Pre-Colonial Food Culture in Sri Lanka: A Brief Introduction

Pre colonial food culture in Sri Lanka was a harmonious blend of culinary and medicinal practices that were tied to human wellbeing. The production and the consumption of food were tied to class, cast, religion and rituals. Caste distinction in pre-colonial Sri Lanka was established based on how our ancestors contributed to the production of  food. Further, pre colonial Sri Lankan food culture was rich and had a strong connection with nature.

Going back to the pre-colonial era of the country, the diet of its people mainly consisted of, grains, cereal, vegetables, roots, seeds, freshwater fish and bush meat. Rice was the largely consumed, staple food in ancient Sri Lanka. Ancient Sri Lanka had an agrarian economy which shaped its cultural values, rituals and customs. Rice cultivation dates far back to the period of King Pandukabhaya who is believed to have built the first wewa, a large water reservoir used to irrigate paddy fields. However, it was during the reign of King Parakkranabahu that we exported the excess production of rice. His reign marks the golden age of economic prosperity in ancient Sri Lanka which was called the Silo of the East.

Rice, the staple food was mainly boiled, cooked into gruel, or pounded and made into flat bread. Gruel was eaten for breakfast, boiled rice was for lunch, and flat breads were usually served at supper. There were different types of rice. Age and health were considered when consuming each variant. Maa wee, rich in proteins and fibers was given to pregnant women, and heenati which is easier to digest was given to elders and children. Moreover, the consumption of different types of rice was tied to social class, caste and nobility. Suwadhal or fragrant rice was offered to monks, and sunusahal which translates to ‘broken pieces of rice grains’ was consumed by poor people or people of the lower castes. There is a folklore my grandmother used to tell me about a noble village man who ate his servant's lunch made of sunusahal. A noble man accompanied his servant on a trip to a far away village. They brought lunch from home to eat on the way. In the afternoon, they stopped at an ambalama to have lunch. The servant opened his packet of sunusahal wrapped in a banana leaf and a divine smell came out of it. Noble man had never known such a meagre poor meal could smell so good. He could not resist the smell and he wanted to exchange his meal packet with his servant's. Afterwards, the noble man, being so ashamed of eating suhusahal, made the servant promise he would never tell that to anyone. The servant, unable to keep the secret to himself whispered the secret into a hollow of a tree. A drummer cut the tree and made a drum out of its trunk, and whenever he played the drum, it made a loud noise that said, “The village man ate suhusahal”.

Kiribath or rice cooked in coconut milk, was a high culture food with ritualistic significance. Kiribath was prepared on special occasions and consumed at auspicious times or used to offer to Lord Bhudda, monks and dieties. Kiribath was considered to be a cold food, hence rarely eaten for dinner. A reference to kiribath can be found in a folklore that dates far back to king Dutugamunu's time. While the defeated prince Dutugamunu was on the run, he stopped at an old woman’s cottage and asked for something to eat. She prepared him a plate of  kiribath. The starving prince hastily tried to eat smoking hot kiribath and burnt his tongue. The old woman who was looking at the way the young man was eating, said, without recognizing him, “you eat kiribath like our prince Dutugamunu fights the battle with Cholas”. Surprised, he asked her to explain what she meant by that, and she said, “start from one corner of the plate and eat slowly without trying to eat from everywhere”.  It is said that he took the old woman’s advice as his military strategy and defeated his enemies. 

Rice wasn’t the only grain our ancestors consumed. Sesame, millet, finger millet, green gram, undu and thanahal (wildrice) were other types of grains they grew in Chena, a plot of land cleared out in the jungle for growing crops in ancient Sri Lanka. Finger millet was a common grain ancient people consumed. Finger millet was grinded into flour which was then used to make flat bread called kurakkan roti and thalapa which was a thick boiled flour paste. To make perfect finger millet thalapa, one had to constantly stir it under low heat to prevent it from burning. Finger millet bread and thalapa were usually eaten with a thick gravy of wild boar meat. 

The way ancient people prepared their grains, vegetables, roots and meat mainly consisted of boiling, roasting, sautéing, and mildly cooking for a long time under low heat. There were different methods of preparing food. Curries were made into thin and thick gravies using coconut milk and spices such as wild chillies, curry leaves, pandana leaves, garlic, pepper, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cinnamon, cloves and turmeric. Ancient house wives grinded all these spices into a ball using a stone grinder called miris gala and made a ball of thick spice paste. Sour curries were another popular accompaniment for boiled rice and flat breads. They were prepared with meat, fish or vegetables such as young Jack fruit, squash or kohila cooked in coconut milk mixed with tamarind pulp or garcinia paste. Some curries were also consumed as appetizers as well as medicinal drinks. A thin gravy like soup made with garlic, spices and herbs called thambum hodi was given to monks, post-confinement mothers, young women on their first menstruation and patients with poor digestion. 

