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When Swapna announced the Regional Cuisine of Indian - Orissa event, I thought, ‘fuggedaboutit!!’ I had already posted the only Oriya recipe that I knew.

Then, I remembered giving gyan in the same post that kheer / kheeri / payesh / payasam / rice pudding originated at the ancient Jagannath Temple at Puri. I had picked up this nugget from Wikipedia. If that really was the case, there ought to have been a recipe for it somewhere.

I googled ‘oldest rice pudding’, and boy, did I hit the jackpot. The first hit was from Cooking With Kurma, and it had the recipe. :yes:

I love that blog and have visited it a couple of times, but had never seen this before.

Kurma Dasa not only had the recipe, he had a blow by blow account of all the protocol in the Puri temple kitchen, which has remained largely intact over the centuries. Read it HERE.

This Australian, known as his country’s ‘Vegetarian Guru’ claims that ‘bhat payasa’ (bhat = rice, payasa = pudding) from the Jagannath Puri Temple is the oldest rice pudding in the world - “2,000 years old”.

How plausible is that claim?

The temple was originally built by the Kalinga ruler Anantavarman Chodaganga (1078 - 1148 A.D). Much of the present structure was built by King Ananga Bhima Deva in the year 1174 AD. It took 14 years to complete and was consecrated in 1198 A.D.

That makes the temple 1,000 years old - atleast in its current form. It is puzzling, therefore, to see the claim of this recipe being twice that age.

One culinary historian claims ‘kheer’ originated in Persia, and that it derives from ‘sheer‘, which is Persian for ‘milk’ .

“Kheer is the Indian name for sweet milk puddings usually made with rice, although it can also be made with fine noodles called seviyan, or semolina, carrots or sage. It is sometimes called sheer, which means milk in Persian. It probably originated in Persia where a similar dessert is known as sheer birinj (rice pudding).”

—Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson (p. 431)

Another claims ‘kheer’ derives from the Sanskrit ‘Ksheer‘. Since both Sanskrit and Persian belong to the Indo-Aryan group of languages, it is conceivable that the word has an identical root.

“Kheer. A sweet confection based on rice. When prepared as a ritual pucca’ food, the rice is first lightly fried in ghee before boiling with sugared milk till the milk thickens. A kheer of jowar is mentioned in the fourteenth century padmavat of Gugarat, and other cereal products (vermicelli, cev, pheni) may be used as well. A thinner product is payasam, and both are popular desserts, routinely as well as on festive occasions. The Hindi word kheer derives from the Sanskrit ksheer for milk and kshirika for any dish prepared with milk.”

—A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food, K. T. Achaya (p. 130)

The fact is, almost every part of the world has a culinary concoction using rice, milk, spices, flavourings, sweetener, and occasionally eggs, going back centuries. See the list HERE.

Describing the history of rice pudding in India, Ratna Rajaiah explains how Payasam or Kheer plays a central part in mythology and practice, cutting across religious lines.

From the Kheer Bhawani temple in Kashmir, to Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti’s dargah in Rajasthan, to St. Anthony’s Church and Ambalapuzha Temple in Kerala, it is the offering of choice to the deity, then distributed as a blessing to worshippers, in the form of ‘prasadam‘ or ‘tabarruk‘. The entire article HERE.

And while it is debatable if the Jagannath Temple’s Bhat Payasa (pronounced bh-arth paa-yasa) is the oldest, it is certainly the oldest living recipe for rice pudding, recreated tirelessly on a daily basis for nearly ten centuries.

