78% d is duce con o s ce pr ume f ri mpared w d b o s, co ith 64 y man % hu t and 14% for m for whea aize

pe th op 3 a l n e y s: 2 d 5 b p 0 e d o % p e r e c o n % m e e f d 0 u e iz t s r a h o h n n t e m i o r r c 2 c d i m d c s r o n a e e r a 1 i i f f o , l 4 r t y o e r o a r l c e m a m a h e c o l

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o r INTRODUCTION

m 13

u h 14 From Farm to Plate: The Story of Rice R worldwide. an astonishing 350crore human beings many thousand years ago, now feeds been the heaviest. the been Asia, where its consumption has always and South like America, it is growing in fastestthe incontinents pace like Africa a delicacy. Demand for is growing rice at world are quickly picking up grain the as on as staple, rice other of parts while the ple-rice-consumers rice. http://ricepedia.org/rice-as-food/the-global-sta- 1 spread with rice. foodA typical of Bengali served 3.5bn people get 20%of from needs caloric their Yangtze river inChina basin grass growing humid inthe ofice, acommon seeds the wild 1 Amajor of part Asia depends beginning of the harvesting season. ofbeginning season. harvesting the tograin-laden paddy twigs celebrate the ornamental hanging are from devised of grain, the is and full quasi-religious Lakshmi’s Goddess practices, the granary it. adopted has Rice been inreligious golden crop; ripe its painters have painted fields,thatthewind flows in waves the over have,poets since ages, romanticized paddy idioms and common phrases. Bengali songs and literature; region’s the culture, has inspired folklores, Bengali poetry, art, more an inspiration than here. grain The has love their to be for rice.Nowhere is rice andpeoplethe unifies— of the of state, it If there is one characteristic that— defines more ways than that. inWest Like Bengal. ignited imagination the of humans inmany But is more rice than just astaple: it has 2 কাটিতে ধানএল�োবরষা। ভরা নদীক্ষুরধারাখরপরশা। ধান কাটাহলসারা রাশি ভারা কূলে একাবসেআছি,নাহিভরসা। গগনে গরজেমেঘ,ঘনবরষা

স�োনার তরী,রবীন্দ্রনাথঠাকুর

2 Traditional sweets in Bengal have often been based on rice. From payesh

(top left), to puli pithe, nokshi pithe, Introduction or patishapta, the use of rice grains or rice flour has been varied and delectable.

15

This famous metaphorical poem by on rice. Before chhana or curdled-milk uses beautiful sweets were introduced into the region’s imageries of a paddy harvest and the food, which was fairly recently, the monsoon to deliver its message: one dominant ingredient in sweet dishes was example out of many such instances in rice. Till this day, in festivals, traditional where paddy is used as sweets consist of pithes–sweets that are a symbol of abundance and values. made of ground rice; and payesh, a thin pudding made of rice boiled in sweetened Rice has affected the region’s culture of and flavoured milk. Another popular food in more ways than that of just the sweet snack, the moa is made of puffed key cereal. Historically, for example, rice and jaggery. The two most famous Bengali desserts were exclusively based sweets from Purba — the 16 From Farm to Plate: The Story of Rice Paddy issymbolicallyusedasanoffering in almostall festivals inthe region. ubiquitous form found extensively. Chire orpoha,beaten rice, isa Commonly found derivatives oftherice grain inBengal: another popularsnackinBengal. aversionKhoi, ofpopped rice, is popped rice andjaggery. or khir isasnackmadeofmuri, Moa Murki, khoi sweetened withjaggery. khoi Murki, 90% form of popped rice. of global rice is consumed ’ obsession with rice is, not in Asia. unsurprisingly, an obvious result of its abundance here. The fecundity of Bengal and the overabundance of its granaries district that is also considered the rice have been well-documented throughout bowl of — Mihidana and history. are made from rice flour. For A 16th century French traveller, Francois small meals, Bengalis often eat muri, or Introduction Pyrard de Laval says about Bengal, “The puffed rice, and chire, or flattened rice. country is healthy and temperate, and so Of the many cultural festivals and wondrous fertile that one lives there for rituals associated with rice, the harvest almost nothing; and there is such a quantity of rice, that, besides supplying the whole festivals Nabannaa and Pous Sankranti 17 are probably the most well known. A country, it is exported to all parts of , newborn is given rice as the first solid as well to Goa and Malabar, as to Sumatra, food in the annaprasan (weaning) the Moluccas, and all the islands of Sunda, ceremony, and in marriages, the groom to all of which lands Bengal is a very commits to provide for the bride’s nursing mother, who supplies them with 3 garments and rice. Ubiquitous in any their entire subsistence and food.” When Bengali festival is payesh, the sweet dish the Dutch established sovereignty over already mentioned. In fact, in any Bengali Ceylon, Batavia and Malacca in the latter th ceremony, the blessing — ashirbad — part of 17 century, they imported rice from is performed with paddy grains along Bengal to run their establishments there, 4 with other typical symbols of quotidian as well as to feed the local population. The Bengali life. In death, the last passage of 3 https://www.ibiblio.org/britishraj/Jackson9/chapter09. the corpse is sprinkled with khoi, another html 4 Prices of Provisions in Bengal in the Second Half of The