27. The Sweet Potato

The sweet potato (botanical name: Ipomea batatas) was a humble food of the masses since early historical days. Rama, the dark skinned prince of Ayodhya, during the early part of Indian history, went to live in the forest for fourteen years along with his wife Sita and brother Laxmana, only to honour the promise made by his father Dasharatha to his wife (Rama’s step mother Kaikei). Rama and others had to consume roots and tubers like sweet potatoes and wild fruits in the forest. Sweet potato is a common root that can be consumed in raw as well as cooked form.
Reports said that sweet potato (see, Manjunath) was also brought to India by the Portuguese some five centuries ago along with chilies, beans, potato, cassava, breadfruit, sunflower, groundnut, pineapple, guava, sapota, passion fruit, cashew, tobacco, onion, garlic and so on. Sweet potato is reported to be native to the American continents since 5000 years. Archeological evidences suggest that it was cultivated ca.2400 BC in South America; and Columbus is said to have discovered it in the Caribbean region during AD1502.
Balasubramanian, a reader commenting on Manjunath’s cited posting on imported vegetables, elucidated an interesting custom of using native vegetables and materials in shraddha ceremonies of Tamil Brahmins. Sweet potatoes are one of the acceptable tubers used in the preparation of ceremonial food, indicating that sweet potato has attained nativity to our land since long time. They use bitter gourd, raw bananas, banana stem, colocasia, snake gourd, cluster beans, local cucumber, sweet potato, ginger, raw mango and black pepper. Similar ceremonies in Tulu households make use of specified vegetables and allied materials for the preparation of meal on the uttarakriya day. Raw bananas, ash gourds and inner part of plantain (banana) stem constitute the essential vegetables for obituary ceremonies in Tulu families, though modernization has tacitly replaced some of the traditionally accepted items with currently prevalent ‘desi’ items (like chillies for black pepper) in the menu. These obituary traditions appears to be quite ancient and some research is desirable on the nature and evolution of our traditional ceremonies.
Balasubramanian distinguishes between ‘valli kizhangu’(=sweet potato) and ‘mara kizhangu’(=cassava). Even in Tulu, cassava (tapioca) is called ‘mara kireng’, wherein ‘mara’(= tree )refers to the shrub of cassava. However the Tamil word sarkarai valli kizhangu is a clear translation of sweet ‘vine tuber’ inspired by the imported name of sweet potato.
Apart from its emphasized nativity to American continents, the sweet potato is being grown in diverse lands such as Polynesia, New Zealand and China. In Polynesia, New Zealand and Peru, it is called ‘Kumara’. The similarity of the word Kumara to the Sanskrit word may be coincidence. However, according to linguistics like Michael Witzel, the word ‘Kumara’ in Rigveda, composed in Indo-Aryan language (early Sanskrit) has been considered an extraneous word borrowed from uncertain language. How the sweet potato traveled into different continents is still an unsolved mystery.
The Tulu and Tamil words for the sweet potato are interesting. In Tulu it is ‘kireng’ (also, ‘kileng’ and other variants) and in Tamil it is ‘kilang’ (or with slightly different but allied pronunciation like kizhangu). Both the words mean the same: keeL or keer =the lower or underground; ang=part. The nomenclature is quite original and not an adopted word from the imported name of sweet potato. Most of the imported vegetables and fruits have names similar to or derived from their foreign names. The Malayalam word ‘kiraNNu’ is related to Tulu and Tamil words. However, Kannada and Telugu have the word ‘genasu’ for the sweet potato. In Tulu there are several related species of sweet potatoes cited in Tulu Nighantu (=dictionary) such as: Tuppe kireng, koLLi kireng, guddoli kireng, toonNa kireng, pottel kireng, muLLu kireng, apart from the kempu kireng (=red sweet potato), boldu kireng (=white sweet potato) and mara kireng(=cassava). I have seen tuppe kireng, a short variety of tuber named after tuppa, the butter. MuLLu(=spines) kireng refers to one with spines. Other species may still be surviving in our rural areas and our botanists should look into these research aspects. All these tubers, some of them rare and vanishing species, could not have been brought by the Portuguese. Tribals in India still consume several variety of tubers. Many of these tubers are possibly native to our land since ages.
Similarity of Tulu and Tamil words for sweet potato (or allied tuber) suggest certain antiquity to the said tuber. Available evidences indicate that proto-Tulu and proto-Tamil tribes coexisted in early Vedic times (ca. 1500 to 500BC) as suggested by borrowing of Tulu/Tamil words in Rigveda. (See, previous postings, No.26).The reference to edible tubers in the Ramayana (ca. 500-200 BC) only confirms this postulation.
Similar problems exist for other agricultural crops also. For example, peanut (groundnut) is also considered a native of Americas, but it is reported to be cultivated in China since 1500 BC. The antiquity of agricultural crops suggests that many of these are as old as our civilization, if not more. For example, how to fix the nativity of a now ubiquitous plant like coconut? Coconut (Cocos nucifera) is found on the earth since Miocene age ca. 20 million years ago, i.e. long before man appeared on this planet.

