Maybe not-so-gluttonous: Mughal Cuisine

 Good morning everyone! I’d like to start off my speech with few facts. I’m sure everyone here knows that India was the richest country a few centuries back and that Mughals were a legendary lineage of kings who ruled for over 3 centuries in India, their rule leaving an enduring legacy of art.  They were connoisseurs in beauty and food and they mastered in the ‘art’ of cuisine, a topic that I’ll be speaking to you about.

The Mughal Emperors impressed courtiers, nobles, foreign guests and dignitaries at their dining table. The menu, finalized by the hakim (royal physician), would consist of about 100 dishes, each prepared by one cook. Diners took their place on the ground, atop rich carpets laid with protective white sheets. The Mughals followed the Indian custom of the time by beginning their meals with pickles, freshly sliced ginger and lime.  The centrepiece of the imperial spread was usually a dish of rice cooked with ghee, spices and meat: the pilaf. This was accompanied by a huge variety of game bird, fish, lamb, venison and beef cooked in different styles. Food to be decorated with fresh flower petals and edible thin foils of silver and gold.  After their meals, they rinsed their hands with perfumed water poured from jugs held by servants. They also ended the meal with chewing on betel nut, or paan. What they introduced was the tradition of desserts, that is, the eating of something sweet at the end of the meal, rather than at the start or in the middle.

Cutlery were usually studded with rubies, diamonds, jades, etc, the most stunning being a 16^th century gold spoon encrusted with rubies, emeralds and diamonds made for Akbar. Mughal cuisine was strongly influenced by the Persian cuisine of Iran, which featured dried fruits and nuts, ingredients commonly used by imperial cooks in meat and rice dishes. In fact, under the Mughals, fruit was a symbol of sophistication and their elevated position in society. At the time of the Mughal rule, fruits and nuts were thought of as incredibly opulent and luxurious.

Coming from a food-loving culture, Hindustan seemed to Babur a land stripped of food. He writes in The Baburnama, “There is no grapes, quality fruits, mask melons, candles”. He did not fancy the local Indian food, which lacked the spices and flavours he was accustomed to in his native Samarkand.

From Kashmir, they imported temperate fruits unavailable in Delhi’s climate such as peaches, plums, apricots, apples, grapes and pears. They planted formal gardens of fruit trees over conquered territories and drank juices flavoured with essences. From the mountains, they brought down ice to keep their sherbets and desserts cool and palatable. Emperor Akbar had his own kitchen garden which he watered daily with rosewater because it added to the flavour of food when cooked.
This might sound downright ridiculous in our times, but in the age of Mughals, even cuisine was considered a form of art and high position. Who knows, presidents having a 100 cars, some bullet-proof even, might sound ridiculous in the future.