Rajput Flavors in the Mughal Kitchen: Delving into Culinary Psychology of Medieval India

Abstract

Food, a fundamental need for human life and development, is crucial to culture and the development of one's identity because it always reflects one's choices, beliefs, status, habits, and personality.The present article seeks to recreate the history of Indian food, a topic that has been relatively understudied in gastronomy literature. The foundation of Mughal- Rajput alliance under Akbar not only helped in the consolidation and expansion of the Empire but even ensured entry of culinary artists from different regions of India who incorporated Persian flavors into their pre-existing cooking techniques.The advantages from the Hindu diet, consisting mainly of vegetables, was thus being advocated by the Mughals. This article, hence focuses on the adaptability of the Indic vegetarianism by the so-called alien invaders of South Asia. Here, it is argued that the Mughals advocated the harmonious adaptability of the Mughal cuisine with varied transcultural and transnational practices and upheld the message of syncretism.The finding thus, advocates that cuisine, as a phenomenon, be analyzed as a transcultural process rather than as a structure.