Dr Kurush F Dalal Reveals The Mythological Roots Of Indian Cuisine

Be it the humble Pani Puri or the festive Fruit Salad, or the aromatic Biryani, the roots to quite a few dishes can be traced back to Ramayana and Mahabharata. Whether mythology influenced reality or reality influenced mythology,

is a question that many have pondered on. Some comprehended the crux, some didn’t.

This was the base of the session – Myths & Mythologies Of Food at the Kalaghoda Festival 2026. Dr Kurush F Dalal, Archaeologist and Culinary Anthropologist, who was one of the speakers at the session, explains, “There’s a common notion that mythology inspires reality, but it's the other way around. The dishes and mythology are inspired by reality. For example, when you talk about the Apples of the Hesperides that were guarded by Hera, Atlas had to go and steal them for Hercules. The golden apples were a common fruit, and that is why they were written about.”

Mythology plays an important role in a society, especially in India. The influence of these stories is deeply rooted in our culture, religion and politics. Dr. Dalal adds, “The Greeks ate apples; they prized apples. The apple was a well-known commodity that was introduced to Greece from West Asia and Central Asia. So, a lot of food that comes to us through myths is food that we already know and use.”

He believes that the food discussed in the Mahabharata or Ramayana belongs to a certain period, and the ingredients we use today are not the same. “Also, there are some dishes that are attributed to Ramayana, like the biryani, which might not be accepted as Sita’s contribution today by some sects,” points out Dr. Dalal, reiterating that it’s a wrong perception that non-veg was not eaten by protagonists of mythological scriptures. “On the contrary, Ravana had forbidden his soldiers from eating non-veg if they were not on the battlefield!”

Dr Dalal busts the myth around vegetarian food. “We have been ‘cleaning up' mythology to remove references to non-vegetarian food. There is no compulsion that we should eat it, but to deny the fact that at one point our diet included all this is a lie. We don’t mind living with that lie in India.” He reminds that many historians have mentioned that Sage Yajnavalkya once had said: ‘I, for one, eat beef — provided it is tender.’