Indian cuisine consists of a variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to the Indian subcontinent. Given the diversity in soil, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations, these cuisines vary substantially and use locally available spices, herbs, vegetables, and fruits.
Indian food is also heavily influenced by religion, in particular Hinduism and Islam, cultural choices and traditions.[1][2] Historical events such as invasions, trade relations, and colonialism have played a role in introducing certain foods to India. The Columbian discovery of the New World brought a number of new vegetables and fruits. A number of these such as potatoes, tomatoes, chillies, peanuts, and guava have become staples in many regions of India.[3]
Indian cuisine has shaped the history of international relations; the spice trade between India and Europe was the primary catalyst for Europe's Age of Discovery.[4] Spices were bought from India and traded around Europe and Asia. Indian cuisine has influenced other cuisines across the world, especially those from Europe (Britain in particular), the Middle East, Southern African, East Africa, Southeast Asia, North America, Mauritius, Fiji, Oceania, and the Caribbean.
Indian cuisine reflects an 8,000-year history of various groups and cultures interacting with the Indian subcontinent, leading to diversity of flavours and regional cuisines found in modern-day India. Later, trade with British and Portuguese influence added to the already diverse Indian cuisine.
After 9000 BCE, a first period of indirect contacts between Fertile Crescent and Indus Valley civilizations seems to have occurred as a consequence of the Neolithic Revolution and the diffusion of agriculture. Wheat and barley were first grown around 7000 BCE, when agriculture spread from the Fertile Crescent to the Indus Valley. Sesame and humped cattle were domesticated in the local farming communities. Mehrgarh is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in South Asia. By 3000 BCE, turmeric, cardamom, black pepper and mustard were harvested in India.
From Around 2350 BCE the evidence for imports from the Indus to Ur in Mesopotamia have been found, as well as Clove heads which are thought to originate from the Moluccas in Maritime Southeast Asia were found in a 2nd millennium BC site in Terqa. Akkadian Empire records mention timber, carnelian and ivory as being imported from Meluhha by Meluhhan ships, Meluhha being generally considered as the Mesopotamian name for the Indus Valley Civilization.
Antiquity
Early diet in India mainly consisted of legumes, vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy products, and honey.[10] Staple foods eaten today include a variety of lentils (dal), whole-wheat flour (aṭṭa), rice, and pearl millet (bājra), which has been cultivated in the Indian subcontinent since 6200 BCE.[9] The Sangam literature, which is specific to South India, mentions that fish, crab, forest cattle, pork, monitor lizard, and poultry were consumed in the region together with a variety of millets, sago, sugarcane, dairy products, honey, and rice.[11]
Over time, segments of the population embraced vegetarianism during the Śramaṇa movement[12][13] while an equitable climate permitted a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains to be grown throughout the year.
A food classification system that categorised any item as saatvic, raajsic, or taamsic developed in Yoga tradition.[14][15] The Bhagavad Gita proscribes certain dietary practices (chapter 17, verses 8–10).[16]
Consumption of beef is taboo, due to cows being considered sacred in Hinduism.[17] Beef is generally not eaten by Hindus in India except for Kerala, parts of southern Tamil Nadu and the north-east.
Colonial Period
The Portuguese and British during their rule introduced cooking techniques such as baking, and foods from the New World and Europe. The new-world vegetables popular in cuisine from the Indian subcontinent include maize, tomato, potato, sweet potatoes, peanuts, squash, and chilli. Most New World vegetables such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, Amaranth, peanuts and cassava based Sago are allowed on Hindu fasting days. Cauliflower was introduced by the British in 1822.[29] In the late 18th/early 19th century, an autobiography of a Scottish Robert Lindsay mentions a Sylheti man called Saeed Ullah cooking a curry for Lindsay's family. This is possibly the oldest record of Indian cuisine in the United Kingdom.
