People who do not cultivate with their own hands have only two
daily meals, one at midday and the other at eight or nine in the
evening. Agriculturists require a third meal in the early morning
before going out to the fields. Wheat and the millets juari and kodon
are the staple foods of the cultivating classes in the northern
Districts, and rice is kept for festivals. The millets are made
into thick _chapatis_ or cakes, their flour not being sufficiently
adhesive for thin ones, and are eaten with the pulses, lentils, arhar,
[77] mung [78] and urad. [79] The pulses are split into half and
boiled in water, and when they get soft, chillies, salt and turmeric
are mixed with them. Pieces of _chapati_ are broken off and dipped
into this mixture. Various vegetables are also eaten. When pulse is
not available the _chapatis_ are simply dipped into buttermilk. If
_chapatis_ cannot be afforded at both meals, _ghorna_ or the flour of
kodon or juar boiled into a paste with water is substituted for them, a
smaller quantity of this being sufficient to allay hunger. Wheat-cakes
are fried in _ghi_ (clarified butter) as a luxury, and at other times
in sesamum oil. Rice or ground gram boiled in buttermilk are other
favourite foods.
In Chhattisgarh rice is the common food: it is eaten with pulses
at midday and with vegetables cooked in _ghi_ in the evening. In
the morning they drink a rice-gruel, called _basi>_ which consists
of the previous night's repast mixed with water and taken cold. On
festivals rice is boiled in milk. Milk is often drunk at night, and
there is a saying, "He who drinks water in the morning and milk at
night and takes _harra_ before he sleeps will never need a doctor." A
little powdered _harra_ or myrobalan acts as an aperient. The food of
landowners and tenants is much the same, except that the former have
more butter and vegetables, according to the saying, '_Raja praja ka
ekhi khana_' or 'The king and peasant eat the same food.' Those who
eat flesh have an occasional change of food, but most Kurmis abstain
from it. Farmservants eat the gruel of rice or kodon boiled in water
when they can afford it, and if not they eat mahua flowers. These
are sometimes boiled in water, and the juice is then strained off and
mixed with half-ground flour, and they are also pounded and made into
_chapatis_ with flour and water. The leaves of the young gram-plants
make a very favourite vegetable and are eaten raw, either moist or
dried. In times of scarcity the poorer classes eat tamarind leaves,
the pith of the banyan tree, the seeds of the bamboo, the bark of
the _semar_ tree, [80] the fruit of the _babul_, [81] and other
articles. A cultivator will eat 2 lbs. of grain a day if he can get
it, or more in the case of rice. Their stomachs get distended owing
to the large quantities of boiled rice eaten at one time. The leaves
of the _chirota_ or _chakora_ a little plant [82] which grows thickly
at the commencement of the rains near inhabited sites, are also a
favourite vegetable, and a resource in famine time. The people call it
'_Gaon ka thakur_,' or 'lord of the village,' and have a saying:
Amarbel aur kamalgata,
Gaon ka thakur, gai ka matha,
Nagar sowasan, unmen milai,
Khaj, dad, sehua mit jawe.
_Amarbel_ is an endless creeper, with long yellow strings like
stalks, which infests and destroys trees; it is called _amarbel_
or the immortal, because it has no visible root. _Kamalgata_ is the
seed of the lotus; _gai ka matha_ is buttermilk; _nagar sowasan_,
'the happiness of the town,' is turmeric, because married women whose
husbands are alive put turmeric on their foreheads every day; _khaj,
dad_ and _sehua_ are itch, ringworm and some kind of rash, perhaps
measles; and the verse therefore means:
"Eat _amarbel_, lotus seeds, chirota, buttermilk and turmeric mixed
together, and you will keep off itch, ringworm and measles." Chirota
is good for the itch.