Every visitor in Kerala, both foreign and domestic is
taken by surprise, as they have their first food experience here. As water is
served, to be had with a meal, ‘confused’ is the obvious state of every first
timer. Staring at the pink colored liquid in the glass, in a state of daze,
some may even declare their strict adherence to teetotalism.
By the way, the liquid that’s served, pink in colour and
sometimes mildly golden, is not alcohol but hot water boiled with fennel, bark
of Pathimugham (East Indian Red Wood) or Karingali (Cutch Tree). They are called Jeeraka Vellam and Karingali Vellam in
Malayalam.
So, why does Kerala drink boiled water even with a hot,
spicy meal? When and how did this practice begin and why is it so popular?
The rich heritage of Ayurveda, must be an apparent answer
that comes to one’s mind. But is there more sociology and history into it?
Often this is thought to be habit limited to Kerala. Is
it? Yes and No.
In India this is a practice limited to Kerala. However, surprised you may be to know that
this is a pan Asian habit and a very common practice in China. With Kerala’s
historic trade linkage with China and it having adopted a number of other
things from China including the Chinese Fishing Net and Kanji (Rice Porridge),
did the habit of drinking boiled water also come from China?
Call them hypothesis or not, some logical reasons which
worked individually and in combination to make this practice so popular and
maintain its popularity through generations are being presented here. Considering the spiritual and philosophical
associations that communities have with water and the varied associated
meanings for water served along with food, these questions become more
interesting.
Ayurveda, as practiced in the pre-independence period and
centuries before had a very different perspective and outlook from today’s version. It was more of a repository of local knowledge
which allowed space for innovation, than the closed institutionalized format it
has now. In other words, Ayurveda was an open social system which functioned
through the knowledge shared by practitioners of varied social orders. For
example, a healer would explain to a patient the way a decoction was to be
prepared and this information percolates into the society and improvises itself
into another medical knowledge. The benefit of drinking boiled water,
Ushnodoka, as it is referred to in Ayurveda has always been a part of this
local wisdom. This wisdom would have passed
on through generations to make drinking hot water a common habit.
The second assumption connects to the drinking water
hygiene campaigns which were pushed by both royal and British administration in
the modern history so as to prevent epidemics. Literature on epidemics states
that in 1925, it was common with the economically better off in Kerala to use water
boiled with cumin (Nag, 1987). How about the poorer sections? Interestingly,
they resorted to Kanji vellam, which is boiled rice water, which is also a rich
source of starch. So, the poor and rich, all of them drank hot water.
Many studies which enquired the relatively lesser
outbreaks of waterborne epidemics in Kerala, have found the consumption of
boiled versions of water to be a significant influential factor (Nag, 1987).
These findings would have been obviously used as a community medicine extension
input.
There was very strong emphasis by Travancore royal
administration on community health campaigns. Quarter of the heath budget of
1941-42 was reportedly spent on Cholera and Malaria eradication (Singh,2015). Also , the communist movement empowered
people to be vigilant of public policies. It is to be noted here that Kerala
became the first Indian state to have completely eradicated Malaria by
1965.
All these campaigns preached drinking hot water as a
preventive tool subscribing to the research findings on boons of boiled
water. Gradually, this would have become
the norm. Further to add taste and science to this concept of hygiene, improvisations were made based on Ayurveda and so resulted all the versions of hot water popular today.
The third assumption is connected with Sree Narayana
Guru, a social reformer who denounced superstitions, rejected casteism and was
a healer himself. He preached ‘drink hot
water and bathe in cold water’ theory which was an important shared health knowledge.
The observations of Nag (1987) in terms of the social class divide in drinking
hot water also connect back to the social structure which existed during the life
time of Sree Narayana Guru. With his huge
influence in the society, his campaigns on this note would have had great
impact.
The final and the most interesting assumption is that Kerala’s
own Karingali vellam and its cousins were ‘Made in China’. Though that was on a lighter note, reading
together the facts that drinking hot water is a common Asian trend and there
were strong ancient trade links between the West Coast and China, couldn’t
there be a connection with China and Kerala’s Karingali Vellam? Kerala got its
celebrated Chinese Fish Net, Cheena Chatti (Chinese Frying Pot), Cheena Kali
Mannu (Chinese Sand for Pottery) very much from its trade partner since ancient
times, China. Kerala’s Kanji (Rice Porridge) has an improvised parallel in other
Asian countries called Congee which has thousands of years of recorded history
of consumption in China.
In China, it’s very common to carry and store boiled drinking
water in thermos. References on drinking hot water in China go back to one of
the most ancient Chinese texts, I Ching,
which was written in the 7th century BC. The legend on the evolution
of Tea also confirms that drinking hot water was very common then in
China. In Vietnam, every restaurant
offers you free hot herbal drink (Green Tea mostly) just like free boiled
water comes free with a meal in Kerala restaurants.
So, are Jeeraka Vellam and Karingali Vellam -Made in
China????
(Thank you Vinod Krishnan
T Y, Manoj Kumar A K and Dr. Suresh Kumar for those crucial inputs. Albert, kudos to the
constant motivation)
