Through India’s Long History, the Betel Leaf Remains a Constant

Text and photos by Rathina Sankari

Betel leaves are topped with slaked lime, coconut and other herbs and spices.

It was a motley crowd of patriarchs and elders seated in the inner circle on the floor. The kids played around, oblivious of the happenings. My cousins and I sat in the periphery, witnessing the event unfold. It was my maternal uncle’s son’s betrothal. The ritual of fixing an alliance between the soon-to-be bride and the prospective groom held my attention. Their fathers exchanged few items as per the Hindu tradition. But what cemented the relationship was the exchange of betel leaves with areca nuts.

The heart-shaped betel leaf (Piper betle) with reticulate venation, also called paan in Hindi, has played a vital role in Indian culture for many centuries.

“In the Assamese [people from the eastern state of Assam] culture, paan and betel nut are offered to guests while inviting them for marriage,” says food historian Tanushree Bhowmik. “In Bengali marriages, the bride enters the pavilion where marriage rituals are conducted by covering her face with two betel leaves. Among other items given by the groom's family to the Bengali bride, the paan holds a high position.”

But there is more to the betel leaf than marriage rituals. Indians love chewing the herby paan. 

Bite Sized

Enjoyed by the erstwhile royals and the present-day common man as an obsession and a medium of pleasure that has health benefits, the paan continues to play many roles. Connoisseurs consider the making of a betel quid, also called paan or beeda, an art.

Betel quids

After the moist leaf is trimmed, the dorsal side gets a coat of earthy slaked lime and the red paste of catechu, an herb. Topped with umpteen colorful ingredients like coconut shavings, fennel seeds, betel nut shavings, paan masala, dry ginger, nutmeg, edible camphor, gulkand (sweetened rose petals), mint and cherries, it’s all deftly folded with practiced fingers a clove fastens the betel quid.

The quid could be called a representation of the culinary map of India. The best saffron of Kashmir, betel nut from the eastern state of Bengal, Kerala's clove and cardamom, Ajmer’s gulkand and catechu from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar make up the juicy paan. One must understand each ingredient’s flavor profile, so that the finished product has a perfect balance of taste. Hot and astringent yet sweet due to its multitude fillings, the paan lends a fresh and cooling effect when relished.

Despite the cultural significance of paan in the country, it is surprising that the leaf does not have its origins in India. Late food scientist and food historian KT Achaya writes in his book, A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food, “betel leaf is of Southeast Asian origin.”

The ancient Hindu text Skanda Purana, which dates back to the sixth century, has references to the leaf. In the story of Samudra Manthan, the churning of the ocean by Gods and Demons to acquire the nectar of immortality yielded celestial objects, one being the betel leaf. The holy leaf also finds mentions in epics like Mahabharata, which is how it got a vital position in religious ceremonies. The Hindus believe that various gods and goddesses reside in different parts of the betel leaf, hence the need to offer it in entirety in ceremonies. Tambulam is the ancient Hindu ritual of offering various items to the deity - betel leaves, betel nut, fennel seeds, and slaked lime.

The leaf goes by many Indian names like tambul, tamalapaku, nagavalli and nagarbel. The Portuguese named the leaf betel, derived from the Malayalam and Tamil word vettile. In many households across the country, chewing paan is a ritual and a must-have after dinner.

“My mother would lovingly prepare paan for my father every day, which he would carry in a silver paan ki dibbi [box to store paan] in the pocket of his sherwani [a long, coatlike garment],” says Nawab Jafar Mir Abdullah, a resident of Lucknow, a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, and a paan aficionado. “In the summer, jasmine flowers were wrapped in a wet cloth and kept inside the box, lending a rich aroma.”

There are more than 90 variants of betel leaves globally; about 40 are cultivated in India. Symbols of love and hospitality, the well-known types are the hot Calcutta paan, the tough Bangla Patta, the tender Maghai and the neutral kapuri paan used for making chocolate paan.

The ubiquitous Benarasi paan, epitomized in Bollywood songs, cannot be missed by a paan buff. The delicate Maghai leaves cultivated in Bihar, Jagannathi from Orissa or the desi grown in Jaunpur go into making the Benarasi paan. Stored in bamboo baskets, kept in the dark and treated with smoke for three days, the cured leaves lend a melt-in-the-mouth quality. They last three to five days in summer and about seven days in winter. Too much water spoils it and too little dries it. The Hindi saying “Maghai paan ki tarah sambhal sambhal ke tumko paala hai,” means “I took care of you like how one takes care of Maghai paan.”

Power Packed

“It is a climber that bears no flower or fruit. The vine flourishes in tropical climatic conditions. After planting the cuttings, the waxy leaves are good to harvest manually in six months’ timeframe,” says Aparna Mhatre, who has a picture-perfect memory of playing in her parent's betel leaf farm in Vasai, a town on Mumbai's fringes, as a child.

“My grandmother would speak highly about the use of paan,” she adds.

Indeed, Ayurveda,- the ancient healthcare tradition of India, promotes the consumption of paan due to its medicinal properties and health benefits. High in carotenes, calcium, and vitamins like B3, B2, B1, and C, the leaves are power-packed. Munched by newly delivered mothers, it’s said to aid in digestion by stimulating the salivary glands and gastric juices, reducing the stomach’s bloating, and boosting calcium, much required for lactating mothers. Indian classical singers train their voices by consuming paan. It helps with throat infection, acts as a mouth freshener and an invigorator. For colic pain relief, betel leaf coated with castor oil is heated and placed on the baby’s stomach.

In Sushruta Samhita, the Indian text on medicine and surgery dating to sixth century BCE, it says each item in a meal should be savored in a specific order and finished up with paan.

