Twilight of the Sultanate c17.s7: Food and Drink
Twilight of the Sultanate c17.s7
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Food and Drink
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Like dress, food and drink are also a good index of the general standard of living of a people. In this regard in particular, the people of medieval India were, if not better, surely not worse off compared with our own times.
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In the study of medieval historical literature, itineraries of travellers as well as the numerous biographical notices of saints, one is struck by the cheapness of prices of foodstuffs in the fourteenth-fifteenth century India. While cloth seems to have been scarce and costly, food was extremely cheap; cheap not only in comparison with prices prevailing today, but also with those of the times. Thus Ziyauddīn Baranī praises the cheapness in his times, giving prices of various articles of food.⁸⁵ Equally favourable is the price structure at the time of Fīrōz Tughlaq.⁸⁶ Due to political upheavals in the first half of the fifteenth century, food prices might have gone up a little, but no foreign or Indian writer has said so. On the other hand; 'Abdullā, the author of the *Tārīkh-i-Dāūdī*, bears testimony to the extreme inexpensiveness of foodstuffs during the latter half of the fifteenth century.⁸⁷
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⁸⁵ T.F.S. (B), 305. Elsewhere I have calculated to find that "a present day rupee would buy about two present day maunds of wheat in 'Alāuddīn's time". *History of the Khaljīs*, 270-71.
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⁸⁶ T.F.S. (A), 293-98.
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⁸⁷ T.D., Bankipore MS., 223-24.
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Medieval chroniclers give interesting data about the cereals, fruits, vegetables, etc. of those days. Wheat was commonly used but was "the dearest article",⁸⁸ and barley is mentioned oftener in the hagiological literature. Other cereals were peas, lintels, mash, lobiya and sesame. Rice is said to be of as many kinds as twenty-one.⁸⁹ Mahuan mentions two crops of rice in a year and says that wheat, sesame, all kinds of pulses, millet, ginger, mustard, onion, quash, hemp, brinjals and vegetables of many kinds grew in the country in abundance.⁹⁰ Wheat bread, baked (*roti*) and fried (*pūrī*), was eaten with *dāl*, meat and vegetable curries. *Chapatīs* were cooked in *tandūrs*,⁹¹ even now common in the Punjab, and open ovens (*chulhā*) common all over India. Other dishes were churned curd,⁹² *khajūr*,⁹³ meat and meat-soup (*āsh*).⁹⁴ *Parātha*, *halwā*, and *harīsā*,⁹⁵ were common with the rich, *khichrī* and *sattū*⁹⁶ with the poor. Muslims were generally meat-eaters and mostly ate “the flesh of cow and goat though they have many sheep, because they have become accustomed to it”.⁹⁷ A cow for slaughtering cost only one and a half *tankās*, while fowls, pigeons and other birds were sold very cheap.⁹⁸ The Hindus as a rule were vegetarians.⁹⁹ Of the vegetables mentioned are cucumber, pumpkin, various kinds of green leaves, jack fruit (*katahal*), *karela*, turnip, carrot, asparagus, ginger, garden beet, onion, garlic, fennel and thyme.¹⁰⁰ This certainly does not exhaust the list, but these have found specific mention. Vegetables were cooked and fried with various kinds of condiments and *ghī*; and as if the spices were not enough to whip up the action of the stomach a great number of pickles (*achārs*) were added to the menu. Tamarind was commonly used and grown in abundance. *A’jāz-i-Khusravī* of Amīr Khusru and *Kitābur Rehlā* of Ibn Battūta are full of references to these delicacies without which Indian meals, then as now, are never complete. Pickles were prepared from green mangoes as well as ginger and chillies.¹⁰¹
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⁸⁸ *Masālik*, E and D, III, 583; T.F.S. (B), 569.
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⁸⁹ Alqal., 48-49.
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⁹⁰ J.R.A.S., 1895, 531.
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⁹¹ T.S.A., 58; F.F., 174.
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⁹² R.Q., 35.
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⁹³ S.A., 273.
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⁹⁴ R.Q., 10.
