Tanjore Maratha Thali

Malvani Thali - From Indian Veg Thali cookbook

10 Tanjore Curries

Due to Tanjore becoming the heartland of Tamil Brahmins, almost all its famous recipes are Brahmin recipes, with an almost total absence of Non vegetarian recipes.

Kadappa is a unique curry made by adding dal to a Tamil kuruma. It is an excellent example showing how core building blocks ( milk, dal) can be combined together. Same is the case with Irupuli Kulambu (yogurt & tamarind) , Arai puli kulambu & thlaagam ( Tamarind & coconut) , all of which combine two building blocks of Tamil cuisine.

Anything mixed with yogurt would taste delicious avers Indian cuisine. Marathis figured out that Urad dal powder mixed into yogurt would make a great Raita or Urad dal Dangar ( Dangar : Marathi for powder). It is now a part of traditional Tamil Brahmin cuisine as the Dangar pachadi.

Vazhakkai podi – neither a podi nor a poriyal demonstrates how recipes defy categorization and how innovative people can get. You can use thousands of Podis in this recipe, with hundreds of starchy roots / veggies, yielding infinite recipe combinations.

Cooking curries with milk is not usually done in Tamil cuisine and so Pal kootu is probably an adaptation of the Marathi doodh pitla. Race Kulambu can be thought of as a mixed dal sambar where lentils are roast and ground, instead of being boiled and mashed.

Gothsu was probably adapted from the Marathi / Kannada Gojju. Poricha kootu was probably an adaptation of the Marathi sappak pitla as is the unusual Dangar Pachadi. Whenever you encounter a recipe name which has no meaning in the local language, it is likely that it is an import. Sambar, Idli, Gothsu, Usili, Dangar, Kadappa, Pitlai , panagam etc have no meaning in Tamil. It is likely that they have been adapted from other cuisines. Gothsu is probably a corrupt form of Kannada gojju, pitlai is almost certainly derived from Marathi pitla, Idli is from Kedli ( as the food historian Achaya notes), Panagam from Marathi panha, - but the etymology of most other dishes has been lost.

Deep fried & spiced tuvar dal / chana dal paste becomes Vada. Steamed and crumbled, it becomes the Usili. In fact you can use leftover / store bought masal vadas, in this recipe in place of the steamed lentil paste and not many would spot the difference !

While researching for this book, I was engrossed in the bloody Muslim occupation of Madurai and Tanjore. Tamilnadu had been fortunate in escaping the massacares, temple razings and looting which plagued North India between 1000 and 1200 AD. Its luck ran out in 1311 when it experienced the brief but brutal Sultan occupation. . One of the sultans, Ghiyas-ud-Din Muhammad Damghani seems to have been especially brutal.

Ibn Batuta, the great Islamic traveller records: “…the Hindu prisoners were divided into four sections and taken to each of the four gates. There, on the stakes they had carried, the prisoners were impaled. Afterwards their wives were killed and tied by their hair to these poles. Children were massacred on the bosoms of their mothers. Then, the camp was raised, and they started cutting down the trees of another forest (for more impaling stakes). This is shameful conduct such as I have not known any other sovereign guilty of. It is for this that God hastened the death of Ghiyath-eddin”.

And “I was another time with the Sultan when a Hindu was brought into his presence. I rose hurriedly (to leave). He understood my reason, smiled, and ordered the hands and feet of the idolater to be cut off. On my return I found the unfortunate swimming in his blood”.

Madhura Vijayam, a 14th century Sanskrit poem by poetess Gangadevi also records the brutality..

“ I very much lament for what has happened to the groves in Madhura. The coconut trees have all been cut and in their place are to be seen rows of iron spikes with human skulls dangling at the points.

"In the highways which were once charming with the sounds of anklets of beautiful women, are now heard ear-piercing noises of Brahmins being dragged, bound in iron fetters.

The waters of Tambraparni which were once white with sandal paste rubbed away from the breasts of charming girls are now flowing red with the blood of cows slaughtered by the miscreants.”

It is ironic that after such suffering, just 300 years later, the Madurai Nayaks would again appeal to a Sultan to send in his army to settle their succession dispute! The lessons of history are indeed short! Tamilnadu was fortunate that the Maratha rule, which resulted, was much more benevolent!

Tanjore Maratha Cereal - Lentil recipes

Tanjore soon became the second home of Marathis. Like the Saurashtrians of Madurai, Marathis of Tanjore were embraced by locals. Their rule was considered benevolent and their food, rituals and vocabulary were absorbed into Tamil culture. The Katha Kaalakshepam ( Religious Story telling) , Poikkal Kuthirai Aattam (Horse dance), their style of paintings (Tanjore paintings), their technique of embossing/ etching bronze plates ( thanjavur thattu) were all gleefully amalgamated. Dishes like puran poli, sambar, rasa vangi, dangar etc are now traditional tamil recipes.

This amalgamation came at a price. Their language, culture and cuisine became so altered that they lost touch with their roots. (In fact, Tanjore marathis would hesitate to speak Marathi before a Maharashtrian for fear of being ridiculed !) This alone might not have been serious. But almost overnight, they were downgraded from rulers and large landowners to commoners, forced to earn their living. Some coped by rising as eminent administrators, but as a whole, the community suffered, dwindling from a peak of 250,000 to less than 500 today!

Tanjore Maratha Curries

Tanjore Marathi rituals, cuisine and history are a little known but fascinating chapter in Tamil history. It is delightful to trace the evolution of a new community, cuisine and rituals. Migrations always seems to result in enrichment - prejudices lessen & new cuisines develop !