Bhangolu
More actions
| Kind | Dish |
|---|---|
| Part of the plant | Seed |
| Country | India |
|---|---|
| Recorded in | Indian Hemp Drugs Commission |
| First recorded | 1880[1]: 379 |
| Still made | Not known |
Bhangolu is the name recorded in Kulu in 1880 for the seed of cultivated hemp (Cannabis sativa), which was parched, mixed with parched grain (generally wheat) and eaten dry.[1]: 379 Alexander Anderson, then Assistant Commissioner of Kulu, described it in a report on the hemp plant in the sub-division. He later attached the report to his written evidence to the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, with which it was printed in 1894.[1]: 377, 379
As far as Anderson could ascertain, bhangolu was the only part of the cultivated plant used in Kulu as a drug. It was eaten in quantity against extreme cold and was found "in largest quantity in Rupi and Seoraj". The people of Seoraj sold it or bartered it for wool with the people of Lahaul.[1]: 379 The hemp of Kulu was grown for its fibre. Anderson called the use of the seed "a mere accident".[1]: 380
Making bhangolu
The seed was parched and mixed with "some kind of parched grain, generally wheat". The mixture was eaten dry. Wild hemp also grew in Kulu, but its seed was much smaller than that of the cultivated plant and was not parched with grain.[1]: 379
Parched maize or wheat, sometimes mixed with hemp seed, was a favourite dish at harvest time among the people of Kulu in the 1890s. Where much hemp was grown for fibre, the seed was eaten.[2]: 32
Consumption
Bhangolu "seems to be eaten in considerable quantities by zamindars and others, to ward off the effects of extreme cold", Anderson wrote in 1880. It was said to produce "considerable warmth of body" and even to affect the eyes as charas did.[1]: 379
On where it was eaten he wrote: "It is found in largest quantity in Rupi and Seoraj, and in Kulu principally in the Kothis on the Sarvari, where also the hemp plant grows wild."[1]: 379 In 1897 Kulu was divided into six sub-divisions called waziris, four in the Kulu tahsil and two, Inner and Outer Saraj, in the Saraj tahsil. Rupi was the part of the Kulu tahsil east of the Beas, bounded on the north by the Parbati and on the south by the Sainj. The Sarvari is a tributary of the Beas from the west.[2]: 2–3 The waziris were further divided into kothis.[2]: 3
Trade with Lahaul
"The Seorajis sell or exchange bhangolu for wool with the Lahoulis who eat it and also sow it", Anderson reported. The Lahaulis sowed it because in Lahaul the plant did not set seed if the cold weather began very early.[1]: 379 Hemp in Lahaul covered about one acre in 1880. Its only use there was to make twine for snow or straw shoes.[1]: 379
Hemp and its drugs in Kulu
In 1880 almost every house in Kulu had a small patch of hemp near it. About 72 acres were reported under the crop in Kulu Proper, grown for fibre and principally to make twine.[1]: 379 In the 1890s it was grown widely for fibre in the high villages on both sides of the Jalori ridge, where the excessive rainfall favoured good fibre.[2]: 84
For intoxication the leaves of the wild plant were used, scarcely ever those of the cultivated one. They were rubbed in the hands and the residue scraped from the palms and smoked like charas, but a man could make only enough "for two smokes" in a day. Dried leaves were also boiled into a decoction called ghota.[1]: 379 In Waziri Rupi an infusion of hemp leaves, bhang, with violets and sugar was drunk at fairs. The gazetteer of 1897 calls it "mildly intoxicating, but very refreshing".[2]: 34
Anderson judged any restriction on growing hemp in the sub-division "uncalled for". The area was small and, bhangolu apart, no part of the cultivated plant was used for intoxication. He argued that licences would oblige zamindars to buy their fibre or to turn to the nettle, which already supplied a fibre in Kulu.[1]: 380
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94, Vol. V: Evidence of witnesses from North-Western Provinces and Oudh and Punjab. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. Punjab witness no. 10, Mr. Alexander Anderson, pp. 377–380 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Diack, A.H. (1899). Gazetteer of the Kangra District, Parts II to IV: Kulu, Lahul and Spiti, 1897. Lahore: Punjab Government – via Internet Archive.