The History of Food in Ancient India - From Vedic Period till today...

Food has always been more than just nourishment. It is culture, identity and history on a plate. In ancient Bharat, food was intertwined with spirituality, science and community, reflecting the wisdom of Ayurveda, the offerings of the temple rituals and the diversity of regional practices. From the fire altars of the Vedic age to the lavish feasts of the royal courts, food has shaped up how people lived, celebrated and connected. This documentary takes you on a journey through the rich and fascinating history of food in ancient India, uncovering stories that highlight its timeless role in shaping our traditions and values. We all look at our food through three lenses. The first one is personal, second is cultural and third is scientific. At a personal level, you like or dislike a food depending on your taste. Let's be honest, that plays a very significant part or rather the first filter whether you take a food, it all depends on your taste. And the second level is cultural. You eat a specific type of food or you don't eat a specific type of food not because of your personal interest but rather as a token of respect towards the culture that you inherit. And that is absolutely fine and very much human to bind ourselves to the culture that we like or inherit. End of the day, we are not animals to eat whatever that we want and it's perfectly fine to shape up your food choices according to your culture. Don't let anyone else have a say in that except you and your family. And the third filter is scientific. What it means is you go for a specific type of food either because you feel that it gives you better nutrition and nourishment or you are in a certain sense of medical compulsion that you should eat or should not eat specific type of food. So all in all, these three levels or filters through which we look at our food. Now why I'm explaining this is quite simple. Don't look at this documentary or watch this documentary through these filters. You will not get the best value out of this. Rather watch it from a neutral perspective. I tried my best to collate a lot of information which will be definitely valuable if you do not look at this documentary through these three filters. With all that said, let's get started to understand the history of food in ancient Bharat. Not just in Bharat but anywhere in the world. If you want to know the history of food, how it evolved, it is very complicated. Let me explain why. There are two sides of the story. On one side we need to know what did our ancestors cultivate and on the other side we need to know how did they cook. So it is food sources and food processing. Both we need to know to get a complete history or at least a reasonable picture of the history of food in Bharat. And it is not just that. How it evolved, both the food sources and the food processing, how it evolved right from the Vedic times to the Ramayana and Mahabharat times and then eventually to the Indus valley civilization times and then the Mahajanapadas and the medieval India to modern day India today. So it is a three-dimensional vantage that we need to know. Food sources, food processing and timeline. So now you see how complex it is to get a holistic understanding of the evolution of food. Let me briefly explain what I mean by food sources and food processing. When it comes to food sources, fruits, vegetables, grains, pulses, spices, beverages, dairy, meat, sweeteners and fats. So we need to ask pretty simple and straight question, what has been the evolution of food in these 10 categories when it comes to food sources? How our ancestors managed all these 10 categories of food sources? Where did they get from? What did they cultivate? Everything about that. Now that is one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is food processing. Now cooking is just one way of preparing a certain kind of food that is thermal processing. Like that there are mechanical processing and chemical processing also as other ways of making food. So how our ancestors prepared different kinds of foods, that is the other side of coin. So we need to know both sides to get the holistic understanding of the history of food. So now you see how complicated the history of the food is. I know such a lengthy introduction is a bit boring and a stretch but I honestly feel that a little warm-up is necessary for such a lengthy documentary. So with all that said let us get started. First we will start with the food sources that we had in Bharat over the last thousands of years. Let us explore each of these 10 categories of food and before that just two quick things. All the references and the sources for me have been the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabharata and certain historical records from the times of Mahajanapada. All these references I will try to briefly present in the later part of this video. That is one. Second thing, clearly the geography I am talking about is the Akhand Bharat, the Indian subcontinent and that too at a very high level. Starting with the first one, fruits. So what did our ancestors cultivate and eat when it comes to fruits? Kadarli, Banana, Kapitha, Wood Apple, Draksha, Grapes, Jambu, Jamun fruit, Amlaki, Gooseberry, Badara, Bear or Plum. These fruits are very very ancient to the Indian subcontinent. I am not saying that they are exclusive to this place but this is what our ancestors eat based on the details given in various