Foxtail Millet

Hear it pour

On the pack

Ingredients

Foxtail Millet Grains

Shelf life

Best before nine months from packing

Storage

Transfer the contents to an airtight container after opening and store in a cool, dry place. Do not buy a pack that is open, tampered or punctured.

Where it began

• Foxtail millet was first domesticated in northern China, and is grown today in China, India and beyond. (FAO — International Year of Millets 2023, Yang et al. 2012, PNAS)

In the Vedic rituals

Foxtail Millet is named in 8 of the rituals of the Vedas:

• The fire-altar litany (vasor dhārā) — A litany for the fire altar lists the grains of the household one by one: rice, barley, beans, sesame, mung, khalva, then priyangu, anu and shyamaka, wild rice, wheat and lentils. Only grains are named; nothing is cooked. (VS XVIII.12; TS IV.7.4.2)
• The offering to the Maruts — The clearest millet dish in the Black Yajurveda: priyangu cooked in milk from a speckled cow, offered as a pot to the Maruts. The Maitrayani and Kathaka Samhitas give the same rite. (TS II.2.11.4)
• The offerings to the lunar mansions (nakṣatreṣṭi) — In the offerings to the lunar mansions, Rudra (for the mansion Ardra) receives a pot of priyangu cooked in milk. (TB III.1.4.4)
• The mantha rite (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad) — The ten cultivated grains, including anu and priyangu, are ground together and moistened with curd, honey and ghee for the mantha rite. It is a ten-grain mash, not a millet dish, and gives no quantities. (SB XIV.9.3.22 = BAU VI.3.13)
• The royal consecration (rājasūya / punarabhiṣeka) — For a royal consecration the priests gather young shoots of four plants: rice, large rice, priyangu and barley. Shoots, not a cooked dish. (AB VIII.16)
• Building the fire altar (agnicayana) — Seeds of fourteen plants are sown on the fire altar: seven cultivated (with priyangu and anu among them) and seven wild (with shyamaka, wild sesame and gavidhuka among them). (ApSS XVI.19.13)
• A household rite (Grihya Sutra) — A list of plants and grains gathered for a rite names shyamaka and priyangu with shami, durva and white mustard. (VarGS 14.5)
• Grains set out for the fire offerings — Lists the grains whose kernels may be set out for the fire offerings: barley, rice, large rice, priyangu, shyamaka and sesame. (AVPariś 23.7.2)

Our summary of each passage, with its reference; the links open the translation or the text.

In the old books

• The Shukla Yajurveda (Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā 18.12) names priyaṅgu among its grains; the Monier-Williams Sanskrit dictionary identifies priyaṅgu as Italian (foxtail) millet. (Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā 18, Monier-Williams)
• Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra (2.24.12) lists priyaṅgu with kodrava among the crops sown first in the season. (Arthaśāstra, GRETIL text)
• The Sangam-era Tamil poem Kuṟiñcippāṭṭu by Kapilar (lines 35-39) speaks of tiṉai, which the Tamil Lexicon defines as Italian millet. (Kuṟiñcippāṭṭu, Project Madurai, Tamil Lexicon)
• Kausika Sutra, KauśS 8.20 — Defines the "mixed grains" used in its rites: rice, barley, wheat, upavaka, sesame, priyangu and shyamaka. (source)
• Vaikhanasa Dharmasutra, VaikhDS I.7 — A class of hermit feeds his guests on whatever priyangu, barley, shyamaka and wild rice he has gathered. (source)

How it was cooked

• Foxtail Millet KheerThe Taittiriya Samhita of the Black Yajurveda (II.2.11.4) describes foxtail millet (priyangu) cooked in milk,
• Pasunthinai Mūral (Boiled Fresh Foxtail Millet, from the Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai)From Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai, Sangam period, early centuries CE

Nutrition

India's food composition tables (IFCT 2017) have no entry for foxtail millet, and other published figures differ widely — so we will publish the values from a laboratory test of our own pack.

Where to buy

On the shelf at 84 DMart stores in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.