Kurma Dasa’s insights into the kheer-making process at Puri were gleaned from famous cookbook author Yamuna Devi, who visited the kitchen and narrated the process in detail. (The question marks are mine)

Without electricity or machines, a legion of skilled chefs work under oil lamps over open wood fires. Every day since the temple was inaugurated over twenty centuries ago (???) , the temple chefs have prepared more than one hundred different vegetarian dishes in enormous quantities to be offered to the temple Deities, and then distributed as prasadam, sanctified food. The kitchen runs so efficiently that given only one day’s notice, the chefs can prepare a full meal for ten thousand guests at a sitting…

The kitchen houses an astounding 752 wood-burning clay stoves, called chulas, each about three feet square and four feet high. To accomodate various sizes of pots, small clay knobs are judiciously placed at intervals on the stove’s surface for support. A circle of five jug-shaped earthen pots rest directly on the stove’s surface, kept in place with the clay knobs. Three more pots go in the open spaces above the pots to form a second layer, and one more pot goes in the centre on top, forming a nine-pot pyramid. In this way, all nine pots receive lickings of heat and smoke from the wood fires below.

While it is all fine and dandy to gush about one’s heritage and traditions, it is also worth noting that the ‘mahaprasadam’ cooked at the Jagannath Puri temple is not always distributed to the devotees. Sometimes, it is destroyed, just for the heck of it, though people a few blocks away may be starving.

Food worth several lakhs meant as offering to deities at the Jagannath temple in Puri was buried on Friday morning following the entry there of an American national.

Engineer Paul F. Roediger, who came to the holy town along with two Hindus, got into the temple without knowing about entry restrictions. The servitors raised a hue and cry over his entry, thereby disturbing the rituals.

Mr. Roediger, who was detained by the police for nearly three hours, was allowed to go only after he paid a fine of Rs.209.

From: The Hindu

At the same time, they have no problems accepting large monetary donations from ‘foreigners’, calling a press conference to gloat over the same, and getting tax write-offs as a religious institution. The temple also does not allow certain castes of Hindus into certain ’sacred’ sections of the premises.

A few notes pertaining to the recipe.

Adding the Indian bay leaf/Tejpatta to milk-based desserts is a distinctively Odiya touch. This is the leaf of the cassia tree and is also called Tamalpatra or Malabathrum.

**We used white long-grained rice, since the recipe did not suggest otherwise. We aren’t sure if polished rice was part of the ancient recipe. White rice is what seems to be currently in use.

**We doubled the rock sugar to a cup, since ours didn’t seem to be sweet enough.

**We reduced the milk to a fourth of its quantity as described, and found it to be too thick, almost like a semi-dry porridge when it cooled down. We ended up adding milk to it later. Reducing it to half its volume should be plenty.

Heat the ghee or butter in a heavy pot over medium heat, and toast the rice for a minute.

Serve garnished with the toasted nuts.

Sending this to dear Swapna @ Swad for the Regional Cooking of India - Orissa event started by Lakshmi of Veggie Cuisine,

and to sweet Sharmi @ Neivedyam for JFI-Rice, which is the brainchild of Indira of Mahanandi.

- b.

54 Comments

1. Cliff says:

   October 11, 2008 at 3:02 pm

   I am wondering about this nice sounding recipe.

   I love camphors smell, and it is just an interesting substance beyond the smell, a solid that sitting in the open will evaporate much like water, only to crystallize somewhere else if the conditions are right.

   I have also had interest in the claims of the camphor eaters that camphor is an intoxicating substance. certian authors claim that camphor was consumed by some for meditation/psychoative purposes.

   today I saw an edible camphor package at a local indian restaraunt, and decided to try some.

   I opened it up, and there was absolutely no smell. I thought perhaps some chemical conversion is done on camphor to render it less toxic. tasting a small amount I was suprised, it has the consistency of dried pitch, with absolutely no flavor, it also is very dry, so dry it stuck to my tongue initially as the camphor chunk sucked all the avialable moisture off of my tounge and was firmly sucking to the tongue surface.
   there absolutely seemd to be a stimulant effect of eating such a small amount of camphor, but I wonder, what is the point?
   there is no aromatic component to the edible camphor, I would get more camphor taste by smelling incense camphor and eating rice pudding within 2-3 feet of the camphor.

   should there be some smell or taste with edible camphor, if so, perhaps the edible camphor packaged by a US spice maker was just old?

   if edible camphor has no real taste, what component does edible camphor add to a dish?

   is edible camphor what remains when essential oils are distilled off?

   the edible camphor rocks have a bluish, moonstone opaqueness to them, and are shiny, and hard.

   fresh camphor is somewhat soft, and can be somewhat clearish, and breaks off into granular peices, edible camphor is much harder and seemed to be a completely different substance from what I know as camphor.

   just old, i guess. camphor lends a slightly bitter aromatic ‘edge’ to the dish. i personally don’t care for it.

