Of Birbal and Brinjal: The Story of India’s Indigenous Vegetable That Traversed From Draupadi’s Kitchen to Today’s International Platters

In one of my favorite stories, Emperor Akbar sits down to a sumptuous lunch with his ministers and voices appreciation of the dish of eggplants that he is eating. As a modern chronicler of food, I continue to draw upon possibly apocryphal stories, that frame memorable windows to human taste and preference. Birbal concurs with Akbar on the deliciousness of the vegetable and draws attention to its shape, remarking that of all the vegetables, it is the brinjal alone that wears a crown.

Birbal was not really a trained botanist, else he would have known that many vegetables wear crowns of a sort, including the tomato and the capsicum, close botanical cousins of the vegetable in question, although the far more elaborate and sturdier crown sported by the brinjal mimics a well- wrought sequence of inverted petals.

Akbar (possibly both a foodie and a vegetarian), after a couple of days or so, the apocryphal story goes, complained about the terrible eggplant dish he has had to eat. A dexterous Birbal uses the elasticity that proficiency in our multiple languages gives us, and concurs with the emperor that the baingan, (Hindi) true to the meaning of its name is really beygun (which is how the eggplant is referred to in Bengali).

Beygun in Hindi means being ‘bereft of value.’ It must be added here that acquaintance with the Hindi and Bengali lingo adds to an appreciation of Birbal’s witty punning.

Akbar is pleased with his minister’s ready wit, but an envious courtier accuses Birbal of being inconsistent, and as changeable as a weather vane. Birbal quickly responds that he serves at the pleasure of the emperor and therefore his deferential loyalty would always rest with the emperor, not with the vegetable in question.   

Nevertheless, descendants of the eggplant that have travelled into 21st Century India, continue to be both desired and reviled by people who can voice their preferences for this specific vegetable without fear or favor. Six hundred odd years after Birbal’s times, responses to the aubergine/eggplant/brinjal/baingan/begun register across a varied spectrum.

Indigenous Vegetable

The eggplant is given an exalted space in the Hindu religious tradition. Seen as an indigenous vegetable, it makes the rounds of annual shraads wherein ancestors are propitiated with special meals. Among the vegetables elected to be offered to the priest after a hiranyam shraad, (a shraad for which no cooking is required) the eggplant occupies pride of place along with the colocasia and the raw banana.

My grandmother recalled her travels with grandfather to Kashi and other pilgrim spots in modern India at a time when eating out was frowned upon and Vaishnav eateries were almost non-existent. She carried along small portions of rice, salt and tamarind, and into the heart of the makeshift fires upon which the rice was cooked, she would toss a biggish brinjal or two of medium size, purchased from a street side vendor, allow for the vegetable to be roasted, peel the skin, add salt and tamarind, and mash it into a satisfying and tangy tohayel that could be mixed into accounts of her hot rice and eaten.

In my natal home, my brother disliked brinjals and broke out into hives whenever he ate any. He escaped into adolescence and adulthood without consuming statutory portions of brinjal.

Try as I might, I was unable to accomplish any such manifestation and had to learn to like the flavor and texture of the brinjals cooked variously by my mother. As an adult, my palate now houses a cultivated preference for the brinjal.

At my conjugal home, the brinjal divide continued. The women in the house loved it and the men loathed it. My father-in-law wouldn’t touch the stuff and my spouse ate it reluctantly.

As for my son, I gave up trying to convince him to relish the brinjal after my unsuccessful botany lesson about the brinjal being part of the solanacea family of the potato, tomato and capsicum family. “Mumma,” said my son firmly, “I do not feel the same way about all the members in my father’s family. So why must I like eating brinjals because I enjoy eating tomatoes or potatoes?”  

Stumped, I allowed him to gravitate towards a brinjal-free life.

Brinjal, by Any Other Name …

A recent Whatsapp post had Shashi Tharoor pointing out that the word brinjal, of Anglo-Indian in origin, is rarely used outside the Indian subcontinent. Perhaps Anglo Indians had such a fondness for this vegetable that they gave it a new name — the aubergine.

The aubergine in India came in a range of colors, shapes and sizes, and a multiplicity of names in different Indian languages, such as kathrikkai in Tamil, badanei in Kannada, vankaya in Telegu and Vrithagam in Sanskrit.

The word ‘aubergine’ has been in circulation from the 18th century and has original influences going back to French, Catalan, Arabic, and even possibly Sanskrit. Eggplant is of more recent usage, particularly in America and Australia, and must have come into use possibly because many eggplant varieties are shaped like eggs, and those that are white to boot, do look rather like eggs arranged in a vendor’s basket. Larger and elongated eggplants can also recall morphed breasts and penises.

Myriad Recipes

Eggplants can be cooked in several ways, each shape lending itself to a particular variation and each method provides a different eating experience with regard to texture and taste. Its complex texture makes for a delightful culinary experience. It has a yielding softness that is inviting and varied.

The pureed eggplant can be smooth or chunky while pan fried or roasted brinjal slices remain moist and sumptuous with their succulent flesh kept in place by the thin outer skin of the vegetable. The variations in the cooked versions come from the range of spices and accessories that can be added on to the vegetable. Sponge like, it absorbs and becomes redolent with versatile flavors, providing a gourmet meal for a range of palates.

