Why People Eat With Hands In Kerala?

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Why do people eat with their hands? Is it because they do not have cutlery? Fussy foreigners often ask questions like this. Eating with hands has its own benefits. It is not just the health benefits we are talking about. The experience of food is changed when you eat with your hands. Eating with hands is a tradition in India. No matter how sophisticated one is, Indians always prefer to eat with their hands.

There are basically two philosophies that run parallel when it comes to eating with your hands. Firstly, food is not an object; it is an experience. If you can put the food in your mouth, then what is all the hassle about touching it with your fingers.

The experience of eating is enhanced when you eat with your bare hands. Your first connection with food is through your nostrils when you smell the food. The next contact with food should be with your fingers when you take the food and put it into your mouth. Then comes the element of taste. According to Indian philosophy, the experience of eating is enhanced when you eat with your fingers.

The second philosophy is prevalent in God's own country, Kerala. Eating with your hands is a must in Kerala and it is also compulsory to serve the food on banana leaves. The Vedic sages of Kerala believed that the hands are extensions of the 5 basic elements of nature. The 5 fingers of the hand are the 5 different natural elements.

The thumb represents 'fire', the forefinger represents 'air', the middle finger represents 'space', the ring finger represents 'earth' and the little finger represents 'water'. All matter is composed of these 5 elements of nature.

The food we eat also has these 5 elements as do the bodies we inhibit. That is why people eat with their hands in Kerala in specific and India in general. It helps them feel connected with the food and the universe at large around them.