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Biryani is NOT Mughal dish. Its earlier name was "Hindavi Laziz" ="Indian delicacy"
The word Biryani is NOT Arabic, Persian,Turkic. It originally comes from Sanskrit word borrowed by Persian.
Early Biryani with meat, rice & spices was known as मांसोदन in Ancient India
Biryani is made from rice and spices.
In those days, Rice DID NOT EVEN GROW in the original Mughal homeland.
Infact, the first Mughal emperor Babur DOES NOT EVEN MENTION mention rice when he was in Central Asia. He mentions other crops and cereals but rice is completely ABSENT.
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 vrihi (व्रीहि).
Biryani is basically a dish made with rice, meat and spices.
Such a dish known as मांसौदन is mentioned even in vedic literature.
It is mentioned in Śatapathabrāhmaṇa (11.5.7.5 & 14.9.4.17)
Pāṇini in his Aṣṭādhyāyī also mentions it at 4. 4.67
An ancient Indian book on food known as Pākadarpaṇa (पाकदर्पण) is attributed to king Nala.
According to Mahabharata, Nala was a great cook and he was gifted this ability by none other than Yama.
According to ancient Indian lore, Nala was a cook in the kitchen of king Rituparna.
Pakadarpana was composed by King Nala according to the book itself and Indian tradition.
It describes preparation of मांसौदन which is an early form of Biryani.
First, the author describes preparation of boiled rice. He then adds meat, spices and even flowers for decoration.
The author describes the process of rinsing, soaking rice and then draining rice.
He then describes cutting meat to the size of rice. Ghee and coconut milk was also added along with Ketaki.
For the sake of fragrance, Kasturi and Karpura (musk and camphor) was also added.
Then the vessel was closed with upper lid, kept on fire and mixed well until it becomes soft.
Then , मांसौदन was served for eating.
This marination technique is literally what is followed in the preparation of Dum Biryani. How exactly have Mughals brought anything?
The author furthers adds that the ideal मांसौदन (early form of Biryani) has to be रुचिकरं (tasty), वृष्यं (stimulating) पथ्यं (wholesome) & light.
Further, Pakadarpana describes preparation of मांसौदन using the meat of quail bird.
It uses spices, meat, ghee, aromatic substances and marination technique.
It also recommends layering/topping.
Pakadarpana describes the preparation of कुक्कुट मांसौदन (an early form of chicken Biryani).
Using Chicken meat, salt & spices, he chops meat to the size and cooks it with Ghee. He soaks it & adds Asafoetida. He closes upper lid, keeps on fire & mixes well until it becomes soft.
Further Pakadarpana recommends adding "Masala powder" which should be made of six materials (षट्-चूर्ण) and he also recommends Kevada petals for fragrance (instead of Gulabi rose petals) . He recommends "kheema like" cutting of meat. He recommends enclosing the dish using आटा।
How exactly have Mughals brought to Biryani to India?
Before an ignoramus says "Where are potatoes, tomatoes and Chilles?"
There were NO potatoes, tomatoes and Chillies in the Mughalai Biryani of Shah Jahan & Aurangzeb. There is no mention of them in Nuskha I Shahjahani Biryan.
Coming to the Mughal Biryani, we have already mentioned that the word Biryani originally comes from a Sanskrit word borrowed by Persian.
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 Mughal precursor to Mughal Biryani.
In fact, the word 'Zard Birinj" is a straight translation of "Haridranna".
Sanskrit हारिद्र (haridra) means "Yellow". In Persian, Zard (زرد) means "Yellow". "Anna" generally means rice in Sanskrit and "Birinj" is rice in Persian.
By straight translation, Zard Birinj= Haridranna.
The FIRST unambiguous mention of Biryani comes from Nuskha-i-Shahjahani in 17th century.
t was made in the kitchens of INDIA which have 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).
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.
"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.
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".
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.
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.
It is clear that Mughals DID NOT bring Biryani to India. Far from it. They did not even have natively cultivated rice. Rice could not be adequately grown in their homelands in those days. They encountered rice fields in Hindustan and looted those rice fields during night raids.
While there have been occasional instances of mention of rice in central Asia( for ex, pilaf encountered by Alexander and rice cultivation of Kushans), this was largely the case of elites borrowing from South Asia or introducing an exotic crop.
At any rate, there is NOT A SINGLE mention of the word Biryani in Persia or central Asia.
The earliest mention of the word Biryani comes from 17th century and it comes from the kitchens of India. There is no evidence that it was brought from Persia or central Asia. Far from it.
To all the idiotic Namazees quoting this thread without understanding basic context.
Hindavi Laziz was not a word used by Hindus. Hindus called it मांसौदन.
Muzlim ancestors and Mughals called it Hindavi Laziz. Which is their straight admission that Biryani has Indian origins.
Central Asian semi arid climate is not very conducive to the production of rice.
A related dish is Pulav.
The word comes from Sanskrit Pulāka (पुलाक) meaning "boiled rice" (alternatively, it could also mean "shrivelled grain").
This Sanskrit word was taken into Old Tamil and Old Telugu as "Pulakam". And the word gave its name very famous rice dish named Pulakam that is extant even today in South India (புளகம், పులకము)
While Pulakam is mainly served today as a Khichdi like rice dish, some older regional variants particularly used spices, saffron and accompanied it with Rayta like curd preparation, making it identical to what is understood by "Pulav" today.
The great Persian linguist Ali Nourai shows that a sound cluster of voiceless plosive, non front vowel and a liquid is simply not existent in native Persian phonology Hence, a word such as "Pilaw/pilaf" is simply NOT a native Persian word. It is a borrowed loanword into Persian.
In his path-breaking magnum opus "The Etymology dictionary of Persian", The Persian Linguist Dr. Ali Nourai very clearly mentions that the Persian word "Pulav/Pilaw/Pilaf" comes from the Sanskrit word Pulaka.
In "Etymological Dictionary of Persian", leading Persian linguist Garnik Asatrian makes a very interesting point. He says the word "Pulav/Pilaw" or its ancestors are completely ABSENT in Old & Middle Persian. It occurs in New Persian when Ghaznavids begin expanding into India.
This shows Pulav was really Indian.
This thread thus very clearly establishes the Indian origin of Biryani and Pulav through linguistic, semantic and historical prisms.
The reader is free to make his own opinion after reading the thread.
Earlier in the thread, I wrote about the very rare occurrence of rice in Central Asia during Kushan & Greek period.
Now, research indicates that rice was introduced into Central Asia from Indian subcontinent, even if cultivation attempts mostly failed.
