The return of the sun to the northern hemisphere begins soon after the Winter Solstice, and the snowbound peoples in Europe hurriedly marked it with Saturnalia and Shab-e-Yalda in the past, and with Christmas thereafter.
The people of India were never in such a tearing hurry: they waited three weeks to mark Makar Sankranti, perhaps the only fixed date Hindu festival as per the solar calendar, whether Julian or Gregorian.
There are other festivals on the same date or within a week of it.
To keep warm in the cold winter at the time, there is nothing better than some fat and sugar. So, til-gul (or tilgul), a combination of sesame seeds and unbleached sugar was a natural choice, whether as a laddoo or katli or in any other form.
To keep warm in the cold winter at the time, there is nothing better than some fat and sugar. So, til-gul (or tilgul), a combination of sesame seeds and unbleached sugar was a natural choice, whether as a laddoo or katli or in any other form.
THE SESAME STORY
One of the oldest oilseed crops in the world, sesame or Sesamum indicum cultivation extended from the Indian sub-continent in Asia to sub-Saharan Africa. It was domesticated well over three thousand years ago.
Like the sunflower, it tolerates drought conditions, and grows where other crops fail. Sesame has one of the highest oil contents of any seed.
Since it originated and was domesticated in India, it is but natural that it has been associated with festivals across India, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Gujarat to Assam.
Call it Shishur Sankraat or Pongal; Uttarayan or Magh Bihu or by any other name, its celebration is in January and marked with the use of sesame seeds.
Sesamum was traded with Mesopotamia. It has been found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen of Egypt, and so dated about 4,400 years before Jesus Christ.
Call it Shishur Sankraat or Pongal; Uttarayan or Magh Bihu or by any other name, its celebration is in January and marked with the use of sesame seeds.
If sesame oil reminds one of large oil jars, the English can be forgiven for converting Ali Baba’s password “Khul-ja sim sim” to “Open Sesame” in their operating system.
There are more than ‘forty chores’ to do when one starts spring cleaning for Makar Sankranti.
My classmate (during BSc Agriculture), Fery Raissian, reminded me that the Zoroastrian festival of Yalda is also known as Shab-e-Chele or the fortieth night, reminding one of stories from the ‘Book of Genesis’ from the Bible that also have many things in forties just like Ali Baba’s gang.
The sesame plant grows up to a height of 1 metre, and the fruit of the plant is a hairy capsule. The seeds in the capsule are very small and measured in millimetres.
The seeds may be black or white as in the coating on the revddi, a word brought into political discourse in recent years as a reference to sops.
The revddi is easily available at the zatra and feri, unlike our childhood favourite, khott’khottem.
NUTRITIONAL VALUE
Nutritionally, sesame is important in winter because half its dry seed weight is oil, and a quarter of its seed is carbohydrate. It has almost twenty percent protein, and the rest is minerals like calcium, iron and magnesium.
It is a good source of vitamin B. Our ancestors may not have known the analytical data, but they knew it was good for health and they made it a part of the ritual so that everybody consumed it.
So, enjoy some delicious and healthy sesame products if you are in Goa this month.
(The author is the former Chairman of the GCCI Agriculture Committee, CEO of Planter's Choice Pvt Ltd, Additional Director of OFAI and Garden Superintendent of Goa University, and has edited 18 books for Goa & Konkan).