Paan: The Most Elegant stuff in Indian Cuisine !!

Indian cuisine has many aspects and it keeps unfolding various mysteries from time to time with utter surprise. It has been blessed with varied shades and each shade is as beautiful as other. In this multifarious shades of taste, delicacies, flavour, culture and tradition; the most prominent shade emerging like rainbow is "Paan". The grace of Paan has increased continuously from ancient era and is welcomed wholeheartedly by all generations of distinct era.

    

I have described almost all aspects of Indian cuisine in my book A Culinary Tour of India and hence Paan is no exception to it.

I would commit with slight pain and grief that Paan after having so much of grace, acceptability, and depiction of honour imparted to it has been not crowned correctly in true sense. 

So, this blog of mine is an attempt to uplift the respect granted to "Paan". Certain parts of the blog is an Excerpt from my book awarded with World Gourmand Cookbook Awards - A Culinary Tour of India.

Paan is in Hindi from Sanskrit parna meaning feather. Another Sanskrit term for the quid, vida, is the beeda of common current usage. Sanskrit name for paan is tambuli. 

It is a stimulating and psychoactive preparation of betel leaf combined with areca-nut and/or cured tobacco. It is the traditional betel leaf palate-cleanser-cum digestive, dating to ancient times. It is regarded as an auspicious symbol of hospitality, and was offered as a moral and even legal commitment when an agreement was drawn up. 

Paan is chewed and finally spat out or swallowed. Paan has many variations. Slaked lime paste (chuna) is commonly added to bind the leaves. 

Some South Asian preparations include red katha (catechu) paste or mukhwas to freshen the breath. The skilled paan maker is known as a paanwala in North India. In other parts, paanwalas are also known as panwaris or panwadis. 

Beautiful containers of brass, copper and silver to hold the various ingredients of making a pan called 'Pandan', have been crafted since time immemorial.

Pandans come in a variety of floral, bird and animal motifs and nut crackers, called 'Sarotas' are fashioned after parrots, peacocks, horse riders, celestial figures and amorous couples.

A Paan is a heart shaped, smooth, shinning and long-stalked leaf from a creeper called the Paan creepers, grown in hot and humid climate but under the shade so that direct sunlight does not burn the leaves. 

Various other ingredients are added in the paan leaves and then folded into triangular shaped bidas, which is consumed. Now everywhere in India, almost all the communities enjoy chewing the betel leaf after meals or anytime they like. These days it may have just the traditional ingredients or a mixture of gulkand, dried coconut, aniseed, camphor (eatable kapoor), cardamom, cinnamon and cloves, peppermint, rose petal or sugar paste, fruit preserves or syrup, too. The manasollasa (AD 1130) written by King Someshwara of Kalyana in central India describes panchasugandha as athambula with five aromatic ingredients, namely the cardamom, clove, nutmeg, mace and camphor, a truly kingly concoction.

Paan leaves are commonly cultivated in Tamil nadu, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

Betel leaves contain tannins, sugar and an essential oil which is a light yellow aromatic liquid with a sharp stringing, burning taste. It also contains a phenol called chavicol and the alkaloid arakene in it, which has similar properties compared to cocaine.

In South it was considered, “Laxmi resides in the forepart of the betel leaf, Jyestha at the bark, the Lord of speech at the right, Parvati at the left, Vishnu inside, the Moon outside, Shiva at all the edges and cupid everywhere. Yama, the lord of death resides at the root that is why; the stalk is always pinched away before the leaf is eaten".

There are three types of paan available in market nowadays; meetha or sweet paan, zarda paan (containing tobacco)– infamous for its teeth and sidewalk – staining properties, as the red juice is usually spit out and saada or simple paan with only basic ingredients in it. 

The leaves of paan is also given different names such as Maghareya, Chandrakala, Jalesar, Haldia, Poona, Karimpur, Sanchi, Jagannathi, Shrirampur, Ketaki, Choorward and so on. An analysis of the betel leaf shows it to consist of moisture 85.4%, protein 3.1%, fat 0.8%, minerals 2.3%, fiber 2.3% and carbohydrate 6.1% per 100 grams. Its mineral and vitamin contents are calcium, carotene, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and vitamin C. Its calorific value is 44.

The history of Paan goes back to ancient times, when scholars of Ayurveda with the help of Dhanvantari invented this wonderful chewing material after doing several experiments on rats. During this research, paan was found to be good for digestion. Even reference of paan is found in Shrimad Bhagvat (most revered book in Hindu Religion) as Lord Krishna used to chew it.

Ibn-e-Batuta (a old manuscript) mentions about the ritual of serving paan as the first things to a guest at the time of his arrival and departure. This is one of the customs, which is still quite popular in Lucknow.

The tradition of eating paan was popularized by Noor-e-Jahan, the mother of Emperor Shah-e-Jahan who built the wonder in marble TajMahal (One of the wonder monuments of the world). Empress Noor-e Jahan discovered that by adding some particular ingredients to the paan and eating it gives a beautiful natural red colour to the lips. So along with its taste, the paan was eaten by women for reddening the lips.

So, this was a small, brief and concise post on "Paan". Hope all the readers enjoyed it!! 

Images used are from google Paan 1 and Paan 2.

                                                                        Thank You & Do comment!!