This Companion outlines the enormous variety of cuisines, food materials and dishes that collectively fall under the term’ Indian food’. Drawing upon material from a range of sources – literature, archaeology, epigraphic records, anthropology, philology and botanical and genetic studies - the book chronologically details the history of Indian food, beginning with prehistoric times and ending with British rule. Achaya discusses the various regional cuisines, theories and classification of food, as well as the customs, rituals and beliefs observed by different communities and religious groups. This book won an international prize awarded by the Italian food promotion organization, Premio Langhe Ceretto in 1995. Extensively revised since its first publication in 1994, this rich storehouse of fascinating information on Indian food will interest food aficionados, historians anthropologists, and general readers.
The present volume is the outcome of a research project on the history of Science in India, funded generously by the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. The Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science, Bangalore: provided the administrative support. I am grateful to Dr. A. K. Bag of the former organization and Dr. B. V. Subbarayappa of the latter.
The book deals with the food materials and food practices of the Indian subcontinent. The arrangement of the first thirteen chapters is broadly historical, ending with the period of British food ambience in India. A few regional cuisines have been considered, again within a historical context wherever possible; there will still be room for exploration by scholars of local literatures and cultural mores. The fourteenth and fifteenth chapters describe the origins of Indian food materials in botanical and genetic terms. The last chapter is concerned with the food plants that were brought into India from South America and Mexico after the 15th century AD. Each chapter carries one or more boxed items. This essentially journalistic device enables the inclusion and highlighting of relevant material which might otherwise interrupt the narrative flow of the text. References are numbered chapterwise, and listed together at the end of the book, to avoid distractions caused by footnotes, or even end-of-chapter notes. The four indexes should be helpful in locating various types of specific information without difficulty.
Italicizing Indian words in a text dealing with Indian food would have made for uncomfortable reading, and has therefore been avoided. I have attempted to use English spellings as close as possible to the Indian pronunciation. This has meant some simplification of the several sh, th, ch, t, I and n sounds of Sanskrit, Tamil and other Indian languages. Except for indicating lengthened vowels, diacritical marks have been avoided. Thus thava represents the Indian griddle pan, shali winter rice, shastra knowledge and Charaka and Sushrutha the two medical writers.
Particular assistance in regard to the historical foods was rendered by Smt. Visalakshi and Dr. (Smt.) Radha Krishnamurthy (for Karnataka), by the late Dr. Saradha S. Srinivasan (for Gujarat), and by Smt. Bunny Gupta and Smt. Jaya Chaliha (for Bengal), to all of whom I owe a debt of thanks. Illustrations have come from many hands, each of which has been individually credited. I am grateful to the Oxford University Press, and to Mukul Mangalik for seeing the book through the press.
Chapter 1: Ancestral Legacies | |
The world, man and his food | 1 |
Tools of early man in India | 1 |
The first paintings | 5 |
Language and food | 7 |
Words for food in Sanskrit | 7 |
Indian words in foreign tongues | 11 |
BOX 1: A WORD PUZZLE | 9 |
Chapter 2: Harappan Spread | |
Origins | 13 |
Foods raised in the Indus Valley | 15 |
Raising crops | 19 |
Methods of storing food | 21 |
Ways of preparing and eating food | 23 |
Trade | 26 |
Decline of the Harappan civilization | 27 |
BOX 2: WEIGHING, MEASURING, COUNTING | 14 |
BOX 3: EXTRACTING METALS, AND USING THEM | 25 |
Chapter 3: Foods of the Gods | |
The Aryans | 28 |
Vedic agriculture | 28 |
Cereals and pulses | 33 |
Milk products | 34 |
