Khichdi: Four-Continent Delight
Khichdi is a one-pot meal, prepared with rice and lentil-easy to cook and easy to digest. The term khichdi is derived from a Sanskrit word "khiccha". In Ayurvedic Samhitas it is mentioned as Krushara. Seleucus Nicator, a Macedonian military general who accompanied Alexander the Great during his invasion of India in 326 BCE, discovered that rice was frequently cooked with pulses in ancient India. There is no one definite way to cook khichdi. Different regions incorporate seasonal ingredients into their khichdi recipes, reflecting a deep connection with nature and an understanding of seasonal produce. This seasonal adaptability adds an ecological dimension to the cultural significance of khichdi. Because different regions employ different ingredients that were available to them, therefore various versions of khichdi erupted, and it is comparable to a lot of other dishes. Ibn Batuta, a Moroccan traveller who came to India in 1333 CE also refers to it in his travelogue Rihla, saying that 'kishri', cooked with rice and mung beans was a popular breakfast dish and he compares it with a Moroccan dish, harira. He records, "It takes the place with them of harira in the lands of the Maghrib."
Many European travellers visiting medieval India too provided interesting details regarding the dish. John Ovington, an English priest in A Voyage to Suratt in the Year 1689 writes, "Kitcherie is another Dish very common among them, made of Dol, that is, a small round Pea and Rice boiled together, and is very strengthening, tho’ not very savoury. Of this the European Sailers feed in these parts once or twice a Week, and are forc’d at those times at a Pagan Abstinence from Flesh…" Another European account, written by Alexander Hamilton, a Scottish sea captain, privateer and merchant informs that Surat, rich port city cultivated many varieties of legumes and they were cooked in different ways. One of the dishes prepared with legumes was ‘Kitcheree’. He writes, "Doll and Rice being mingled together and boyled, make Kitcheree, the Common Food of the Country. They eat it with Butter and Atchar or salt-fish." John Fryer, an English physician and traveller in A New Account of East-India and Persia: Being Nine Years' Travels 1672-1681 describes how people in Medieval India enjoyed their meals with 'Mango or other Achar'. Achar (pickle) continues to constitute an important component of Indian cuisine.
Some European travel accounts record that since khichdi is easy to prepare and can be cooked in large quantity without any hassle, therefore it was distributed to poor and needy people, to famished travellers, etc. Thomas Coryat, an English traveller visited the court of Mughal Padshah (Emperor) Jahangir when the latter was in Ajmer (in modern-day Rajasthan) for the urs (death anniversary of a Sufi saint) mela at the shrine of Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, the founder of the Chishti Silsila in India in the 12th century. Jahangir went afoot to the tomb of Moinuddin Chishti. He with his chief queen (Padshah Begum), Nur Jahan prepared 'kitcherie' in a large brass pot for five thousand poor people, "taking out the first platter with his owne hands and serving one ; Normahal the second ; and so his ladies all the rest." Jean de Thevenot, a 17th century French traveller describes the dish as "the ordinary Food of the Poor and it is called Kichery because it is made of a Grain of same name boiled with Rice, Water and Salt."
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French merchant in Travels in India highlights the warmth and kindness of the people of South India to travellers during his visit to the region. He saw a lot of women on the highways that were frequently used by travellers, offering them food such as 'quicheri', cooked beans and cooked rice to eat and to drink, they were given bean water and rice water and 'to those who have no tobacco they even lend a pipe'.
The humble khichdi found its place in the royal kitchen of the Mughals too. Humayun was the son of Babur who founded the Mughal empire in 1526. He had to seek refuge in Persia. The exiled king held a feast in Indian fashion in the honour of the Persian Shah and one of the dishes served was made of rice with peas, a variant of khichdi which was very much liked by the Shah. Mughal court chronicler, Abul Fazl in Ain i Akbari describes a variety of dishes cooked in the royal kitchen of Akbar (son of Jahangir) and he placed khichdi, cooked with mung dal and rice under the category of sufiyana dishes i.e. dishes with no meat. He also mentions other variations of khichdi such as qabuli and shulla or shola prepared with meat. Shola is a traditional dish of Afghanistan, Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (formerly the North-West Frontier Province or NWFP) which is bounded by Afghanistan to the west and also of Purani Dilli (Old Delhi) which was previously known as Shahjahanabad, the seventh city of Delhi.
When Jahangir, son of Mughal Emperor Akbar was marching to Ahmedabad, on his way he mentions in his memoirs, Jahangirnama or Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri that he came across a peculiar kind of khichdi which was prepared from bajra and was called laziza. To cook it, split peas and millet are boiled together. Bajra was much cheaper here than many vegetables. After having it, Jahangir liked it so much that he ordered that on the days when he was not having any meat-based dish, he was to be served with this khicdi often. Laziza is still cooked and relished in Gujarat. As per A. Hamilton, Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707) relished the dish very much. In his words, " 'Tis a pleafant nourishing Food, and that which the famous Aurengzeb moft delighted to eat."
