INDIAN FOOD

FOOD:- Equal to oxygen, the first act of living beings, the source of living beings, emerging trade, and people's livelihood. - P.Deepalakshmi

Food is the honor of hosting people at festivals and celebrations in India, and it is a family's pride to serve new dishes. In ancient India, royal families had their own recipes with unique tastes, and they preserved these recipes to develop culinary art. Either the royal food or the regional food, they both arise due to their people's ecosystem and environment. For instance, people living in cold areas tend to eat their food warmly, which helps them cope with the climate. There are several regions and cultures in the country that have their own food-making styles. Each of those foods is unique in its own nature, with different ingredients that serve the tongue with delight and taste. Eventually, this wide range of food variety in India turned out to be a multi-cuisine delicacy that is enjoyed by people all around the world.

The various regional and traditional foods that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent make up Indian cuisine. These cuisines differ greatly and utilize ingredients that can be found nearby due to the diversity of the land, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations.

Hinduism and Islam, as well as cultural preferences and traditional practices, are major influences on Indian cuisine. Certain meals were brought to this country as a result of historical occurrences like invasions, commercial relations, and colonization. Numerous new fruits and vegetables were introduced to India as a result of the Columbian exploration of the New World. Many of these, including potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, and guava, have developed into staple foods in many parts of India.

 VEDIC ERA

India, as we know it today, is thought to have originated during the Vedic era. Agriculture and eating habits have changed since those times.

Aryans traveled to India in the second millennium BCE in quest of pasture land for their livestock. They were a respectable group of folks who cared for their cattle and farmed land.

The oldest period of their settlement is referred to as the Vedic Period. The four sacred Vedas—Rig Veda, Sam Veda, Atharva Veda, and Yajur Veda—explicitly outline the eating and dietary practices of ancient India. In addition to the Vedas, archaeological discoveries from the Harappan and Indus valleys have amply demonstrated that Indians relied on agriculture as their main source of nourishment.

Aryans also migrated to the Indian subcontinent because there were bountiful pastures available. Their main source of sustenance, barley, was taken with them. Later, they also grew wheat, maize, and lentils, among other crops.

Barley, meat, fruits (including mangoes, dates, wood-apples, melons, papaya, bananas, and Indian blackberry, or Jamun), and vegetables (such eggplant (baingan), pumpkin, jackfruit, bitter gourd, spinach, and collard greens) were the mainstays of ancient India's diet. Later, other crops including wheat, rice, maize, and millet may also be grown.

Every region of the country had a staple crop that was suitable for the local soil and climate. The abundance of rice in southern Indian cuisine, which has a lot of water and sun, is due to this.

The Rig Veda mentions a few well-known lentils and their use. The red, black, and green lentil kinds were the most widely consumed.

Gradually, Buddhism and Jainism literature also influenced the way grains were consumed. Jainism food sees extensive use of rice and its gruel.

Since ancient times, people have enjoyed using milk and its byproducts, including ghee, curd, cottage cheese, buttermilk, and butter. They give the body the vital nourishment and energy it needs to carry out its daily tasks.

The popularity of non-vegetarian food sharply decreased with the rise of Buddhism and Jainism.

 Originally, Aryans tamed goats and sheep that were employed to fulfill their food needs. It slowly changed to include chicken and other kinds of meat. Fish and other seafood become more popular near the coasts.

 the cow was made holy in Indian territory more than three thousand years ago. Even then, cows were revered. For their milk, they were kept domesticated..

SANGAM PERIOD

THIRUKURRAL

மருந்தென வேண்டாவாம் யாக்கைக்கு அருந்தியது
அற்றது போற்றி உணின்

 (ஒருவன் முதலில் உண்டது சீரணமாகிவிட்டதை நன்கு அறிந்து அதன் பிறகு உண்டால், அவன் உடம்புக்க மருந்து என்று ஒன்று வேண்டியது இல்லை.)

 No need for medicine to heal your body's pain,

If what you ate before is digested well, you eat it again.

Explanation:

No medicine is necessary for him who eats after assuring (himself) that what he has (already) eaten has been digested.

 

The renowned poet Avvaiyar continues by describing a filling lunch on a scorching summer day. Varagu arisi chorum, vazhuthunangai vaatum, moramoravena pulitha morum (steamed varagu rice, smoked and mashed aubergine, and sour frothy buttermilk) is the 32nd song in her anthology of poems, "Thani padal thirattu." The poet thanks her hosts for the delicious lunch and mentions their names as Boothan and Pulvelur village

FIVE TYPES OF LAND ARE MENTIONED IN SANGAM 

Kurinji (mountains), Mullai (forests), Marutham (farmlands), Palai (desert), and Neithal (coastal region) are the five traditional landscapes, and each has its own particular culinary styles, recipes, and dining customs. According to novelist Nanjil Nadan, who is now writing a book called "Nanjil Nattu Unavu" about the cuisine of a sub-region in the Kanyakumari district, food in ancient Tamil country was centered on the landscape and readily available resources. The book Tamizhar Unavu by Bhaktavatsala Bharathi contains a special chapter on "food in Sangam age" and enumerates the literary references, pointing to a story in the Thiruvilayadal Puranam, built around the straightforward recipe of Puttu.

A thick pasty curry made of crab meat and ridge gourd was served with white rice, according to a couplet in the Sirupanatrupadai. It lists staples in the cuisine as different types of white rice, beef, spinach, vegetables, puffed rice, pulses, cereals, legumes, and pickles. 

The Porunaratrupadai depicts the tuber and honey diet of the Kurinji people of the Chola area. A kozhambu consisting of jackfruit seeds, raw mangoes, and tamarind extract is mentioned in the literary work Malaipadukadam and is served with bamboo rice and buttermilk. In a recipe found in Perumpanatrupadai, Varagu rice, lentils, tamarind pulp, and broad bean seeds are all cooked together. The meat was marinated in curd before cooking, according to a Purananuru song.

The Sangam literature makes reference to regionally specific cooking techniques like vakkuthal (direct fire cooking). While frying and sun-drying were typical in the Palai and Neithal pockets, direct fire cooking predominated in the Kurinji and Mullai landscapes. Food of the common man in the Sangam Age ranged from commonplace to strange; pickling was a typical preservation technique in desert regions. While basic millets like varagu, thinai, and samai were created, there were also special occasion treats. A dietary supplement for vegetarians, agananuru is a recipe for soft pomegranate seeds sautéed in ghee.

The Neithal region's diet is described by Pattinapalai as tortoise and monitor lizard meat.

When paddy was being harvested in the delta region's agricultural fields, the slush was where fish species including Vilangu, Pothi, Theli, and Valai were discovered.

According to literary allusions, the majority of people in ancient Tamil society were meat-eaters. Only at Marutham did the veggies take up the majority of the platter. There aren't many distinct and different references to food in the royal palaces, though.Mudathama Kanniyar, a poet, describes the regal luncheon he was given at the Chola king's palace in a poem found in Porunaratrupadai. The lunch is described as including skewered goat meat, crispy fried veggies, rice, and over 16 different dishes. Similar to this, songs in Purananuru talk about feasts known as "Arusuvai Virundhu" that are served in the palaces.

NOTE FROM AUTHOR

From the above paragraph, we observe that these modern-day cooking recipes can be found in today’s cooking too. For instance, the food recipes followed in the Sangam era were transferred from generation to generation. I found this in my mother's cooking style of mutton when cooked with radish and drumstick and prawns with avarakkai (broad beans), "Plantain with Dry Prawn", "Keema Curry with Arakeerai (spinach) fry", "Gram Dal with Mutton Kolambu" and many other recipes which are cooked by following the same ingredients and the same cooking style as the ones followed back then in the Sangam era.

Share this post