Biryani: A Mughal Legacy

The biryani — a layered dish of parboiled rice, meat, spices, saffron, and aromatics, sealed in a heavy pot and cooked slowly so that the flavours mingle — is and widely loved dishes of South Asia, and its history is intimately bound up with the culinary culture of the Mughal court. The dish exists in countless regional forms — the Hyderabadi, the Lucknowi or Awadhi, the Calcutta, the Bombay, the Sindhi, the Thalassery, the Dindigul, the Beary, the Kachhi, the Tahari, the Bhatkali, and many others — each with its own characteristic technique, spice profile, and ritual of preparation. Across the Indian subcontinent, in the Persian Gulf, in the diaspora communities of the United Kingdom, of East Africa, of South Africa, of Malaysia, of Indonesia, and of the Caribbean, the biryani is one of the most recognisable markers of South Asian Muslim culinary identity. The prehistory of the dish in Persian and Central Asian pilaf cookery, the role of the Mughals in popularising it in India, the refinement of the courtly biryani in the kitchens of the Nawabs of Awadh and the Nizams of Hyderabad, the regional adaptations in Bengal, the Konkan, the Malabar, the Deccan, and Sindh, and the worldwide spread of the dish in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries together constitute the history of a culinary tradition of remarkable depth and variety.

The Origins: Persian Pilaf and Central Asian Pulao

The ultimate ancestor of the biryani is the pilaw (also pilau, pilaf, pulao, or pulaov), a Central Asian and Persian dish of rice cooked in a seasoned broth, often with meat, vegetables, and aromatics. The pilaw was known in the Persian-speaking world from at least the time of the Kitab al-Tabikh, the great medieval Persian cookbook compiled in the tenth century, and it was a standard dish of the Samanid, Ghaznavid, Ghurid, and Timurid courts of Iran and Central Asia. The Central Asian pilaw of the Timurid tradition was a dish of parboiled rice, layered with meat, carrots, raisins, and the aromatics of the Iranian kitchen, and it formed part of the culinary inheritance that the Mughal house brought to India in the sixteenth century.

The specific ancestor of the biryani, however, is debated. Some historians trace the dish to the biriyani of the Persian kitchen, the biryani possibly being derived from the Persian birinj (rice) and the suffix -an, a term that may have referred to a rice dish fried or roasted in ghee. Others trace it to the biryani of the Arab kitchen, where the term appears in medieval Arabic cookery manuscripts. Still others derive it from the bhat (rice) of the Indian kitchen, the biryani being a Persianised Indian rice dish. Whatever its etymology, the dish as it developed in the Mughal kitchen was a distinctively Indian adaptation of the Persian-Central Asian pilaw, drawing on the Indian tradition of spiced rice cookery, the technique of slow cooking in sealed pots, and the elaborate flavouring of the Mughal court.

The Mughals and the Popularisation of Biryani

The Mughal court played a central role in the popularisation of the biryani in India. The Ain-i-Akbari, Abu’l Fazl’s great compendium of the institutions of Akbar’s reign, records an extensive imperial rice cookery tradition, including the pulao, the kabuli pulao of the Central Asian style, and various sweet and savoury rice preparations. The Mughal pulao was typically a refined dish of parboiled rice, meat, whole spices (cinnamon, cardamom, clove, bay leaf, shahi jeera), ghee, dried fruits, and nuts, and it was served at the most formal occasions of the court. The biryani, in its Mughal court form, was a closely related but distinct dish, in which the rice and the meat were cooked separately and then layered in a heavy pot — the handi or deg — and slow-cooked by the dum technique, the sealed pot placed on a low fire or covered with hot charcoal so that the meat juices steamed into the rice and the flavours mingled.

The Mughal biryani of the imperial court was a dish of the highest refinement, prepared in the bawarchi khana of the imperial household, and it was served at the most important ceremonial occasions of the year: the Nauroz, the two Eids, the imperial birthday, the weddings of the princes, the receptions of foreign embassies, and the formal durbar assemblies. The biryani of the imperial kitchen was typically prepared with the finest ingredients — the rice of the imperial mandis (the celebrated basmati of the Doab and the Punjab), the meat of the imperial hunts, the spices of the imperial karkhanas, the saffron of Kashmir, and the kewra and rose water of the imperial perfumers. The dish was carried from the imperial capital to the four corners of the empire through the households of the mansabdari nobility, the migrations of court cooks, the marriage alliances of the imperial family, and the establishment of regional courts in Awadh, Hyderabad, Bengal, and the Deccan.

