Upanishads · Rudrākṣajābāla 2.17
॥
Devanāgarī
मद्यं मांसं च लशुनं पलाण्डुं शिग्रुमेव च । श्लेष्मातकं विड्वराहमभक्ष्यं वर्जयेन्नरः
Transliteration (IAST)
madyaṃ māṃsaṃ ca laśunaṃ palāṇḍuṃ śigrumeva ca | śleṣmātakaṃ viḍvarāhamabhakṣyaṃ varjayennaraḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
मद्यं मांसं च लशुनंmadyaṃ māṃsaṃ ca laśunaṃintoxicants, meat, and garlic
पलाण्डुं शिग्रुम् एव चpalāṇḍuṃ śigrum eva caonion, and the horseradish tree
श्लेष्मातकं विट्-वराहम्śleṣmātakaṃ viṭ-varāhamśleṣmātaka, and the village boar
अ-भक्ष्यं वर्जयेत् नरःa-bhakṣyaṃ varjayet naraḥas unfit to eat, let a man reject
Translation
Intoxicants, meat, garlic, onion, śigru, śleṣmātaka, and the village boar — as unfit to eat, let a man reject.
Version
434f7090c49a · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
A list of forbidden food, and it is exactly the one Vaiṣṇava custom holds to: intoxicants, meat, garlic, onion. It is worth examining the grounds, for they differ for different items, and should not be conflated. Meat and boar are forbidden by ahiṃsā, non-harming: to eat this, one must kill. The ground here is moral, and it is the only one in the list defensible before anyone.
Intoxicants are forbidden for clouding the mind: a drunk person does not master himself, and this whole teaching rests on self-mastery. Garlic, onion, and śigru (the horseradish tree) are forbidden on a different reckoning — the teaching of the three guṇas. The Gītā divides food into three: sāttvika (juicy, nourishing, pleasant), rājasika (bitter, sour, pungent, overly salty), and tāmasika (stale, tasteless, rotten) — 17.8–10; and onion and garlic are assigned to the second and third category as stimulants.
Let us say plainly that this ground is not moral but bodily-psychological: an onion kills no one and deceives no one. The prohibition on it is a rule of ascetic diet, like a prohibition on strong coffee before bed — and to equate one who breaks it with a murderer would be absurd. This conflation, however, occurs constantly, and it spoils the matter. Where the one who ate onion is condemned on a par with the one who lied, morality is replaced by statute; and this substitution was already discussed when reading the Bhasma-jābāla.
The Vaiṣṇava side keeps this list strictly, but gives a different ground than the guṇas, and it is worth citing. Food for it is first offered, and so the question is not "what is good for me" but "what can be set before Him"; and onion and garlic are not set before Him for the same consideration by which one does not serve foul-smelling food to a dear guest.