Mullan Kaima

Description

THE CULTURAL & ECOLOGICAL LIFE OF THIS RICE

“Mullan” means “with thorns” and is a descriptor attached both to a few rice varieties (among the names we have heard: Mullan puncha, Mullan Channa, Mullan Thondi, Maranellu Mullan Chenthadi, Mullan Mundon) as well as greens like Mullan Cheera, Amaranthus spinosus.

This rice’s second name has an even more venerable history. Kazhama [or “kaima” as it is often pronounced] rices are now regarded as a group of short and sometimes bold grains, some aromatic, some not (Urunikaima, Poothadi kaima, Chakkara Kazhama, Chenkazhama, even Jeerakasala which is referred to as “kaima” at times). Some say that “all biriyani rices are called kazhama” in the Malabar region.

But references in literature to “kalama” rices paint a far more complex picture of the emergence of rice classification in India, from ancient times to the present.

• The Susruta Samhita [200BCE] lists “substances which may be safely included within the food stuffs of all human beings are the members of the group Varga known as the red Shali” and, along with other items, “… the Kalama, the Nivara …” (vol.I, 1907: 184).
• Kalama then appears again in the company of other shali rice varieties: “The holy Dhanvantari, thus addressed by Sushruta, replied as follows—’O child, hear me discourse on the proper regulation of food and drink as requested by you. There are several species of Shali rice such as, the Lohitaka, Shali, Kalama, Kardamaka, Panduka, Sugandhaka, Shakunahrita, Pushpdndaka, Pundarika, Mahashali, Shita-Bhiruka, Rodhra-Pushpaka, Dirghashuka, Kanchanaka, Mahisha-mastaka, Hayanaka, Dushaka, and Maha-Dushaka etc.’” [vol.I, 1907: 470]
• In the Brihad Samhita of Varahamihira [500CE], Adhyaya 29 is “Kusumalatadhyayah”: a reading of “Prognostics from flowers and creepers.” “By observing the abundance of flowers and fruits of trees,” he says, “the availability of all things in large quantities at cheap rates should be ascertained; so also the thriving of crops” – “From the (luxuriance of the flowers and fruits of the) Sala tree, the prospects of Kalama rice are to be determined; from the red Asoka, red Shali/rice; from the Ksheerika, Panduka/ yellowish rice; and from the bluish Asoka, Sukaraka/hog’s rice.”
  • The Tamil translator Sastri identifies Sala as aachamaram, Hardwickia binate; Kalama as vennai samba or “butter” samba; Ksheerika as the fig tree, and Sukaraka as a species of black rice (karuppu nel); 1946: 255.
  • The Upavanavinoda by Śārṅgadhara [1300 CE], a chapter in the Śārṅgadharapaddhati or ‘Sharngadhara’s Guidebook’ dealing with arbori-horticulture cites Varahamihira’s work verbatim. Sharngadhara was a courtier of King Hammira of Shakhambari-desha, or modern Bundelkhand, defeated and killed by Allauddin Khilji [1935: 33].
• The Kashyapiyakrishisukti [800CE] differentiates shali, kalama, and shastika, calling out deerghasali or long Sali rice having a sweet flavour and Kalama as slightly thick, white, and with a surplus sap [cf. Nene 2005; Raychaudhury 1964]

Analysing the names from some of these sources, Nene is “tempted to suggest that the name kalama was used for shali varieties, which had strong, thick tillers, which in old times could be used as pens for writing” [2005]

NUTRITIONAL AND MEDICINAL PROPERTIES

• The iron content of Mullan kaima rice (raw) is 2.31mg/100g (the iron content of raw rice is 0.65mg/100g as per IFCT, 2017)—CIKS thus offers a basis to claim Mullan Kaima as a “higher iron” rice.
• CIKS [2019, Rice #26] lists this as a “fatty” rice, therefore of use to lactating mothers
• Lopus’s 2024 study of Wayanadan traditional varieties shows that Mullan Kaima has comparatively low-fibre content with high fat and protein.

CULINARY USES

• The sticky bold mullan kaima rice fills kitchens with its aromas well before any rice comes to the plate.
• Its creamy texture and aroma make it best suited for diary-based Kheer/Payasam as it gets sticky when cooked and the rice is aromatic.
• “For non-vegetarian lovers, this is the soul of Malabar Biriyani” (CIKS 2023). We learned from the famed Malabar chef Abida Rasheed [7/7/24] about the difficulty of procuring Wayanadan kaima rice in the needed quantities—and therefore how Muslim communities of Kerala’s Malabar Coast between Kannur and Kozhikode would source similarly fine-grained aromatic rices from Burdwan in Bengal–a region known for its Gobindo Bhog cultivation. The “kaima” rice in question could have been either Jeerakashala/Jeeraga Samba/Seeragasamba or Mullan kaima.
• It probably makes a good risotto, too.

WHO GROWS THIS RICE & WHERE CAN I BUY?

1. Thirunelly Agri Producer Company/ Tapco [a farmer producer organization in Wayanad, Kerala]
2. Other Possible Sources

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

1. Sushruta Samhita vol. 1: Sutrasthanam. tras. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna. Calcutta, 1907
2. Upavanavinoda of Śārṅgadhara. trans. Girija Prasanna Majumdar, Indian Positive Sciences Series—no.1. Calcutta: The Indian Research Institute, 1935.CIKS, Traditional Rice Varieties of Tamil Nadu: A Sourcebook, 2019.
3. Brihat Samhita of Varahamihira. Trans. Panditabhushana V. Subrahmanya Sastri. Bangalore: Soobbaiah and sons, 1946
4. CIKS, Traditional Rice Varieties: A Storehouse of Nutrition, 2023.
5. Kumari, Usha and Anju Nair. Rice Diversity in Asian Bowls. PANAP & Thanal, 2023.
6. Lopus, Merlin. “Proximate Composition and Micronutrient Analysis of Ten Traditional Rice Varieties of Wayanad District.” Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge (IJTK)5 (2024)
7. Nene, Y.L. 2005. “Rice Research in South Asia through Ages.” Asian Agri-History Vol. 9, No. 2, 2005 (85–106).