KOCHI: No sambar, avial or rasam. The Onasadya was not always the elaborate spread we know today. Some of its most ubiquitous dishes, historians say, arrived relatively late. Sambar, rasam and even avial were not part of the traditional sadya of Kerala of the yore.
The cornerstone of the traditional feast was the ‘naalu-curry’ (four curries) – ‘kalan’, ‘olan’, ‘erissery’ and ‘pulissery’. These were accompanied by ‘upperi’, pickles and pappadams, while ‘payasams’ provided the sweet finale.
K P Padmanabha Menon’s History of Kerala, written as annotations to Jacob Canter Visscher’s Letters from Malabar and published in four volumes in 1937, offers an intriguing glimpse into the evolution of Kerala’s culinary traditions.
Writing about sambar, Menon describes it as “purely an East Coast curry recently introduced into Malabar”. He lists its principal ingredients — dal, brinjal, drumstick and bitter gourd — along with tamarind, coriander, cumin, mustard and asafoetida. Intriguingly, he adds that it was essentially the same as the Malabar pulinkari, “with a slight variation”.
Dr Tanya Abraham, curator and author of ‘Eating with History: Ancient Trade Influenced Cuisines of Kerala’, says culinary historians generally trace the origins of sambar to the 17th-century Maratha royal kitchens of Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, though its exact history remains debated. According to one popular account, it was associated with the Maratha ruler Sambhaji.
“It would have taken centuries to migrate across the Western Ghats. Before sambar, the traditional Onasadya was a feast dictated purely by hyper-local, seasonal produce, with a heavy reliance on curd and coconut milk. Before sambar, there were ‘olan’, ‘kalan’ and ‘erissery’,” she says.
Local historian Rameshan Thampuran says ‘naalu-curry’ formed the backbone of the traditional sadya.
Older Onasadya spread was shaped largely by Kerala’s agri landscape
“Upperis, pickles and pappadams were integral to the feast. So were desserts, particularly payasams. Interestingly, sambar, rasam and avial were absent and came into the sadya later,” he says. According to Rameshan, ‘mezhukkupuratti’ made with plantain or yam was also a common preparation.
The older feast was shaped largely by Kerala’s agricultural landscape. Plantain, yam, colocasia, ash gourd, pumpkin, cucumber, drumstick, snake gourd and cowpea — crops that were locally available and suited to the climate — naturally found their way into preparations.
“The arrival of chillies, tamarind and other ingredients definitely influenced original Kerala dishes, as well as the innovation of new ones,” Tanya says. “Since dishes and cuisines are greatly influenced by the intermingling of cultures and availability of ingredients, it is natural that this would have happened. But this would have been part of a process involving adaptation.”
She points to ‘thoran’ as an example. “Marrying chilli and coconut, for example, created a differently flavoured thoran.” “If you see, ‘kalan’ and ‘pulissery’ have both black pepper-based and green chilli-based versions. So there was no dilution, but interesting adaptations.”
Pinning down exactly when particular dishes entered the sadya is difficult, she adds, because culinary change happens gradually. “It is tough to say when these were incorporated into the sadya, especially since change calls for transitions over time.”
The story of the tomato offers another fascinating example. Introduced to India by the Portuguese, it took considerable time to gain acceptance in temple kitchens and among upper castes, where it was regarded as foreign and, in some contexts, impure.
Pineapple, too, entered the sadya in an unusual way. “Pineapple pachadi was the start of the introduction of ‘madhura curries’,” Tanya says, referring to the fruit brought by the Portuguese. “Since it is sweet, it was placed on the leaf along with pickles and other accompaniments, rather than as a main dish.”
