History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c26.s3.t2.14

v1.c26.s3.t2.14

The actual recipes are therefore not unambiguous. *Praśannā* is made from twelve *āḍhakas* of flour with eight parts of water along with five *prasthas* of the ferment, to which could optimally be added the rind (another interpretation is bark) and fruit of *putraka* (alternative, *kramuka*). Medaka was made from half an *āḍhaka* of rice grains, one *droṇa* of water and three *prasthas* of ferment. An *āsava* in one reading employed one *tula* of woodapple fruit (*kapittha*), five *tulās* of treacle and a *prastha* of honey, all perhaps fermented together. In another, *āsava* is stated to be a mixture of “one *karṣa* each of cinnamon bark with *citraka*, *vilāṅgī* and *gajapippali*, and two *karṣas* each of *kramuka*, liquorice, *musta* and *lodhrā*; and one-tenth part of these is the formulation of the essence” which could mean that the larger quantities constituted the ferment, and the smaller the final flavouring. Maireya appears to have been a liquor disitilled from a spice-induced fermentation (a decoction of *meṣaśṛṅgī* bark, and two peppers); later the distillate was sweetened either using expensive honey or cheaper *guda* and *phanita* (Agrawala, 1949 p. 291), and flavoured with *triphala*, the well-known astringent ayurvedic mix of the chebulic myrobalan (*Terminalia Chebula*), the belleric myrobalan (*T.bellirica*) and the amla (*Emblica officianalis*). It was popular with royalty, and must have been an expensive drink.