Ruqa’at-i-Alamgiri or Letters of Aurungzebe is a compilation of Aurangzeb’s letters and is considered as a significant Mughal primary source. In one of his letters, addressed to his son, he reminds the prince that how much he loved the dish, along with biryani, made by his cook. He says, “Exalted son, I remember the savour of your ‘khichadi’ and ‘biryani’ during the winter”. In another letter he describes the dish as ‘a mess of rice and other vegetables, over which, when boiled, they pour melted butter’. Elsewhere, he informs that it was a ‘favourite dish of Shah Jahan’, Aurangzeb’s royal father and the son of Mughal King Jahangir. The cookbook Khulasat-i Makulat u Mashrubat, also known as Alwan-i Ni'mat or Khwan-i Alwan-i Ni'mat, dates back to Aurangzeb's reign too mentions khichdi among other food items.
Some contemporary Mughal and European accounts also highlight that khichdi even functioned as a solution to feed the masses in Mughal encampment. In his description of the splendour and manner in which the Mughal camp was organized, Francois Bernier, a French physician in Travels in the Mogul Empire, AD 1656-1668 notes that the emperor, royal members, umara (nobles), soldiers with a large entourage of attendants, laborers, artisans, cooks, and others in order to provide aid and support, were not the only people who made up the encampment, "The whole population of Dehli, the capital city, is in fact collected in the camp..." According to Bernier, the entire populace of the Mughal capital was driven to follow the royal camp because "deriving its employment and maintenance from the court and army, it has no alternative but to follow them in their march or to perish from want during their absence." Now feeding such a vast number of people as well as animals used for transportation was undoubtedly challenging. He adds, "The best solution of the difficulty will be found in the temperance of the Indians and simple nature of their diet...they are satisfied with their kichery". He describes it as 'a mess of rice and other vegetables, over which, when cooked, they pour boiled butter.' In Tavernier's account too, khichdi appears in the list of food items that were cooked to feed a multitude of people who were part of the Mughal camp. He writes, "For the horsemen as well as the infantry soldier ..., they make khichari, which consists of rice cooked with a grain ... in water with a little salt" and he observed the soldiers ate it with melted butter and that it was "the ordinary food of both soldiers and poor people".
Much earlier, in 1469 a Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin visited India and he is counted as one of the first Europeans to travel to the country. His travelogue Хождение за три моря or The Journey Beyond Three Seas tells us that khichdi was fed not just to humans, but to horses too. Both Nikitin and Bernier's accounts show that khichdi was a dish in medieval India which was eaten by the people and their animals.
Gradually when the Mughal authority began to fade in the 18th century, the erstwhile Mughal provinces rose to prominence. Awadh too gained independence. The decadence of the Mughal capital and the rise of Lucknow, the capital city of Awadh attracted skilled cooks, artisans, literary figures, etc. to the court of Awadh from Delhi. The nawabs of Awadh soon became renowned for their exquisite taste and their cooks kept them amused with different sorts of food trickery. Even the simple khichdi dish was elevated to a delightful and entertaining feast by the cooks. Pistachios were carved to resemble lentils, while almonds were meticulously chopped to imitate rice grains. Regarding the dish, it was noted that "once savoured...could never be forgotten."
Khichdi was also adopted by the British when India became one of its colonies and came to be called as kedgeree. It was often served for breakfast in Anglo-Indian households, garnished with fish or hard-boiled eggs and fried onions. English historian Lizzie Collingham in Curry, A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors writes that for breakfast on their country-house weekends, British aristocrats would have kedgeree with the addition of 'smoked haddock as the definitive fish to add to the rice' and the subtraction of lentils. Gradually all these three components (fish, eggs and onions) became important for preparing delicious kedgeree. In Queen Victoria’s reign, it was a popular breakfast dish. The queen was introduced to the dish by his Urdu tutor, Munshi Abdul Karim. It is now considered as a traditional English brunch dish.
The dish travelled to another British colony, Egypt where a few more ingredients such as chickpeas, pasta and tomato sauce were incorporated. In Egypt, it is known as koshari which is the national dish of the country. The dish travelled to the Caribbean too and in Trinidad, it is flavoured with chives, parsley and thyme. In Surinam and Trinidad, it is enjoyed with pholourie which is made of bengal gram flour. Caribbean pholourie too was brought from India when the British brought indentured labourers from British India to the Caribbean. Many of them were from the eastern part of India. Thus, the Bengali fuluri was tweaked and the Caribbean pholourie was born.
