Did the Buddha permit grape wine?





























Jayarava Attwood said...

This is great. I'll have a look at the Falk paper. In the meantime a couple of thoughts occur to me.

I find the conclusion that the grape juice would automatically ferment less convincing (my degree is in chemistry, but I've also brewed my own beer). Heating kills yeast. It wouldn't have to boil, just be hot. 70-80 degrees for 10 minutes would kill most yeasts and many bacteria. In fact this is why we heat-treat milk and fruit juices.

Also beyond a certain concentration sugar acts as a preservative (it's a powerful oxidising agent that has been used in combination with various fuels in rockets). My mother made "preserves" of various fruits by boiling them up with sugar. Granted the instruction is not to cook thoroughly, but what does this mean in practice?

Perhaps I missed it but what is the connection between the concentrated juice you mention and the festival in which wine was drunk? You seem to suggest that the "wine" was taken after midday - effectively on an empty stomach. Not recommended! Whereas concentrated grape juice would be a quick way to get sugar and tannin into the system (like sweet tea).

I also like the term Indo-sphere, because it allows that the influence of Indic culture outside the subcontinent. Perhaps it also accommodates those places on the subcontinent which remained outside the influence of the Ganges Valley cultures for quite a long time. Tamil Nadu was for a long time outside the Indo-sphere, i.e. was a distinct culture with its own literary traditions for example.

Indrajala said...

Hi Jayarava.

In the Near East there was indeed the practice of boiling grape juice to the point it could be stored in jars over a period of time without fermenting, though it isn't certain if this is what the text is instructing.

The grape juice, even if heated, would still be prone to natural contamination from yeast in the air or in the jars. They would have been stored at room temperature, too.

Again, the text is unclear (and Yijing's Chinese translation isn't precise). That ambiguity might have been intentional.

There's nothing too objectionable about suggesting it is simply talking about preserving grape juice for later consumption. However, in light of Falk's discussion of Buddhist monastics involved in wine production, it seems plausible to suggest the monks probably did not object to consuming it, at least in that region of the Indosphere.

I'm basically pointing out that the festival saw monks involved with wine production, so given that cultural background, what would have stopped them from producing and consuming their own wine, which is what the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya could be speaking about. The Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya was from that corner of the Indosphere originally as far as I know.

Xuanzang's remarks only leads to further thoughts that maybe the sangha in India by that time (7th century) was free to drink wine (and rum?) while calling it something else.

Merle Langlois said...

Kind of too bad they were drinking. There is something to be said about following along with the dominant culture too much. I don't know much about the Indian Mahayana, every author I read translating sutras always remarks on how little we know about that era. Sometimes I get the feeling that Indosphere Buddhism dwindled partially due to how sleazy it became.

I love your blogs by the way Indrajala, they are just what I need at this point in my life. I'm actually practicing meditation now and doing a lot of reading as well.

Indrajala said...

There's a really good book I can recommend about the downfall of Buddhism in India:

Hardships and Downfall of Buddhism in India

Giovanni Verardi

Part of the reason Buddhists declined in India was because of its ongoing conflict with Brahmanical traditions which increasingly attacked Buddhism.