Taste of Life: Forging close bonds through food
Mead, or honey wine, one of the oldest fermented drinks known to mankind, was associated with the wedding night in Ireland and Scandinavia. It was said to ensure a man’s virility and boost his strength
Food is a medium through which social relations are formed, changed, or terminated. In weddings, food helps the bride and groom establish and complete nominal and new kinships.
In 1918, Mr AC Ardeshir decided to travel from his hometown, Poona, to Cape Comorin and back along the East and West coasts in a car. His proposal of touring all over South India was met with great scepticism from his relatives and friends since they had not heard of anyone spending their honeymoon in a car. They thought of him as a demented adventurer, bereft of reason or common sense, and when they could not unfix his determination, they sincerely sympathised with his wife, who they imagined would be having the weirdest experience of a honeymoon.
Ardeshir’s inquiries tended not to cheer him, for from various sources poured the woeful tales of the South Indian roads being most awful, the insurmountable obstacles of unbridged rivers and creeks, the hotel and dak bungalow accommodation being very poor, and the likelihood of the prevailing scarcity of petrol.
Ardeshir owned a four-cylinder seven-seater Studebaker. As the tour he had sketched was rather a lengthy one, extending to nearly six months, he made a convenient arrangement of fixing four drums of petrol on the footboards. Two boxes, one for provisions and the other for a cooking stove and utensils, were fixed in convenient positions on the footboards. In front of the rear seats was arranged an amply fitted tiffin basket. The car carried Ardeshir, his bride, Haroon – the chauffeur-mechanic, and Taradutt – the bearer.
When Ardeshir went on honeymoon with his wife, few Indians were acquainted with the idea of a husband and wife going away to another city and town to enjoy some solitude. Communities with closer ties to Europeans had then slowly started to acknowledge it as part of wedding rituals.
“Honeymooning” as a ritual came into vogue sometime in the nineteenth century. “Married persons…love well at first and decline in affection afterwards: it is honey now, but will change as the moon”, wrote Thomas Blount in “Glossographia” in 1656. This was the first appearance of the word “honeymoon”. As far back as the time of the Tudors, royals and aristocrats took extended wedding trips. Called “bridal tours”, they often lasted several weeks or months.
This tradition continued in the Victorian age. The bride and bridegroom, immediately after the marriage ceremony and reception, went on the bridal tour. This post-wedding tour allowed wealthy couples to visit friends and family.
Poona was the favourite destination for bridal tours for most of the nineteenth century. It had a large European population, which meant that one could visit many relatives and friends. The weather was agreeable and there were European hotels and restaurants in the city. Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani were not too far.
The couple often carried a piece of cake wrapped in paper for those relatives and friends who were unable to attend the wedding. The wedding cake was a symbol of plenty, and it was intended to express the hope that the newly married pair might be always supplied with an abundance of the good things of this life. The couple was offered mead by the hosts.
Mead, or honey wine, one of the oldest fermented drinks known to mankind, was associated with the wedding night in Ireland and Scandinavia. It was said to ensure a man’s virility and boost his strength. If the couple drank it during the honeymoon period, they were believed to be likely to have a healthy baby. Mead was either brought from stores or brewed at home.
The mother of the bride usually gave a reception for the bridal pair after their return from the bridal tour, if one was not given after the wedding. But these travels involved exposure to different water, foods, and microbes. Most brides were not used to the harsh conditions of the Indian subcontinent and were invariably ill during the reception.
By the 1850s, however, fashion in Britain no longer demanded that the newly married pair should take a bridal tour. After the excitement of a wedding, a quiet honeymoon, exempt from the demands of society, was usually desired. Victorian society began to accord a greater importance to the couple as an autonomous unit and the bridal tour was replaced by honeymoon which was no longer a communal or familial tour.
Victorian weddings usually took place early in the morning and were followed by a wedding breakfast. Those in Bombay and Poona, however, in the nineteenth century, usually had a reception in the afternoon followed by dinner on a grander scale. From the beginning of the twentieth century, weddings in the Bombay Presidency started taking place early in the day and included lavish breakfasts. Once the cake was cut, the couple changed into their travelling clothes. This enabled the newly wedded couple to bid farewell to the guests and leave immediately for their honeymoon.
In the late nineteenth century, affordable railway travel and better roads allowed couples of modest means to take a trip to faraway places where they could retreat from society and get to know each other better.
European couples in India usually spent time together in the private sphere. Men would call on women at home and have supper or tea with their families. They would be allowed some privacy in the library or the garden after the meals. However, courtships were usually short in India and couples were often married within months. The honeymoon enabled them to get to know each other. It was also a time for cultural adjustment for the wife.
It was not uncommon for couples to borrow bungalows and cottages of their relatives or friends to spend a few days or weeks on their honeymoon. Necessary arrangements, like bearers and cooks, were made for the newlyweds’ comfort. Poona was a favourite destination because Goan cooks could be hired easily. The Napier and the Connaught Hotels were known to host special dinners in private rooms for newly wedded couples.
Couples were given special travel baskets with packs of teas and cakes. The chocolate cake from the wedding was included in the basket. Another popular “honeymoon cake” was the Eccles cake. It was a small, round pie filled with currants and made from flaky pastry with butter, sometimes topped with sugar. The Eccles cake was a relatively new delicacy in the late-nineteenth century Poona and was much sought after by the wealthy.
By the twentieth century “Honeymoon Cake” was sold in Poona. A recipe in “The Bombay Chronicle” in December 1921 listed the ingredients as follows - three-fourths of a cup of butter, one-and-a-fourth cups sugar, one-half cup of milk, two eggs, spice, one teaspoon of cream tartar, one-half teaspoon soda, two-and-a-half cups flour.
A connective ritual of drinking wine at the same time was popular in Poona and elsewhere where the couple on honeymoon and their family and friends in their homes would drink a glass of wine at a predetermined time every night till the couple was away. This might have been an off shoot from the bridal tour where a toast was proposed for the couple when they called upon their relatives. This custom was probably meant to not allow the newlyweds to forget their familial obligations.
By the late nineteenth century, honeymoons had become an integral part of marriage and rituals. Hence, even though Ardeshir’s newly wedded wife was initially apprehensive about the journey, she wholeheartedly participated in the adventure. She not only took over cooking from the bearer but also helped her husband in navigating maps. Ardeshir, in an article in “Indian Industries and Power” (vol 6, 1919), mentioned her cooking curry and cutlets on the banks of a river.
Their honeymoon tour became a topic of discussion after articles appeared in various newspapers and magazines. However, none of them mentioned if they travelled all the way to Cape Comorin and back. I wish I knew.
Chinmay Damle is a research scientist and food enthusiast. He writes here on Pune’s food culture. He can be contacted at chinmay.damle@gmail.com
