History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c26.s2.t2.34

v1.c26.s2.t2.34

The oldest Tamil writings of the Sangam period (Srinivasa Iyengar, 1930, pp.57-70 and 1932, pp. 253-300; Sreedhara Menon, 1979, pp.121-126); date from about 100 BC to the 6th century AD, when kingdoms and trade were flourishing and kitchen technology must have already come a long way. The ural and ullūkal (words that obviously resemble the Sanskrit ulūkhala) were mortars made of both wood and stone used to pound paddy and rice. Grinding stones frequently took animal shapes, such as that of a tortoise; they were called ammi, tiruvai, āttukal and kulavi, while the stone mullers that paired with them were termed puttil and vatigai. Pots were fashioned out of either clay or stone, and had many names; pānai, śatti, śal, talam, midā, pāṇā, mittava, and mallāy, with its lid madukku. Liquor was served in a bowl called mandai (Subrahmaniam, 1966, pp. 306-309). The kundam was a versatile container, used for example to hold toddy (kallu kuṇḍam), and so was the kalam. Pots could be suspended from the roof in a rope sling (simili), or kept in stands called paṭṭādai, śumudu or śummadu. There were many spoons: the agappai was itself of three kinds (tatta-, sanda- and sirra-), and there were others called sattuvam, karaṇḍi, muttai, taduppu, maravai, toṭṭi, kinnam, marakkal (or abanam) and vaṭṭi. The vattil was a flat spoon of stone, wood or metal. There were wood friction devices to raise fire, censers to hold embers (tadavu, indalam) and pokers (nelikol) for raking the fire. The winnowing pan (śurpa in Sanskrit) was murram, the sieve was salladai, and there were plates called sinnam, sulagu, tattu and mirrul for various purposes. The bamboo coop for protecting food from flies was called kudu. Kitchens had mats (pāy) to sit on, and lofts for storage (paran, idanam, kaludu, padagam and panavai). Leaf plates fashioned out of the ambal (lotus), banyan and teak are mentioned in the earlier literature; by the 8th century AD, use of banana leaves had become common (Pillay, 1975, p. 284). Practically all these utensils and words persist to this day. As in the north, some vessels later evolved into measures of volume, like the kalam, padi, nāli and ūri (Srinivasan, 1979, pp. 71-79). Fire was raised by friction between pieces of wood, and a perpetual fire was kept going in pots called kumpatti. Into this was poked a stick called sulundu, sometimes tipped with sulphur (Srimvasa Iyengar, 1930, pp. 57-70).