What did people eat during the Rajaraja Chola times?
What were their favorite snack?
Did they consume meat? Did they drink alcohol in celebration?
A thread!
Warning: Reading this thread could trigger the foodie in you!
#PonniyinSelvan1
Kalki has documented some (not ALL) of the Chola's eating habits.
Mostly through Vandhiyadhevan!
Vanthiyathevan is the hero we always wanted: he flirts well, sleeps better, and eats like a king!
He relishes the good food served by Sendhan Amudhan's mom.
He Starts with Idiyappam and Coconut Milk, a combination straight from heaven.
Then moves on to Puliyodarai, and Corn Flour Paniyaaram.
Finishes off with curd rice.
Sumptous!
Ponniyin Selvan &Poonguzhali eat the fiber rich Varagu Rice (Kodo Millet) as cooked by the mute queen Mandakini.
What about snacks?
Some of Chola snacks: Roasted peanuts with a sprinkling of fresh coconut, millet & jaggery toffee made with sea water, or spiced guava and jamun
Food had moved beyond sustenance & had become a luxury for Cholas.
Records show they cultivated paddy, sugarcane, banana, brinjal, black gram, cow peas (‘karamani’) & spinach.
The phrase "Chozha Naadu Soru Udaithu" shows how fertile the land was, and droughts were unheard of.
Their food was bereft of the current day masala.
It was healthy - with a good mix of protein, carbs, fat and vitamins.
They included ghee- good fat, as part of their food and ate all their veggies.
Some natural fruit sugar was fine too - banana, jackfruit and sugarcane.
They relished their time preparing food. Avarai beans, cooked in tamarind gravy & served with bamboo shoot curry, is a time-consuming dish to prepare.
This dish was prized for its flavour & health benefits, & the texture, once soaked &cooked, had a rich, melt-in-the-mouth feel.
Due to abundance of sugarcanes, they savored sugar -in the form of akkara adisal (Sugar Pongal).
Their favorite snack seems to be Adhirasam, a sweet delicacy.
Fermented foods like Dosas, Appam, were regular foods too.
Post food, they had the habit of chewing Betel leaves.
Of course, they did consume meat as well.
From fish fry to Tortoise/Rabbit To Roasted Peppery Goat, it was a feast.
Historians say non-vegetarian food such as ‘kari choru’ (rice & meat cooked together) was common.
Offering ‘chatti choru’ (pot rice) is still in practice in TN.
Both men and women seemed consumed alcohol - as a celebration.
But they were well aware of the ill effects of alcohol.
Go back 1000 years, and one could see the then TASMACs displaying warning boards in entrance: "Bali Aaveer!" (You'd d!ë)
This is documented in Pattinapaalai:
All in all, during peace times, the Cholas savored good food, dressed up, drank alcohol, sung and danced, paid 16.66% tax, prayed to god, celebrated their king and lived with responsibility.
Live and Let Live.
A lesson 21st century could learn from history.
#Cholas #TamilNadu
If you liked this thread, please follow @labstamil for more such content.
@krishashok @kbalakumar you might be interested in this thread on Chola period foods!
Want to read a delightful retelling of Ponniyin Selvan in 300 pages?
Want to travel along the path of Vandhiyathevan covering 100 spots with helpful google map links to guide you?
Ponniyin Selvan Route Map is the book you need to read!
Amazon Link: amzn.to/3BG8zYW
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It is one thing to excel at one chosen field, but entirely another to rule the roost in six different fields - Law, Theatre, Cinema, Journalism, Writing and Political Strategy.
On his birthday, let us take a look at the CV of the multifaceted Cho Ramaswamy (1/10)
Born in Chennai to Srinivasan and Rajammal on Oct 5, 1934, Cho did his SSLC in PS Higher Secondary, Mylapore in Tamil Medium.
He did Intermediate from Loyola, and got a B Sc in Geography in Vivekananda College - as it was the easiest to get admitted to (According to him😁).
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World's best narrative setters DMK had deployed a half-baked filmmaker to peddle their often repeated agenda, portraying "Aryam" as a villain and Dravidam as a savior.
Let's fact check some of their much popularized narrative claims in this short read (1/6)
Claim: "Education was gatekept in TN, Dravidam opened it for all"
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Where was Dravidam in 1825?
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Do you know why DMK is a mighty force that OWNS narratives, whereas its measly opponents are forever playing catch-up in an uphill battle?
It is because proponents of Dravidam know & care abt something that intellectuals of the non-left disregard and disrespect. Read on (1/10)
The common people of TN are moved primarily by emotions. They are wired to think that good speakers are good thinkers, and to the common man, rhetoric = reality.
And DMK is master of using the Greek technique of pathos, to persuade people into buying their narratives. How?
Dstocks own Cinema, Street play, Reality shows, Mega Serials - basically every mass medium that has "mind share". They use emotions to their benefit.
They plant the highly sticky ideas of victimization by a clear opponent - Tam vs Hindi, Aryan vs Drav, State v Centre.
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Did you know this belief directly correlates with anti-Brahm rhetoric of Dravidian politics?
An important thread (1/10)
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It was a pagan world with many Gods: Zeus, Poseidon, Thor, Aphrodite, Durga, Shiva, Vishnu.
And each region had their own national God - Athena of Athens, Padmanaba of Trivandrum and Yahweh, the God of Israel.
Even Jews were not monotheistic originally -they were monolaters. Meaning, they didn't deny that other Gods didn't exist, they simply didn't worship them.
Its the first step to monotheism: "My God is greater than other Gods, so I shan't worship them or put them before mine."
Today is Aadi 18, the day Vandhiyathevan commences his journey from Kanchi to Thanjavur, kicking off the proceedings of Ponniyin Selvan!
Come, let us travel along Vandhiyathevan to retrace the hero's journey in modern day Tamilnadu, with google map links and images! (1/14)
Vandhiyathevan is on a mission - to deliver 2 secret messages from Kanchipuram to Thanjavur.
After 175km of travel, both the hero and his horse are tired. That is when he sees the refreshing visuals of Veeranarayanapura lake. It was Aadi 18, and the Cholas were celebrating.
This dam of 16km length was built by Rajaditya Chola named after his dad Parantaka-1 aka Veeranarayanan.
Sri Ramanuja was influenced by the magnitude of this lake and decided to establish 74 mutts : a number based on the 74 openings in the lake.
Map: maps.app.goo.gl/8iF2nxAoucMe7U…
"Check your privilege" is a favorite phrase thrown around by LW w0kes to silence their opponents.
Here's a short thread on why no sensible, decent person should fall for this psychological trap, and how to counter this manner of thinking using Indian sensibilities (1/8)
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This thinking is comparable to the "original sin" doctrine - where being "privileged" (by their own definitions) is your sin.
You are made to feel guilt, shame and sorry simply for being born to a particular "privileged" group, by default. The sin was there for your taking, even before you were born.
You pay for this original sin by confessing your privileges and baptizing yourself into the sacred water of consent, in the presence of the holy victim spirit and pleading privilege guilty.