The Awadh Biryani: The Lucknowi Tradition

The Lucknowi or Awadhi biryani is generally considered the most refined of the North Indian biryani traditions. The Awadhi biryani is associated with the kitchens of the Nawabs of Awadh, the Shia Muslim dynasty that ruled the province of Awadh from Lucknow from the early eighteenth century to 1856. The Nawabs of Awadh — Saadat Khan, Safdar Jung, Shuja-ud-Daula, Asaf-ud-Daula, Wajid Ali Shah, and their successors — were great patrons of the culinary arts, and the Awadhi biryani of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was among the most celebrated rice dishes of South Asia.

The Awadhi biryani is distinguished by the technique of dum cooking, in which the parboiled rice and the separately prepared meat are layered in a heavy pot, covered with a tight lid sealed with a paste of wheat flour and water, and cooked very slowly over a low fire. The Awadhi biryani is also distinguished by its restrained use of spices, its emphasis on the aroma of the meat and the rice, its use of kewra and rose water, its careful balance of flavours, and its elegant presentation. The korma of the Awadhi kitchen — the meat dish that is layered with the rice — is typically lighter and more aromatic than the korma of the Hyderabadi or the Mughal-imperial style, and the Awadhi biryani is correspondingly more delicate. The famous galouti kebab and the kakori kebab of Lucknow are part of the same wider Awadhi culinary tradition, and the Awadhi biryani is often served with the mirchi ka salan, the raita, and the baghar of the regional kitchen.

The Hyderabadi Biryani: The Nizami Tradition

The Hyderabadi biryani is the second great regional tradition, and it is in some ways the most distinctive of all the South Asian biryani styles. The Hyderabadi biryani is associated with the kitchens of the Nizams of Hyderabad, the Asaf Jahi dynasty that ruled the Deccan from 1724 to 1948. The first Nizam, Asaf Jah I (Chin Qilich Khan), was a Mughal mansabdari noble of Turkmen origin, and the Hyderabad court he founded preserved many of the culinary traditions of the late Mughal court. The Nizams of Hyderabad were Shia Muslims of refined culinary taste, and the Hyderabadi biryani developed in their kitchens into rice dishes of the world.

The Hyderabadi biryani is distinguished from the Awadhi by several characteristics. The Hyderabadi biryani uses a higher proportion of meat to rice than the Awadhi, and the meat (typically mutton, but also chicken, kofta, fish, eggs, or vegetables) is often more heavily spiced. The Hyderabadi style uses groundnut oil or sesame oil alongside ghee, and it makes substantial use of dried coconut, tamarind, and the sour element that distinguishes the Deccani kitchen from the North Indian. The Hyderabadi biryani exists in two main forms: the kachi biryani, in which the raw marinated meat is layered with the parboiled rice and cooked together by the dum technique, and the pakki biryani, in which the meat is pre-cooked in a korma before being layered with the rice. The kachi biryani of Hyderabad is the more celebrated of the two, and it is dishes of the Deccani kitchen.

Other Regional Varieties

Beyond Awadh and Hyderabad, the biryani tradition has spread throughout South Asia, and each region has developed its own distinctive adaptation. The Calcutta or Kolkata biryani of Bengal is distinguished by the use of potato (a New World addition, attributed to the cooks of Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, who was exiled to Calcutta in 1856) and a milder spice profile. The Bombay biryani of the Konkan coast is a sweet-and-sour dish, distinguished by the use of kewra, mitha (sweet) spices, dried plums, and a fried onion birista garnish. The Sindhi biryani of the Indus valley is a spicy, tomato-based dish, with a heavy use of green chillies, potatoes, and the Yakhni of the Sindhi tradition. The Thalassery biryani of the Malabar coast is a distinctive Muslim dish of Kerala, in which the kaima (a small-grained, fragrant rice) is used in place of basmati, and the meat is cooked separately before being layered with the rice. The Dindigul biryani of Tamil Nadu is a spicier, more peppery version, associated with the star Muslim communities of the Carnatic.

Other regional traditions include the Bhatkali biryani of the Konkan, the Beary biryani of the Mappila Muslim community of the Malabar, the Kachhi biryani of the Awadhi-influenced eastern Uttar Pradesh, the Tahari or Tehari of the vegetarian tradition (in which the meat is replaced by vegetables, typically potato, and the dish is prepared as a pulao-style rice), the Memoni biryani of the Memon community of Gujarat and Sindh, the Bohri biryani of the Bohra Muslim community, and many others. Each of these regional traditions has its own characteristic technique, spice profile, and ritual of preparation, but all are recognisably part of the wider Mughal biryani inheritance.

