History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c26.s3.t5.7

v1.c26.s3.t5.7

South India obtained a large part of its jaggery from the fresh juice of the spathe of the palmyra palm (and Bengal from the trunk of the date palm), using slaked lime to prevent its fermentation (Rasanayagam, 1926, pp. 130-160). No crushing is involved, and the juice is simply boiled down and when thick poured into coconut halves to set to jaggery or vellam, a word mentioned in the earliest literature. Waving tassels of the sugarcane (“like spears”) are also frequently referred to, and sugarcane processing is mentioned (Gode, 1948, p. 43), but products of the sugarcane seem to have been of lesser importance in south India, even till recent times. Cane sugar crystals have an old name, ayir (also meaning gravel) (Srinivasa Iyengar, 1930, pp. 57-70), but are commonly called śakkarai, a word which is clearly of Sanskrit origin.