It can be eaten with its skin or without, shallow fried, deep fried, boiled, charred, grilled, sautéed, stewed or baked. It can also be cut into tiny pieces or stuffed whole with spices.

Eggplants are consumed abundantly in a variety of cuisines all over the world. They do well with yogurt, cheese, potatoes, rice, lentil flour, lentil and tamarind, and are also made into delicious pickles.

In South Asia, aloo and baingan make for a satisfying combination, green brinjals with onions and tomatoes stimulate tastebuds, while aubergines and radish offer a fluid freshness that remains unmatched, although eggplant does very well in a splinter group of onions, tomatoes and capsicum too.

The baingan ka bharta in which eggplant, roasted on an open flame, is peeled and mashed and stirred into a tangy mix of caramelized onions and tomato, with or without peas, is a popular food in North India. It goes back in antiquity to the Mahabharata. Draupadi’s culinary life (when her five husbands are disguised as mendicants) begins when she cooks her first meal in her conjugal home. The vegetable dish that she turns out is the delectable baingan ka bharta, delighting Ma Kunti and her five sons.

Variations of this bharta travel all the way up to central Asia, swerving towards Europe, West Asia, Greece and much of Africa.

The brinjal is celebrated all over South India. Goddesses are adorned with brinjals on special festive occasions and mention must be made now of the tohayal from Tamil Nadu that  incorporates a mashed brinjal, tempered with garnish of mustard seeds and karipaata and channa dal.  

Variations on the tohayal are the chaukha in Bihar, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh where the vegetable is fire-charred, peeled and mashed with salt, green chillies and chopped coriander, and topped with a dollop of kacchi ghani mustard oil.  

The baigun-bhaja of Bengal is usually egg-plant cut into roundels, marinated for a while with tamarind, three or four drops of sugar and salt, smeared with mustard oil, or, mainly, pan-fried or deep fried with mustard oil, and devoured. Large, oblong eggplant, cut into halves tastes delicious when deep fried in mustard oil. 

In South India, Bajji is an eggplant variant made by frying brinjal roundels dipped in chickpea and rice batter. Garnished with asafoetida, curry leaves, chilly powder and salt, these thin flat fritters, remain tiffin and tea-time favorites, traveling incessantly down gullets when washed down with hot coffee.

The Beguni, with a coat of besan, and salt, tamarind and chili powder, deep fried in mustard oil, is sold cheap and hugely sought after, with evening tea, in street-side joints in Bengal. Along with vegetable chops and cutlets of all kinds, it makes a formidable combination. The evening tiffin, hence, is most welcome.

At a Conference in New Orleans, having opted for a vegetarian meal, I waited until one of the hosts on an erratic shuttle service brought me a special dish of whole eggplant and garbanzo peas in a thin gravy. The flavors were delicate and the chickpea was delicious, recalling for me Tamil Nadu’s famous Rasavangi (which translates as juicy brinjal), and is a fragrant sambar made with brinjals, ground coconut, pigeon pea and garbanzo beans that grandmothers on both the maternal and paternal style served on special occasions.

Eggplants can be cooked in several ways, each shape lending itself to a particular variation and each method provides a different eating experience with regard to texture and taste.

Garlic crushed into roasted brinjal flesh with salt, onions, cilantro, freshly ground pepper, lemon juice and olive oil complete this accompaniment, is popular with Greek bread. Baba Ganoush (roasted aubergine with tahini and green herbs), favored in the Middle East, Egypt and Lebanon, has now made its way onto international platters, pleasing modern metrosexual palates and dazzling urban kitchens.

There is also the kutta kathrika koyambu (short brinjal stew), an all-time Chidambaram speciality, made entirely with brinjals and chickpeas in a tamarind and coconut gravy, and both these variations upstage the New Orleans version in my opinion, possibly because the texture and flavour is enhanced by the addition of coconut and tamarind alongside a deep well of memories. 

Another savory southern favorite is Vangi Baath, rice made with spiced eggplants and served with a delicious raita of curd and cucumber along with flour crisps and roasted potatoes. The only time this combination can be challenged is when coconut rice is served along with an ennai kari (vegetables cooked in extra oil) of diced eggplants roasted in oil and a side dish of papadams and thick buttermilk. 

Both options serve as mini-feasts for emperors and contemporary citizens alike.

In Bengal and in Tamil Nadu, curd often is the stage upon which mashed roasted baingan excels in performance.  

Jaggery, the stage prompter in the scrumptious Tamil version is replaced by honey in the lip-smacking Bengali version. Both variations, to my mind, are show-stoppers.

While the Tamil version makes for an excellent hors d’oeuvre, the Bengali variant can double up as dessert and signal closure to a sumptuous meal.

Meanwhile, news from the world of nature cures suggests that consuming aubergine is a great way to lower cholesterol and aid heart health. Indeed, one more feather in its crown for the vibrant and unassuming eggplant!

This story was first published in www.independentink.in and republished here with permission.

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Ratna Raman is a professor of English at Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University, New Delhi.