Significance Of Jain Thali

A Thali is defined to be a steel platter. It is a meal served in India, which is associated with selected variants of dishes. A Thali is served with different Indian curries in small cups placed in a big round plate or a plate with in-built cups which is included with a sweet, pickle, curd along with puries or chapaties or roties and papad. A Thali can be a Vegetarian or non-Vegetarian and served differently depending upon ones own cultures & regions. In this article, we shall emphasize entirely on vegetarian Thali. For instance, a Maharashtrian Thali is served with roties. As a primary rule, a thali is not dished-up with both Indian breads and rice at the same time in any culture.

The Thali are of two varieties :

• Limited Thali
• Unlimited Thali

Limited Thali: In a limited thali Indian breads, sabzi and rice are hand out once limitedly and charged according to that.

Unlimited Thali: In an unlimited thali except for a sweet dish every dish is provided till the person is completely satisfied. An unlimited thali’s price will be a bit higher than the limited one.

Now that we are aware about the Veg Thali, I would like to signify the importance of Jain Thali, which is considered to be unique within the Veg Thali. Jain community is purely vegetarian community because they believe in the saying, "Ahinsa paramo dharmaha" which is often inscribed on Jain temples. The saying which means, Non-violence resembles their food habits. In addition to this they also consider this as an essential religious duty and it shapes the Jain’s entire life style which is a significant hallmark of their identity.

Jain’s food conduct is determined keeping in view of:

• Taking the foods which involve least possible injury.
• No question of killing five sensed beings or mobile beings.
• Avoiding destruction even to one sensed being as far as possible.

Considering the above factors, the Jain’s use cereals like wheat, rice, jawor etc., pulses like gram etc., and oil seeds. The objective behind using the cereals, pulses & oil in their food is that they are extracted from the plants only after dried-out and here after the plant growth is stopped and so is considered the Jain’s philosophy. They also believe that, they are not causing any harm to the living beings. Similarly the vegetables like potatoes, radish, carrots, ginger, onion are not used as part of their food because the roots of the herbs are pulled out of the soil. Hence, they fear it might cause harm for other living beings in the soil. So, they avoid consuming the vegetables originated from the roots. Switching to the green leafy and non-leafy vegetables they use them as a part of their food and Jain’s also admit that plants must be destroyed for the sake of food and they accept such violence because it is indispensable for the human survival.

Finally I would like to summarize the Jain Thali with the great saying - ‘A Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind’.

A Thali always gives an experience of complete meal. Panchavati Gaurav :The ultimate destination to taste pure vegetarian thali