Vedic rituals, ancient scriptures like Ramayana, Mahabharata and many other Puranas. These handful names are the most common fruits that our ancestors ate spanning across different timelines. And needless to say that all these fruits are very familiar and common to the Indian household even today. Moving to the second one, the vegetables. What kinds of vegetables did our ancestors grow and eat? Urvaruka, Cucumber, Vartaka, Brinjal, Palandu, Onion, Kushmandu, Pumpkin, Chhatrakam, Mushroom, Lashoona, Garlic, Alabu, Bottle Gourd. Here are few vegetables that our ancestors grew and ate. Potatoes, Tomatoes and Chillies. All these three which are very central to the Indian cuisine today were introduced to Bharat only in last three to four hundred years by the Europeans during the period of colonization. Prior to that we ate different kinds of vegetables some of them that you're seeing on the screen. We knew, grew and ate mushrooms many thousands of years even before we knew about potatoes, tomatoes or chillies. That's a fascinating piece of our history. Now coming to the number three, cereals. In Bharat people cultivated Godhuma, Wheat, Vrihi, Rice, Yava, Barley, Shyamaka, Millets, Nivara, Wild Rice, Makka, Maize, Priangava, Millets. A different kind of or a grouping of Millets so to speak. Now coming to number four, Pulses. Masura, Red Lentils, Lobia, Cowpeas, Masha, Black Gram, Mudga, Moong, Chana, Chickpeas. These are the five mostly cultivated pulses in the history of Bharat. Now coming to the fifth category, Spices. This is quite interesting. Maricha, Black Pepper, Tila, Sesame Seeds, Haridra, Turmeric, Pippali, Long Pepper, Jeeraka, Cumin, Shunti, Ginger. These are handful of quite common spices that people used back then. There was no chillies like I said. Instead of chillies, Pippali, the one you're seeing in the bowl here, the long pepper. This has been the source of the hotness in our food for ages. Needless to say it again that I just picked few spices which are very common in every household and there could be a lot of other spices which are very much native to Bharat but is not shown on this picture. Number six, Beverages. So what kinds of drinks were consumed by our ancestors? The first one is Soma. Soma is a herbal drink and most importantly it is the oldest and the grandest drink mentioned in the scriptures of ancient Bharat. There is no other drink which is given such a level of importance as Soma. We'll briefly talk about that in the later part of this video but there's just one. There is no English translation as such to what Soma is and mostly it is extant. We don't know what exactly or how exactly that drink need to be made as on today. So that's Soma and then Tarka, Buttermilk, Milk. Basically the Hindi word Doodh comes from the Sanskritam word Doodh. Sura, Liquor. Again it's a specific kind of liquor. I will try to explain that briefly in the later part of this video and then Aapa, Water obviously. Kanjika. Kanjika is ceral soup. It is when we boil rice in water, the starch gets dissolved in that boiling water. That light milk, buttermilk like water that is the residue that is Kanjika. In Telugu we call it as Ganji and it was served as a beverage back in the times. And the last one is Madhu, a sweet drink which is again alcoholic in nature. So broadly these are mostly consumed beverages in the history of ancient Bharat. Number seven, Sweeteners. The first one is Guda, Jaggery. In Hindi we call it as Good today. The actual name is Guda in Sanskritam. Then Makshika, Honey. Taala Rasa, which is palm juice. And then Ikshu Rasa, which is sugarcane juice. And then Shakara, which is sugar. These have been the sources for sweeteners for us over ages. I had no choice but to cut out a lot of details just to limit this video under one hour. But in our ancient scriptures there are different varieties of honey based on different kinds of flowers as to how to extract honey that has different kinds of tastes when sourced from different kinds of flowers. Even that level of detail is mentioned. And there are eight different and major kinds of honey. This is just to give you a nuance in terms of how deep the history of food and the vividness of food in Bharat has been. Usage of honey as a sweetener by many civilizations is as old as time. I'm not saying that other civilizations did not figure it out. Far from such jingoistic claims. All I'm saying is the vividness and the richness that we had in Bharat comes out so nicely when we delve into these kinds of details. And honey itself is a very good example on that note. Number eight, Meat. What meat did our ancestors eat? What animals were used as sources for meat through the Vedic culture and then through the times of Ramayan, Mahabharat, Puranas, Mahajanapadas, all these eons of time. What our ancestors have been eating for meat? Mruga, deer or antelope. Vrishabha, bull, aja, goat and sheep, both of them. Ashwa, horse. Pakshi, a wide variety of birds beyond chicken. Now first thing, I know this is culturally a bit sensitive topic about meat, but let me tell you one thing. This is exactly the reason why I said at the very beginning of this documentary, don't watch this video from your personal cultural and scientific filters. Meat eating has been very much part of the Vedic culture and people who say no, number one, either they are not aware of the truth or number two, they are just making an egoistic claim. Again I repeat, meat eating was part of the Vedic culture 100 