topics: |  food | history

Much interesting detail - what cinnamon had to do with the discovery of
America, and how food has influenced population growth and urban expansion.

Food in India

In the early centuries AD Indians ate two meals a day and were advised that
each meal should consist of 32 mouthfuls. The stomach was divided 9into four
parts, two to be filled with food, one with liquid, and the fourth left empty
to allow for the movemembt of wind.  - Prakash, Om, Food and Drinks in
Ancient India, Delhi 1961

Rice - cultivated in gangetic delta since 2000 BC
millet - where irrigation was sparse
gourds, peas, beans, lentils - grown widely
sesame, sugarcane, mango, plantain, and pod-bearing tamarind
pepper, cardamom, ginger - spices
imported from Indonesia (Coromandel region): nutmeg, mace, cloves
	      Arabs (Malabar): coriander and cumin
drinks: sugarcane juice, jaggeri, honey, molasses, and juice of the rose-apple
	grape wine imported from Kapisi, north of Kabul
	Rice ale was more common; mild toddy and stronger fermented arrack,
		from sap of palmyra and talipot palms
	intricate brew made from juice of breadfruit infused with a decoction
		of mesasringi (bark of a tree) and long pepper, kept for one
		month, six months, or a year, [and then] mixed with two types
		of cucumber, sugarcane stalk, mango fruit and myrobalan [an
		astringent fruit].
	madhuparka: honey, sugar, ghi, curds and herbs - special fermented
		drink, often offered to suitors or women who were 5 months
		pregnant, used to moisten the lips of newborn first son

Gujarat: Madhuparka ceremony:  wk

   Holding with his left hand a cup of Madhuparka (composed of honey, curd
   and ghee or clarified butter), after removing the cover and looking at the
   Madhuparka, The bridegroom says:

	May the breeze be sweet as honey; may the streams flow full of honey
	and may the herbs and plants be laden with honey for us! May the
	nights be honey-sweet for us; may the mornings be honey-sweet for us
	and may the heavens be honey-sweet for us! May the plants be
	honey-sweet for us; may the sun be all honey for us and may the cows
	yield us honey-sweet milk!

   "Honey-sweet", in this case, means pleasant, advantageous, and conducive
   to happiness. The bridegroom shall pour out the Madhuparka into three cups
   and then partake a little of it from each of the cups reciting the
   following Mantra:
	The bridegroom: The honey is the sweetest and the best. May I have
	food as sweet and health-giving as this honey and may I be able to
	relish it!

King Shrenika's feast:
   The Bhavissayattakaha (of AD 1000) describes the royal meal of King
   Shrenika thus. First were served fruits that could be chewed (grape,
   pomegranate, ber), then fruits to be sucked (sugarcane, oranges,
   mangoes).  [Shrenika - maybe bimbisara]