JOURNEY OF JALEBI

The jalebi originated in West Asia and that it travelled to the Indian subcontinent as part of the Muslim trade, cultural and political bandwagons. A great deal has been written about Turkish, Persian, Arabic and Central Asian influences on Indian food and much else besides. But when precisely did the jalebi reach South Asia and gain such widespread popularity?

Some clues are offered in a seminal paper by P K Gode, an Indologist who was associated for many decades with the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, published in The New Indian Antiquary in 1943. Gode found a mention of the jalebi in a work of cookery
called the Gunyagunabodhini which dates back to before AD 1600. Written in Sanskrit verse form, it lists the materials used in the sweet dish and explains the methods to prepare it. Both are almost identical to the materials and methods used in making jalebis in India today.In India, as in West Asia, it is known by various names: jilbi, jilipi, jilapi, zelapi, jilapir pak, imrati, jahangiri and so forth. The ingredients too vary from region to region. In some parts of the country, the batter consists of urad dal and rice flour with a little besan and wheat flour; in some others it also includes semolina and baking powder. Or it might consist, as in Bengal, of chhena and khoa. But regardless of the ingredients used, the jalebi is doubtless the most popular sweetmeat in all of South Asia, including in Afghanistan where it is served together with fish during the winter months! Trust the jalebi then, like so many other dishes we cherish, to offer us something more than pleasure to our palate. It is a salutary reminder that food and language, arts and ideas, values and lifestyles are all products of give-and-take between the peoples of the world. By that token, we must be wary of attempts to define culture in terms of purity, roots, mainstream, majoritarian, essence, core, indigenous and so forth. Such notions breed intolerance and bigotry.