percent. I'm going to show you examples about it clearly. And meat eating is very much part of the Hindu tradition even today. Primarily the southern and the eastern part of Bharat is non-vegetarian and there have been certain rituals where common people and masses participate, sacrifice a goat or a chicken to the deity, cook in the temple premises and have it as a prasadam. I grew up with this tradition. I have been seeing this and observing these traditions right from my childhood, teenage, all the way throughout my life and I'm sure many of you especially from the southern part of Bharat have been doing it. So one thing here what I want to say is meat means tamasik, vegetables means sattvik. This is an absolutely incorrect notion. We'll talk about it more in the later part of this video so let's not get carried away by this just one topic but this is what when it comes to meat our ancestors had as sources of food for meat consumption. Let's move ahead. Number nine, dairy. Ghrita, ghee. Dugdha, milk. Tarka, buttermilk. Dadhi, curd. Navaneeta, butter. All these five types of dairy products have been part of the ancient Indian cuisine. Now the animals that sourced this dairy were predominantly cow, extensively cow and maybe I forgot to mention about one very important thing in the context of meat as well. Maybe it makes sense in the dairy aspect as well. Cow is always called as agnya in ancient Indian scriptures. Agnya means the one that must not be killed. It is the only animal that has been very sacred and very much protected in Bharat. Even there are instances where bull meat is consumed but when it comes to cow it has always been called as agnya, means the one that must not be killed. Now more from the dairy context, yes of course cow has been the main source for dairy. So are the water buffaloes and buffaloes as well and to a very limited extent the milk of goat also appears in the Indian cuisine. Now moving to the tenth and last category of foods, the fats. This needs a bit of explanation. Sesame seeds have been one of the oldest sources of fats not just in Bharat but across the globe for many civilizations and so is the case with Bharat as well. In Sanskritam sesame is called tila and generally we call the oil as taila. So the name of the fat itself is derived from the very first fat that we have been using that is tila and sesame oil is called tilasneha. Tila is like I said sesame and sneha, this is quite interesting. We all know that the word sneha means friendship but in Sanskritam there is another meaning for the word sneha that is stickiness, kind of relevant with what we have with the friends, an emotional stickiness. Maybe in that regard but nonetheless sneha means the one that sticks. So tilasneha is the name for sesame oil. And then saraspa taila, in Hindi we call it as sarsonka tel. The actual name in Sanskritam is saraspa taila, mustard oil. Observe the word taila, it is derived from til hence saraspa taila. So basically the name til has become a de facto name for any fat, saraspa taila. And then ghrita, ghee obviously we know that and then nabhanita, butter. These four have been the main sources of fats. Now I completely agree that narikela taila or coconut oil or groundnut oil, there are various varieties of oil but here I am focusing only on the antiquity. How old in time have been the sources of these fats and these are the ones which have very deep antiquity in in the Indian. So that is in very brief an account of how we have had different food sources in these 10 categories. Now let's flip to the other side on how food is processed. Cooking is just one thing but there is a lot behind that. So let's explore how food has been processed using the food sources in this chapter. The first one is thermal processing. Well it's nothing fancy, it's just cooking something on fire, that's simple and straight. The interesting part is our ancient scriptures mention different types of thermal processing as you see on the screen. Soshanam, cooking without water, bhajanam, roasting, odanam, boiling, avadravanam, immersive frying in oil, talanam, shallow frying, kvadhanam, slow boiling, pachanam, cooking. These are the six to eight categories of cooking food on fire depending on what kind of dish that we're trying to make. So all these techniques for thermal processing has been part of Bharat's cuisine. Next comes mechanical processing. At the outset it appears like a precursor to preparing food like grinding and making the flour but there are also certain kinds of foods which are never cooked but just mechanically processed. Hence mechanical processing is also a distinct technique of preparing food. For instance raita, you don't need thermal processing at all to prepare that kind of dish. Same way in Telugu we have something called as pachipulusu which is never boiled, it is purely done in a mechanical way. So like that there are dishes that just need mechanical processing alone and some of them are peshanam, grinding, valanam, rolling, krintanam, slicing, chooranam, pulverizing, mandhanam, kneading. These are few techniques of mechanical processing type in preparing food that are mentioned in our Puranas, Itihazas and other ancient scriptures. Moving to the third type of food processing, the chemical processing. And in the history of Bharat's cuisine, three most important chemical processing stand out. Paripakah, fermentation, dugdravanam, curdling, acharakaranam, pickling. These are the three different types of