The Cultural Significance of Biryani in Modern South Asia

The biryani holds a remarkable place in the modern cultural life of South Asia. The dish is a central element of the cuisine of Pakistan, of the Muslim communities of India, of the diaspora communities of the Gulf, of the United Kingdom, of East Africa, of South Africa, of Malaysia, of Indonesia, and of the Caribbean. The biryani is served at weddings, on religious festivals (the Eid of the Muslim calendar, the Muharram of the Shia observance, the milad of the Sufi tradition), at political gatherings, at funeral feasts, and at the ordinary family meal. The dish is also a contested cultural symbol: the biryani of Hyderabad has been claimed as a regional cultural icon, the biryani of Lucknow as a Nawabi cultural icon, the biryani of Calcutta as a Bengali Muslim cultural icon, and the biryani of the various South Asian diaspora communities as an emblem of cultural identity. The history of the biryani in modern South Asia is intimately tied to the wider history of Mughal cuisine, of Mughal festivals, and of the social life of the Muslim communities of the subcontinent.

The cultural status of the biryani has been further enhanced by its presence in the literature, the film, and the music of modern South Asia. The biryani is a recurring motif in the Urdu poetry of the Mughal and post-Mughal literary tradition, in the mehfil of the modern mushaira, in the cinema of Lahore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata, and in the popular music of the South Asian diaspora. The biryani of Hyderabad, the biryani of Lucknow, the biryani of Calcutta, and the biryani of the various regional and diaspora communities are all, in different ways, cultural icons of contemporary South Asia, and they continue to be celebrated in the literature, the cinema, and the popular culture of the region.

The Spread of Biryani Beyond South Asia

The biryani has spread far beyond South Asia in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The dish was carried to the Persian Gulf, to East Africa, to South Africa, to the United Kingdom, to North America, to the Caribbean, to Malaysia, to Indonesia, to Singapore, and to many other parts of the world by the great migrations of the South Asian diaspora, and it has become one of the most widely recognised South Asian dishes in the world. The biryani of the Persian Gulf (the biryani of Dubai, the biryani of Saudi Arabia, the biryani of Kuwait, and the biryani of Bahrain) is often a simplified version of the Hyderabadi or the Pakistani style, and it is served in the mazboot and zafrani forms typical of the regional adaptation. The biryani of the United Kingdom, popularised by the South Asian diaspora, has become a standard dish of the British high street, and the UK is now one of the largest consumers of biryani in the world. The biryani of Malaysia and Singapore, the nasi briyani of the Malay world, has been adapted to local taste, with the addition of local spices and the substitution of chicken or seafood for the mutton of the South Asian original.

The worldwide spread of the biryani in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is one of the most remarkable episodes in the recent history of food culture, and it represents the latest stage in a culinary tradition whose history stretches back to the Persian pilaw of the medieval period, the Central Asian pulao of the Timurid tradition, the Mughal court kitchen of the imperial period, and the regional cuisines of the post-Mughal successor states. The biryani today is, in different ways, a Persian dish, a Central Asian dish, a Mughal dish, a Hyderabadi dish, a Lucknowi dish, a Bengali dish, a Sindhi dish, a Mappila dish, a diaspora dish, and a global dish, and its continuing evolution and adaptation are part of the wider story of the Mughal cuisine of which it is expressions.

Sources

K.T. Achaya, A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food (1998), on the biryani.

For the broader context of the imperial kitchen, see the Mughal cuisine page. The sweet tradition of the imperial kitchen, including the sheer khurma and the gulab jamun of the festival table, is treated in Mughal sweets and desserts, and the cooking techniques of the imperial bawarchi khana, including the dum method, are examined in Mughal cuisine techniques. The court culture that supported the refinement of the biryani tradition is treated in the entries on the Nawabs of Awadh, whose kitchens at Lucknow developed the Awadhi style, on the Nizams of Hyderabad, whose kitchens developed the Hyderabadi style, and on Aurangzeb, under whose reign the Deccani court culture that produced the Hyderabad biryani took shape. The literary and cultural status of the biryani in the modern South Asian imagination is examined in the Mughal culture overview and the Mughal festivals and entertainment pages.