“Offering to the Gods”
A journey into the heart of the southern
splendor of India , as a start, when
ultimately we will
travess across east, west and north of India , bringing forth century old
secrets of food cooked for the Gods.Food in India is considered akin to
divinity It is considered inseperable from BRAHMA ---the supreme cosmic truth.
The Soul food , cooked to tantalize any taste combines the influences of all
religions and century old invasions of foreign rulers like French, Portugese,
Greek, Persian, British,Moghuls, Dutch and a few others. The food cooked on a
daily basis also, is an offering to the gods and only the crwos representing
the ancestors are first fed , before food partaken. This southern journey
covers temple, mosque, church, gurdwara and ashram food, festival foods and
special dishes prepared for special. Food here is influenced by the
availability of the raw materials grown and the export-import of spices, a
trade which was centuries old .
We
start the journey with the Union territory of PUDUCHERRY , which has an unique
combination of four places , with different cultural and language influences,
each representing one state in South India. Puducherry the spiritual , sleepy
coastal town, reflects the French influence in not only its food but housing,
culture and habits. The food cooked as Prasad for the temples , some which are
over 1000 years old is a combination of the native tamilian and the Brahmins
from Thanjaur who came and settled here. The menu today represents food from across the union territory and
coastal part of thanjur,. Karaikal, which houses the famous Saturn temple , the
one of its kind in the whole world, the nagur dargah and the velankini church
at nagapattnam. Mahe which is on the Malabar border, Yanam which reflects the
spirit of Andhra Pradesh,
We can make the preparing of food, the offering of food to God, and the eating of the food offered, into a powerful devotional meditation. If, as a meditative discipline, we can offer our food to God with devotion before eating it, not only are we not implicated in the karma involved in acquiring the food, but we can actually make spiritual progress by eating the offered food. Our devotion, and God's grace, subtly transforms the food offered from material nutrition to spiritual mercy or prasada.
As a
spiritual state prasāda has a rich history of meanings in the Sanskrit
tradition from Vedic
literature onwards. In this textual tradition, prasada is a mental state
experienced by gods, sages, and other powerful beings and is marked by
spontaneous generosity and the bestowing of boons. In the earliest literature (Rig Veda)
onwards Prasāda is understood in this sense of a mental state, not as an aspect
of ritual practice. In later texts such as the Shiva
Purana, references to prasada as a material substance begins to appear
alongside this older meaning.
Offerings to the gods explores the
traditions of spiritual, taste. Variety
and cultural aspect of foods prepared as offerings to the divine in the
holy places of worship.
It also identifies the historical and
geographical influences on the food in
all these places,. The belief is food which is offered as Prasad, when
eaten , heals and create wellness and positive vibrations in the body. Offerings to the divine in a holy place , is called Prasad.
The exposure to such vast and diverse Prasad food of our holy places will not
only enlighten people, but create an awareness of recipes and offerings
nurtured and created over thousands of years and classified as temple food.
"What is Temple food, the effects on the
different parts of the body, the scientific, spiritual and economic
significance of it. And why is it this way?"---is all explained when one
gets to eat , taste and understand the ingredients ,method of cooking etc. no
cooking is undertaken without a bath and a prayer asking god to bless the
cooking process. The food is cooked from the soul.
We focus on the following areas:
a) "Temples and Holistic places of India”-
Temple
and s of worship, selection is based upon geographical location, cultural
traditions, spiritual significance, and historical influences. We trace the
mythology around the locations ,where temples were created around a suvembu
statue found or appearance of some mystical appearance of a divine being, like
shiridi sai baba. statues could be dated back to thousands of
years and carried a legacy ofa rich divine tale.
We
also trace the influence of food, by not
only invading countries like the French on Pondicherry, the Portuguese on Goa
and Chennai, British on a major part of
India. The Greeks, the mughals, the Afghans, Turks, Persians are some to name.,
but it was the ruling dynasties of India
like Chola and Pandava, mauryan, gupta, Maratha, mughal, delhi sultanate, and
various small kingdoms, which largely, influenced food to a large extent. , especially
offerings to the gods.
We start our journey from S INDIA and travel
east, west and north. The emphasis on the cultural and spiritual significance is felt in all major ctivities in the south,
especially festivals and certain holy days.
In south
India,starting with kerala, we proceed
towards Karnataka , tamilnadu the union
territory of Pondicherry,and lastly Andhra Pradesh. All these places boast of
temples 1000 of years old and the Prasad and food was influenced by the rich
heritage of kingdoms who ruled it be it the Pandavas , cholas., mauryasor
vijanagar. –the Union territory, governed by the French and given back to India
in 1952, had the unique distinction of seeing the union of two types of
cuisine, South Indian and French, The food called creole, has left a permanent
mark --- and prasad food is a culmination of that influence of that period.
