Decoding the Indian Culinary Art of Pickles
Pickles are mentioned in various texts from ancient and medieval India, as well as in the accounts of travellers to the region. According to historian Jyotsna K Kamat’s Social Life in Medieval Karnataka (1980), the 14th century Kannada treatise, Nala Champu, mentions “pickles of green and raw bilva (bellavatta) or bel, ambate, chellakai, green mango, green pepper, raw ginger, raw cardamom and myrobalan were in vogue,” addding that, “Ibn Batuta, who had observed the popularity of pickles throughout India, explains the method of its preservation.”
