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Pasunthinai Mūral (Boiled Fresh Foxtail Millet, from the Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai)
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Pasunthinai Mūral (Boiled Fresh Foxtail Millet, from the Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai)

Foxtail milletAncientTamil Nadu (Sangam poetry)LunchgrainVegetarian

Cook 18 min · Servings not given in the source

Make

Ingredients

  • foxtail millet (dehulled grain) — 30 g
  • water — 160 ml (open-pot figure from the source table)

Method

  1. Clean the foxtail millet of any grit, rinse it a couple of times until the water runs clear, and drain.
  2. Combine the grain with the 160 ml of water in a small pot without a lid and heat it to a gentle boil.
  3. Simmer for 16 to 18 minutes, stirring now and then, until the tiny grains are soft right through.
  4. Spoon it out while hot. The herders in the poem served it with milk (see the tip below).

From the old texts

“பசுந்தினை மூரல் பாலொடும் பெறுகுவிர்”
The printed pageThe printed page
Pattuppāṭṭu mūlamum Maturaiyāciriyar Pārattuvāci Nacciṉārkkiṉiyar uraiyum (first edition; title page read on leaf n1) (ed. U. Vē. Cāminātaiyar (U. V. Swaminatha Iyer)), Madras (Ceṉṉai): Ta. Kōvinta Ācāriyar, Tirāviṭaratnākara press, 1889, p. 99 (Tamil numerals, top right; leaf n112 carries 100, n115 carries 103)

Kaṭiyalūr Uruttiraṅkaṇṇaṉār, Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai (one of the Pattuppāṭṭu, the Ten Idylls of Sangam Tamil) (Sangam period, early centuries CE (approximate)), Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai lines 147-168 ("Residences of Cattle Herders"), lines 167-168, translated by Vaidehi Herbert — read the translation.

Which grain: “1. Italian millet, cereal, Setaria italicum” (Tamil Lexicon (University of Madras), p. 1934, headword tiṉai, via DSAL)

Amounts and times: the old text gives none, so they are from Raparthi Akshitha (2022). In Vitro Glycaemic Profiling of Foods Prepared from Minor Millet Grain Processed by Traditional and Modern Methods. M.Sc. thesis, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), Hyderabad, PDF p. 54 (printed p. 36).

Tips

  • From the text: the cattle-herders in the poem serve this millet with milk. No source gives a milk quantity, so milk is not in the list; the library's Foxtail Millet Kheer is the measured milk dish.
  • From the source: hand-pounded grain was used for the open-pot figures. For machine-dehulled foxtail millet in a pressure cooker the same table gives 160 ml water and 20-22 minutes.
  • From the source: 30 g cooked in the open pot weighed about 113 g (Table 4.8, mean of six trials).
  • The amounts are the source's own measured portion: 30 g of grain at a time.

Adapted from Kaṭiyalūr Uruttiraṅkaṇṇaṉār, Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai, lines 167-168, written in our own words.