Moreover, curries were largely made with vegetables. Pumpkin, ash pumpkin and different types of gourd and squash were common vegetables that grew in the Chena. Long yard beans, local variants of eggplant, yams and roots were also common vegetables and an essential part of our ancestors’ diet. All these vegetables were usually cooked in coconut milk. However, ancient villagers used various other methods when preparing food such as roasting their food in hot ash. Taro roots and yam were roasted over hot charcoal and eaten with a pinch of salt. Jack fruit seeds and nutty flavoured wild breadfruit seeds which are rich in carbohydrates were roasted under hot ash and eaten. Wild breadfruit has a long history, one that dates far back to prehistoric times. Once I read that some archaeologists had found burnt wild breadfruit seeds in a graveyard in Sri Lanka belonging to a prehistoric man. Moreover, wild breadfruit seeds are believed to be pulutu or food that attracts deamons. As a result, young girls were advised not to eat roasted wild breabfruit after a bath, and go for walks in the afternoon. Demons were believed to be hiding near cross roads, streams, big trees and graveyards waiting to prey on young girls and people with faint hearts. Furthermore, ancient farmers who stayed at their Chena to protect it from wild beasts used to dig a hole on earth, bury a fat pumpkin in it, and lit a small fire directly over the covered-up hole. After some time, they would dig out the well roasted earthly smelling pumpkin and eat it with salted scrapes of coconut and wild chillies. 

Ancient Sri Lankans did not raise animals for meat. Farm animals were rarely slaughtered. However, their diet was rich with animal protein from game meat. Ancient Sri Lankans revered the cow because it was a significant part of agrarian culture. They helped farmers to plow their paddy fields and provided fertilizer. Our ancestors referred to their herd of cows as Wahu daruwo which roughly  translates to children. Cows were usually called by endearing terms such as son and child. It is also noteworthy that the cow was venerated by the Sinhalese farming community in ancient Sri Lankan maybe because of the Hindu influence on Sri Lankan culture during the Polonnaruwa period during which South Indian Cholas ruled the country. 

Porcupine, jungle fowl, hare, deer, wild boar and thalagoya (monitor) were some of the wild animals ancient Sri Lankans hunted for meat. Villagers who lived away from the sea, especially those who were in the dry zone ate freshwater fish. Tank fish and fish that  lived in irrigation canals, streams and small water bodies were largely consumed by the common man. There is another famous folk tale which given insights into our pre-colonial food culture which is about Andare and a royal concubine who was craving for thiththayin melluma, a dish made of freshwater fish. The concubine confided in Andare and told him to bring her pittu (a dish made of rice flour and coconut) with thiththayin mellum. Andare went to every house in the village and told the women to make that dish for the concubine. The next day, the king got to know about the concubine's pregnancy after seeing the line of villagers at the entrance to the palance carrying baskets full of pittu and thiththayin mellum. To name a few, thiththaya, lula, magura, madakanaya, kavaiya, pethiya, magura, freshwater prawns and crabs were freshwater fish largely consumed by our ancestors. 

When looking at sweets and beverages; sugars, alcohol and dairy were a significant part of pre colonial food culture of Sri Lanka. Sugars were in the form of syrup and hakuru. A hardened form of treacle or molasses  was called hakuru and the people who made hakuru for a living were a distinct caste back then. Kithul, coconut, Sugarcane and Palmyra were main sources of sugar. There is a folk tale about prince Dutugamunu fleeing the castle and working in a field of sugarcane, disguised as a normal citizen until he collected an army of strong young men to go to the battlefield with him. It is also said that he offered a meal made of sweet delicacies to Bhuddist monks after harvesting sugarcane. 

Kithul treacle and hakuru are famous to this day due to its rich flavour and fragrance. Kithul tree is a type of palm. The sap of the kithul tree was boiled until thickened to make treacle, and when further thickened it was made into hakuru. Raw sap of coconut, Palmyra and kithul were called thelijja, a mildly sweet drink which might intoxicate one if consumed in large quantities. Thelijja was brewed, and Toddy, which is a type of alcohol, was made. They used Toddy as both liquor and medicine. 

One cannot go without mentioning milk when talking about kithul treacle. Milk and honey used to symbolize one's economic prosperity in ancient Sri Lanka. The phrase, kiri pani or milk and honey is still used to this day when wishing someone prosperity. Dairy products were made of the milk of farm cows, water buffaloes and goats. There were five essential items of dairy products in ancient sri lanka which were called pasgorasa. They were milk, curd, moru (milk fat), vendaru (type of butter) and ghee. Curd, which was one of the best delicacies, was consumed with kithul syrup, gravy or rice. Curd was considered a mastery of low country culinary in Sri Lanka.

With colonialism, Sri Lankan culture changed significantly. As a result, pre-colonial food culture was also changed and new influences from the colonizers and other ethnic minorities seeped into the indigenous taste, and it resulted in a much more diverse fusion of tastes, which was, in my personal opinion, one of the positive consequences of colonialism. However, due to its richness and uniqueness, various culinary practices and unique tastes of our pre-colonial food culture still remain to remind us of its glorious past.

-Devindani-

References 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6068551/

https://roar.media/english/life/food/the-curious-case-of-traditional-sri-lankan-food-and-their-foreign-origins 

https://www.cultural.gov.lk/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65%3Asri-lankan-food-culture&catid=34%3Aleft&Itemid=72&lang=en 

http://sheere-ng.com/banana-flower-sambal-sankrit-and-the-southeast-asia-sri-lanka-connection/ 

https://journalofethnicfoods.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42779-020-00075-z