Tilak Chandan is a thick, small-grained rice famous for its fragrance and cultivated in the fertile “terai” rice belt of northwestern Uttar Pradesh, earlier corresponding to Rohilkhand and centred on Rampur, Bareilly, Moradabad, and Bijnor. The also-famously-aromatic and long-grained Hans Raj which was reserved for pulaos, Indrasan for daily khushka (tempered or plain boiled rice), and Tilak Chandan for Rampuri khichdi—this folk rice trio was for long the mainstay of Rampuri cuisine.
Read on for more details about the cultural importance of this rice, and a project that sought its revival.
Description
THE CULTURAL & ECOLOGICAL LIFE OF THIS RICE
Written with the aid of written materials and Tilak Chandan rice kindly made available to us by Tarana Husain Khan. Much of this section is in her own words, assembled and edited by Shalikuta.
Rampur is a town and municipality district in Uttar Pradesh, ruled in medieval times by Rajputs and later by the Mughals. The State of Rampur was established in 1774 after Nawab Faizulla Khan subdued the Rohilla Pathans who were dominant in the region, aided by the East India Company. The Nawabs of Rampur sided with the British during the 1857 “Sepoy Mutiny” and the state became also a place of refuge for officers fleeing other areas. Khansamas or cooks from Mughal imperial courts took their skills and cuisines to Rampur at this same time, making it a site of a unique cuisine.
The Rampur State Gazette (1911) lists the high-quality traditional rice varieties grown in its tehsil divisions: Hansraj, Basmati, Sunkharcha, Dalbadal, Anjha, Banki and Motha. Pasai and Lehi were inferior quality rice varieties which grew in ‘deep water.’ The above varieties also find mention in the Uttar Pradesh Gazetteer of Rampur (1975) which adds the names Tilak Chandan, Sendha, Sathi and Motichur to the ‘inferior quality rice used by common people’ (Uttar Pradesh State Gazetteer Rampur 1975). Interestingly, the 1911 Rampur State Gazette informs us that the inferior rice varieties were grown in ‘deep water.’ Rampur receiving higher rainfall than the neighbouring areas, possibly due to its geographical location, was prone to floods and the low-lying areas must have been sown with the small grain inferior varieties. It was during the time of Nawab Kalbe Ali Khan (1865-1888) that an embankment was built to prevent the waters of Kosi river from entering the town (Khan Najmul Ghani, 1918). Benazir Farms, and possibly other large farms in the region, continued to grow the traditional aromatic varieties like Tilak Chandan and Hansraj along with other improved and hybridized varieties till 2014.
The rice varieties Rampur residents ate till the 1990s in varying quantities across different income groups were Hansraj, Indrasan, Tilak Chandan. Long-grained Hansraj was kept for pulaos, Indrasan was for daily khushka (tempered or plain boiled rice) and Tilak Chandan, a small grained aromatic variety popular in the terai region, was for khichdi. Eventually, HYVs and hybrid cultivation displaced the lower-yielding but culturally prized native landraces.
At blind taste tests conducted in Delhi, Sheffield and Rampur, respondents were given two types of khichdi––hybrid rice khichdi and Tilak Chandan khichdi and asked to rate the two. Whereas Delhi and Sheffield were almost equally divided on the taste, in Rampur all respondents save one recognised the rice. Losing the landrace and the distinct taste of Tilak Chandan thus represents a cultural loss, particularly for this community.
The project ‘Forgotten Food: Culinary Memory, Local Heritage and Lost Agricultural Varieties in India’ (2019-2022, PI: Siobhan Lambert-Hurley) undertook the revival of historic recipes and documenting oral culinary history of Muslim culture—and with this, also the revival of Tilak Chandan rice. This aspect is described in greater detail in a chapter by Khan entitled “The quest for Tilak Chandan,” in: Forgotten Foods: Memories and Recipes from Muslim South Asia, ed. Tarana Husain Khan, Claire Chambers, Siobhan Lambert-Hurley. Picador India, 2023
NUTRITIONAL AND MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
- Tilak Chandan is known and valued much more for aroma and cooking quality than medicinal purposes.
CULINARY USES
- An extremely aromatic rice which fills the kitchen with scents while cooking, Tilak Chandan pairs beautifully with the scents of ginger and peeli mirch or yellow chillies, which are the aromatics added to classic Rampur khichdi. This is a dish of the harvest and winter season: freshly harvested winter rice is typically used, along with freshly harvested urad dal.
- The grain remains distinct even after pressure cooking, and elongation is visible though perhaps not as much as classic basmatis.
WHO GROWS THIS RICE & WHERE CAN I BUY?
The Tilak Chandan in the market is unreliable–traders are known at times to mix a small percentage of aromatic rice with hybrid basmati or other similar grain to pass it off as a prized rice. Khan reports finding a “Tilak Chandan” in the market this way (2023: 206).
The source we know grows the actual native landrace Birendra Singh Sandhu, at Benazir farm in Rampur, but only for home consumption.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
- Khan, Tarana Husain. 2022. Degh to Dastarkhwan: Qissas and Recipes from Rampur. Penguin India, 2022.
- —————–. 2023. “The quest for Tilak Chandan.” Forgotten Foods: Memories and Recipes from Muslim South Asia. Ed. Tarana Husain Khan, Claire Chambers, Siobhan Lambert-Hurley. New Delhi: Picador India, pp. 199-207.
- Sharma, J., & Lambert-Hurley, S. (2023). Introduction: Forgotten Food Histories of South Asia. Global Food History, 9(2), 95–106. https://doi.org/10.1080/20549547.2023.2215161
Additional information
| Region of Origin | North |
|---|---|
| Grain Shape | small or fine |
| Grain Colour | White |
| Fragrance | Strong aroma |
