Food History

The earliest Indians, or the Harappans, mostly ate wheat and rice. Some of the wheat and rice was made into flat breads or soups. But around 300B.C. under the Mauryans, a lot of Hindus felt that animal sacrifices added to your karma and kept you from getting free of the wheel of reincarnation. Animal sacrifices became less popular, a lot of people became vegetarians. During the Gupta period, around 650 AD, Hindus began to worship a Mother Goddess. Cows were sacred to her. This explains why now cows walk on the streets, and no one eats cow. Since the Mother Goddess loves cows, they became sacred to Hindus. The vegetarians mainly at wheat flatbreads, or a kind of flatbread made out of chickpeas, with spicy vegetarian sauce, and yogurt. A lot of spicy peppers grew in India. This is why Indian food is spicy.