Paan
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Betel Leaf, (Bengali: পান) pan (in many Indic languages, हिन्दी : पान ), or beeda (in Tamil), veeda (in Marathi) or vettila (in Malayalam)or sireh (in Bahasa Melayu) is a type of Indian digestive, which consists of fillings wrapped in a triangular package using leaves of the Betel pepper (Piper betle) and held together with a toothpick or a clove.
Paan is chewed as a palate cleanser and a breath freshener. It is also commonly offered to guests and visitors as a sign of hospitality and eaten at cultural events. Paan filling is generally a mixture of various spices, fruits, and sugar. Paan makers may use mukhwas or tobacco as an ingredient to their paan fillings. Although many types of paan contain betel nuts as a filling, many other types do not. Some other types include what is called sweet paan, where candied fruit and fennel seeds are used.
"Paan" is sometimes mistakenly translated as "Betel nut", the seed of the tropical palm Areca catechu. Rather, supari or adakka is the term for betel nut in many Indic languages. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies betel nut as a known human carcinogen. Paan chewing is linked to high levels of oral cancer in the Indian subcontinent. Both tobacco and betel nut are themselves carcinogens but the combination of the two appears to have a synergistic or multiplicative, rather than additive, effect on cancer risk.
Paan was served as must in the royal families in the past in Pandani. The tradition of eating paan was popularized by Queen Noorjehan, the mother of King Shahjehan who built the world famous Taj Mahal for his queen.
In olden days women used natural elements for makeup and cosmetics. Queen Noorjehan discovered that adding certain ingredients to the paan and eating it gives a beautiful natural red colour to the lips. So, along with its taste, paan was eaten by women for reddening the lips. In olden days wives offered betel leaf to their husbands to seduce them and to wean them away from the 'Other Women' after reciting the Vashikaran mantras 108 times. The thugs, in the olden times, poisoned their victims by offering a poison filled paan after a heavy wining and dining session.
In the underworld, even today, the word 'supari' is used as a cue for murder.
Paan is a ubiquitous sight in India and Bangladesh, but in urban areas, chewing paan is generally considered a nuisance because some spit the paan out in public areas. The red stain generated by the combination of ingredients when chewed are known to make a colorful stain on the ground. This is becoming an unwanted eyesore in cities like Mumbai, although most see it as an integral part to Indian culture.
The skilled paan maker is known as a paanwala. Many people believe that their paanwala is the best, considering it an art that takes practice and expert touch. Dhakai pan khili is very famous in Bangladesh and also Indian sub continent. Sweet pan of Bangladesh Khasia tribe is famous for its special quality. Khasia tribes have traditionally grown betel leaf plants on naturally occurring trees.
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[edit] Varieties
Paan is available in many different forms and flavours. The most commonly found include:
- Tobacco (tambaku paan): Betel leaf filled with powdered tobacco with spices.
- Betel nut (paan supari, paan masala or sada paan): Betel leaf filled with a mixture consisting of a coarsely ground or chopped betel nuts and other spices.
- "Sweet" (meetha paan): Betel leaf with neither tobacco nor betel nuts. The filling is made up primarily of coconut, fruit preserves, and various spices. It is also often served with a maraschino cherry.
- "Trento" (olarno paan): It is said that it tastes like beetles but has a minty after taste. Eaten along with fresh potatoes, it is served in most Indian restaurants.
There are a variety of betel leaves grown in different parts of India and Bangladesh; the method of preparation also differs. The delicately flavoured paan from Bengal is known as Desi Mahoba. Maghai and Jagannath are the main paans of Benaras. Paan prepared from small and fragile leaves from south India is known as Chigrlayele. The thicker black paan leaves, the ambadi and Kariyele, are more popular and are chewed with tobacco.
[edit] Paan Cultivation
[edit] Bangladesh
In Bangladesh paan is chewed all over the country by all classes of people. Paan is offered to the guests and festivals irrespective of all religion. Paan is also used in Hindu puja and weeding festival and to visit relatives. It has become a rituals and tradition and culture of Bangladesh society. Adult women gathered with pandani [1]along with friends and relatives in leisure time.
Almost all over the country paan is cultivated. Dinajpur, Rangpur, Chittagong, Faridpur, Jessore, Narayanganj, Barisal, Sylhet are most producing zone. Produced paan are used for domestic consumption and export to Middle East countries, USA, UK, European countries, Pakistan, Myanmar. Paan is one of the major economic sources of rural Bangladesh.
