Feeding Brahmins
April 24, 2007
I know that i have posted before on the importance of food and particularly the feeding of Brahmins as a part of every yagya. So recently we sponsored a rather huge event at a school for young brahmin priests. In most cases becoming a priest is a family tradition although not all male members of a family are required to become priests.
Typically they join a patasala like this one at around the age of ten and stay until they finish their basic training in their late teens or early twenties. Their life is a communal one and in this image you can see the stacks of mats on which they sleep, stacked in the back of the room.
The boy work hard and by one account, their day starts each day between 3 and 4 AM! But they are well cared for. The meal that we served is most likely to be viewed as a specail treat with extra dishes and lots of sweets. In any case, it makes for a nice day for them and their faces seem to show it.