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⁹⁵ T.F.S. (B), 316-19; S.A., 173-176; F.F., 75, 89; I.B., 38.
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⁹⁶ F.F., 41; S.A., 226; I.B., 49.
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⁹⁷ Alqal., 56
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⁹⁸ T.F.S. (B), 315. Also *Masālik*, E and D, III, 583.
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⁹⁹ Santo Stefano (in Major), 5.
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¹⁰⁰ Alqal., 49-50; T.S.A., 59; S.A., 11; I.B., 17.
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¹⁰¹ I.B., 16; Alqal., 50. Also see K.M. Ashraf, *Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan*, 282-83.
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The deserts consisted of fresh fruit, dry fruit and sweets. Dry fruits were mostly imported and so were apples, grapes, pears and pomegranates.¹⁰² Melons, green and yellow (*turbūz* and *kharbūza*), were grown in abundance.¹⁰³ Orange, citron (*utrurj*), lemon (*limūn*), lime (*līm*), *jāmun*, *khirni*, dates and figs were commonly known as also the plantain.¹⁰⁴ Sugar-cane was grown in abundance and Ziyauddīn Baranī writes the Indian word for it—*ponda*. Mango, then as now, was the most favourite fruit of India.¹⁰⁵ Sweetmeats were of many kinds, as many as sixty-five.¹⁰⁶ Some names like *reorī*, sugar-candy, *samosā*¹⁰⁷ and *halwā*¹⁰⁸ are familiar to this day.
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¹⁰² T.S.A., 50-52. Also S.A., 313. al-Qalqashindi contradicts himself when at one place he says that grapes were produced in India in abundance (49-50) and at another place writes: “there are few gardens but no grapes” (p. 28). 'Afif joyously mentions the fact that seven kinds of grapes were produced in the orchards of Delhi. T.F.S. (A), 295-96. Also T.F.S. (B), 569. Ibn Battūta writes that the postal service was utilised for importing fruit. “And the fruits of Khurāsān,” says he, “which are much sought after in India are often conveyed by this means.” E and D, III, 588.
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¹⁰³ T.S.A., 51; Alqal., 49. Also T.F.S. (A), 295-96; I.B., 17.
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¹⁰⁴ J.R.A.S., 1895, 531; T.F.S. (B). 568-70.
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¹⁰⁵ F.F., 173; T.S.A., 51. Ahmad Yādgār also says that mangoes and betel were sent as a present to Bābur from India. T.S.A., 90.
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¹⁰⁶ Alqal., 50.
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¹⁰⁷ Ibn Battūta's description of the preparation of *samosa* would make ones mouth water even today: "Minced meat cooked with almond, walnut, pistachios, onion and spices placed inside a thin bread and fried in ghee." I.B., 15.
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¹⁰⁸ T.F.S. (B), 318.
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Rain water was the chief drink of the people. It was collected in large reservoirs or tanks during the rainy season. The water of the tanks, which could hardly have been cleaned frequently and properly, and was carried in water-skins, was certainly unhygienic.¹⁰⁹ The wells¹¹⁰ posed the same problem of cleaning. Consequently rivers were considered to be the best suppliers of clean water. This may be the reason why sanctity has been attached to the Ganga through the ages. Even Sultans used to drink water from the Ganga only, and when Muhammad Tughlaq shifted his capital to Daulatabad, water from the Ganga was carried for him all the distance of forty days' journey to it.¹¹¹ In summer season water was cooled in earthen jugs. Iced water was a rarity even for the Sultans.¹¹² *Sharbat* was greatly in vogue.¹¹³ On festive occasions, or to celebrate some victory, the Sultans used to arrange for free distribution of sweets and *sharbat* among the people. Wine, prohibited by religion and disapproved by all, was drunk freely by those who had a liking for it. But the after-dinner drink was only water, and "the inhabitants of India have little taste for wine and intoxicating drinks, but content themselves with betel, an agreeable drug, the use of which is permitted without the slightest objection".¹¹⁴ In medieval chronicles it is called by its Sanskrit name *tāmbūl*.¹¹⁵ Amīr Khusru lavishes a lot of praise on it,¹¹⁶ and so does Abdur Razzāq. Pān, says he, "gives a colour to and brightens the countenance, causes an intoxication similar to that produced by wine, appeases hunger and excites appetite.... It removes the disagreeable smell from the mouth and strengthens the teeth."[¹¹⁷] Pān chewing was a national habit throughout Medieval India.