   Reply
2. Cliff says:

   October 11, 2008 at 9:51 pm

   so edible camphor should have a slight aromatic tinge to it I now assume,
   yes, it was probably old, which for a spice section of a small Indian foods store in Boise Idaho is probably the case.

   I assume that edible camphor is treated by heating in some solvent that distills that essential oil off, leaving traces of the toxic flavors still in the bulk of the dross, but not enough to be harsh.

   now I wonder this, what form was the buddhists consuming for meditation purposes,
   and, is there a medicinal camphor product that is different than the edible?

   thanks for a great article on rice pudding, most informative, and some nice photographic work as well.
   I would probably add some coconut milk to the recipe.

   I will try the recipe soon, but now I have to find some edible camphor that isnt so spent!

   no idea abut what buddhists consume. edible camphor i used in a very small part of south india, just for flavouring. the camphor used for religious rituals is quite distinct chemically, i think. - b.

   Reply
3. Ujwal says:

   October 31, 2008 at 7:11 am

   Rice Pudding looks yummy …never tired with Bay leaf and camphor.. to be tried soon

   Reply
4. Chandan Shatapathy says:

   November 15, 2008 at 6:37 am

   A very nice post I must say….Jai and Bee

   Ofcourse Bhatta Payasa..or ‘Choulo khiri” as it is known in Orissa is indeed the oldest Rice Pudding of the world…. but to question it being a 2000years old recipie just because the Shri Jagannatha Temple at Puri is only a 1000 years old is not a fair…rather just a sceptical comment. The Jagannatha Cult had been there atleast an eon earlier than the actual temple… The concept of universal brotherhood comes from the Jagannatha Cult which has it’s origins in the Sabara traditions ( read loosely as the ancient dwellers/tribals of Orissa) This is most visually corraborated by the unique and peculiar form of the presiding deities.

   Khiri has been prepared for over 2000 years.. and the presnet temple is the latest among a string of temples built over the same spot on the Nilagiri.. the ‘Blue hillock’ many a times…

   Yes many a times it hurts to see the ‘Mahaprasad’ (as the offerings yto the Lord Jagannath are called) being thrown away as they would be ‘old’ to be even served for the next meal… and instead could be distributed to the abject poor beggers who line outside the temple…. but do tell me …. all those self proclaimed “humanitarian vangaurds”, how often have u shared your equal share of aplle pie with the lesser privilaged?… How often does the US of A throw millions of tons of wheat into the pacific instead of giving it away to malnutrioned powerless refugees in strive worn Africa? …….

   The discussion must remain in the peripheries of the origins of a Recipie and not deride an Institution which gave the world not just this faboulous dessert butmany many more.. like the Rossogolla….. the Kheera Sagar….and Rasamali.

   Would be unfair on my part not to congratulate you for the blog and the oh so mouth watering pictures…..

   Should get home and ask my granny to make this for me…..She makes it soooo delecious you could gorge on it till u fall sick!

   A little snippet:

   The best Khiri is made in a temple about 25 -30 kilometers away from the Temple at Puri.. at a place called “Alaranath”. When the presiding deities of Puri are down with a cold and hence do not meet any devotees and the Sanctum Sanctorium of the temple is closed….. One can receive the same grace of the Lord Jagannath and more during those 15 days from the shrine of ‘Alaranath’…During those 15 days… the special offering to the Lord Alaranath is Bhata Paayasa or Khiri… you could buy it for different nominal denominations.. Served in earthen bowls.. thsi si absolutle divine…May sound odd but the hint of flavour of the burth earth in your pudding is truely to die for!!!…

   Chandan

   Reply