With more than five thousand years of history, India offers a broad canvas for reconstruction of history through food. Although we do not have cookbooks of this period, references to the food of the times appears in other types of literature such as Vedas, Dharmashatras, Puranas, and the epics. These enable us to form an idea about the food habits of the people. For ancient Indians, cooking was a science as well as an art. Food was considered as Brahma, and the act of eating was yadnyakarma, akin to performing a sacrifice. The sensory aspect of food was given equal importance as they believed that food was meant to be enjoyed by all five senses. At our Online Talk #AnnaBhoga, historian Dr Mohsina Mukadam traces the development of culinary tradition of ancient India as seen through its various sources and shows ample evidence that ancient Indians were connoisseurs of food.

About the speaker

Dr. Mohsina Mukadam is Associate Professor in the Department of History in Ramnarain Ruia Autonomous College. Her passion for food, cooking as well as eating led her to conduct research in food history. Her thesis ‘Transformation of food culture during the British period’ studies the impact of history on dietary practices. Her papers on food history have been published in national and international journals and she has also contributed scholarly articles to numerous newspapers and magazines for the general public. She has also designed and conducted certificate courses on Food History and Culture. She has been awarded a fellowship by UGC for a minor research project entitled ‘Cookbooks as Tasty Sampler of History’. She was also the recipient of the Sir Dorabjee Tata Trust Post Doctorate fellowship for a project tilted ‘‘Storm in a Teacup: The Culture of Tea Drinking in Mumbai’.

The event link will be shared on the day of the talk