उदास लगता है वह,
एक कोने पर पड़ा हुआ..
सुनता है मशीन का रौरव..
Love how Shri Hemant Kukreti sums it up. Wait, what are we talking about? The good old Silbatta of course.
The only time I got to use the Silbatta as a kid, (yep, Biji’s rasoi was my favourite play arena 🙂 ) was the day before the stone was due for its routine ‘sharpening’! Biji (my grandmother) was super possessive of her kitchen tools after all! An artisan would make weekly rounds with his chisel and other tools to ‘re-sharpen’ the flattened out grinding implements. After I had finished grinding the empty stone to my heart’s content, I would watch in fascination as the gentleman would dextrously chip away at the right spots and make it good as new. Needless to say, the Silbatta would be out-of-bounds for me after that and for a while.
Shortcuts in a typical Indian kitchen of yore were pretty much frowned upon. Right from milling, to de-husking, to grinding, nearly every ingredient/ spice-mix used in cooking was manually prepped.
Grinding of ingredients, spice mixes were and are integral to our cooking. One can hardly find 2 dishes that use the same spice combination in the exact ratio.
This necessity made the invention of grinding tools crucial.
Historians peg the Silbatta, or Sil Pua/ Sil Nora/ Ammi Kal (Kallu)/ Pata Varvanta as it’s popularly known across the country, to as far back as 2500 BC. In fact, a simplified excavated specimen is showcased in the National Museum of History, Delhi, that is dated to be around Indus Valley or the Indus-Saraswati civilisation.
Seals have been found to belonging to this civilisation, that depict as many as 4 types of Silbatta or simply grinding stones, each one used for a different purpose, from use in religious activities to cooking. All ancient civilizations have been known to use grinding stones for diverse stages of food processing.
Shri K T Achaya in his book, A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food mentions stone units used during the Neolithic era. One had a circular depression in which grains were crushed using a ‘rounded stone held in one hand’. The other was flat-ish that paired with a ‘cylindrical muller rolled with both hands’.
Similar tools are also said to have been used (still used) in South American kitchens. The Batán is the flat unit while the grinding stone is called the Uña. Its use is quite popular in the making of an interesting Bolivian Chili Sauce called the Llajwa.
Traditional home chefs in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador swear by the use of the Batan & claim that flavours would never be the same with modern appliances. Hits home doesn’t it 😊
The Silbatta comes in different sizes, from thick bases to thinner slabs, with round Menhir-like grinding stones or triangular ones. The cook chose the slab & stone, pretty much like chefs of today choose their knives!
These are the treasures I look for during my travels, in the kitchens I visit/ hijack! If you have these priceless implements in your kitchen, let me know!
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“I agree with your points, very insightful!”
Beautiful!! This reminds me of our hostel silbatta, which was favorite among many of us. I hardly used but it made several rounds in the hostel from one room to other. On weekends it even did trips of multiple rooms in a day. Sometime in early 2000s, my friend and me went to Buddh bazar in Lucknow, an old lady pleaded us to buy one from her as no one was buying sil batta from her, she said everyone has switched over to fancy machines. Our hearts melted, and we bought the sil batta from her and took some good effort to bring it to our hostel. The sil batta is changed but, I still love the Chutneys made on sil batta, no machine can beat that taste ever!
Very infoenative. We used silbatta a s the chutney made on it so tasty which cannot be described in words.
There is big difference in using a mixie and a good old silbatta…
I do agree….
To cut and to crush….