THE PEOPLE

FOOD

Hindus.

The Kunbis and other cultivating classes eat three times a day, at about eight in the morning, at midday and after dark. The morning meal is commonly eaten in the field and the other two at home. [An artisan takes his breakfast at home and carries his lunch with him where he works.] At midday, the cultivator comes home from work, baths and takes his meal, having a rest for about two hours in all. After finishing work he again comes home and has his evening meal and then after a rest, at about ten O'clock he again goes to the fields if the crops are on the ground and sleeps on the mala or small elevated platform erected in the field to watch and protect the grain from birds and wild animals. Jowar is the staple food of this class and is eaten both raw and cooked. The tender pods of jowar may be gnawed in raw condition. It is a common custom to invite friends to a picnic in the fields when the crop is ripe to eat hurda or the pods of jowar roasted in hot ashes. For cooking purposes jowar is ground in an ordinary handmill and then passed through a sieve which separates the finer from the coarser particles. The finer flour is made into dough with hot water and baked into thick bhakaris or flat unleavened cakes weighing more than half a pound each. The coarse flour is boiled in water like rice. The boiled pulse of arhar (cajunas indicus) is commonly eaten with jovar and the bhakaris 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 into 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 buttermilk into a substance resembling porridge. It is either chopped and boiled or eaten raw. Chatni made of crushed onion, salt and chilli may 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 enjoined not to partake of any animal food, other caste Hindus occasionally take animal food except beef.

The dietary of the well-to-do urbanites and higher caste Hindus is much more elaborate and systematised. Besides the usual cereals, pulses, vegetables and oils, a vegetarian includes in his diet dairy products like milk, butter, curd, butter milk, ghee (clarified butter) and vanaspati (hydrogenated oils) 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 the other between seven and nine in the evening.

Generally, a Maratha Brahman eats, wearing only a clean dhoti. The rule among them is that a special cloth of silk or wool or such pure material should be worn for the purpose of taking food, but this has now almost gone out of fashion except among priestly families or on festive occasions. In orthodox families, food is eaten in the cooking place, washed with cowdung and separate little squares marked for each person. Inside this is kept a little pat or wooden seat about three inches high to sit upon. Rice, wheat, jowar, pulse and vegetables are generally the materials of both meals, wheat and jowar being preferred at the second or evening meal. Curds are always eaten. Besan or gram-flour fried with onion, chillis, cloves and other spices and oil is a favourite dish. With rice is taken some ghee, varan or liquid split pulse and boiled with onions, spices, salt and tamarind. Curds, milk and butter milk (tak) are indispensable with some castes, particularly Brahmans. Savouries like chatnis, rayatas, koshimbirs, 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, ghee with salads and the third with boiled rice and butter milk or curds. The 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 of the plate, the vegetables and curries (in cups) are arranged on the right and on the left, the salads, a piece of lemon and some salt.

In the case of Muslims, the diet does not differ very much except that they are inclined to take mutton or beef at least once a week if they can.

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