On Tuesday 09 Jun 2009 3:36:37 am Deepa Mohan wrote: > This is one of the few practices for which I have found a logical and valid > reason. Since Indians use water and not toilet paper, the left hand is used > for such cleaning and hence never used for ingestion. Over a period of > years, by association, the left hand has become "unclean" and is never used > for accepting anything from anyone. There's even a superstition that if you > accept money with your left hand, you might lose it (er, not in the toilet, > but...) If you put down something with your left hand, you will not > remember where you kept it....when you are searching for something, you are > likely to hear (if you are from a TamBram family), "You must have put it > down with your left hand". The left hand is, indeed, denoted by the > appellation "peeccha kai" (I certainly don't have to translate that)...and > using it for food, writing, accepting gifts, and handing things to people, > is frowned upon. Thaths, Udhay...what's your input on this? Did you, when > you were growing up, find this anti-southpaw bias?
It might not just be South Indians. and/or brahmins. Islamic guidelines for eating and cleaning certain body areas (that you are referring to Deepa) state that you use the right hand for eating and the left hand for the other stuff. shiv
