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
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
You must have heard the word 'பன்னாடை' (Pannaadai) as a common insult.
This word is mentioned in 12th century Tamil grammar work 'Nannool' to illustrate the nature of a bad student.
The set of examples for top, mid & bottom tier of students has a life lesson for us all (1/6)
Bhavanandhi Munivar, writer of Nanool classifies students into 3 tiers.
The top tier students are like swan and cow.
The mid tier students are like mud and parrot.
The bottom tier students are like broken pot, goat, buffalo and Pannaadai.
What do these examples mean?
Mythical swans can separate out the water from milk - it has the ability to discern useful things even out of an adulterated product.
Good students can filter out what's unnecessary.
Cows eat fast but chew slowly. A good student must get a quick download of lessons when learning, but recall it at leisure, and absorb the lessons well.
Shouldn't an army Major be remembered for his bravery rather than his caste?
Then, why are some RW handles being "casteist" in demanding an accurate portrayal of Major Mukund's roots in his excellently crafted biopic Amaran?
A thread that offers nuance on biopics (1/10)
First off, members of our forces - be it Indian Army, or Navy, or Air Force, these brave warriors cannot be boxed to the confines of caste, creed or religion.
They are unanimously respected for what they do - their selfless service to the nation. Not for who they're born to.
Then why are some RW handles hellbent on showing the real identity of Mukund Varadarajan - a TamBrahm?
If you're irked by it, consider this - how would Tamils have reacted if he was depicted as Major Mukund Menon - from Kochi?
Boat - a 1940s Dravidian propaganda stage play, masquerading as a Tamil feature film.
A thread that reviews this film with a clear agenda (1/9)
On Oct 11, 1943, Japanese warplanes bombed the Madras presidency in a nighttime raid.
Fearing another attack, 9 random people get on a boat to secure themselves in mid ocean, with one univited British guest who joins them later, with a gun.
'Did they all survive?' is the plot
The 9 characters stuck on a boat are carefully chosen to represent a Mini-India.
The fisherman & his grandma help onboard a pregnant Telugu woman+ her sick son, a Sait, a regular M, a regular H, and the usual villains of Tamil cinema - a c@steist TB mama and her daughter.