ABSTRACT
It is little wonder that rice is revered next only to God. Through the ages, it has evolved to become an indispensable moiety of religious rites, rituals and festivals, ceremonies, rites de passage (sanskara),1 festivals,2 vows (vratas) and offerings made to God. No other grain is so closely woven into social, religious and cultural fabric and can ever hope to achieve the inimitable relationship achieved by rice with humankind. Even in areas where rice is not mainstay of people, it is rice which is used in ritualistic observances.3