Fruits and vegetables | 35 |
Oilseeds and oils | 36 |
Salt, spices and condiments | 37 |
Sweet foods | 37 |
Water and other beverages | 39 |
The expansion of the Aryans | 40 |
BOX 4: SANSKRIT SOURCES | 32 |
BOX 5: THE MYSTERIOUS SOMA | 38 |
Chapter 4: The Foods of South India | |
Influences on the food culture of the south | 41 |
Archaeological food finds in | |
South India | 42 |
Food in Tamil literature | 43 |
Rice in the southern diet | 45 |
Other foods of the south | 46 |
Trade in food in ancient south India | 50 |
BOX 6: TAMIL LITERATURE | 44 |
BOX 7: CHEWING THE BETEL LEAF | 48 |
Chapter 5: Meat and Drinks | |
The prevalence of meat-eating | 53 |
The emergence of prohibition and the spread of vegetarianism | 55 |
Alcoholic beverages | 57 |
BOX 8: THE DRESSING OF MEAT | 54 |
BOX 9: A CHOICE OF LIQUORS | 59 |
Chapter 6: India Food Ethos | |
Aryan food beliefs | 61 |
The idea offood | 61 |
The classification of food | 61 |
Kaccha and pucca foods | 62 |
Pollution and food | 63 |
Domestic cooking practices | 64 |
Eating rituals and ceremonies | 64 |
Festival and temple foods | 69 |
Fasts | 69 |
Buddhist food concepts | 70 |
Jain ethos | 72 |
The Sikh dispensation | 72 |
The Jewish food laws | 73 |
The Christian ethic | 74 |
Food among the Parsis | 74 |
Food and Islam | 75 |
BOX 10: HINDU FOOD TAXONOMY | 65 |
BOX 11: GOOD HOST AND HONOURED GUEST | 66 |
Chapter 7: Food and The Indian Doctors | |
Hot and cold foods | 77 |
Recommended amounts and kinds of food | 79 |
Foodgrains | 82 |
Oil seeds and oils | 83 |
Vegetables and fruit | 83 |
Milk and its products | 83 |
Flesh foods | 84 |
Sweet items | 85 |
Salt, vinegar and asafoetida | 86 |
Water | 87 |
Therapeutic diets | 87 |
BOX 12: FATHERS OF INDIAN MEDICAL SCIENCE | 78 |
BOX 13: A WIDESPREAD FOOD THEORY | 80 |
Chapter 8: Royal Fare | |
Manasollasa | 88 |
Rice. wheat and imagination | 88 |
Meat for a king | 90 |
The many wonders of milk | 91 |
Satisfying a sweet tooth | 91 |
Foods of a royal couple | 92 |
Karnataka | 92 |
Royal feasts | 92 |
Dining together | 92 |
Sivatattvaratnakara | 93 |
The royal kitchen and cooking accoutrements | 93 |
Kinds of food | 94 |
Accompaniments | 94 |
North India | 95 |
Epic feasts | 95 |
Three royal meals | 95 |
BOX 14: ROYAL AUTHORS | 89 |
BOX 15: ROYAL RECIPES | 96 |
Chapter 9: Utensils and Food Preparation | |
Domestic operations | 98 |
Grinding and pounding | 98 |
Ways of cooking | 101 |
Kitchen and table utensils | 103 |
Large-scale operations | 108 |
Professional cooking and dining | 108 |
Alcoholic drinks | 108 |
Parched. puffed and parboiled rice | 110 |
Oilseed processing | 110 |
Sugarcane pressing and juice processing | 112 |
Honey | 114 |
Salt | 114 |
Cold water and ice | 115 |
BOX 16: UTENSILS OF THE VEDIC SACRIFICE | 104 |
BOX 17: WATER-ICES AND ICE-CREAMS | 116 |
Chapter 10: Regional Cuisines | |
South India | 118 |
Karnataka | 118 |
The Kodavas | 122 |
Hyderabad | 123 |
Kcrala | 123 |
Eastern India | 128 |
Bengal | 128 |
Assam | 133 |
Orissa | 133 |
Western India | 133 |
Gujarat | 133 |
Bohri Muslims | 136 |
The Parsis | 136 |
Goa | 136 |
The East Indians | 137 |
North India | 137 |
Kashmir | 137 |
Rajasthan | 140 |
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar | 140 |
BOX 18: KARNATAKA FOOD PROGRESSION | 119 |
BOX 19: SNACKS OF THE SOUTH | 125 |
BOX 20: SIXTEENTH-CENTURY GUJARATHI DISHES | 135 |
BOX 21: BREADS OF INDIA | 138 |
Chapter 11: Food Tales of The Early Travellers | |
The Greeks and the foods of India | 142 |
Seekers from China | 145 |
Arab reactions | 151 |
BOX 22: FOREIGN SNAPSHOTS OF INDIAN KINGS | 146 |
BOX 23: TREES OF THE BUDDHA | 149 |
Chapter 12: Muslim Bonus | |
The Sultan's etiquette | 154 |
The food of the gentry | 156 |
Kings'drinks | 157 |
The Imperial cuisine | 158 |
The fruits of Hindustan | 159 |
The common fare | 162 |
BOX 24: THE JILEBI | 155 |
BOX 25: ONLY GANGES WATER FOR THE EMPEROR | 161 |
Chapter 13: The Coming of The Europeans | |
The early comers | 163 |
On the wonders ofVijayanagar | 165 |
Scientist travellers | 168 |
The Jesuits | 169 |
British narratives on Indian food | 170 |
The diaries of a mixed bouquet of visitors | 173 |
Colonial repast | 176 |
