The first thing that strikes you as you begin partaking the bhog prasad is the sheer grandiosity of it all. And then, amazement. The different and vastly varied bhog dishes keep appearing on your plate faster than you can chew. And after a point, you give in and start enjoying the different tastes and flavours. Where else will you get a chance to taste the delicious kheer with black rice straight from the temples of Manipur or the soft and juicy chhena poda from Puri all on the same plate?
Serving these and more such bhog dishes to us were Geeta and Arun Budhiraja, the authors of Bhog: Temple Food of India, at the Delhi launch of their book on November 28. The husband and wife duo embarked on a journey to the temples of India three years ago. They were on the lookout for different types of temple food prepared and offered to deities across the country. The result of their journey is a 205-page-long book with recipes like mirchi ka saag, tenti ka achar, Radha Ashtami arbi and Krishna-worthy kadhi from across the temples of India.
?Temples in India have, through the ages, been not only a focus of prayer and devotion but also a centre for social and group meetings, festivals and celebrations,? says Dr Karan Singh, Rajya Sabha member, in the foreword of the book. ?Among the important aspects of the temple is the prasad or bhog, which is prepared on the temple premises, offered to the deity and then distributed among the congregation.?
According to the authors, who visited 56 temples, the preparation for cooking bhog is as important as the actual process of cooking. There are rituals and guidelines to be followed?different for different temples?and talking while cooking is frowned upon.
?This is not a recipe book. It?s about Indian culture and the fact that these bhogs are made out of bhaav (the intention of bhog offering), not culinary expertise,? says Arun Budhiraja. The book recognises temple food as the epitome of Indian cuisine and is a small tribute to the unconditional devotion of the custodians of a living culture?the temple cooks, the authors say.
The recipes in the book have been divided by the eight prahars (hours) of a day with a separate section on mithais (sweets). So while mangala (5-7 am), the first offering of the day, lists delicacies like jaggery-coated rice flakes and nei payasam (ghee rice), sandhya bhog (5-6.30 pm) details the making of beverages like sheetal samagri, phoolon ki thandai and munakka sharbat.
Raj bhog (11.30 am-12 noon) is the main meal of the day. According to the authors, it should always have a dry vegetable dish along with another gravy one. So you have kheer with black rice, six kinds of khichdi, meethi dal and Krishna-worthy kadhi. Shayan bhog (7-8.45 pm), the last offering of the day, should be light and easy to digest. Mirchi ka saag and Radha Vallabh fit the bill perfectly here. Under mithais, you have dishes like suhaag sonth, kamrakh ka bilsaru and chhena poda.
Some of the recipes have their own tales to tell. Black rice, for instance, was called ?forbidden? as it could only be served to Chinese emperors. The general public wasn?t allowed to eat it. Pal payasam, which is cooked with 800 litres of milk in the Guruvayoor temple in Kerala, gets done amazingly in just 30 minutes. The recipe of Radha Ashtami arbi, cooked in Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, is top secret and the authors have tried their best to make it as close to the original as possible. Arbi was Radha?s favourite vegetable and it is prepared every year on Radha Ashtami in her honour.
?Each significant temple in India has a special and specific menu, so that the temple food of India covers a very wide and varying spectrum of dishes, sometimes called chappan-bhog, all the way from the Himalayas down to the south,? says Dr Singh in the foreword.
Published by the Krishna Prerna Charitable Trust, the cover of the limited-edition copy of the book has been embroidered by the mothers of Vrindavan.
Keeping alive the ?kitchen religion?
With the objective to explore and dive into our ancient wisdom to explore and address today?s health challenges, co-author Arun Budhiraja wants to bring the ?kitchen religion?, that?s long been forgotten, back to our dining tables. We caught up with him for a freewheeling chat. Edited excerpts:
A book on the temple food of India is a very unique concept. How did you come up with it? Was there any inspiration behind writing such a book?
I live in Vrindavan (in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh). After working for more than 20 years in the corporate field, I decided to quit, go to Vrindavan and make it my home. After living there for some time, I realised that there was something special about the bhog as my babas would work for 19 hours and rest for only five hours, yet they had so much energy. I decided to travel across temples in India and explore them. We went to a lot of temples and I came to know that there is a pattern and a method to preparing bhog. It basically has five pillars. It follows the six ritus (seasons) of the Indian calendar and eight prahars (hours) of a day. We visited 56 temples in India and noticed that all the people living and working in these temples were extremely healthy with great positive energy!
How did you shortlist the temples? There are so many to choose from?
My selection of the temples was based on which temples do really elaborate bhog. For example, go to Udupi in Karnataka and you have covered the whole of that state. My objective was to cover one representative style of bhog for a region or a state.
Did you face any difficulties during your research? Talking to the priests, taking permission from temple trusts for a behind-the-scenes look?
It would have been very difficult in normal circumstances. But in our case, there was some divine intervention. We were welcomed everywhere with open arms.
What is your favourite recipe from the book?
I would have to say Radha Ashtami arbi. It?s from an ashram called Tattiyasthan in Vrindavan. The cooks don?t use a knife to clean/peel the arbi. The thin pink layer under the rough skin of the arbi is the most nutritious. If you peel with a knife, the pink layer vanishes. They instead rub the dry arbi with a dry rough cloth till the dark outer skin comes off.