chemical processing where certain ingredients, spices, condiments, salts, oil, all these are mixed into vegetables or other food sources either for longer storage or for a chemical reaction like curdling to happen or even fermentation. The Hindi word for pickle, what we say achar, actually comes from acharakaranam, a type of chemical processing which is pickling. So that sums up three different types of food processing, thermal processing, mechanical and chemical processing techniques. Then we already went through different food sources. Now end of the day, what has been on the plate of people? What did people eat? Well that question is as broad as the ocean. The food varieties and the habits, the cuisine styles, they are pretty diverse across Bharat. So I chose to take a scriptural basis in explaining how the typical spread on a plate in ancient Bharat looked like. Let's try and explore that. Starting with the first item, udana, that is cooked rice or the white rice as we call it today. That's the first item on a spread. Second is soopa, this is interesting. Basically soopa is of thin consistency, liquid, made by boiling lentils. Simply put, dal or rasam or sambar, all these in a way fall in this category. And the samskritam name for this specific dish is called as soopa. Very close and cognate to the English word soup that we use today. So soopa or soup of lentils, a variant of dal or sambar or rasam in this category. This is the second item on the spread. And then there is vyanjaka, which is a munchable vegetable dish like grilled brinjal or grilled vegetables. That's the third item on the spread, vyanjaka. Then we have shakka, which is cooked vegetables, basically some sort of a vegetable curry. And then on the spread of Bharat's cuisine, we have maamsa, a meat-based curry. Then we have bhakshya, which is either sweet or savoury crackers. It's basically a snack, something like murukkulu in the Telugu speaking states or kucho nimki in Bengal, fafda or khakra in Gujarat, kulcha in Kashmir region, murukku in Tamil Nadu or chakli or shankarpalli in Maharashtra, something of that sort. Bhakshya means crackers. And then on the spread, we have payasam, a desert, a rice or pulses-based dish with sweeteners and dry fruits and milk. That essentially forms payasam. This is quite a very household name for us. We call it as payas or payasam in different pronunciations across various states or in some states, it is called as phirni like in Uttar Pradesh or chawal ki kheer in Haryana or just kheer in Punjab. And then in Rajasthan, we typically call it as mishri. In Himachal Pradesh, meethabath or in Karnataka, payasa. In Bengal, it is payesh, Odisha kheeri, Assam payoksh, Bihar chawal ki kheer, so on and so forth. And furthermore on the spread, we have ghrita, ghee, aapa, water, dugdha, milk and takra, buttermilk. All these beverages and dairy products are indeed very much part of the spread and that's where the entire spread at a high level is complete. Now let me get to the most important aspect, on what basis I mentioned these dishes with their exact names and samskritam. So what is the source for us? It is Nala Maharaja Ghrita Paakadarpanam. Nala Maharaja, a king who lived even before the times of Mahabharata, he authored a detailed cookbook which is very well preserved even today and its name is Paakadarpanam. In that, he explains about various ancient recipes at great length and at the very beginning of that book, he mentions what should be on a spread typically and that's from where I picked up and depicted the spread that we have been seeing since last couple of minutes. Basically, it is the most ancient spread that is well recorded and well preserved even today and this ancient book called Nala Maharaja Ghrita Paakadarpanam. Now let's try to briefly surf through different timelines as well as couple of ancient scriptures which have been the source for everything that I have been explaining about last 20 minutes. In this chapter, let's briefly see the ancient scriptures and the timeline on food and cooking in ancient Bharat. As I briefly touched at the outset of this documentary, when it comes to timeline, this is a logical sequence or rather the chronology in the history of India. The Vedic times and then comes the times of Ramayana and then Mahabharata and then Indus valley civilization times and then Mahajanapadas, medieval India and today. So, if we understand these seven blocks in the context of food, we can see that cultural continuum in our cuisine, taste, eating habits and a lot more. For obvious reasons, it is impossible to go through in detail about each and every time period. So, I just hand picked few shlokas which I think are quite important for us to understand, at least at the essence of it. So, starting with the Vedic period. In the Vedas, you see a lot of references made through ritualistic cooking practices or ritualistic ways of preparing certain kinds of foods that are essential for the rituals, the Vedic rituals I mean. And one of the most important food item in the Vedic rituals is called as Soma. Soma is a herbal drink that is made by crushing the leaves of either one herb or more than one, that we don't know. The recipe and everything is very cryptic in nature. Of course, there are a lot of theories about Soma being an intoxicant or a kind of a hallucinating psychedelic compound. We will not get into all that stuff. All I want to explain here is, just take a look at this specific shlokam from Rig Vedam. It