South American nativity of sweet potatoes and several other agricultural crops has been asserted based on the extensive archeological and paleo-botanical studies carried out in the Americas. Similar studies in Indian context are highly desirable for better understanding of our past.

10.Evolution of Culinary habits

Manjunath has made an important revelation on the evolution of food preferences and culinary habits of south Indians in general, since last five centuries. Based on his reference in Malayalam literature, he cited that the Portuguese imported several, now commonplace, agricultural crops to India that changed altogether or led to marked evolution of the culinary scenario. The list of crops imported by the Portuguese includes chilies, sweet potato and tapioca apart from the known vegetables and fruits like pineapple, guava, papaya, sapota, cashew, bread fruit, sunflower, maize, beans, tobacco ground nut, some gourds, ….etc.

I was surprised that the imported list included the humble sweet potato. In childhood days, when my granny used to tell me the story of Ramayana, that Rama and Laxmana ate tubers and roots in the forest, I conveniently imagined them eating sweet potatoes, which are, somehow, also edible in the raw form.

But sweet potato is native to South America, Manjunath assures me. Yes, sweet potato was introduced in India by the Portuguese but various other similar edible tubers were there in our land well before the arrival of the South American sweet potato. Words in south Indian languages are a revelation. In Tulu sweet potato is kireng (or kereng). Some Tulu variants may also have kileng. Tamil equivalent kilenk is also close to the Tulu word. The Tulu word kir (=lower, or under the soil)+ang(=part), distinctly refers to the below the ground buried growth of the tuber within the soil. The Tamil word apparently has also the similar derivation. Malayalam has also an analogous word kilannu.

The Tulu Nigantu lists a number of kireng (subterranean tuber) species like: tuppe kireng, mullu kireng, tooNa kireng, guddoLi kireng, koLLi kireng, pottel kireng, NaaTi kireng, apart from the usual kempu kireng (red sweet potato), bolpu kireng (white sweet potato) and the mara kireng (tapioca).

Apart from the numerous native species we have, the Tulu and Tamil words for the edible tuber kireng / keelank speaks of the antiquity of the tuber in India. First, the mutual influence of Tulu and Tamil words should take the time machine back to early period of the Christian era. The early Dravidian languages, proto-Tulu and proto-Tamil may have separated somewhere during 3^rd century BC- 3^rd century AD period. I deduce that this proto-Tamil -proto-Tulu co-existence and mutual influence was at the Pirak- Multan evolutionary stage (ca.1700 BC) that I discussed in some of the previous postings. After 4^th century AD Tulu is closely associated (geographically and socio-politically) with early Kannada. Hence, after this period (4^th century AD ) we can expect mutual influence of Kannada and Tulu, rather than Tamil and Tulu. Because after that period Tulu-Tamil contacts are limited to short term political warfare during ca.7^th or 8^th century AD, other than usual trade relations. Incidentally, Kannada has a different word genasu for the said tuber, totally unconnected with Tulu-Tamil words.

Second point of interest is that for most of the imported vegetables, tubers and fruits south Indians have retained their original names in the land origin like, pineapple, beans, cabbage, etc. But the term sweet potato was not inducted into local languages. It appears that the name kireng was also extended (ca five centuries ago) to the imported sweet potato which was similar in features to some of our native kirengs.

Shocking news is that chilies are in the said imported list. That means our Indian food was lacking in hot - khara- taste with we are familiar with now.

Again, another Tulu word uppaD (=pickle) has something to say. UppaD is now a popular food accessory, often the basic one in poor families. Basic summer food in many rural Tulu families, often also preferred by the rich, consists of boiled rice porridge (ganji) with uppaD. I used to wonder since childhood days why this uppaD which is characteristically rich in chilies, speaks only of uppu(=salt) +aD (=food preparation) .I was perplexed because in the word there is mention of chilies, the important ingredient in that dish.

With the revelation that chilies came only some five centuries ago, I have got the answer why pickle is named only uppaD! Our ancient uppaD did not have any ingredient of chilies. It was only the vegetable (raw mango, limbu, cucumber, raw jack fruit etc) with salt.