BOX 26: CITIES OF YORE | 166 |
BOX 27: HEADY STUFF | 171 |
Chapter 14: Staples of yore | |
Cereals | 179 |
Pulses | 188 |
Oilseeds | 193 |
BOX 28: PLANT EVOLUTION | 180 |
BOX 29: SEEDS AS WEIGHTS | 195 |
Chapter 15: Pleasing The Palate | |
Tubers | 198 |
The edible aroids | 198 |
Yams | 198 |
Sweet potato | 199 |
Vegetables | 199 |
Grecn leafy vegetables | 199 |
Radish and carrot | 200 |
Brinjal, bhcndi and arnbadi | 201 |
Fruits | 202 |
Melons, gourds and pumpkins | 202 |
Early fruits | 204 |
Major cultivated fruits | 206 |
Plums, pears, apples and their like | 206 |
Spices and condiments | 213 |
Pungent spices from below the ground | 213 |
The pepper family | 214 |
Other spices | 214 |
The sugarcane | 215 |
Origin | 215 |
BOX 30: A BUNCH OF BANANAS | 207 |
BOX 31: CITRUS RELATIVES | 211 |
Chapter 16: Bounty From The New World | |
Oilseeds | 218 |
Nuts | 222 |
Fruits | 223 |
Vegetables | 225 |
Pleasurable foods | 227 |
BOX 32: EARLY ANIMAL TRANSFERS | 234 |
BOX 33: REACHING AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS | 236 |
References | 239 |
Glossary and Index of non-English words | 260 |
Index of Latin names | 285 |
Author Index | 291 |
General Index | 298 |
This Companion outlines the enormous variety of cuisines, food materials and dishes that collectively fall under the term’ Indian food’. Drawing upon material from a range of sources – literature, archaeology, epigraphic records, anthropology, philology and botanical and genetic studies - the book chronologically details the history of Indian food, beginning with prehistoric times and ending with British rule. Achaya discusses the various regional cuisines, theories and classification of food, as well as the customs, rituals and beliefs observed by different communities and religious groups. This book won an international prize awarded by the Italian food promotion organization, Premio Langhe Ceretto in 1995. Extensively revised since its first publication in 1994, this rich storehouse of fascinating information on Indian food will interest food aficionados, historians anthropologists, and general readers.
The present volume is the outcome of a research project on the history of Science in India, funded generously by the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. The Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science, Bangalore: provided the administrative support. I am grateful to Dr. A. K. Bag of the former organization and Dr. B. V. Subbarayappa of the latter.
The book deals with the food materials and food practices of the Indian subcontinent. The arrangement of the first thirteen chapters is broadly historical, ending with the period of British food ambience in India. A few regional cuisines have been considered, again within a historical context wherever possible; there will still be room for exploration by scholars of local literatures and cultural mores. The fourteenth and fifteenth chapters describe the origins of Indian food materials in botanical and genetic terms. The last chapter is concerned with the food plants that were brought into India from South America and Mexico after the 15th century AD. Each chapter carries one or more boxed items. This essentially journalistic device enables the inclusion and highlighting of relevant material which might otherwise interrupt the narrative flow of the text. References are numbered chapterwise, and listed together at the end of the book, to avoid distractions caused by footnotes, or even end-of-chapter notes. The four indexes should be helpful in locating various types of specific information without difficulty.
Italicizing Indian words in a text dealing with Indian food would have made for uncomfortable reading, and has therefore been avoided. I have attempted to use English spellings as close as possible to the Indian pronunciation. This has meant some simplification of the several sh, th, ch, t, I and n sounds of Sanskrit, Tamil and other Indian languages. Except for indicating lengthened vowels, diacritical marks have been avoided. Thus thava represents the Indian griddle pan, shali winter rice, shastra knowledge and Charaka and Sushrutha the two medical writers.