says that extract the Soma with bruising stones and cleanse it with consecrated waters. So, by going through these kinds of ancient texts, we can understand that back in those days, people used certain kinds of herbs, crushed it with stones and then mixed it with some kinds of water to prepare a ritualistic herbal drink for the Vedic practices and yajnas back in those days. Another Vedic reference about food is from Sri Rudram part of Yajur Vedam. This is very popular to all of us. It comes as part of the Rudra mantras, where the mantras goes like Mashaaschame, Tilaschame, Mudgaschame, Kalvaschame, Godhumaschame, Masuraschame, so on and so forth, where cereals and lentils are coated in Yajur Vedam like maize, rice, wheat, black gram, sesame seeds, green gram and other lentils. So, through these kinds of sources, we can understand that these cereals and pulses have been part of Bharat's cuisine right from the times of Yajur Vedam. We saw the references from Rig Vedam and Yajur Vedam. Now, let's see a reference from Adhar Bhana Vedam. Again, we're not getting into the context of the mantra and all that stuff. It is just about the food that we are trying to understand. So, as you can see in this specific mantra, it says that the barley meal mixed and stirred with milk and the rice meal or butter or fruit pulp I offer to you, may all those be full of energy, honey sweet and abundant in Ghrita. It is basically giving a sense of devotion and submission and at the same time, it is giving details about how Prasadam of those times was prepared. So, from this lokam, we can understand that honey, ghee, butter and barley, these four ingredients were used to possibly prepare an offering as part of some Vedic ritual. This is very interesting because barley is one of the oldest, rather the oldest cereal that was domesticated by humans. It's quite interesting to see that in the ancient times, in the Vedic times, the Prasadam for the Vedic rituals was prepared using barley which in a way reinforces the fact that barley has been very much an integral part of Bharat's ancient cuisine and diet. It is the examples like these which gives us the details in terms of the food sources and food processing that I have been explaining over the last 20 minutes. So, now you see where I got this from. Still in the Vedic period, now if we come from the Shritis to the Smriti, here is an example from Manusmriti. Manusmriti says that if a Brahmana intentionally consumes mushrooms, pig that is pork or garlic or chicken or onions, then he or she is no longer a Brahmana but is considered as a Shudra and it is permitted for Shudras to eat these foods. On the flip side, for Brahmanas and by extension to almost everyone, meat eating is approved in Manusmriti when it is performed in a ritualistic manner. For instance, if a sheep or a deer meat is offered as a Prasadam to a Yajna in a Vedic ritual, then it is allowed for consumption. If not, then it is forbidden. So, it is not like today in a binary way like vegetarian or non-vegetarian. Back in those times, it was more about the purpose of creation or preparation of that food. If it is ritualistic, it is allowed. If it is not, still there are lots of restrictions like the one you're seeing on the screen. Anyway, let's stay focused only on the food aspect. The interesting thing for me personally is mushrooms, Chhatrakam. The fact of the matter is right from the Vedic times, mushrooms have been part of Bharat's cuisine. On the flip side, we know about potatoes only in last three to four hundred years. That's when the Europeans introduced potatoes, chillies and tomatoes to the Bharat's cuisine. Otherwise, these three important vegetables without which we can't even imagine Indian cuisine today were totally alien to us some three to four hundred years back. But mushrooms have been part of India's cuisine since centuries. Now, let's flip to the times of Ramayanam. The mentions about food across Ramayanam would be very much intertwined with the main storyline. Here is example from Ayodhya Kanda 56th Sarga. That is where Bhagawan Sri Ram, Maa Sita and Lakshmana Swami, all three of them perform their Griha Pravesham for their new hermitage in Panchavati. Bhagawan Sri Ram asks Lakshmana Swami to prepare the necessary Prasadam for their ritual of Griha Pravesham and that's when Lakshmana hunted a black antelope and roasted it in the fire until thoroughly cooked. Once the meat is cooked, well roasted on fire, Lakshmana informed Sri Ram that the offering is ready for the Vedic ritual. Ayodhya Kanda 56th Sarga Sri Ramayanam. And then Bhagawan Sri Ram, Maa Sita and Lakshmana Swami, all three of them perform their Griha Pravesham and this is another slogan which details about that. Rama, Sita, Lakshmana with their auspicious qualities pleased the Devatas by offering flowers from the forest along with the fruits, roots, cooked meat, water and prayers from the sacred Vedas and started living in their hermitage. Don't be quick to jump to any conclusions. The times of Ramayana clearly mentions that meat or fruit or vegetable or whatever be the type of food, it is not discriminated. There are certain animals that are specified for meat consumption and there is a lot of process behind the Vedic rituals and consecration of all these food items is an essential part of it and people consumed it according to the times back then. And of course, there is no doubt about Bhagawan Sri Ram eating meat. People who say that he never ate meat is