Upwas Food
Upwas/ Upaas/ vrat : A word for fast (as in fasting). It is typical in Hindu culture to observe a fast on certain days/ festivals/ periods as a spiritual practice of abstinence.
Today, July 21, 2020 – marks the beginning of the month of Shravan – an auspicious month for Hindus . It’s the 5th month in the Hindu lunar calendar and marks the beginning of monsoon in India. Shravan has important festivals such as nag panchami, janmashtami and the most popular one – Raksha Bandhan 🙂
Fasting during specific days of this month is a very popular ritual. Check out this amazing article by my friend, Archana about the significance of Shravan month and other insightful articles on fasting on her website.
When fasting, certain foods are allowed and some are not. The more I researched, I realized that there was a lot of confusion around what you can and cannot eat and each culture/ region had their own rules. With the hope of getting some revelatory information and logic behind these rules, I asked my Grandmother what the logic behind choosing foodstuffs and ingredients for fasting was and I got a very surprising response!!
Aji rebuked and said “There is absolutely no logic. real upwas is where you don’t eat anything. Or just milk and fruits. Or give up something you like, etc. What it has come to become is a feast full of delicious upwas menu items that we have all come to enjoy. It defies the purpose of fasting”
We discussed how different cultures and regions have different ingredients that they deem acceptable for fasting menu. In Gujarati culture, curry leaves are ok, In udupi culture it is ok to consume wheat when fasting, a lot of maharashtrians allow vegetables such as okra and pumpkin, whereas people in karnataka don’t, so on and so forth. My Aji had countless examples!
In conclusion, there is no serious logic left anymore. People have evolved making their own exceptions and choices which are then passed down through generations and become the new norm.
In general, below are some general rules that apply to fasting in most cultures:
- no animal based foods except for cow milk and its derivatives, as in Hindu culture, cow milk is considered sacred and saatvic
- no grains and seeds
- Grain like carbs that are allowed – sago (sabudana), samo seeds (varai), Amaranth (rajgira), arrowroot (tavkil) and water chestnut (singada)
- no foods/ vegetables that cause excess gas
- no foods with pungent odors – garlic, onion, hing, mustard, etc.
- With the same logic, strong spices are also not allowed such as clove, cinnamon, pepper, etc.
- mild spices such as ginger, cardamom, saffron are allowed
- foods that are easy to digest are allowed – e.g. sabudana being a reined plant-based, non-grain starch is easy to digest.
- Most oils are not allowed as they are made from seeds. groundnut oil and ghee are permitted
- all fruits are acceptable
- some vegetables are acceptable – potatoes, sweet potatotes, yams, etc.
Debates aside, everyone has some ingredients as acceptable and some as not, that they grew up with. And although we enjoy and possibly indulge in some of the upwas delicacies, thus possibly defying the purpose of fasting as my Aji ridicules 😛 it still is some mind-control and at least an attempt to control what you eat.
The sentiment or logic I agree with the most is fasting should accomplish two things:
- Abstinence of something you like to improve mind control and reduce dependency
- Giving your body a natural detox, by eating light and giving your digestive system a little break
If you are planning to observe fasts through the month of Shravan or are like me and just love upwas dishes,check out the upwas section in my Recipe Index and follow #upwasrecipesapcb on Instagram to get regular updates.
Here are some of my favorites: