Food and Indian culture

Indian culture and civilization have their roots in remote antiquity and so are the Indian traditions related to food and cuisine. India is considered to be the home of spices and hence the concept of taste.

India has enjoyed a monopoly in production and trade of spices since the dawn of history. The typical climate of the Indian subcontinent, Monsoon climate, has been instrumental in development and evolution of large number of herbs and shrubs from which various spices are produced. According to ancient Mesopotamian records, the Mesopotamian civilization traded with ancient India which included spices as a commodity of primary importance. Ancient Indian civilization, or more particularly, the Indus-Sarawathi Civilization, traded with the rest of ancient world which included Egypt and Mesopotamia through ports like Lothal (on the coast of present day Gujarat). Rivers like Indus and Saraswati were also used for navigation of spices from hinterlands to the ports. This gives us a modest estimate of the antiquity of spice exports from India from about 4^th millennium B.C., or from about six thousand years ago. Ancient Indian texts also contain various references to spices highlighting their importance in the Indian society. The Rig-Veda and Yajurveda contain references to horse-radish, mustard, black pepper and many other spices. The aroma of spices attracted traders and invaders, civilized and barbaric, to India. First Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus, had sent an embassy to the Pandyan court in Madurai, to facilitate import of spices, as Indian Spices were highly coveted by the patricians, or the Roman elite. Perhaps as another hallmark of continuity of one of the longest surviving human civilizations, India is the master of spice trade to date and over 86% percent of the total spice production today takes place within the present boundaries of the Indian Union, and over 90% in the Indian subcontinent.

I would like to elaborate on the virtues of turmeric, one of the most important and extensively used spices, to represent the large number of spices and benefits accrued to one who consumes them. Turmeric, called as halidra in Sanskrit and manjal in Tamil, carries ritual and religious significance and is referenced many a times in ancient Sanskrit and Tamil literature. Turmeric has been used as an antiseptic since ancient times in India. Ayurveda eulogizes turmeric on account of its antiseptic and anti bacterial properties and prescribes it as a cure for myriad ailments. Research done by the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore , shows that it has anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial properties and it guards against certain types of cancers. Turmeric is also a rich source of anti-oxidants, which boost the resistance power of the body and prevent ageing. These properties of turmeric, which Indians knew since long, were patented by the University of Mississippi. The Government of India objected to this and the patent was rightly revoked. Turmeric is also widely used for cosmetic purposes as its application rejuvenates the skin. Turmeric is an ingredient in many Indian recipes where it is used for enhancing taste and colour.

Indian society has, for long, viewed food not merely as a means and ends of subsistence. There is a whole philosophical worldview attached to the preparation and consumption of food. The Bhagavad-Gita attributes three " Gunas "(Guna can roughly be translated as quality), Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, to every living being and tells us that the soul is qualified by the composition of these Gunas. Similarly, food is also categorized as being in a state of either one of the three Gunas or a composition of them. Sattvic food is advised for and is preferred by sages, ascetics, austere yogis, the learned and students as it places the human mind in a Samyak state, or in a state of equilibrium and equanimity. Such a diet usually includes milk and milk derivatives, vegetables, fruits i.e. items which are least likely to arouse the senses. Rajasic food piques the senses, incites passion and its consumption is directed at deriving sensual pleasure. Consumption of Tamasic or Tamoguni food is discouraged by the scriptures as it is believed to impart sloth, laziness and ignorance. It is also believed that the purity and Guna of the food are influenced by the thoughts and state of the mind of one who cooks and hence influences one who consumes.

Offering food to God is one of the major devotional practices which were made popular by the Bhakti tradition of worship. Devotees first offer food to God and eat the same which they consider to be enriched by the blessings of the Lord. This sublimity of the Indian culture narrows the gap between God and humans, and sometimes also elevates humans to Godliness. On occasion of festivities such as Deepawali, Durga pooja, Pongal , Ganesh chaturthi and many more, special delicacies, such as modaks for Lord Ganesha, are prepared in all households and offered to the Lord and then the family members enjoy the prasadam. These and many other festivals are celebrated with great fanfare, and delicious food being the principal component, it is said that even the Gods descend on earth from heavens to taste the ambrosia prepared by Indian women.

India is also called as a land of diversity, which reflects in its multifarious cuisine. There are great numbers of regional variations and they cannot be abstracted into North Indian, South Indian and other such crude conceptions. If one studies India, she/he would find that this diversity goes down to the level of districts, towns, villages, casts, clans, tribes and even households. There are a large number of cuisines, Marathi/Maharashtrian, Gujarati, Punjabi, Karnataki/kannadiga, Tamil, Malyali,Bengali,Sindhi, Bhojpuri and many, many more can be included in this list. But these classifications are just for convenience, for, in maharashtrian cuisine, you would find an equally enthralling diversity as kolhapuri, nagpuri and Konkani cuisines, in Karnataka , mangalorean and udupi and the famous chettinad cuisine in the Tamil land. India is an enigma, and such a kaleidoscopic recursion is mirrored in every facet of her culture. But as every other branch of Indian culture, these diverse cuisines are not independent traditions, but confirm to a monolithic central core, like the branches of a great old oak, which spread far and wide, but spring from common roots, which go deep in our soils and times. Perhaps, that is why, any Indian finds a rice plate, a name for a plate, which contains not only rice, but a couple of chapatis/puris, a vegetable and dal along with a bowl of curd, readily palatable.

I would like to end this discourse by a brief mention of Paan(or beeda), a Pan-Indian delicacy, without which any treatment to Indian food is incomplete. It is not exactly a part of a meal but is supposed to be had after a sumptuous meal. It is even offered to God in the form of Tamboolam (Sanskrit for paan) after evening prasadam. It is a magnificent concoction of various ingredients including, but not limited to, beetle leaf( paan), areca nut( supari), kattha or kaat , choona, paan chutni or paan masala, Cardamom (Elaichi ),clove and many, many other ingredients which range from tobacco to gulkand. The paan or the beetle leaf itself has so many variations, culcutta, banarasi or puna masala to name a few, that the ingredients and the process of preparing paan would even fit for a subject of an entire encyclopedia. It is a mouth freshener as well as aids digestion. Recent research has even given clues that paan( beetle leaf) may aid in prevention of leukemia. Though made infamous by some over-enthusiastic connoisseurs of Paan, by public displays of their devotion towards it, it is indeed an icon of our cultural nationalism.