just they are playing out on their ego rather than reading the original Valmiki Ramayana. This is also the reason why I said at the beginning of this documentary, don't look at from your personal standpoint, take facts as facts and truth as truth. Bottom line, Bhagawan Sri Ram yes did consume meat as part of his Vanavas but what's more important is Bhagawan Sri Ram stood for truth throughout his life, no matter what and that should be the most important lesson and takeaway for us rather than these trivial topics of whether he ate meat or not. These are absolutely nonsensical topics. So with that said, this is how we could understand what was food like during the times of Ramayana. More interesting details about food from the times of Ramayana emerge from Sundarakanda. Here is where Hanuman in search of Masita, when he wanders the entire Lanka, he steps into the palace of Ravanasura and that's where the narration about different kinds of foods like meats of peacock, rooster, pigs and goats, porcupine, fish, buffalo and other types of meats were served for Ravana. Various grains and cereal based food items like the spread mentioned in Pakadarshanam, then various types of natural and synthetic alcohols based on honey, alcohols based on the roots or tree bark or other herbs, different types of alcohols are also mentioned that they were served for Ravana. So like this, there are lots of details that we can extract from Sri Ramayanam in context of food. Coming to the times of Mahabharata. In Mahabharata, we find the mentions about rice. Rice is frequently mentioned as a staple grain and is mentioned many times as an integral part of the offerings during the yajnas. And then barley, like I said, barley has very deep antiquity in Bharati cuisine. Barley is also mentioned at extensive lengths in Mahabharata as a staple diet. And then wheat. Wheat products are often symbolized as part of prosperity and they were part of royal feasts elaborated in Mahabharata. And then sesame seeds, they are mentioned as the most important and common source of oil and fats. And then milk. Milk is probably the most mentioned food item in the entire Mahabharata. It is mentioned almost 500 times as a source of food throughout Mahabharata. And then meat. The consumption of meat was generally part of the royal feasts or the warrior diets in Mahabharata. Goat, deer and birds like quail or peacock are inferred from the hunting scenes for meat. While meat was consumed, it was subject to ethical and ritualistic considerations. This is very important. Like I mentioned, meat consumption without proper consecration was forbidden. But meat consumption when it becomes part of a specific ritual is very much considered as an acceptable food for people back then in the times of Mahabharata. And then vegetables. Cubas like yams were foraged and consumed, particularly during the periods of exile in Vanaparva of Mahabharata. Root vegetables were part of simple offerings during these austere rituals. Here a very important observation that we need to take note of is from the times of Mahabharata, there is a significant shift from meat consumption towards vegetables and fruits. More and more of it. So basically the foundations of vegetarianism, if that's a word, or rather promoting more of vegetarian diet, that starts from the times of Mahabharata period. Again and again we see references coming from Bhishmacharya where he emphasizes more about eating vegetarian food. That dynamic change starts from the times of Mahabharata period. And then honey. Extensive use of honey can be seen throughout Mahabharatam in dietary context. Interestingly, most of the times, meat is always paired with honey. So the preparation during Mahabharata times is not more of a spicy stuff that we have today, which is typical of meat consumption. Rather it is honey and meat that has been the combination for cooking of a consumption during the times of Mahabharata period. So that in brief is what we could understand about food in the context of Mahabharata. Moving next to the times of Indus What did they eat? Well, staple grains and legumes, wheat and barley, dominant crops with the evidence of both winter and summer varieties cultivated in the Indus valley region. Millets and rice cultivated as summer crops indicating a diverse agricultural system. Pulses, lentils, peas, chickpeas were commonly consumed providing essential proteins. If you observe there is a natural extension or kind of a flow of culture from Mahabharata to Indus valley civilization period. The food that is mentioned extensively in Mahabharata and the times before that, you see a logical progression of that into the times of Indus valley period. Same way with the animal products. Most of the information that you are seeing on the screen is sourced from harappa.com which is the formal website which puts out all the archaeological findings from Indus and from there we understand that people back then were consuming like I said wheat, barley, millets, rice, pulses, lentils, chickpeas etc and when it comes to meat they were consuming pigs and then animals such as cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats. Dairy residues were found indicating use of dairy products including milk and possibly some sort of yogurt and there were certain ancient foods that were discovered intact like the one you're seeing in the top right corner some 4600 years old laddus made from Indus valley civilization. There were some lentil based food