 The Urdu–Persian culinary manual Nimatnama (Book of Delights), penned in the 15th century and translated by author Norah M. Titley,it is told, “the qualities of the tambul are that the teeth are strengthened, diseases of the tongue, lips, gullet, throat, and windpipe are prevented, as is inflammation of the chest.”

“Paan is considered a sensual food that induces fertility and increases virility. It finds mention in the Kamasutra and is an aphrodisiac for men and women,” says Bhowmik. The reddening of a woman’s lips by chewing paan is part of the shringaar ritual, a holistic idea of beautifying the body to increase the overall appeal.

The book written for the Sultan of Malwa, Ghiyas al-Din Shah Khilji, provides a long list of rewards due to the paan's consumption called the mouth’s jewel. 

But historic mentions of paan go beyond scientific and medical writings. Thirteenth-century Indian poet Amir Khusro has penned poems illustrating the taste and beauty of paan, while others noted its cultural prominence.

“Although most people avoided alcohol, many were addicted to chewing a leaf called tambur (paan), sometimes mixing it with camphor and other spices and also with lime,” Marco Polo wrote when he landed in the Coromandel Coast of Southern India in 1292.

Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta, who visited India in 14th century, has written that the palace meals in the Delhi Sultanate ended with the paan. The leaf played a significant role in every kind of alliance. The exchange of tambulam finalized pacts between kingdoms.

“The idiom beeda uthana [to take the betel quid] means accepting a difficult or risky challenge,” says historian Ravi Bhatt. “Such tasks demand tremendous courage. During the war, whosoever is ready to take the enemy head-on would take the paan from the paandan [a container used to store betel quids], thus accepting the challenge.” 

A Royal Touch

Islam reached India in the seventh century, and with it came numerous Muslim invasions, giving birth to the Urdu language. Over the centuries, Delhi and Lucknow became the two primary schools of Urdu literature in the country, promoting art and culture. Dance, music and poetry flourished in these centers and led to the emergence of renowned poets and nautch (anglicized form of the Urdu word ‘Nach’ meaning dance) girls, or tawaif. Paan was intertwined with these cultural developments.

Lucknow became the center of mannerism and etiquette. Sons from noble families visited the kothas of the nautch girls, which were social institutions of learning culture and sophistication. Tawaifs sang and danced in the evenings to entertain their audience of royals and nobles.

A paan stall in Lucknow

“The lane leading to Gol Darwaza Chowk in Lucknow was choc-a-bloc with the kothas of the tawaifs,” says radio jockey and Lucknow resident Prateek Bharadwaj. “The shops below the kothas sold paan, gajra [jasmine flower garland] and hookah. The nautch girls also prepared and offered paan to the patrons visiting the kotha,”  It was common to see the nautch girls walking the streets carrying their silver paan ki dibbi. Men from affluent Muslim families gave their wives Kharcha-i-Pandan, which translates to betel box expenses. The wives were responsible for preparing paan for their husbands and the house guests. In Lucknow today, the preparation of paan is an elaborate affair. Each family has a unique recipe and gives a unique name to its creation. While some boil the betel nut in milk, others soaked it in milk or rose water. The ladies take pride in their innovations.

The paraphernalia used to store paan and the various ingredients that went into them were also works of art.  It was a widespread practice for the royals to own paandaans weighing as much as 100 kilograms with intricate designs that moved on wheels. These were a symbol of status for the wealthy. They had cups to store the slaked lime and catechu and numerous receptacles to stock the many fillings. A large tray just below the lid of the paandaan held the wet betel leaves.

There were ugaldaan or spittoons to spit the saliva generated due to the chewing of the paan.  Associated with royals and nobles of India, the economic paan was relished by the poor who emulated the rich.

“When the Nawabs ruled Awadh province, whose capital was Lucknow, the palang tod paan was invented,” says Ajay Jain, referring to extravagant leaders of the region and a betel quid said to enhance one’s performance on the bed due to the addition of a few ingredients that increase the libido.

In Thanjavur, a city in the southern state of Tamilnadu, paan consumption was prevalent in the royal and noble families in the pre-independence era.

“It virtually became a ritual among the wealthier class,” writes historian Pradeep Chakravarthy in his book Thanjavur: A Cultural History. “They [betel leaves] would be stacked into kaulis [a bunch of leaves, roughly around a hundred, stacked one over another] and wrapped in sheets stripped from the bark of the banana plant to keep them fresh. They would then be placed in a metallic box called chella-p-petti. Interestingly, the Tamil word Chella is indicative of affection or endearment.”

Paan found many other interesting historic uses. In the bygone era, it served to send and receive messages. The shape, fillings, fold and thread colors used to tie the betel quid conveyed distinct messages. There was a paan to break up, flirt, romance, seduce, express love, reject love and more.

“Paan, says the Kama Sutra, was the transition between foreplay and sex,” writes author Seema Anand in her book The Art of Seduction.

Modern Flavor

Today, every street and corner of India has a paan shop making and selling different kinds of paan.

“It is a meeting place for the common man like a coffee shop for discussion on topics like economy and politics,” says Bhatt.

The modern quid finds new additions like chocolate, strawberry, cherries, honey and almonds. Paan set on fire before consuming or filled with crushed ice, the options are many. Non-alcoholic chilled paan shots made by blending betel leaves, gulkand, fennel seeds and vanilla ice-cream are perfect in summer. The fad of consuming paan has reached American shores through the presence of its Indian diaspora. Mehul Patel prepares and serves 40 variations of paan from his outlet Mr. Paanwala in Philadelphia. He experiments with different ingredients to make melt-in-the-mouth betel quids. For the uninitiated, there are 15 paan mocktails like paan latte, paan chai, paan margarita. All you need to do is take a bite or sip of this primordial leaf to experience its history magic.