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¹⁰⁹ I.B., 37.
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¹¹⁰ Alqal., 29.
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¹¹¹ I.B., 4.
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¹¹² Fīrōz Tughlaq is reported to have been able to get some ice when he went to the Sirmur hills.
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¹¹³ T.S.A., 25.
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¹¹⁴ *Masālik*, E and D, III, 381. Cf. Major, Nicolo Conti, 22; Nikitin, 17.
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¹¹⁵ T.F.S. (B), 182. Also F.F., 168.
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¹¹⁶ *Deval Ranī*, 60.
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¹¹⁷ Major, Abdur Razzāq, 32.
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Muslims used to dine together, often out of the same plate, but always on the same board (*Dastar Khwān*). For this reason it was particularly necessary for a Muslim to know good table etiquette. Shaikh Nizāmuddīn Auliyā gave a long discourse to his disciples about observing good manners while eating.¹¹⁸ Inter-dining facilitated arrangements for big dinners where a thousand people could eat, not only at the mansions of the nobles,¹¹⁹ but also in the Khanqāhs of the saints.¹²⁰ The custom also certainly developed feelings of brotherhood and equality among the Muslims.
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¹¹⁸ S.A., 373-77.
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¹¹⁹ Cf. T.F.S. (B), 116. Also I.B., 15, 65, 66, 119.
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¹²⁰ R.Q., 9.
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Rich Hindus, especially in the south, "used tables in the manner of Europeans with silver vessels upon them. Others ate on carpets."[¹²¹] Brahmans generally did not eat meat, besides they also avoided onion and garlic.¹²² Inter-dining was neither liked nor practised by them. This attitude had permeated into other castes also. With the coming of the Muslims restrictions on interdining had become more than a fad.¹²³ But this custom did not affect the sense of hospitality of the Hindus which was proverbial.¹²⁴ Hindu princes gave shelter to Muslim nobles even at great risks, but since they did not inter-dine amongst themselves they did not inter-dine with the Muslims.
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¹²¹ Nicolo Conti, 22.
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¹²² Habib, *op. cit.*, 72.
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¹²³ Nikitin in Major, 17, 27.
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¹²⁴ Abdur Razzāq says that the king of Vijāyanagar honoured him in every way and gave him presents of all kinds, but did not dine with him explaining: "Your monarchs invite an ambassador, and receive him to their table; (but) as you and we may not eat together, this purse full of gold is the feast we give to an ambassador". Abdur Razzāq, Major, 31.
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Bābur must have relished spicy Indian food, although he does not say so pointedly perhaps because of his unfortunate experience with Indian cooks who were bribed by Ibrāhīm Lodī's mother to poison him. To the various items of Indian food, he added a few common in his native country. Ice and iced-water were introduced in India by Bābur. Abul Fazl mentions that while the commoners used ice in summer, the great nobles used it all the year round. Bābur writes of Indian fruits as a connoisseur. From Bābur’s times melons and other fruits as well as wine began to be imported in larger quantities.¹²⁵ The standard of dinners improved, so that by Akbar’s time “the number of dishes served was very great, and the elaboration of the service even more remarkable”.¹²⁶ Bābur did not merely complain of the things he found lacking in Hindustan; he introduced them here. From the time that he began to rule over Hindustan the standard of living of the people, at least of the rich people, began to show an upward trend.
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¹²⁵ To keep them fresh, “each melon was enclosed in a leather case, packed in ice”. It was in this way that melons were transported from Central Asia to places as far distant as requiring three months journey. M. Ilin, *Men and Mountains*, 31.
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¹²⁶ Moreland, *op. cit.*, 258.