that is fossilized still holding that spherical shape and then fossilized wheat was identified or rather discovered in Indus valley civilization sites and then coming to fruits and vegetables dates and melons were part of the diet as evidenced by the seed remains and when it comes to vegetables mustard, sesame and various leafy green vegetables were possibly cultivated and consumed. Spices obviously turmeric and ginger very much found in the pottery residues. In fact the tandoor style of cooking is also discovered through the ancient kitchen of the Indus valley civilization like the one that you are seeing in this picture. So to sum it up all the Indus valley period food and the history of it is pretty much on the lines of what was mentioned in Mahabharata and is a natural downward evolution. Now coming next to the Mahajanapadas period that is 600 to 300 BCE. During the Mahajanapadas period food evolved with the diverse agriculture and we can see three broad trends that evolved from the Mahajanapadas period. The first one is vegetarianism. Gradual rise due to Buddhism and Jainism's influence during Maurya and Gupta periods solidified the position for vegetarianism. Like I said from the Mahabharata there is a turn towards vegetarianism and which is eventually solidified more during the Mahajanapadas period with Buddhism, Jainism and also in Sanatana Dharma specifically Vaishnavism. These sects focus extensively on vegetarianism and then second is urbanization. Growth of trade centers like Takshashila, Pataliputra, Madurai etc facilitated the culinary diversity and then third one is spices and trade. Spices like black pepper, turmeric became key commodities for trade enriching the local diets. So broadly these are the three key milestones when it comes to history of food during the Mahajanapadas period. So before we wrap up this documentary about the history of food let's talk about a delicious topic the ancient origins of biryani. Let's conclude this documentary on a lighter note. Let us try to understand the history of this delicious and widely popular dish the biryani. Now first things first rice cooked with meat and some spices that's what we call today's biryani. Forget the name biryani for a minute but if we look into the history of food these kinds of dishes were widely popular around the world. Mesopotamia some 2000 BC around that a pilaf like dish where rice and meat cooked together is prepared. In Africa Jollof rice pretty much around the 14th century CE that's when rice spices and meat all cooked together was prepared and it's called as Jollof rice and same way coming to the history of China some 1800 to 2000 years ago. Baozaifan it's a dish that's prepared by stewing or steaming I'm not really sure but around that styles of preparation in one single clay pot where rice meat and other condiments were cooked together. So the bottom line is the antiquity of this dish called biryani or Jollof rice or Baozaifan whatever the way you'd like to call it as where rice spices and meat all cook together well that dish has a very deep history and definitely you cannot attribute this dish to one place where every place has its own making recipe and perfection which suited to that taste climate and people of that land. Now coming to the context of India is biryani a vestation import? Is biryani brought to India by or rather through the Islamic invasions? A very popular understanding is the Islamic invasions or rather the invaders are the ones who brought in this dish called biryani into Bharat. Let us see how much of truth is in there. Rice cooked with meat has been a very ancient dish that is also present in Bharat as part of Nala Maharaja Krita Pakadarpana in that 63 different varieties of rice dishes are elaborated by Nala Maharaja including their recipes and everything about that and what we call today with a different name is very much part of not just the ancient practices or ancient scriptures even today as we speak we have the living proof of that. Let us explore. Let's flip back to the times of the Vedic period. If you missed the earlier part of this video where I explained about the complete history of food I will leave link to the full video in the pinned comment. Now if you've already been watching through this video then here it is. Brahma Udana Suktam. Brahma Udana Suktam part of Adharvana Vedam is one of the oldest scriptures in Vedic corpus which exalts boiling rice as a form of Parabrahma. We have this saying called Annam Parabrahma Swaroopam that means food is a manifestation of the divine supreme. That high level of reverence towards food essentially originates from Brahma Udana Suktam of Adharvana Vedam and here the process of boiling rice is called as Odana. Odana means that act of boiling rice and it is considered very sacred. Now if we flip to Brihadaranyaka Upanishad part of Yajur Vedam there is a ritual mentioned for a couple who seeks a son. So to conceive a scholarly and accomplished son who can master all four Vedas a couple should offer and then eat rice cooked with meat of a vigorous bull accompanied by ghee. So basically this dish where rice and the meat of a bull. Again to be very clear it is not cow. Cow is always referred as Agnya throughout the Vedas which means the one that should not be killed. Here we are talking about the meat of a bull. So a meat of a bull cooked with rice and ghee that dish is referred as Mamsa Udanam. It's two words basically Mamsa and Udanam. Mamsa means meat we all