Particular assistance in regard to the historical foods was rendered by Smt. Visalakshi and Dr. (Smt.) Radha Krishnamurthy (for Karnataka), by the late Dr. Saradha S. Srinivasan (for Gujarat), and by Smt. Bunny Gupta and Smt. Jaya Chaliha (for Bengal), to all of whom I owe a debt of thanks. Illustrations have come from many hands, each of which has been individually credited. I am grateful to the Oxford University Press, and to Mukul Mangalik for seeing the book through the press.
Chapter 1: Ancestral Legacies | |
The world, man and his food | 1 |
Tools of early man in India | 1 |
The first paintings | 5 |
Language and food | 7 |
Words for food in Sanskrit | 7 |
Indian words in foreign tongues | 11 |
BOX 1: A WORD PUZZLE | 9 |
Chapter 2: Harappan Spread | |
Origins | 13 |
Foods raised in the Indus Valley | 15 |
Raising crops | 19 |
Methods of storing food | 21 |
Ways of preparing and eating food | 23 |
Trade | 26 |
Decline of the Harappan civilization | 27 |
BOX 2: WEIGHING, MEASURING, COUNTING | 14 |
BOX 3: EXTRACTING METALS, AND USING THEM | 25 |
Chapter 3: Foods of the Gods | |
The Aryans | 28 |
Vedic agriculture | 28 |
Cereals and pulses | 33 |
Milk products | 34 |
Fruits and vegetables | 35 |
Oilseeds and oils | 36 |
Salt, spices and condiments | 37 |
Sweet foods | 37 |
Water and other beverages | 39 |
The expansion of the Aryans | 40 |
BOX 4: SANSKRIT SOURCES | 32 |
BOX 5: THE MYSTERIOUS SOMA | 38 |
Chapter 4: The Foods of South India | |
Influences on the food culture of the south | 41 |
Archaeological food finds in | |
South India | 42 |
Food in Tamil literature | 43 |
Rice in the southern diet | 45 |
Other foods of the south | 46 |
Trade in food in ancient south India | 50 |
BOX 6: TAMIL LITERATURE | 44 |
BOX 7: CHEWING THE BETEL LEAF | 48 |
Chapter 5: Meat and Drinks | |
The prevalence of meat-eating | 53 |
The emergence of prohibition and the spread of vegetarianism | 55 |
Alcoholic beverages | 57 |
BOX 8: THE DRESSING OF MEAT | 54 |
BOX 9: A CHOICE OF LIQUORS | 59 |
Chapter 6: India Food Ethos | |
Aryan food beliefs | 61 |
The idea offood | 61 |
The classification of food | 61 |
Kaccha and pucca foods | 62 |
Pollution and food | 63 |
Domestic cooking practices | 64 |
Eating rituals and ceremonies | 64 |
Festival and temple foods | 69 |
Fasts | 69 |
Buddhist food concepts | 70 |
Jain ethos | 72 |
The Sikh dispensation | 72 |
The Jewish food laws | 73 |
The Christian ethic | 74 |
Food among the Parsis | 74 |
Food and Islam | 75 |
BOX 10: HINDU FOOD TAXONOMY | 65 |
BOX 11: GOOD HOST AND HONOURED GUEST | 66 |
Chapter 7: Food and The Indian Doctors | |
Hot and cold foods | 77 |
Recommended amounts and kinds of food | 79 |
Foodgrains | 82 |
Oil seeds and oils | 83 |
Vegetables and fruit | 83 |
Milk and its products | 83 |
Flesh foods | 84 |
Sweet items | 85 |
Salt, vinegar and asafoetida | 86 |
Water | 87 |
Therapeutic diets | 87 |
BOX 12: FATHERS OF INDIAN MEDICAL SCIENCE | 78 |
BOX 13: A WIDESPREAD FOOD THEORY | 80 |
Chapter 8: Royal Fare | |
Manasollasa | 88 |
Rice. wheat and imagination | 88 |
Meat for a king | 90 |
The many wonders of milk | 91 |
Satisfying a sweet tooth | 91 |
Foods of a royal couple | 92 |
Karnataka | 92 |
Royal feasts | 92 |
Dining together | 92 |
Sivatattvaratnakara | 93 |
