[b]Eating Habits, Grains, cereals and Pulses mentioned in Arthashastra
Plant Science aspects in Kautilya’s Arthashastra -5
Botany History in Maurya Period -6
BOTANY History of Indian Subcontinent –60
By: Bhishma Kukreti[/b] M.Sc. {(Botany), B.Sc. (Honours in Botany), Medical Tourism Historian)
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There are mentions of eating habits or rules for government servants and cereals etc. for food quantity in Arthashastra (1)
There is mentions of diet for one male for one time in Arthashastra (AS 2.15.43) that
He should be given (ration) one prasthta (approximately one kilo) rice, a quarter litre of broth , one sixteenth of butter and little bit of salt. In 32 .17 of Book 2, there is mention that an elephant attendant should be given diet (Ration) of a litre of boiled rice, a cupful of oil, 160 gram of sugar, 800 grams of meat and salt.
Chapter 15.45-46 of second book of Arthashastra explains that women should receive three quarters and half the quantity to children of average Arya (male person)
Arthashastra mentions a wide verity of commodities used for cooking as rice, wheat , rice, barley , millets varieties, verities of beans and lentils; butter –ghee, sesame and mustard oil; honey, treacle and molasses, vinegars; fruit juices of pomegranates, tamarind and lemon ; spices including pepper (means it was imported ) ginger, coriander , cumin seeds ; vegetable roots , other vegetables, fruits , dry meat and yoghurt etc. (1)
Kautilya offers the recipe for meat as follows (AS 2.15,47-49)-
Meat -1 kilo
Salt – 50 grams
Sugar – 50 grams
Spices – 10 grams
Yoghurt one and quarter Kilo and oil
For dried meat the quantity goes to double
For vegetables the quantity remains one and half times of the above quantity (1).
Reference
The above write up of chapter 60 is based on following book –
Kautilya : The Arthashastra , by Rangrajan , Penguin Random House, 2016
Copyright@ Bhishma Kukreti, bckukreti@gmail.com , Mumbai India, 2020
History of Botany in Indian subcontinent will be continued in next Chapter