pakashastra: Hindu and Hinduized alien food

December 13, 2008 Leave a Comment

The field of pAkashAstra is well worthy of study as it is dying along with many other shAstra-s.
Unfortunately, I no longer have access to some remarkable pAka texts that I examined in the city
of my youth. Towards the very end of the last decade in bhArata, ekanetra inspired by ST
induced me to take up the issue. ST, who is the living tradition of pAkashAstra, reminded me of
those texts again and I only put down some notes relating to the discussion. Not having most
manuscripts with me I cannot give the precise indices for the same.
There is a text called the pAkashAstra that I examined. The manuscript transcribed in shaka 1598
(1677 CE) is in legible nAgarI form and to my knowledge has never been published. Comparing
it with the mAnasollAsa suggests that it is a late text. The language is late saMskR^ita. It has 3
sections: 1) bhaktAdi-prakaraNa; 2) phala-shAkAdi prakaraNa 3) bhojana-prakaraNa. The 2nd
and much of 3rd were stained by some liquid and not easily readable at all. The first section
gives vidhi-s for preparation of the following dishes that my mAtAshrI was able to identify and
has full knowledge of:
pAyasa (milk-lentil variety); polikA; laDDuka; bindu-modaka; dugdha-kara~njikA (actually it
was made very rarely, and only in my maternal lineage); jalebI; pUrikA; vaTaka (the one with
the hole in the middle); sUpa; pApara (the rice variety which is fried and sprinkled with pepper. I
cannot forget the immense resistance we would face from our elders when we would want to eat
this in the famous fair in the karnATa country).
ST was able identify the lApAsI and kasAra as godhUma dishes that are still extant in the lATa
country. But ST mentions that the wheat precipitate (which my maternal clansmen mentioned as
requiring a few hours in the old days to generate), which was in the originally, is not used in the
modern form. ST as a proper molecular biologists said that precipitating the material with
ammonium chloride works, but the prospect of having ammonium chloride remaining, even after
washes is less appetizing (?). ST has also identified and successfully reproduced phenikA,
koharI, bahurI and kasAra. These last ones, along with the jalebi, are actually of turushka
origin. These things entered the shAstra and since then have become a part of Hindu existence.
Keeping with the Hinduization of the turushka-bhojana we actually heard vatavyadhi indignantly
declare that we were discrediting Vedic cooking :-).
Are there older, pre-manasollasa paka texts surviving? There were two dateless manuscripts that
I examined which might be pre-manasollasa texts. However, the condition of the manuscript as
well as the writing precluded me from making a very detailed study. The first of them is the
sudashastra. The sudashastra is cited by the chakrapanidatta, the great physician from
Meghalaya, who wrote his medical works around 1070-1080 CE. The sudashastra manuscript
had a description of the preparation of some quintessential dishes that define a Hindu: dal,
modaka and ladduka. Additionally, I noticed that this text had a cake known as shashkulI made
from a large white rice and sesame and the well-known apupa that survives in classical form only
in the dravida country. The citation of chakrapanidatta relates to the modaka supporting that this
sudashastra indeed (at least in part) is the one from before his times. In support of this at least the

parts of the manuscript I could examine had no alien foods typical of the later texts. The other
manuscript was samirana-sunus sUpa-tantra (i.e. bhimasenas work on cooking). This also
appears pretty archaic because it has no mention of the alien foods or substances and has certain
preparations that are not known today. Something recipes that could be easily identified as being
still extant were: lime and tamarind rices, dal-s of different types, pAyasa-s and pAnaka-s. He
also mentions some weird curries, such as one from the neem tree berries prepared in a special
way to counter its innate bitterness. This was supposed to have remarkable curative properties.
Posted in Heathen thought, History, Life
Ref-http://manasataramgini.wordpress.com/page/3/

Cake
Cake is a variety of sweet baked food item. It is generally a synergy of flour, a sweetening agent
(commonly sugar), a binding agent (generally egg, though gluten or starch are used instead by
vegetarians and vegans), fats (usually butter, shortening, or margarine), a liquid (milk, water or
fruit juice), flavors and some form of leavening agent (such as yeast or baking powder). Rich and
elaborate cakes are commonly the preferred dessert after meals at ceremonial occasions,
particularly weddings, anniversaries and birthdays in the west
A Brief Historical Background
The boundaries between cake and bread, biscuit and bun are
indistinct in the history of food items. The progenitor of all these
products is bread in its simplest form. As techniques for baking
and leavening developed, and eating patterns changed, what were
originally regarded as forms of bread came to be seen as distinct
categories of their own and named accordingly.
Cake is believed to have originated shortly after the discovery of
flour by human beings in the ancient times. The cakes that we
read of in the medieval English literature are not cakes as it has
come to mean today. Those cakes were simple flour-based sweet
foods meant to be distinctly different from breads, which were
merely flour-based foods without sweetening. In fact, for long
bread and cake were used interchangeably, with the cake meaning
smaller breads.
The earliest evidence of cakes have been found by archaeologists from the Prehistoric Neolithic
sites in the Swiss lake villages. These primitive variety of cake have been described as nothing
but crushed grains, moistened, compacted and cooked on a hot stone. It is very similar to present
day oatcakes or biscuit or cookie.

Ancient Egypt was the first culture to show evidence of true skill in bakin, making many kinds of
bread including some sweetened with hone. The Greeks had a form of cheesecake and the
Romans developed early versions of fruitcakes with raisins, nuts and other fruits. These ended up
in 14th century Britain. Chaucer mentions immense cakes made for special occasions. One was
made with 13 kilograms of flour and contained butter, cream, eggs, spices, currants and honey.

The Greeks used the word '/plakous/' meaning flat to refer to cakes. These cakes were usually
combinations of nuts and honey. Another Greek cake that we come across in the culinary history
is '/satura/', which was a flat heavy cake. During the Roman period cake was called placenta.
They were also called '/libum/' by the Romans, and these were primarily used as an offering to
the gods. Placenta was more like a cheesecake, baked on a pastry base, or sometimes inside a
pastry case.
Moulds, in the form of cake hoops or pans have been used for forming cakes since at least the
mid-17th century. Most cakes were eaten accompanied by a glass of sweet wine or tea. During
this period cakes were baked for special occasions and hence were made of the the finest and
most expensive ingredients available to the chef. As is evident from the paintings from this era
where we see large banquets, elaborately decorated cakes
By the middle of the 18th century, yeast was used less often,
being replaced by beaten eggs as a raising agent. Once as much
air as possible had been beaten in, the mixture would be poured
into molds, often very elaborate creations, but sometimes as
simple as two tin hoops, set on parchment paper on a cookie
sheet. It is from these cake hoops that our modern cake pans
developed.
By the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution made the
cake-baker's life much easier. The chemical raising agent
bicarbonate of soda, introduced in the 1840's, followed by baking
powder ( a dry mixture of bicarbonate of soda with a mild acid),
replaced yeast, providing a greater leavening power with less
effort. Another technology breakthrough was more accurate
temperature controlled ovens. By the mid-19th century the
French were including a separate "sweet" course at the end of the
meal which might include 'gateau.'