Pappu and Parathas in Medieval India

 Pappu and Parathas in Medieval India

Pappu or Dal 

Pappu is just Telugu for Dal. What is Dal? It is simply pulses! Pigeon Peas, Chickpease, Green Gram Beans, they are all Pulses. When these pulses are cooked with water, they become soft, and that cooking is Dal or Pappu. The word Dal comes from the Sanskrit word dAlitameaning "split", as you would have to spli most of these pulses and unhusk them to be used in cooking. 

One of the earliest mentions of such Dal or Pappu comes from the Manasollasa, a book by the 12th Century Chalukyan king Someshwara. Manasollasa is a compendium of all delights a king takes part in, and one of that includes a chapter on food, approproately called Annabhoga. 

The Annabhoga in the original Sanskrit can be found here:

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.280843/page/n161/mode/2up?view=theater
(pg 162 on the archive bar)

I wrote this on May 7th, 2024, and as of now I haven't translated the Annabhiga fully. I have began translating when I was in 9th grade, and now I am a freshman in college. I haven't paid much attention to the project, but I will make a full translation available in the future. For now, refer to the passages that I give crudely translated so far. 

Here is the passage dealing with what is essentially Dal or Pappu:

"Thus there are the Rajamudra, the yellow Cowpeas (niSpAvA), and chickpeas (caNaka). Thus also the black Pigeon Peas (kRSNADhakyas), Black Grams (mASa), Lentils (masUrA), and the Kidney Beans (Rajamashakas), These 7 sauce making items are to be dealt by saucemakers.  
Crushed and uncrushed, these are to be cooked in whatever way the taste is of the chickpeas, rajamasha beans, and lentils and rajamudras (dalitA(a)dalitAzcaite pacanIyA yathAruci caNakA rAjamASAzca masUrA rAjamudrakAh).
The deed of being crushed is by grinding stones (gharaTTa), by those experienced in cooking, for cooking. A little dried (or roasted), thus, are the chickpeas by machine-whirls (yantrAvartaih) done twofold. They are made splitten, correctly, by a winnowing basket, and they are equally made unhusked in a pan after throwing cold water. He shall mix the pieces after placing them in a Chuli (stove), therefore, while cooking in a soft fire he shall put inside Hingu plant water. He shall bestow turmeric powder for a noble color, again and again he shall bestow turmeric powder for a noble color, again and again he shall add water until the fullness of the cooking. Having prepared smooth salt, put 20 parts according to color, and savor as per aroma, gentleness and smoothness.

Indeed the cooking of chickpeas is declared correctly perfect; there is no chaff with the black Pigeon Peas and with the Hingu plant. It is unchanged without the turmeric powder before, for simplicity, in the lentil bean recipe, he shall add the waters of the Hingu plant. Before the work of cooking, those remaining, by the cooks are placed so (that) they’re washed, are at best, are good in water. In a Chuli with soft fire, the cooking is done by the saucemakers. While being cooked, throw the waters of the hingu plant in the grains. He shall throw small ginger pieces (crushed into a powder). He shall throw in there: oil, eggplant slices. and oil. In the boiling oil, it possesses softness; he shall add a group of stalks or seeds of the Priyala plant. Having thrown he shall stir with a spoon. The learned one shall add, little by little, the water. Some want, in the reason of taste, chunks of goat meat, kidney and/or the loosened marrow, and crushed pepper. Again he shall throw in the soup which is well sprung. It is to be taken out, having thrown ginger powder smell. Stir it with a spoon, in millet, kanguri plants, gandhakasala rice, along with rice grains."  

For a summary of the food terminologies:

  • rajamudra- (unknown)
  • niSpAva - Yellow Cow Pea
  • caNaka - Chickpea (think: Chana dal)
  • kRSNADhakhyA - Black Pigeon Pea 
  • mASa- Black Gram  (Urad Dal) 
  • masUra- Lentils (think Masoor Dal)
  • rAjamASaka - Kidney Bean (think Rajma)
  • Hingu - Asafoetida 
  • priyAla - chironji

A Chuli is a stove. You probably know it as Chulha:


Summary of the Recepie:

1) Take the desired pulses which are dry and grind them twice in a grinding stone.
2) Split the pulses in a winnowing basket. Husks come off in this step
3) Put the split pulses in cold water, and remove the husks (which float) 
4) Put them in a pot over a stove with a soft fire, and mix the pulses with Asafoetida water
5)  Add tuermeric till you get a noble colour (optional, if no turmeric, more Asafoetida water if cooking with a lentil bean recepie)
6) Add 20 part salt  (salt is 1/20th the water?), or as per taste, and how smooth and gentle you want the finished product.
        **Cooking is declared perfect when there is no chaff in the food, so pay attention**

So  far so good, but there seems to be a continuation version to the above:

1) On a stove with a soft fire, Add Asafoetida water to the the grains.
2) Add powedred ginger peices 
`(Shukshma means minute, I tried it unpowered and came out horrible, so powder it).  
3) Add oil and eggplant slices. 
4) when it becomes soft, add stalks or seeds of the Chironji plant, stirl with a spoon. 
5) If desired, throw goat meat. (optional)
6) Take out and add some ginger powder for aroma and stir it in rice.