Khichdi in India has many versions and can be made of rice, wheat or even millet with as many different pulses as possible, including tur, lobia, chana, masoor, and mung. It can be cooked with just four basic ingredients -rice, pulse, water and salt or it can be made extremely rich and sumptuous by adding numerous spices, herbs, butter, and meat. It can be served in hospitals to help patients to have food that are easy-to-digest, or in the form of naivedyam to a presiding deity in temples, in gurudwaras as langar or in dargahs. For example, in 1670 the ninth Sikh guru, Guru Teg Bahadur's son, Gobind Rai left Patna, his birthplace along with his family on being summoned by his father to Anandpur Sahib (in Punjab). The first place the sangat (he and his people) halted was at Danapur (a suburb of Patna) where they were received by a destitute woman named Jamuni Mata and she offered them khichdi, cooked in a small earthen pot (handi). It is believed that with the guru's blessings, the handi remained filled with khichdi and it satisfied the hunger of the whole sangat. The gurudwara built at this site is aptly called Gurudwara Handi Sahib and khichdi is served here as langar food in order to commemorate the event. Later, as the tenth Sikh guru, Gobind Rai succeeded his father as Guru Gobind Singh.
Speaking of its various different adaptations, Jafar Sharif in Islam in India or The Qanun-i-Islam, the 19th c. literary work, delineates various aspects of the Muslim community in southern India, including their cuisine. The author describes a number of different types of khichdi and how to cook them. Below is the recipe for safed or 'white' khichdi, shared by J. Sharif:
4 oz. mung pulse (phascolus radiaius) fried slightly in a little butter, a process called bagharna. Sprinkle a little water on it while it is on the fire and then boil it in some water in a tinned copper vessel. When it is soft take it off the fire, put 4oz. butter into another smaller vessel and when it is melted throw into it a handful of sliced onions. Fry till they become reddish and then remove from the fire. To the remaining butter add 8oz. washed rice and fry a little. Then add the pulse with the water in which it was boiled and two pieces of sliced ginger. When the water has nearly evaporated reduce the fire below and put the rice on a pot cover and shake it (dam dena, ‘to give it breath’), but before doing so add 10 or 12 cloves, a couple of pieces of mace, 10 or 12 peppercorns, 2 dried cassia leaves, a dessertspoonful of salt and cover up.
Once khichdi is ready, serve it hot with four hard-boiled eggs and fried onions. He suggests adding a bit of pounded turmeric to the dish, if you want to make yellow khichdi. For ubali or 'boiled' khichdi, he gives a list of ingredients- rice, pulse, hot spices (pepper, cinnamon, cardamoms, cubebs, cloves, and mace) and cold spices (chillies, onions, garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin seeds and tamarind)- to prepare it. The cooking method for kash khichdi is similar to ubali khichdi with the addition of meat. Comparable to ubali, but cooked with butter, is baghari, also known as qabuli khichdi. 'Roasted' khichdi, or bhuni, has more butter dollops. While shartawa is a thin-textured khichdi without meat, shola is cooked with meat.
Khichdi has also been a significant part of some major Hindu festivals. On Makar Sankranti or Uttarayana, a Hindu festival it is cooked and relished by family members. It is one of the 56 bhog that is offered to Lord Jagannath. It is served in pandals during the festival of Durga Puja as bhoger khichuri in West Bengal without any onions or garlic and also in its adjoining states such as Jharkhand, Bihar, etc. In Tamil Nadu on the festival of Pongal, the Tamilians prepare a dish called milagu (spicier version) or khara pongal. The basic ingredients are the same as required to make khichdi.
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Yet another regional variation of khichdi is bisi bele bath. The name of the dish translates to "hot lentil rice". It is believed that it was first cooked in the Mysore palace, Karnataka. The addition of bisi bele bath masala powder, vegetables and peanuts provide it with a very rich flavour profile and when garnished with crispy khara boondi, it is truly delectable. Gujarati Vaghareli khichdi is tempered with garlic and other spices and served with kadhi and additional accompaniments. The Dawoodi Bohras of Gujarat enjoys their keema khichdi with bhuna keema (roasted minced meat), boiled eggs and fried potatoes. The Nizams of Hyderabad too came up with their version of keema khichdi and it is now eaten in Telangana and Andhra with salan, imparting a tangy flavour to the dish. Besides these, there are numerous other versions like Ram khichdi, Valchi khichdi, balaee, etc. that are cooked and eaten in different regions of India, utilizing ingredients that grow there and are readily available.
The flavour of khichdi is further enhanced by serving it with curd, papad, ghee (clarified butter) and achar. There's a dictum that often goes with the dish:
खिचड़ी के चार यार दही, पापड़, घी, अचार।
(The four friends of khichdi are curd, poppadom, ghee and pickle.)
In eastern states of India such as West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, as well as in the Purvanchal region of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, khichdi is also served with chokha, aloo bhaja, baigan bhaja and/or fuluri. It can also be enjoyed with other condiments viz. boondi ka raita (a curd-based dish), chutneys like barabar ki chutney, dhaniya ki chutney, amla (Indian gooseberry) ki chutney, etc. In contrast, a variety of sandige or vadagam is typically served with rice meals like khichdi in South India.
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Thus, the versatile khichdi with its regional and global adaptations transcends social and economic boundaries, bringing people together over a shared love for this humble yet satisfying meal. Indeed, it is comforting, it is nourishing, and it is full of possibilities. Like a curious traveller, it travels far and wide and it adapts wherever it goes. Khichdi is for everyone. Come, embrace it!
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