International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition

Authors
Mayani Chaodhary

Abstract
Hinduism is a major pious and ethnic ritual of South Asia, which developed from Vedic religion. The term 'Hindu' was derived from the river “Sindhu”. Sindhu is a Sanskrit word meaning “of the Indus Vally” used by the resident of the region, the Aryans in the 2nd millennium BCE. Hinduism is the cardinal religion practiced in India (80.5%), followed by Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.80%) and Jainism (0.4%).The followers of these religions perceive different dietary rules and regulations for fasting and feasting. Hindus make up the largest percentage of vegetarians in the world today. The centre of interest of the present study is the holy ethnic ritual Hinduism and its favoritism towards the meal patterns that are in harmony with nature, sympathetic, warm-hearted and respectful of other life forms, that is the “vegetarianism”.