aahaara =phalaahaara'. The 'm' suffix is Tamil version.

The word over time has acquired different meaning.

Today it means anything that is not cooked rice.

Some naive pandits devised another method of breaking the rice and told that the 'bhinna' rice is not 'annam'.

Thus 'arisi uppuma' (upma with broken rice), and any other tiffin item is taken.

There is no 'TarpaNam' day except during eclipse times. On every 'amaavaasyaa' day, a 'shraaddha' has to be performed, in a regular manner as 'darsha shraaddha'. Since this has been found difficult to practice, in the 'sankalpam', it is declared that in the place of 'darsha shraaddha', representatively,

I offer oblations of water with sesame seeds, as "Darsha shraaddha pratinidhi roopam tila tarpaNam karishye'. Since it is shraaddha day, night meals is prohibited.