Most
of these places of worship date back to early 14th century onwards.In
the chola and the Pandava ,period
temples and Offerings to the god, play a
significant role.
For
E.g, In a place called Brahmapuriswar,
villipuram district, there is a huge carved ,significant, shiva temple , which
dates back 1000 plus years and carries the legend of king Janak coming to pray
here and offering special Prasad to Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati.
The Prasad in this place is CURD RICE, with
mustard seeds and pepper, as red chilies came to south India later. The reason
for Curd is to cool Shiva who carries the whole weight of the universe on himself.
Boiled black grams, tempered with mustard seeds, fenugreek, asafetida, chilies
and coconut. Tamarind rice, cooked in gingelly oil. Gingelly oil is grown
locally and so is tamarind.
Red
chillies not really Indian. These wonderful materials were brought to India
from Mexico, perhaps in the late 16th century. They took a little while to
catch on, but in about a hundred Mustard and pepper were grown in south india
and found its presence in most of the food. Red chillies were introduced to S
India by We had a glimpse in the last chapter that chillis are years, the use
of chillis spread to every part of India. Before that it was [black] pepper
that as used to give the pungency that is so characteristic of Indian food. In
one of the sections of Ain-i-Akbari, written in 1590, there is a list of 50
dishes cooked in Akbar's court: all of them use only [black] pepper to impart
spiciness. In most Indian languages, the name for chilli is simply a variation
of the earlier name for [black] pepper in the same language. For example, in
Hindi we say kalimirch for black pepper and harimirch for chili. In Tamil, the
word for pepper is milagu and that for chili is milagai (=milagu-kai
(pepper+fruit)). In Kannada, the words arekarimenasu and menasinkayi.
It is not difficult to understand why the chilli quickly replaced black pepper in our cooking. While the black pepper vine grows almost only in Kerala, chillis can be grown in almost every backyard, or cultivated in the fields, all over the country. Thus, they were easily available everywhere at a low price. All the many varieties that we know come to us from Mexico and none of them was developed afterwards in India. These include the green chili, red chili, long red chilli, very small and very hot green bird chilli, and the large mild capsicum. To make chilli-powder, the long bright-red variety with think skins can be dried in the sun, and ground either with its seeds to give more pungency, or without it to give a milder chilli-powder. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say the humble chilli from Mexico really revolutionized the food of India.
The spice
trade refers to the trade between
historical civilizations in Asia, Northeast Africa and Europe. Spices
such as cinnamon,
cassia, cardamom, ginger, pepper,
and turmeric
were known, and used for commerce, in the Eastern world. [1] Prehistoric writings and stone age
carvings of neolithic
age obtained indicates that India's South West Coast path, especially Kerala had
established itself as a major spice trade centre from as early as 3000 B.C,
which marks the beginning of Spice Trade (History
of Kerala) and is still referred to as the land of spices or as the Spice Garden of India.[2
Thus it is no wonder we start our journey of “offerings
to the gods” from Kerala, still referred to as the land of spices or the spice
garden of the East. Kerala is considered gods own country with its natural
greenery and beauty. Many of the places of worship are steeped in history,
culture and ancient traditions still followed. It is a unique state which gives equal importance
to all religions and the food is strangely has a common thread amidst all
especially the Prasad, cooked as offering or food cooked at festivals and first
offered to the gods. The only major difference is the presence of non-veg., in
the food cooked by the Syrian Christians and mappilla Muslims versus the strict
vegetarian food cooked by the temples. The process is the same, the type of
utensils and masalas used is similar and even some of the rituals are uniquely
alike in some ways.
Tradition and folklore enrich the stories of the origins
of some of the world famous pilgrim places here.
Guruvaur one of the world famous Vishnu temples , situated
south of Trissur, 130 kms from Cochin, is one of the most visited Shrines. The
belief is that when Lord Krishna was ascending to heaven from Dwaraka, he
called Vayu and Guru and asked them to take the statue of lord Vishnu, in his
puja place in dwaraka, very safely and find it a home far away , in some other
place in India. The statue was given to Krishna by LORD Vishnu himself and
asked to preserve it carefully. Krishna knew Dwaraka was going to be destroyed
by invaders and submerged in the sea and hence wanted the statue to be
installed with great care somewherelse.
They took it to a place , right down south to kerala.
