The History of BIRYANI

Let's conclude this documentary on a lighter note. Let us try to understand the history of this delicious and widely popular dish, the biryani. Now first things first, rice cooked with meat and some spices, that's what we call today's biryani. Forget the name biryani for a minute, but if we look into the history of food, these kinds of dishes were widely popular around the world. Mesopotamia some 2000 BC, around that period, a pilaf-like dish where rice and meat cooked together was prepared. In Africa, jollof rice, pretty much around the 14th century CE, that's when rice, spices, and meat all cooked together was prepared and it's called as jollof rice. And same way coming to the history of China, some 1800 to 2000 years ago, bao zai fan, it's a dish that's prepared by stewing or steaming, I'm not really sure, but around that, styles of preparation in one single clay pot where rice, meat, and other condiments were cooked together. So the bottom line is, the antiquity of this dish called biryani or jollof rice or bao zai fan, whatever the way you'd like to call it as, where rice, spices, and meat all cook together, well that dish has a very deep history. And definitely you cannot attribute this dish to one place, where every place has its own making, recipe, and perfection which suited to that taste, climate, and people of that land. Now coming to the context of India, is biryani a vestation import? Is biryani brought to India by, or rather through, the Islamic invasions? A very popular understanding is, the Islamic invasions, or rather the invaders, are the ones who brought in this dish called biryani into Bharat. Let us see how much of truth is in there. Rice cooked with meat has been a very ancient dish that is also present in Bharat as part of Nala Maharaja Krita Pakadarpana. In that, 63 different varieties of rice dishes are elaborated by Nala Maharaja, including their recipes and everything about that. And what we call today biryani, with a different name, is very much part of, not just the ancient practices or ancient scriptures. Even today, as we speak, we have the living proof of that. Let us explore. Let's flip back to the times of the Vedic period. If you missed the earlier part of this video, where I explained about the complete history of food, I will leave link to the full video in the pinned comment. Now if you've already been watching through this video, then here it is. Brahma Udana Suktam. Brahma Udana Suktam, part of Adharvana Vedam, is one of the oldest scriptures in Vedic corpus, which exalts boiling rice as a form of Parabhramam. We have this saying called Annam Parabhramaswaroopam. That means, food is a manifestation of the divine supreme. That high level of reverence towards food essentially originates from Brahma Udana Suktam of Adharvana Vedam. And here, the process of boiling rice is called as Odana. Odana means that act of boiling rice and it is considered very sacred. Now if we flip to Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, part of Yajur Vedam, there is a ritual mentioned for a couple who seeks a son. So to conceive a scholarly and accomplished son who can master all four Vedas, a couple should offer and then eat rice cooked with meat of a vigorous bull accompanied by ghee. So basically, this dish where rice and the meat of a bull. Again to be very clear, it is not cow. Cow is always referred as Agnya throughout the Vedas, which means the one that should not be killed. Here we are talking about the meat of a bull. So a meat of a bull cooked with rice and ghee. That dish is referred as Mamsa Udanam. It's two words basically, Mamsa and Udanam. Mamsa means meat, we all know that. Udanam means basically it's an extended form of Odana, the one which you just saw. So Mamsa Udana means the process or the dish that is made by boiling meat and rice together. Now again to repeat one very important thing, these were the traditions during the Vedic period. It is very much part of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad but these practices are now completely extinct. From the times of Mahabharata, there is a drastic shift towards the vegetarianism and as the four yugas pass by, the Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapar Yuga and we are in now Kali Yuga. According to the Yugadharma, these rituals are no more valid and no one really follows these. But nonetheless, since we are talking about history of Bharat, we need to very much understand that meat consumption is part of the Vedic rituals back then. And there comes a dish where meat