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 Food, its value, its joys and its preparation, has considerable mention in the Hindu sacred books, the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Shastras. The royal India too had stringent rules concerning food, its preparation and eating, especially in regard to hygiene. So many generations of Indians have followed these tenets that they have become part of the Indian cuisine culture.
The vast majority of Indians are vegetarian, but food habits change from caste to caste and province to province. Although there are four main castes, there are some three thousand subcastes and almost every Hindu has his own idea of what constitutes vegetarianism. In addition to the accepted refusal of meatand poultry, some add eggs to the list, for there is life in embryo. Many vegetarians do not eat cheese because of its rennet basis.
Besides, religious and caste restrictions, the weather, geography and the impact of foreigners too have affected the eating habits of the Indians.Where the sun and the climate together produces an abundance there is a relaxation of the rules to enable the Indians to avail themselves of this bounty.For example, fish is eaten by the Bengalis and the Brahmins along the Malabar Coast, suggesting commonsense rather than religious tutelage. In the south where the soil is not so fertile and the rainfall spasmodic there is less variety of produce than in Punjab. So the southern Indians were, generally speaking, orthodox and have remained that way. It is hot all the year round so that it is no great privation to abstain from meat-eating - even Westerners and Indian Christians find it too hot to eat meat all the time.
In the north, the home of the sturdy Punjabi, the weather varies from a dry scorching heat to intense cold but favoured with winter rains. Here the food is much heavier and richer. Here, too, the Muslims have penetrated, bringing with them their meat-eating habits, their rice dishes of pilaus and biryani, stuffed sheep and goats, so that today all this is thepart of the Punjabi diet. Because also the quality of food in this northern region is good, much less use is made of chilies and spices.
In principle, food is divided into two main groups:pukka (good) which means certain foods cooked in pure ghee (clarified butter) or in curd. The second category is kutcha or `poor' food, which means the meat of most animals and the birds of the jungle.
The pucca category is sub-divided into Satawik and Rajsik foods. The former is intended for the Brahmans and allied castes and classified as condusive to health and spirituality. It includes parched grains, fruit and most vegetables but not onions, garlic or mushrooms and several of the root vegetables.
Rajasik food is much more liberal and allows the eating of almost everything except beef and garlic. This exclusion of garlic is odd but the earnest compilers of the Sastras considered that this vegetable, beloved of the Latins and Asians alike, roused men's passions and baser instincts. Over the centuries this edict has beenforgotten for there is a lot of garlic in Indian cooking today.
But the Rajasik diet was wise and well conceived. It was designed for the temporal leaders of the people, the warriors and princes (Kshatriyas) whose requirements were aimed at manhood, strength and power. Their diet included meat, wild boar, etc.
Cooking is an ancient art and many of the Indian dishes require skill and considerable patience to prepare. For many official dishes cooks must spend all day cutting up vegetables, simmering milk or pounding rice and spices on a square stone slab or sitting patiently over a fire for hours on end. On the other hand there are some simple dishes for daily eating.
There are many varieties of kabab,some fried food, some grilled, some stuffed with nuts and others with cream. Equally popular the quoormas, a sort of heavily spiced dry ragout. In Hyderabad there is superb Muslim cooking, all of which adds to the richness of Indian food.
A Northern dish which almost all foreigners favour is tandoori chicken which takes its name from the oven in which it is cooked.
The plucked chicken is rubbed in curd and spices, left for several hours then roasted inside the tandur, a primitive clay oven with a wood fire burning fiercely beneath. Eating from a thali, a round tray, has not changed over the centuries, although the gold and silver has been replaced by cheaper metals. Sometimes the thali is placed on a low table and one sits cross-legged on the ground in front of it, shoes removed and feet tucked away. In the south both the thali and the flat shining green banana leaf takes place of the western plate. The latter is thrown away afterwards thus saving washing up. Around the inside rim of the thali are arranged small bowls, each filled with a different sort of spiced, vegetarian food. One bowl holds a thin curry sauce, another thick curd, yet another a sweet concoction. In the centre of the thali is placed a heap of rice, a number of Indian pickles and chutneys, often a banana and some dried chillies. Because Indians prefer to eat with their fingers they always wash their hands immediately before and after eating. Eating with a fork and a knife is unsuited to Indian food and there are piping hot puris (fritters) or chapatis to scoop up the more liquid food.
 At the end of most Indian meals pan is served. Pan consists of a dark green leaf smeared with a lime or crushed rose petal paste wrapped around crushed betel nut and a variety of spices such as cloves, aniseed and cardamom, as well as grated coconut. For special occassions a coating of silver leaf is added.
When neither the thali nor the banana leaf is used then eating is basically Western style.There will be a platter of rice with a number of curries, chutneys, curd and pickle.
In Punjab, cooking is done mostly in ghee or butter. The Punjabi meal usually consists of meat dishes and curries which include a cheese called panir. There are splendid pilaus garnished with fried onions, sliced hard boiled eggs and toasted nuts and finally topped with shimmering gold or silver leaf - for festive occassions also scattered with rose petals. Another Punjabi speciality is khoya, a cream so thick that it can be grated. Justly renowned are Punjabi stuffed parathas, and their roasts skewered dishes and finest lentils.
The Bengali food includes a variety of fish dishes - one of the most successful fish dishes in Bengal is the hilsa, fish delicately spiced and wrapped in pumpkin leaves for cooking. To achieve variety the Bengali cook goes to the flowers and unusual fruits, and one of their specialities is a curry of bamboo shoots.
In the South Indian food, almost every dish contains something from the coconut palm. The food is generally cooked in coconut oil. A South Indian mostly uses coconut grated and in chunks, drinks vast quantities of neera or coconut water and considers no religious ceremony complete without a piece of fresh coconut as an offering. Cooking in the south is almost entirely vegetarian, with a meal starting and ending with rice.
In Bombay the food more often seems to be a happy combination of east and west. Both rice and wheat are included in their diet and although most Maharashtrians and Gujaratis are vegetarians there are many who include meat, eggs and fish in their diet.Fish are plentiful along the coastline. Bombay prawn curry is something to remember, so is their pomfret.
Further down the coast is a Portuguese influence with sweet-sour dishes like vindaloo, sophisticated curries like duck bafad and mild ones such as the egg or chicken moolie.
Most of the spices used in Indian cooking were chosen originally for their medicinal qualities for their medicinal qualities rather than any thought for flavour. Many of them such as cloves and cardamoms are very antiseptic, others like ginger, are carminative and good for the digestion. Turmeric, is splendid against skin diseases, bruises and leach bites; neem leaves, are used to guard against smallpox, while singers chew tamarind leaves to sweeten their voices. The connoisseur of curries knows that in each curry go different spices, and few cooks use the same quantity or variety as another. Therefore, no two curries taste the same.
So, after all the historical and ritual side of Indian cooking, the differences between north and south, east and west, the vegetarian and non-vegetarian, it is the very complexities of the rules and regional differences which make Indian food so fascinating. Those who approach Indian food without prejudice will find it delightful and unusual, and worthy of the adage: `There are three great kitchens of the world, the French, the Chinese and the Indian.'
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