True Indology

@TIinExile

18 Tweets • 2020-10-16 09:43:33 UTC •  See on Twitter

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Biryani is NOT yours.

Biryani is made from rice. Rice DOES NOT even grow in

original Mughal homeland.

The word Biryani is NOT Arabic, Persian or Turkic. It

originally comes from a Sanskrit word borrowed by Persian.

Why should WE boycott it?

Ek Toh Chori Upar Se Seenazori ?

The Persian word 'Biryani' is comes from Persian 'Birinj' for

rice.

Now, this word is NOT FOUND in Old Persian. It suddenly

occurs in Middle Persian.

According to Mayrhofer's "Etymological Dictionary Of Old

Indo Aryan", the word Birinj comes from Sanskrit word vrīhí
( ीिह).
The word "Biryani" DOES NOT appear until 17th century.

It is ABSENT in all the older records.

Ain I Akbari (16th century) describes the preparation of a

dish known as Zard Birinj (yellow rice) which could be seen
as a precursor to Biryani.
Zard Birinj (Yellow rice) was made of rice mixed with spices
which were NOT AVAILABLE in Middle East or Central
Asia.

It was originally vegetarian. But some varieties also added

meat to the dish.

Clearly, Zard Birinj developed from ancient Indian

Haridranna (ह र ा )
In fact, the word 'Zard Birinj" is a straight translation of
"Haridranna"

Sanskrit हा र (haridra) means "Yellow". In Persian, Zard

(‫ )زرد‬means "Yellow". "Anna" generally means rice in
Sanskrit and "Birinj" is rice in Persian

By straight translation, Zard Birinj= Haridranna

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The FIRST unambiguous mention of Biryani comes from
Nuskha-i-Shahjahani in 17th century. It was made in the
kitchens of INDIA which has access to spices.

This is NOT surprising. Biryani IS MADE OF rice and spices

which could be found only in India (or South East Asia)
Mughals were originally speakers of Chagatai language,
which is a Turkic language belonging to Altai family .

Which means Altai mountains in West Mongolia is their

ultimate origin( Whence they migrated to Central Asia
& later India).

Rice DOES NOT grow in this Altai region

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In the last 10-15 years, they have made attempts to cultivate
rice in Mongolia using modern technology.

The enterprise has largely not been successful

http://mongoliaeconomy.blogspot.com/2016/03/mongolian-
farmers-study-rice.html
At any rate, the FIRST mention of Biryani comes ONLY in
17th century.

This was centuries after Mughals entered India.

This straightly disproves the claim that "Mughals brought

Biryani to India"
PS: The best quality of Biryani is made from Basmati rice,
which is grown ONLY in the Indian subcontinent. Not
Arabia or Mongolia

Now I examine the claim that "Mughals brought Biryani to

India" with textual sources.

In this respect, data from Baburnama is extremely valuable

as a contemporary Mughal source for geographical and
botanical data

To begin with, What was India ('Hindustan') during those

days?

In Baburnama, Hindustan begins from the East of Kabul.

When Mughal emperor Babur reached Lamghan (Laghman),

Ningnahar (Nangarhar) and Adinapur (Jalalabad) which are
towns to east of Kabul in today's Northeast Afghanistan

Babur declared that he reached the border of Hindustan.

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"Other grounds, other trees, other animals, other manners
& customs" is how Babur describes difference between
Hindustan and Central Asia

The North/West of Kabul was known as "Khurasan" &

wasn't part of Hindustan.

Kabul & Qandahar were entrepots between Hindustan

and Khurasan

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With this background in place, let us examine the evidence
from Babur's mouth.

Throughout Baburnama, Babur DOES NOT mention rice

when he was in Central Asia. He mentions other crops and
cereals but rice is completely ABSENT.

What to say of Biryani?

The FIRST mention of rice farming in Baburnama occurs

AFTER Babur enters Hindustan.

He mentions that good crops of rice and corn were

cultivated in Nangarhar, a place which Babur describes as
"borderland of Hindustan"
Sorry image broken

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Next, we are told that Rice was grown on "steep terraces" in
the Nur valley of Laghman (today's Northeast Afghanistan)
in the Hindukush mountains, which was again considered a
part of Hindustan

Today, these regions are Afghan Pak borderlands

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Then, the Mughal army conducted a night raid and looted
rice fields of "Mil Kafirs".

These were the Nuristani and Chitrali Kalash Kafirs of

Hindukush mountains.

They put up a brave resistance and fought the Mughal army.

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 To conclude,

Mughals DID NOT bring Biryani to India.

Far from it. They did not even have natively cultivated rice.
Rice could not be grown in their homelands in those days.

They first encountered rice fields in Hindustan and looted

those rice fields during night raids

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