The royal kitchen and cooking accoutrements | 93 |
Kinds of food | 94 |
Accompaniments | 94 |
North India | 95 |
Epic feasts | 95 |
Three royal meals | 95 |
BOX 14: ROYAL AUTHORS | 89 |
BOX 15: ROYAL RECIPES | 96 |
Chapter 9: Utensils and Food Preparation | |
Domestic operations | 98 |
Grinding and pounding | 98 |
Ways of cooking | 101 |
Kitchen and table utensils | 103 |
Large-scale operations | 108 |
Professional cooking and dining | 108 |
Alcoholic drinks | 108 |
Parched. puffed and parboiled rice | 110 |
Oilseed processing | 110 |
Sugarcane pressing and juice processing | 112 |
Honey | 114 |
Salt | 114 |
Cold water and ice | 115 |
BOX 16: UTENSILS OF THE VEDIC SACRIFICE | 104 |
BOX 17: WATER-ICES AND ICE-CREAMS | 116 |
Chapter 10: Regional Cuisines | |
South India | 118 |
Karnataka | 118 |
The Kodavas | 122 |
Hyderabad | 123 |
Kcrala | 123 |
Eastern India | 128 |
Bengal | 128 |
Assam | 133 |
Orissa | 133 |
Western India | 133 |
Gujarat | 133 |
Bohri Muslims | 136 |
The Parsis | 136 |
Goa | 136 |
The East Indians | 137 |
North India | 137 |
Kashmir | 137 |
Rajasthan | 140 |
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar | 140 |
BOX 18: KARNATAKA FOOD PROGRESSION | 119 |
BOX 19: SNACKS OF THE SOUTH | 125 |
BOX 20: SIXTEENTH-CENTURY GUJARATHI DISHES | 135 |
BOX 21: BREADS OF INDIA | 138 |
Chapter 11: Food Tales of The Early Travellers | |
The Greeks and the foods of India | 142 |
Seekers from China | 145 |
Arab reactions | 151 |
BOX 22: FOREIGN SNAPSHOTS OF INDIAN KINGS | 146 |
BOX 23: TREES OF THE BUDDHA | 149 |
Chapter 12: Muslim Bonus | |
The Sultan's etiquette | 154 |
The food of the gentry | 156 |
Kings'drinks | 157 |
The Imperial cuisine | 158 |
The fruits of Hindustan | 159 |
The common fare | 162 |
BOX 24: THE JILEBI | 155 |
BOX 25: ONLY GANGES WATER FOR THE EMPEROR | 161 |
Chapter 13: The Coming of The Europeans | |
The early comers | 163 |
On the wonders ofVijayanagar | 165 |
Scientist travellers | 168 |
The Jesuits | 169 |
British narratives on Indian food | 170 |
The diaries of a mixed bouquet of visitors | 173 |
Colonial repast | 176 |
BOX 26: CITIES OF YORE | 166 |
BOX 27: HEADY STUFF | 171 |
Chapter 14: Staples of yore | |
Cereals | 179 |
Pulses | 188 |
Oilseeds | 193 |
BOX 28: PLANT EVOLUTION | 180 |
BOX 29: SEEDS AS WEIGHTS | 195 |
Chapter 15: Pleasing The Palate | |
Tubers | 198 |
The edible aroids | 198 |
Yams | 198 |
Sweet potato | 199 |
Vegetables | 199 |
Grecn leafy vegetables | 199 |
Radish and carrot | 200 |
Brinjal, bhcndi and arnbadi | 201 |
Fruits | 202 |
Melons, gourds and pumpkins | 202 |
Early fruits | 204 |
Major cultivated fruits | 206 |
Plums, pears, apples and their like | 206 |
Spices and condiments | 213 |
Pungent spices from below the ground | 213 |
The pepper family | 214 |
Other spices | 214 |
The sugarcane | 215 |
Origin | 215 |
BOX 30: A BUNCH OF BANANAS | 207 |
BOX 31: CITRUS RELATIVES | 211 |
Chapter 16: Bounty From The New World | |
Oilseeds | 218 |
Nuts | 222 |
Fruits | 223 |
Vegetables | 225 |
Pleasurable foods | 227 |
BOX 32: EARLY ANIMAL TRANSFERS | 234 |
BOX 33: REACHING AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS | 236 |
References | 239 |
Glossary and Index of non-English words | 260 |
Index of Latin names | 285 |
Author Index | 291 |
General Index | 298 |