Paan cultivation is a special type of agriculture. Selecting of high land and special fertile soil are best for betel. Waterlogged, saline and alkali soils are unsuitable for its cultivation. Farmers who are called barui[2] prepare garden for this. Pan garden is called barouj. Barouj is fenced with bamboo sticks and coconut leaves and top it is also covered by paddy leaves. The land is dug well and laid out into furrows of 10-15 m length, 75 cm width and 75 cm depth. Oil cakes, cow dung, well rotten farmyard manure and leaves are thoroughly incorporated with the topsoil of the furrows, along with wood ash. The creeper cuttings are planted after proper dressing in the months of May and June. The plants are neatly arranged in parallel rows about two feet apart, and the saplings are twined around upright sticks of split bamboo and reeds.
Proper shade and irrigation are essential for successful cultivation of this crop. The plants are regularly watered in the hot months. The leaves of the plant become ready for plucking after one year of planting and the production of the barouj[3] lasts for several years from the date of planting. Betel needs constantly moist soil, but there should not be excessive moisture. Hence, frequent light irritations are given. The quantity of irrigation water should be such that the standing water should not remain for more than half an hour in the bed. If water logging by heavy rains or excess irrigation occurs, drainage should be arranged immediately. The best time for irrigation is morning or evening.
Dried leaves and wood ash are applied to the furrows at fortnightly intervals and cow dung slurry is sprinkled. Application of different kinds of leaves at monthly intervals is found advantageous for the growth of the betel.
In about 3-6 months time, vines grow to a height 150-180 cm. At this stage branching is noticed in the vines. Leaves are removed along with the petiole with the right thumb. Once harvesting is commenced, it is continued almost every day or week. The interval of harvesting varies from 15 days to about a month till the next lowering of vines. After each harvest, manuring has to be done.
[edit] Paan Culture
[edit] North India
Paan eating was taken to its zenith of cultural refinement in the pre-partition era in North India, mainly Lucknow, where paan eating became an elaborate cultural custom, and was seen as a ritual of the utmost sophistication. The traditional way of paan making, storing and serving is interesting. The leaves are stored wrapped in a moist, red colored cloth called 'shaal-baaf', inside a silver (or any other metal) casket called, 'PaanDaani'. The PaanDaani has several compartments with lids built in it, each for storing a different filling or spice. To serve, a leaf is removed from the wrapping cloth, de-veined, and kattha and lime paste is generously applied on its surface. This is topped with tiny pieces of betel nuts, cardamom saffron, (un)/roasted coconut pieces/powder, cloves, tobacco etc, according to the eater's personal preferences. The leaf is then folded in a special manner until it looks like a triangle. This form is called 'Gilouree' and is ready to be eaten. On special occasions, the gilouree is wrapped in delicate silver leaf (vark). To serve, a silver pin is inserted to prevent the gilouree from unfolding open, and placed inside a domed casket called 'Khaas-daan'. Alternatively, the gilouree is sometimes held together by a paper or foil folded into a funnel with the gilouree's pointed end inserted inside it. Voracious paan eaters do not swallow; instead, they chew it, enjoying its flavours, and then spit it into a spittoon.[citation needed]
[edit] Myanmar
Kun-ya is the word for paan in Myanmar, formerly Burma, and has a very long tradition. Both men and women loved it and every household, right up to the 1960s, used to have a special lacquerware box for paan called kun-it which would be offered to any visitor together with cheroots to smoke and green tea to take. The leaves are kept inside the bottom of the box which looks rather like a small hat box but with a top tray for small tins, silver in well-to-do homes, of various other ingredients such as the betel nuts, slaked lime, cutch, aniseed and a nut cutter. The sweet form (acho) is popular with the young but grownups tend to prefer it with cardamom, cloves and tobacco. Spittoons therefore are still ubiquitous, and signs saying "No paan-spitting" are commonplace as it makes a messy red splodge on floors and walls; many people display betel-stained teeth from the habit. Paan stalls and kiosks used to be run mainly by people of Indian origin in towns and cities. Smokers who want to kick the habit would also use betel nut to wean themselves off tobacco.
Taungoo in Lower Burma is where the best areca palms are grown indicated by the popular expression "like a betel lover taken to Taungoo". Other parts of the country contribute to the best paan according to another saying "Dada-Oo for the leaves, Ngamyagyi for the tobacco, Taungoo for the nuts, Sagaing for the slaked lime, Pyay for the cutch". Kun, hsay, lahpet (paan, tobacco and pickled tea) are deemed essential items to offer monks and elders particularly in the old days. Young maidens traditionally carry ornamental betel boxes on a stand called kundaung and gilded flowers (pandaung) in a shinbyu (novitiation) procession. Burmese history also mentions an ancient custom of a condemned enemy asking for 'a paan and a drink of water' before being executed.
[edit] References
- India Profile, Tradition of Chewing Paan
- Types of Paan
- Chander Kanta Gariyali, The Chewing of Betel leaf - Part II
