8/7/2019 Culinary Journey through India

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Culinary Journey Through India

The history of Indian food is as interesting and diverse as the country and its people. Itdates back to 7000BC to the Indus valley. Indian food has been greatly influenced by thethen civilizations of Harappa and Mohenjodaro. The Dravidians of this region would

store their grains in granaries and the people of Indus valley were the ones to have laidthe foundation to Ayurveda, which later became the basis for Indian food. People of that period probably ate wheat, rice, cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chicken. After the Aryaninvasion the Dravidians moved south taking with them their food habits.

During the time of Mauryas around 300 BC, animal sacrifices reduced considerably, thusdecreasing the meat consumption and many people turned vegetarians for religious

purposes. During the Gupta period cow was worshipped and many Indians stopped eatingcow and in later years after the Muslim invasions, many others stopped eating Pork aswas advised in Koran, the holy book of Muslims. So the mental, physical and spiritualneeds of people dictated the food habits.

Indian food since then has had many influences, be it Mongolian, Turkish, Persina,Arabic, the Portuguese, The English, the Chinese. Today what we call the Indian cuisinehas made a journey that spans centuries of history.

Couple of Interesting Facts on Indian Food sourced from various researches of historians

The Vijayanagara Kings were very liberal in granting provisions to their guests. Abd-ur Razak, the Persian ambassador who came to Vijayanagara during the reign of DevarayaII (A.D. 1419-1446), received rich daily provisions, about which he wrote in one fo his

books,"the daily provisions forwarded to me comprised two sheep, four couples of fowls,five mans of rice, one man of butter, one man of sugar and two varahas in gold ". Thisration was for one individual for one day!

In ancient India, especially in Karnataka region, drinking liquor was a ritual and peoplewould get together at decorated pavilions, the goddess of wine would be invoked anddraughts of liquor was held on head as a mark of respect. The drink was then poured intoartistically shaped bowls with bird heads and carved from mother pearls, beautiful shellsetc., Drink was offered to elders first and later the youngsters followed. Friends, family,lovers would all join in the ritual. Various snacks were consumed in between roast meat,onion bondas, fried gram egg and fish fries as also peppery tender mangoes and to avoidinebriation dose of ghee was recommended. EOS