know that Udanam means basically it's an extended form of Odana the one which we just saw. So Mamsa Udana means the process or the dish that is made by boiling meat and rice together. Now again to repeat one very important thing these were the traditions during the Vedic period. It is very much part of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad but these practices are now completely extinct. From the times of Mahabharata there is a drastic shift towards the vegetarianism and as the four yugas pass by the Satya Yuga, Kreta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga and we are in now Kali Yuga. According to the Yugadharma these rituals are no more valid and no one really follows these. But nonetheless since we are talking about history of Bharat we need to very much understand that meat consumption is part of the Vedic rituals back then. And there comes a dish where meat and rice are cooked with ghee and other condiments together called as Mamsa Udanam. On the same lines if we flip to Sriramayanam in Ayodhya Kanda when Masita, Bhagwan Sriram and Lakshmanaswamy on their journey into their exile while crossing river Ganga. These are words of Masita. The translation is, O Ganga, after reaching back the city of Ayodhya upon completion of our 14 years of exile, I shall worship you with a thousand pots of Sura, a consecrated drink and Mamsa Udanam, meat with cooked rice, well prepared for the sacred rituals. Here again we find a mention of Mamsa Udanam or Mamsa Bhuta Udanam. It's one and the same where meat is cooked with rice. So bottom line in our ancient scriptures what we call today biryani was actually called Mamsa Udanam. But is there any physical proof that such thing really existed outside of the scriptures? The answer is a big yes and let's see what it is. And that piece of living history about Mamsa Udanam in a different format you can find that in Andhra Pradesh. In the abode of Tirumala, Sri Venkateswara Swami, there once lived a potter with the name Kuruvaratti Nambi. This is actually part of the Sthala Puranam of Tirumala. So this old potter Kuruvaratti Nambi is an ardent devotee of Bhagwan Sri Mahavishnu and he used to offer every day rice and curd together and that has been a very dear prasadam to Sri Venkateswara Swami and even today. The first prasadam is not your Tirupati Laddu. It is never Tirupati Laddu. People don't know this. It is always the rice mixed with curd in an earthen pot. All your golden vessels or silver vessels, all these stay away. The first thing that goes to the world's richest temple is a pot full of curd rice to Bhagwan Sri Venkateswara Swami. Still the legacy of Kuruvaratti Nambi is being followed even today and the name of this dish is quite interesting and we need to observe that closely. It is called as Dadhi Udanamu. Dadhi means curd. Udanamu, we already saw that. It is about boiling rice. So boiling rice with curd is called as Dadhi Udanamu. In Telugu, it is colloquially called Dadhojanam. Over a period of time, it got fused and corrupted pronunciation. It is today called as Dadhojanam but the actual name is Dadhi Udanamu just like Mamsa Udanamu. As I said, over last 3-4 millennia, there is a strong shift in the culture and practice of Sanatana Dharma towards vegetarianism. So Mamsa Udanamu kind of became extant but Dadhi Udanamu still exists even today. So practically, this is what we see in front of our eyes as on today. The existence of Dadhi Udanamu, a dish mentioned in the ancient scriptures still being followed in Tirupati. Same way, once existed Mamsa Udanamu also which we call as Biryani today. Don't get me wrong. I am nothing against celebrating a specific dish if it is of foreign origin. But like I said at the outset of this video, the fact that rice cooked with meat has history all over the world and so do we in Bharat as well and we called it as Mamsa Udanamu. And we have Adharvana Vedam, Sri Ramayanam and various Smritis quoting this specific dish with its recipe, its ritualistic importance, so on and so forth. And the example of Dadhi Udanamu reinforces how the word in a different form, in a different recipe has been existing in Bharat even today. So that brings us to the end of this documentary on the history of food in Bharat. Food in Bharat is a sacred thread that binds history, spirituality and identity reflecting the journey of a civilization. From the Vedic Yajnas to the royal feasts of the Ramayana and Mahabharata and from the agrarian wisdom of the Indus valley civilization to the culinary diversity of the Mahajanapadas, every era has shaped Bharat's rich food culture. Bharat's culinary heritage is a timeless testament to the tradition, resilience, diversity and inclusion over ages. I hope this documentary offered you a holistic understanding of how food transcends mere sustenance, becoming a symbol of unity, tradition and resilience. Ending this video with a very powerful quote from Taitreya Upanishad I am the food that eats the eater of the food. Food often is not just often always rather seen as a source of life but the Vedas say that food which is source of life is also the reason for not just life but the death as well. Feeding someone is revered as Narayana Seva as an act of serving Sri Mahavishnu. Why so and why do Vedas say that food which is source of life is also the source of death, I will explain in my next video. For this video let's conclude there with the history of the food in ancient Bharat and as always thanks for watching.