and rice are cooked with ghee and other condiments together called as Mamsa Udanam. On the same lines, if we flip to Sri Ramayanam in Ayodhya Kanda, when Maa Sita, Bhagawan Sri Ram and Lakshmana Swami on their journey into their exile while crossing river Ganga, these are the words of Maa Sita. The translation is, O Ganga, after reaching back the city of Ayodhya upon completion of our 14 years of exile, I shall worship you with a thousand pots of Sura, a consecrated drink, and Mamsa Bhuta Udana, meat with cooked rice, well prepared for the sacred rituals. Here again, we find a mention of Mamsa Udana or Mamsa Bhuta Udana, it's one and the same, where meat is cooked with rice. So bottom line, in our ancient scriptures, what we call today biryani was actually called Mamsa Udanam. But is there any physical proof that such thing really existed outside of the scriptures? The answer is a big yes and let's see what it is. And that piece of living history about Mamsa Udana in a different format, you can find that in Andhra Pradesh. In the abode of Tirumala, Sri Venkateswara Swami, there once lived a potter with the name This is actually part of the Sthala Puranam of Tirumala. So this old potter is an ardent devotee of Bhagawan Sri Mahavishnu and he used to offer every day rice and curd together and that has been a very dear prasadam to Sri Venkateswara Swami and even today. The first prasadam is not your Tirupati Laddu, it is never Tirupati Laddu. People don't know this. It is always the rice mixed with curd in an earthen pot. All your golden vessels or silver vessels, all these stay away. The first thing that goes to the world's richest temple is a pot full of curd rice to Bhagawan Sri Venkateswara Swami. Still the legacy of Kuruvaratti Nambi is being followed even today. And the name of this dish is quite interesting and we need to observe that closely. It is called Dadi means curd. Udanamu, we already saw that. It is about boiling rice. So boiling rice with curd is called as Dadi Udanamu. In Telugu, it is colloquially called Dadhojanam. Over a period of time, it got fused and corrupted pronunciation. It is today called as Dadhojanam but the actual name is Dadi Udanamu, just like Mamsa Udanamu. As I said, over the last 3-4 millennia, there is a strong shift in the culture and practice of Sanatana Dharma towards vegetarianism. So Mamsa Udanamu kind of became extant but Dadi Udanamu still exists even today. So practically, this is what we see in front of our eyes as on today. The existence of Dadi Udanamu, a dish mentioned in the ancient scriptures still being followed in Tirupati. Same way, once existed Mamsa Udanamu also, which we call as Biryani today. Don't get me wrong, I am nothing against celebrating a specific dish if it is of foreign origin. But like I said at the outset of this video, the fact that rice cooked with meat has history all over the world and so do we in Bharat as well and we called it as Mamsa Udanamu. And we have Adharvana Vedam, Sri Ramayana and various Smritis quoting this specific dish with its recipe, its ritualistic importance, so on and so forth. And the example of Dadi Udanamu reinforces how the word in a different form, in a different recipe has been existing in Bharat even today. So that brings us to the end of this documentary on the history of food in Bharat. Food in Bharat is a sacred thread that binds history, spirituality and identity reflecting the journey of a civilization. From the Vedic Yajnas to the royal feasts of the Ramayana and Mahabharata and from the agrarian wisdom of the Indus valley civilization to the culinary diversity of the Mahajanapadas, every era has shaped Bharat's rich food culture. Bharat's culinary heritage is a timeless testament to the tradition, resilience, diversity and inclusion over ages. I hope this documentary offered you a holistic understanding of how food transcends mere sustenance, becoming a symbol of unity, tradition and resilience. Ending this video with a very powerful quote from Taittiriya Upanishad, I am the food that eats the eater of the food. Food often is, not just often, always rather, seen as a source of life. But the Vedas say that food which is source of life is also the reason for not just life but the death as well. Feeding someone is revered as Narayana Seva, as an act of serving Sri Mahavishnu. Why so? And why do Vedas say that food which is source of life is also the source of death? I will explain in my next video. For this video, let's conclude there with the history of the food in ancient Bharat. And as always, thanks for watching.