Lord shiva aand parvati were enjoying their earthy sojourn there, but the
moment they saw guru and vayu, they vacated the spot for vishnu’s statue to be
installed and moved further to a place called mammayur. The place thus came to
be called Guruvaur. The statue is not man made and the vibrations are so
powerful that anyone who visits it remains transfixed the moment they look on
it.
The rituals and
b) "Temple Cuisine" - Each temple district has a special cuisine,
known as "Prasad" associated with it. This cuisine is identified,
documented, and prepared. The rituals around food selection, preparation,
presentation and the history of the ingredients used form the central core of
the project. We gather first-hand knowledge by participating in the preparation
of the foods, interviews and observations and we supply recipes from each
experience. Our emphasis is on taste - that temple food is regarded as the best
in India because it is prepared with devotion,
purity and affection.
The first temple to be identified is at
Tirupathi,35 km from Tirupathi is Tirumala and a
major place of pilgrimage as Lord narayana spent his time here, giving darshan and
freezing himself into a statue. . This . It is described as a transcendental
place and "anyone who goes there
and eats the Prasad becomes transcendentally purified."The typical
prasadam here consists of the 9
ingredients kunja Laddu, Puliotherai, their sadam, Parpu vadai, Thatte, Lemon
rice.
c) "Outsiders on the Inside" - how did outside influences, whether
foreign occupation by Portugal, France and
Britain or ingredients brought in for trade, affect architecture, ritual,
cuisine and other aspects of Temple life? We identify interesting histories,
for example that Chili peppers were introduced by
Portuguese traders during the 16th century. "Vindaloo" is still one
of the hottest dishes prepared in N Kanara using chili
pepper and that India remains the largest consumer, producer and
exporter of Chili pepper. The four main types of Chili
pepper used in Temple food are Lal Mirch, Hari Mirch (fresh Lal
Mirch), Degi Mirch (Paprika) and Simla Mirch (Sweet Bell
Pepper).
Our
whole voyeuristic journey on temple food will showcase the different Prasad
foods as a separate temple food section and also bring to you the specialties
on non –Veg in that place , influenced by imported spices, invaders and
dynasties.
From
the temples in AP to the famous temples of Karnataka, Tamilnadu ,Pondicherry
and Kerala, one has over 340 dishes to cover. We have the chosen the most
popular and the best out of these to show case.
Some
of the dishes are listed below.---sages who have expounded their philosophy in
the Upanishads make no distinction between the atman[individual soul] and
Brahman [the supreme cosmic reality]it is clearly stated tat tvam asi[thou art
that] –food is Brahman and that is why soul recipes like 
Temple food are recipes for life.
TEMPLES IDENTIFIED IN SOUTH INDIA.
1Sri Manavinayakular temple at Pondicherry ----This
is a svembu temple The legend which is said to be totally true, tells of the
French governor during the 17th century, who wanted to get rid of
the small ganesh temple standing on ashram land
and
building military barracks there. SThe Earliest Hindu Temples
The
earliest temple structures were not made of stones or bricks, which came much
later. In ancient times, public or community temples were possibly made of clay
with thatched roofs made of straw or leaves. Cave-temples were prevalent in
remote places and mountainous terrains.
According
to historian, Nirad C Chaudhuri, the earliest structures that indicate idol
worship date back to the 4th or 5th century AD. There was a seminal development
in temple architecture between the 6th and the 16th century. This growth phase
of Hindu temples charts its rise and fall alongside the fate of the various
dynasties that reigned India during the period majorly contributing and
influencing the building of temples, especially in South India.
Hindus
consider the building of temples an extremely pious act, bringing great
religious merit. Hence kings and wealthy men were eager to sponsor the
construction of temples, notes Swami Harshananda, and the various steps of
building the shrines were performed as religious rites.
Temples
of South India (6th - 18th Century AD)
The
Pallavas (600 - 900 AD) sponsored the building of the rock-cut chariot-shaped
temples of Mahabalipuram, including the famous shore temple, the Kailashnath
and Vaikuntha Perumal temples in Kanchipuram in southern India.
The
Pallavas style further flourished - with the structures growing in stature and
sculptures becoming more ornate and intricate - during the rule of the
dynasties that followed, particularly the Cholas (900 - 1200 AD), the Pandyas
temples (1216 - 1345 AD), the Vijayanagar kings (1350 - 1565 AD) and the Nayaks
(1600 - 1750 AD).
The
Chalukyas (543 - 753 AD) and the Rastrakutas (753 - 982 AD) also made major
contributions to the development of temple architecture in Southern India. The
Cave Temples of Badami, the Virupaksha temple at Pattadakal, the Durga Temple
at Aihole and the Kailasanatha temple at Ellora are standing examples of the
grandeur of this era.
s
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