Enjoy! 

Thus a basic Medieval recipie for Dal or Pappu. I wonder if you people in Medieval India called each other as "pappu moham"? 

Parathas or Rotis

India has a rich history of flatbreads. These include Rotis or Chapatis but also Parathas, which was refered to as Polika. In Kannada, it is is holige, and in Telugu you may hear it as obbattu.   

The Manasollasa mentions various paratha like recipies, which I shall describe below.

 
"Wheat is washed, polished, and dried by the sun rays, with grinding stones they are crushed, those particles are made unhusked with a filter. The wheat powder is softly mixed with some ghee; they are mixed with salt joint with milk and water in a big wooden vessel. He shall grind with hands or with spades, crushed betel nuts, that are being, he shall arrange into small clumps (golaka). With oil covered palms they are covered in rice powder.  He shall spread out those spheres with the engagement of hand motion. Spread out and tender are the four having equal splendor of a white cloth. The expert shall deliberately throw on top of a Karpara which is also cooked. He shall take it off as long as it shall not excel in blackness. Four and four, the Mandaka is well produced. He shall deposit the spread out the clumps in his hands onto the coal . Angarapolikas are praised when they have arriven to a little blackness. He shall stretch the flour-smeared clumps with a grind-stone. Thrown in hot heat, he shall turn over the partially cooked (food). On a Karpara, he shall cook a series of Polikas.

In a pot (kaTaha) full of well heated oil, he shall cook Sohala. The Sohalas are thought to be a difficult preparation of excellent cooking.


Sunken in oil, yellow, pressed, the Pahalika is remembered. Those clumps which spread thin are cooked with fat in a tApI. Having thrown on top of them small leaves, the one with good intellect shall cook (them).

Having raised them up from Wheat flour, the particles are struck with a winnowing basket. Milk anointed and ripened with ghee is mixed with white sugar and enjoined with Cardamom-pepper powder; those known as Kashara. With the small clumps which are covered with oil and Udumbara (cluster fig tree), he shall cook them. 


Having broiled/fried clean split chickpeas, and then having mashed them, which are enjoined with Hingu, and enjoined with salt, and is mixed all around with sugar, and with the powder of Pepper and cardamom, and all are jointly surrounded by a small clump, the wise one shall cook an auspicious Purika. He shall cook other Purikas." 

 

For a summary of the food terminologies:

  • polika - Puran Poli (type of Paratha)
  • maNDaka- a flat circular "cake", they have no black singes
  • angarapolika- a polika cooked to have a little black singes
  •  pahAlika- a type of polika
  • Kasara- type of pastry or flatbread
  • pUrika- puri 
  • kaTAha - shallow oil pan
  • tApI- some sort of pot or pan

Summary of the Recepie:

1) Dried and polished wheat is crushed with a grinding-stone. Wheat is unhusked with a filter or sieve. 
2)In a wooden vessel,the wheat powder is mixed with ghee, salt, and water.
3)Mix the above into a dough.
4) Add crushed Betel nut and mix into the dough.
5) Make clumps of the dough and cover with rice flour (to make them less sticky). 
6) Flatten out the clumps with oily hands.
7) Throw those flattened dough on to a pan. 
  • To make a Mandaka, don't let the flatbread blacken
  • To make a Angarapolika, let the flatbread blacken alittle.
8) Flip the flatbread over to cook the other side. 
  • If these are cooked in deep oil instead, you get Sohalas. 
  • If you add leaves while the bread isn't yet cooked, you get a Pahalika

Summary of the Recepie for a Kashara:

1) Wheat flour particles are shaken in a winnowing basket.
2) Add milk, ghee, sugar, an powder of cardamum and pepper.
3) Make small oil covered clumps out of these and mix it with figs from a clustered fig tree (udumbara)
    [I am not actually sure which part of the udumbara is to be used]
4) Prepare and cook these as a Pahalika (in deep oil).

Summary of the Recepie for a Purika:

1) Prepare broiled or fried chickpeas that are clean, mash them
2)Add Asafoetida, sugar, pepper and cardamom powder. 
    [I would add water, though not mentioned]
3) Make clumps and flattten 
4) Prepare and cook these like a Pahalika (in deep oil) 


Before I conclude, here is a fun fact about the Mandakas. The Skanda Puranas likens the the roundness of the Mandakas to the ybol for the number Zero:

"10. Maṇḍakas (a thin flat circular cake-like dish) beautiful, circular, even and symmetrical everywhere like (the arithmetical figure for) zero, along with boiled milk mixed with sugar should be kept therein."

(https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc371688.html)

Conclusion

Some of the delicious recepies of India go back 900 years, and likely even farther in the past. I will explore more recepies in the future and hopefulley publish a full translation of the Annabhoga of the Manasollasa. i want to end on one note saying that the several dishes found in Manasollasa are what we would call South Indian. Yes, we have a Sanskrit text on South Indian cooking! How neat is that! This goes to show the beauty and richness of Indian culture.       

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