THE PEOPLE

DIET

Hindus: The Kunbis and other cultivating classes cat three times a day, at about eight in the morning, at mid-day and at night. The morning meal is commonly eaten in the field and the other two at home. An artisan will cat his breakfast at home and will carry his lunch along with him to where he works. At mid-day the cultivator comes home from work, bathes and takes his meal, having a rest for about two hours. After finishing work he again comes home in the evening and has his meal. In the harvest season, he spends even his night in the field. Jowar is the main crop of cereals in this district. It is common among well-to-do cultivators and peasant proprietors to invite their friends to a picnic in the fields when the crop is ripe to eat hurda, i.e., pods of jowar roasted in hot ashes to the accompaniment of thick curds. For cooking purposes jowar is ground in an ordinary handmill and passed through a sieve which separates the finer from the coarser particles. The finer flour is made into a dough and baked into thick bhakaris or flat unleavened cakes, weighing sometimes even more than half a pound each. Coarser flour is cooked in boiled water like rice. Boiled pulse of tur is usually eaten with bhakaris which are dipped in oil or ghee. The sameness of this diet is varied by a number of green vegetables which are usually boiled and then mixed with a salad with ground-nut or sesamum oil and flavoured with salt and powdered chillis. Another way of cooking jowar is to boil its granules with butter-milk into a substance resembling porridge; it is seasoned with pepper and vegetable oils. Onions and garlic are either chopped and boiled or eaten raw. Chatni made of crushed onion, salt and chilli may sometimes be substituted. To improve the flavour of some dishes, especially those made of pulses and vegetables, they are processed with phodni, a peculiar method of spicing.

Except Brahmans, Jains and Lingayats who are vegetarians, other Hindus, Musalmans and others occasionally take animal food. Hindus will not take beef and Musalmans will not take pork.

The dietary habits of well-to-do urbanites and higher caste Hindus are somewhat elaborate and systematised. Besides the usual cereals and pulses, vegetables and oil, vegetarian diet includes products like milk, curds, butter, butter-milk, ghee and hydrogenated oil on a liberal scale. The morning tea with a light breakfast is followed by two meals, one between nine and eleven in the morning and another between seven and nine in the evening.

Generally, a Brahman will eat, wearing a clean dhoti and in the case of the very old-fashioned a silk cloth. Rice, wheat, jowar, bajri, pulse and vegetables are generally the materials for both meals, wheat and jowar being preferred in the evening. Curds are always taken. Besan or gram flour fried with onion, chillis, cloves and other spices and oil is a favourite dish. It is called jhunka. With rice is taken, some ghee, varan or liquid split pulse and a curry or amti of split pulse boiled with onions, spices, salt and tamarind. Curds, milk and butter-milk are indispensable with higher castes, especially Brahmans. Savouries like chatni, koshimbir, louche, papad and sandge are the usual adjuncts to a meal among the well-to-do.

The dinner is served in three courses, the first of boiled rice and pulse with a spoonful or two of ghee, the second of poli or chapati, sugar and ghee with salads. Vegetables are served with each course. The plate is not changed during the dinner. In each course the chief dish is served, in the centre on the plate, the vegetables and curries are arranged on the right and on the left, the salads, a piece of lemon, some salt and lonche are served.

In the more advanced a table-cloth, white or coloured, is spread on the ground and the dishes are placed on it. The people sit round it on stools and take their food from dishes placed on the ground. Some families have now-a-days taken to dining on tables.

TOP