In Hinduism, anacharas are the bad practices. It covers different religious and social fields. According to Laghudharmapradipika, the anacaras are sixty four in number (Chapter 12 section 4). Some of them are noted here –
Water
should be sprinkled after sweeping the floor, twigs should not be used for
cleaning the teeth, cooking should not be done before bathing, food kept
overnight should be avoided , remnants of used food should not be eaten,
vegetable preparations should not be served with hand, and tambula (betel leaf)
should not be taken when one is not ‘pure’.
It further
mentions that a brahmin should not do the work of a weaver or a washerman, the
eldest son (of a namboothiri) shall marry and become a householder the other
sons may have sambandha (non-formal marital relationships) with women of lower
castes, and that touching a menstruating woman pollutes one.
The spirits
of the dead should not be consecrated in temples, cremation should be done on
one’s own premises and nowhere else, the day of sraddha (the death anniversary ceremony)
should be reckoned on the basis of the nakshatra (asterism), and not by tithi
(the position of the moon); if tithi is followed, it is a bad practice.
A brahmin
woman should not be looked at by any man other than her husband. The woman
should screen her body with an umbrella while traveling; for instance, in
Kerala, the Nair women can serve as her bodyguards. Nose ornaments should not
be used by a brahmin woman and a widow should not burn herself on the death of
her husband.