My little one recently represented her school in an inter-school quiz competition. True to form, she got eliminated in the first round itself. On reaching home, she tested my knowledge of the questions that tripped her.
Authoritatively, I was informed that Pani-Puri was discovered by Draupadi. For someone who has read the whole of the epic and keeps engaging with it on a regular basis, this tidbit (or BS) was news. Apparently, there’s this asinine theory floating on the internet that the dish was invented by Draupadi when she was tested by her MIL on her abilities to manage her five hubbies with scarce resources.
Most of the food origin myths can be fact-checked by a quick review of the ingredients. In this case, the potato came to India only after the advent of the Portuguese. The universally loved potato was ‘discovered’ by the Europeans after the voyages of Columbus. (Earlier post on the Columbian Exchange) The food historian Pushpesh Pant, in 2015, once hosted a banquet in Delhi in which all the dishes were inspired by ingredients that could be traced to the epic. His 2024 book, ‘From The King’s Table to Street Food : A Food History of Delhi’ also explores this aspect in some more detail.
While nosing around this myth, I chanced upon Aziz Premji University’s podcast episode where migration, urban spaces and the culture of food is analyzed through the lens of Pani Puri.
Similarly, many legendary chefs and restaurant chains that claim to trace the pedigree of their dishes to the Mughal or Nawabi kitchens should be viewed with a healthy degree of skepticism
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