The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c5.s8.3

c5.s8.3

But there was no scarcity of daily necessities of life. True, in medieval India there was no tea, no bed-tea. Coffee came late. It is mentioned by Jahangir in his memoirs.⁸⁷ Tomato or potato did not arrive before the sixteenth century. Still, there was no dearth of palatable dishes for the medieval people to eat. Wheat and rice were common staples.⁸⁸ Rice is said to be of as many kinds as twenty-one.⁸⁹ *Paratha*, *halwa* and *harisa*, were commonly eaten by the rich,⁹⁰ *Khichri* and *Sattu* by the poor.⁹¹ 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.⁹² Fowls, pigeons and other birds were sold very cheap.⁹³ Vegetables mentioned in medieval works are pumpkin, brinjal, cucumber, jackfruit (*kathal*), bitter gourd (*karela*), turnip, carrot, asparagus, various kinds of leafy vegetables, ginger, garden beet, onion, garlic, fennal and thyme.⁹⁴ Dal and vegetables were cooked in ghee, tamarind was commonly used, and pickles prepared from green mangoes as well as ginger and chillies were favourites.⁹⁵ There were fresh fruits, dry fruits and sweets. Apples, grapes, pears and pomegranates⁹⁶ were for important people. Melons, green and yellow (*kharbuza* and *tarbuz*), were grown in abundance.⁹⁷ Orange, citron (*utrurj*), lemon (*limun*), lime (*lim*), *jamun*, *khirni*, dates and figs were in common use as also the plantains.⁹⁸ Sugar-cane was grown in abundance and Ziyauddin Barani, writing in Persian, gives its Hindustani name *ponder*. Mango, then as now, was the most favourite fruit of India.⁹⁹ Sweet-meats were of many kinds, as many as sixty five.¹⁰⁰ Some names like reori, sugar-candy, *halwa* and samosa are familiar to this day. Ibn Battutas 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.¹⁰¹ Wine and other intoxicants like hemp and opium, though prohibited in Islam, were freely taken by those who had a liking for it.¹⁰² Betel (then known by its Sanskrit name *tambul*) was an after dinner delicacy.¹⁰³